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| Looking down on the high school plaza |
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| View from the school |
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| High school and middle school campus. The tall building is teacher apartments. |
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| Squash courts |
I wanted to include a picture of the field, but it was rainy the past couple of days.
Unlike a lot of international schools, HKIS is not an IB or International Baccalaureate school. It is based on the American school system and is an AP school. It is also a Christian based school, so all students must take religion. As for core classes and electives, all of the courses that were offered at our school in Pennsylvania are offered here, except that instead of German, Mandarin is offered.
At the middle school and high school levels all students participate in an off campus week of service and learning in the Spring. At the middle school this is called PEAK and the experience is different for every grade. All 6th graders (Meg) go to Beijing for a week of emersion in the Chinese culture and a visit to The Great Wall of China. 7th graders choose between 5 different opportunities within Hong Kong. 8th graders (Grace) get to choose between a week in Thailand, China or Hong Kong. This week will include working in orphanages/schools, construction work in a small community or working on an environmental project. Grace will make her choice this Fall. They are away from home the entire week.
At the high school level this week is called Interim. The focus of the week may include community service, outdoor adventure and cross-cultural learning. The high school students get to choose between opportunities in Africa, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Mainland China, Europe, India and Turkey. PJ will choose his week this Fall also.
The kids are looking forward to this experience. I can't wait to hear all about it!
Many sports are offered at the school, although they vary a little from what is available in the U.S. As an example, there is no American Football, but there is badminton, netball, table tennis, rugby and boys volleyball. For some of the sports there may not be a school team, but there is a club (lacrosse is an example). The HKIS teams tend to do pretty well in competitions. The high school teams may travel to different countries throughout Asia for tournaments. PJ will go to Wuxi, China, Shanghai, China and Kobe, Japan for baseball. If he makes the varsity basketball team two of the tournaments will be here at HKIS this year and one will be in Japan. Only a couple of teams at the middle school level travel. Soccer is not one.
I think all 3 of the kids feel there is more homework here, but the courses are not necessarily more difficult.
The school is comprised of between 50-60% U.S. students. However, we are finding that a fair number of these students have never lived in the U.S. for more than summers. This came as a surprise to us. The majority of graduates do go to the U.S. for college, or university as they refer to it here. When I talk to parents of kids who have graduated I am amazed by the universities they attend. I was also surprised by the fact that of the 12 kids on the varsity baseball team there are two others whose top choice for college is the Naval Academy (one junior and one senior).
All 3 kids have adjusted well to the school and made friends. It will be interesting to see how the grades compare. I was told not to expect straight A's at the high school. This goes against the Bourdon policy of all straight A's, "no crooked A's":)
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