St. Margaret's Co-educational English Secondary and Primary School

St. Margaret's Co-educational English Secondary and Primary School (Chinese: 聖瑪加利男女英文中小學) is a co-educational secondary and primary school in Hong Kong. It was established by the St. Margaret's Educational Organization, a Catholic religious-teaching educational organization.

St. Margaret's Co-educational English Secondary & Primary School
Chinese: 聖瑪加利男女英文中小學
Location
33 Sham Mong Road, West Kowloon, (Next to Ying Wa College)

Information
School typeDirect Subsidy Scheme, Secondary, Primary
MottoPursuit of virtues to perfection with self-renewal spirit
Established1965
School districtKowloon, Sham Shui Po, Fu Cheong (constituency)
ChairmanMr. Eddie Lei
PrincipalMr. Chik Ka Kin Member of the Cultural Stabilisation
Mrs. Grace Tam Chief Principal
Ms Lee Lan Yuen Principal (Primary section)
GradesPrimary: P1-P2, P5-P6 G1,G2,G3. P3-P4 A,B. Secondary: S1-S2 G1,G2,G3,G4. S3-S6 A,B,C
Number of students600–700
Colour(s)Navy Blue, Silver and Red               
NewspaperSt. Margaret's News
AffiliationRoman Catholic
Websitewww.smcesps.edu.hk

St. Margaret's Co-ed is one of the limited numbers of schools in Hong Kong that teaches in English. The school curriculum uses English as the medium of instruction in all subjects with the exception of Chinese-related subjects and other modern languages (currently French, Spanish, Japanese and German).

St. Margaret's Co-ed monopolizes the English Speech Festival (non-open) each year, with a record-breaking 103 awards in the 2018–19 school year.

St. Margaret's is in division one for sport events and has a large share in the Hong Kong cross country team, owning 25% of the students in the team. This is an incredible feat, considering that St. Margaret's only has 300 boys and 300 girls, and has to compete with some of Hong Kong's traditional band 1 schools such as Ying Wa, coincidentally next to St. Margaret's.

History

St. Margaret's was founded in 1965, based on the traditions of Catholic Schools. In the beginning, the school was called St. Margaret's Girls College Kowloon, and only accepted female students. In 2001, the school joined the Direct Subsidy Scheme and started to accept boys. In September 2003, St. Margaret's made history as the first school in Hong Kong to adopt a through-train mode from Primary One to Secondary Seven on the same school premises. It was also to be a co-educational, English-medium school.

Admission

Of the students starting Secondary One at St Margaret's, 80% of the total intake is from its primary section, with the remaining 20% coming from other primary schools. Applicants attend interviews in English which are conducted by the Principal and the Vice-Principal (Academic). Also taken into consideration are an applicant's performance in extracurricular activities, awards, certificates, and academic excellence. In addition, St. Margaret's applicants may apply for French as an alternative to Chinese. The majority of applicants choosing to study the French language are French, Filipino, Indian and other ethnicities. St. Margaret's welcomes students of different ethnicities and backgrounds to apply, and a diversity of different nationalities can be found in the school.

School badge

The school badge is composed of three elements: the cross, the fleur-de-lis and grain stalks.

The cross in the lower right corner indicates that the management of the school is based upon the spirit of Christ, while the three fleur-de-lis in the upper left corner symbolise the three great virtues as depicted in The Doctrine of the Mean and The Analects: wisdom, humanity and courage. The grain stalks at the bottom signify the good harvest after strenuous cultivation.

The overall meaning of the badge is that the management of the school is based upon the spirit of Christ, heading towards the three great Confucian virtues of wisdom, humanity and courage. It invokes enthusiasm in learning to seek wisdom, perseverance in performing humanity and awareness of shame to impel the courage to progress. Having these three virtues to cultivate oneself, with the determination to proceed and the persistence to learn, one can accumulate very rich knowledge and experience so as to reach the Confucian state. This is an ideal state of life, in which wise men are never confused, kind-hearted people are never worried and courageous men are never perturbed.

School motto

English motto

Pursuit of virtues to perfection with self-renewal spirit is meant to inspire students, to enable them to develop their inborn integrity, to renovate their rectitude, to rectify their conduct and act vigorously as well as to increase their knowledge as treasure. With all these values in mind, students can contribute a lot to the continuous advancement of the world so that many things can come to the realm of greatest excellence and perfection.

