RESTRICTED DISTRIBUTION TO ST. LOUIS OLD BOYS AND THEIR FAMILIES

 

St. Louis is and will be an English School - Clarification of Fine-tuning

During the past few days, there has been a lot of reporting in relation to ¡§Fine-tuning ¡¨ in the media.  We want to clarify any mis-represented news with St. Louis School in this Newsletter. We would also like to take this opportunity to share with you recent updates on our Alma Mater.

 

I. St. Louis will continue to be an English School:

Under the "Fine-tuning" policy, we understand that the in-coming Secondary 1 students of St. Louis will be divided into 5 classes and 4 of them will be taught with English as a medium of teaching for ALL subjects (except Chinese Language and Chinese History). The remaining class ("Fine Tuning Class") will still adopt English as medium of teaching for Mathematics and Integrated Science.  In other words, the actual change is in fact minimal.

 

Such an arrangement is applied only to Secondary 1- Secondary 3.  When students are promoted to Secondary 4, ALL 5 classes will use English as a medium of instruction for ALL subjects, just like what St. Louis has done in the past decades.

In summary only minimum (5%) change from the current full English curriculum:

Form 4-6

5 full English classes: ALL subjects in English except Chinese Language

Form 1-3

4 full English classes: ALL subjects in English except Chinese Language and Chinese History

1 "fine-tuned" class: Math (Eng), Integrated Science (Eng), History/Geography/Computer/Bible (Chin)

 

II. St. Louis has made outstanding achievements: 

"Fine-tuning" is based on INPUT (ranking of students in Secondary 1) rather than OUTPUT (results attained in Secondary 5 & 7).  St. Louis¡¦ recent output has shown substantial value-added and is at least comparable to other neighboring English boy schools in some key measures. Information below is mainly based on the school reports of St. Louis and its English peer boy schools (available on the internet).

 

  • Excellent Value-added School in the Central & Western District based on Education Bureau¡¦s assessment
  • 100% Secondary 5 passed in English Language in 2008-9; >90% overall passing rate; 40 students with 20 points or above
  • 100% Secondary 6 were filled by own students with 14 points or above in the past 5 years (vs 88% & 93% respectively of two English peer boy schools)
  • 80%-90% Secondary 7 met university bachelor degree entry requirements (vs 89% & 70-80% of two English peer boy schools vs 49% Hong Kong average) - 5-year average
  • Champion, Inter-school English Choral Speaking Competition; Football Team in Division One; Cross-country Running Team as Overall Champion

 

III. Moving forward - old boys' support

Don Bosco turned the underprivileged children into most responsible citizens; St. Louis has followed this spirit for 80 years. Many of our most successful old boys came from underprivileged families. Some of them are late bloomers.

We should recognize there are significant changes in the education environment in Hong Kong in recent years. St. Louis is facing tremendous challenges, but all other leading schools are in the same position.

SLOBA has been dedicating resources among old boys to support St. Louis students. This is one of the most exceptional contributing factors to the high value added success. We have been taught in an all rounded system with flexibility in St Louis.  We should move on with confidence. Your continual support will be of significant importance to the future development of our school.

 

Martin So

 

President

St. Louis Old Boys¡¦ Association

Address: Unit 1001, 135 Bonham Strand Trade Centre, 135 Bonham Strand, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

Email: sloba@netvigator.com