Home About HKA Programs Admission Academic Portal Employment Opportunities Communities Contact Us   At a Glance Beliefs Founding Principles Accreditation Location Faculty and Staff Families History Contact Us Early Childhood Primary School Middle / High School Mandarin Information Technology Art Music Physical Education Community Outreach Criteria Tuition Schedule Procedures Scholarship and Financial Aid Library First Class Moodle Search Engines Online Resources Recruitment Process Current Vacancies 2010-2011 Vacancies Salaries and Benefits Living in Hong Kong Alumni Board of Trustees Parent Involvement Scholarship and Financial Aid Admin Newsletter Xiao Xi
Easy Go To... Class numbers and Size Diversity Gender ESOL Special Educational Needs See Also... Admission Criteria Tuition Schedule Admission Procedures Scholarship and Financial Aid	Students and Families Class numbers and size There are many large international schools in Hong Kong, and the intended vision of Hong Kong Academy was to offer an educational alternative by providing a small school environment. At full size, it is planned that there will be two classes at each grade level. The pre-kindergarten classes, denominated K3 and K4, have a maximum of 14 and 16 children respectively. From kindergarten on, classes have a maximum of 18 children. In rare cases, the school has admitted up to twenty students in a class when a student was known to be leaving during the course of the year or when there was only one class on the grade level. At present, there are two classes in each of the grades from K3 to grade 10 with just one class of Grade 11 for the 2010/11 school year. HKA has been authorized to offer the IB Diploma program for Grades 11 and 12, and will have its first graduating group in the 2011/12 academic year. Class sizes remain small - with a maximum of 14 in each K3 group, 16 in K4 and 18 from K5 through to Grade 12 (or a total 36 per grade). Diversity The school puts a premium on diversity. This goal is administered largely through the admissions process. In instances where the number of applications exceed available spaces, the school gives first consideration to those students and families that add ethnic, national, cultural, religious, linguistic, academic, or other dimensions to the school population. These determinations frequently do not correspond with nationality. As a school rooted in the local community, it has been a long-standing goal to attract a larger number of local Hong Kong Chinese students. This objective has proven challenging since local families place a high priority on the so-called “through train”, i.e., schools that provide K-12 education (It would be difficult for a local child to pursue an international style primary education and then matriculate into the local system for secondary school). Another barrier is financial. To address this problem and in order to make high quality education available to a wider local audience, the school has established a scholarship fund that is earmarked for lower income families. An area to be addressed is that the benchmarks for entitlement to financial aid have not yet been established. Accordingly, at present, students at Hong Kong Academy are predominantly, if not exclusively, from high-income families. It is presumed that a material percentage of families enjoy expatriate compensation packages that cover their school fees. Gender Gender balance is of particular concern in a small school such as Hong Kong Academy in order to assure viable social groups for all students. At certain grade levels in certain years, it has been difficult to maintain the desired balance, and there have been instances where class spaces have been held open, awaiting applications for children that would achieve the desired balance. ESOL Likewise, the school is committed to educating children whose first language is other than English and children with special educational needs. To insure that there would be sufficient first language models for ESOL students and thus accelerate their mastery of English, the school has limited its non-native speakers to no more than four per class. Where a child’s English skills are limited, the total number of ESOL students in that class would likely be fewer. Special Educational Needs To the best of its ability and resources, the school enrolls students with special educational needs, learning differences, and physical disabilities. The principal considerations in admitting children with special needs are that:   the school has a high degree of confidence that it is able to meet the student’s academic, social and emotional needs those needs can be met largely, if not exclusively, in a mainstream environment with differentiation and support of the teacher and special needs personnel in the classroom the child’s learning differences and needs do not impede achievement of the overall learning objectives of the class there is a high degree of parental support for the school’s program.   Experience and anecdotal information indicate that the school has made room for children with significant learning differences who would not be accepted by other international schools in the community. While the school strongly advocates an inclusive approach for the education of all children, it recognizes that there may be times when, in the interests of the student and the class, short-term interventions outside the regular classroom may be more effective in meeting some special needs. The school has made significant additions to its staff over the past three years. With a current staff of 15 support teachers we are proud to be able to offer the services of a Speech Therapist, an Occupational Therapist and a range of other qualified learning support teachers. As reflected in our parent survey, there is widespread community support for our inclusive approach.
Copyright © 2009 Hong Kong Academy