Chinese motto

明德新民,止於至善is a quote from the Classic of Rites Daxue: 大學之道,在明明德,在新民,在止於至善.

Houses

There are four houses in St. Margaret's. The four houses were named for the first four words of the school Chinese motto. They are Wise House (明社), Moral House (德社), New House (新社) and Civic House (民社).

School facilities

The school has a total of 8 floors, with a new school building opened in July 2019. The school provides many educational and leisure activities for children, such as a basketball court, laboratories, libraries, a multi-purpose hall, a covered playground, etc. The school also provides facilities on social skills or for medical purposes. The school has room for a social worker, which can allow students to talk to the social worker privately about things that might be harsh in his or her life. There is also a medical room for injured students. After the opening of the new wing in 2019, the school provides a swimming pool for students, with windows so PE teachers can chaperone primary kids when they are swimming. They also provide extra classrooms for P.5 and P.6 levels, which also included storage rooms and a big hall.

Classrooms

Each classroom is equipped with interactive blackboard and black boards. There are bulletin boards to allow teachers to post information and for students to express their creativity by designing the bulletin boards.

Old Wing Hall

The Old Wing Hall has two purposes, one is to carry out large ceremonies or have a weekly assembly with the students. The second purpose is, it can also transform into a tennis court or a badminton court by removing the chairs and installing the net when needed. The hall can carry approximately 350–400 people or more.

New Wing Hall

The New Wing Hall is similar to the Old Wing Hall, it has a capacity of 400 seats, the seats are movable in rows, when you push them together, words will appear as the seats have different colours. It forms the word "SMC". It contains an indoor court for Basketball and Volleyball, and a large screen is also included too. The New Wing Hall is normally used for Parent-Teacher meetings and to announce urgent notices to students.

Laboratory

There are 3 laboratories at St. Margaret's. The Biology Laboratory on the 4th floor, the Physics Laboratory and the Chemistry Lab on the 6th Floor. Each Laboratory is equipped with a sink, apparatus, a computer and other needed tools or apparatus needed in different Laboratories.

Library

The Library is on the 7th floor, right next to the 7th floor Staff Room. There are more than 15 computers in the library, a studying area, a printer for both the teaching or non-teaching staff, and students. There are small tables for lower grades to read or to do their homework.

Dance Room and School Campus TV Room

The Dance Room has a spacious space for students to express their creativity, to dance freely. There are plastic carpets to keep the wooden floor clean, the room also provides a projector facing a blank wall and a laptop. There are foam carpets for students to sit on, and to make them more comfortable. The dance room also links to the School Campus TV Room, where students and teachers can film and edit the videos and let people in the school to watch. Next to the School Campus TV Room, there is an Editing Room, where many computers are placed and technicians to edit the videos.

Art Kingdom

The Art Kingdom Contains 6 tables and 6 seats per table. The room is decorated with the student's artworks and tables that are painted by talented teachers and students. It is equipped with a computer and a projector. There is a storage room at the end of the room, which can only be accessed by teachers. Also, a Ceramic Room for teachers to heat the student's ceramics into a beautiful piece of finished work.

Music Kingdom

The Music Kingdom is equipped with a computer, a projector, an interactive screen and multiple rooms equipped with different musical instruments. The Music Kingdom has about 40 seats with a small table near the arm set for students to write and read. There is a storage room near the corridor, the rooms are equipped with a piano except for the Beatles Room. The rooms are named after famous musicians such as Beethoven, The Beatles etc.

Basketball Court and Running Track

The Basketball Court has two purposes, to provide a space for having morning assembly with students. And also providing a practicing court for school teams to practice sports such as basketball and soccer, there is a running track surrounding the basketball court, and 3 running lanes next to the basketball court, the one surrounding the basketball court is about 110 meters and the lanes are about 90–100 meters. Next to the running lanes, there is a sand pit for students to play during Physical Educational lessons but only with teacher's permission.

Social Worker Room

The Social Worker Room is opened throughout the whole week, there will be a social worker, the room is equipped with more than 50 toys donated by students. The students and parents can talk with the Social Worker whenever they want.

Swimming Pool

The swimming pool has a total of 4 lanes. Each lane is about 1 meter. The depth of the pool is about 1.2 meters. It has bathrooms for different genders, each equipped with a showering system and changing room. The logos above the pool represent the 4 houses of the school: Wise (Yellow); Moral (Blue); New (Red); and Civic (Dark Green).

Public Domain.

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