Welcome back message from the Principal

Dear Parents & Guardians,

A very warm welcome back to the new academic year from everyone at Sha Tin College.  Teaching staff started back on Friday and things are now well underway for induction and registration this week. Our new teachers have arrived safely from many different parts of the world and are now all set up in their new homes and new classrooms and looking forward to meeting our students.

As you will have seen from media coverage over the summer, our IB Diploma results were again outstanding. Seven Sha Tin College students achieved a full score of 45 points, with twenty five students receiving 42+ points.  All of these students were recognised at the ESF Chairman’s Award on August 8^th proudly hosted here at the College in our newly refurbished Hall.  A new average score of 37.6 points was achieved, the highest in the history of ESF and Sha Tin College.  Equally impressive is that 56% of our students achieved 38+ points, with ten of our graduates achieving the prestigious Bilingual Diploma.  With a 99% pass rate, with College results well above world averages, and with IB Courses students achieving a subject grade average of 5.6, we are very proud of our students’ achievements, and wish them all the very best for the future.  We now look forward to the release of our IGCSE results in the coming days.

As you can imagine, the summer break was a busy time with our Campus Redevelopment Projects. We have returned to find the new Hall Block completely finished and furnished. We are still awaiting our Occupational Permit from the government however, so we will need to wait for another month before we can occupy our new LSC, Senior School Centre, and Café.  Our ground floor Sports Centre is now open with a fabulous climbing wall facility which we also hope to rent out.  Enquiries about rental from appropriately qualified and certified individuals should be made to our Business Manager.

The summer break also enabled us to refurbish all our Maths, History and PRS classrooms as well as two Science labs, and they are now looking bright, modern and cheery. We hope to work on the replacement of furniture for some of these learning spaces in the coming months.  The temporary “Whitehouse” structure has been removed and a newly renovated “Resources & ICT Centre” can now be found on the ground floor. We will continue to work on campus redevelopment over the course of this academic year with projects planned for the Christmas holiday period as well as an extensive refurbishment of the ground floor, including the canteen, planned for Summer 2019. If you would like to see some photographs of our new facilities please click on the link below.

Looking forward to the coming academic year and you may have noticed from our other communications that we have restructured the school sections. Students will now move from the Junior School at the end of Year 6, into the Middle School from Years 7-9, and then into the Senior School from Years 10 -13. This restructuring cuts down on the number of transitions for students; aligns the Middle School structure with the incoming three year IBMYP curriculum structure; and enables the Senior School team to work with both IGCSE and then IBDP/CP students. Ms. Lucie Purves will be the Head of Middle School, and Mrs. Jane Parry will be the Head of Senior School.

As you are aware from previous communications, we will continue with the Shuttle Bus trial for at least the first term.  Students will be able to purchase tickets for the service from the Resources & ICT Centre using their school Octopus card. The driver will collect the tickets as the students enter the bus, and for convenience students can buy as many tickets as they wish at any one time. Parents wishing to purchase tickets with cash can do so at the SJS reception. The cost of the bus is $7.50.  While this does not cover actual costs, ESF will continue to subsidise the service while we encourage as many students as possible to use it. The charge for the bus will start on Monday August 20^th to give the students time to purchase tickets.

As we start the new academic year I know you will all join me in wishing our new staff and our new families, including our new Year 7 families, a very warm welcome to our community.  If you would like to follow life at Sha Tin College more closely please follow our Twitter, Instagram and Facebook posts.

We look forward to welcoming many of you into the College over the coming weeks and months.

Kind regards.

Carol Larkin

Principal – Sha Tin College