Creative Secondary School

I can't find any ESF news this week, so this article from last week's Education Post (A marriage of creativity) about a new school Tseung Kwan O will have to do. The ESF connection is that Cheung Siu-ming was previously the Principal of Phoenix International School and prior to that he was deputy principal of West Island School, and the other point of interest is that the new school will be adopting the IB MYP & Diploma programmes.

Principal Cheung Siu-ming is trying to do something very creative with the new direct subsidy scheme school he is leading.

He is breaking ambitious ground at Creative Secondary School, Tseung Kwan O, by implementing the local curriculum and International Baccalaureate's Middle Years Programme (MYP) alongside each other for the first time.

When it comes to Form Five - or senior secondary two in the new academic structure - students' paths will divide, some taking the IB diploma, some the new Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education.

However, the unusual set-up means that in the first year of the new three-year senior secondary structure, students will be completing the MYP alongside pursuing the first year of the local diploma.

Mr Cheung, who has been working for the English Schools Foundation for much of the past decade, as deputy principal of West Island School and then principal of Phoenix International School before moving to Creative, explained how the marriage would work. The overlap in subjects such as English, Chinese and maths would help.

However, to get their MYP certificate at the end of the first year of the new three-year senior secondary programme being introduced across Hong Kong from 2009, students would need to have studied humanities and science, which are not mandatory in the local diploma that requires them to pursue only two to three elective subjects.