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Mission and Passion

Hong Kong Academy is an inquiry-based, child-centred school for children from preschool (age 3) through high school. The school follows the International Baccalaureate framework in the Primary Years, Middle Years and Diploma Programmes. HKA is a community school that brings together students, teachers and parents around a commitment to learning at all levels. The school’s culture is grounded in several core values, listed below.

These five mutually supportive and reinforcing concepts form the foundation for learning and service at HKA and underscore all activity and outreach to further the school’s mission of maintaining a diverse, collaborative and captivating learning environment in which students become adaptable, confident and tolerant, equipping them for the future.

 

Learning for Understanding

At HKA, learning is more than simply gaining knowledge or developing complex skill sets. To be successful, responsible and engaged global citizens, today’s students must learn for understanding, not merely for “knowing”. Learning for understanding implies that students are able to go beyond explaining and even interpreting events. Those with true understanding are able to apply what they have learned to new situations and experiences. They can see and respond to multiple points of view – a key skill in today’s globalized economy – and they can react to others with empathy. They possess a self-awareness that allows them to continue to learn and grow and adapt in a rapidly changing environment. 

Individual Pathways to Excellence

At HKA, each child is valued as an individual. To meet individual needs, support individual excellence and help students recognize their individual success, HKA maintains small class sizes and employs differentiated teaching methods. The school’s overall small size promotes student engagement, personal responsibility and individual accountability. All students are intentionally placed on a single campus to allow for collaboration across grade levels.


Engagement with Community

Hong Kong Academy is engaged with community on its campus, in Hong Kong, in Asia and around the world. HKA students see themselves as global citizens, and the school’s curriculum and culture reflect this international mindset. HKA offers Mandarin, French and Spanish language instruction, and develops awareness of other cultures through various programs throughout the year.

Educational collaboration is a key feature of HKA’s teaching staff, not only in the integration of best practices, but also in the construction of new ideas. Welcoming a larger community of educators into our school to see these ideas in place is an integral part of our culture.

Service learning,  a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection, is an intrinsic part of the HKA educational experience. HKA seeks to develop long-term relationships with organzations, and has supported St. James Settlement in Hong Kong and the Mao Ping School in Yunnan, China in the past. Closer to home, HKA continues to offer means-based scholarships to qualifying students.


Dynamic Educational Environment

Hong Kong Academy maintains a dynamic educational environment that encourages inquiry-based learning. An inquiring learner possesses not only a bank of knowledge, but also asks pertinent questions, seeks out relevant information and solves problems creatively. To encourage the development of inquiring learners, HKA employs innovative educational methodologies such as curriculum-wide subject integration, differentiated teaching and an emphasis on contextual learning with hands-on experience. 

HKA employs researched-based practices to develop teaching methods that allow students to successfully work through the International Baccalaureate programmes. HKA was the first school in Hong Kong to introduce the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme for the primary years. The school is now also authorised to offer the IB Diploma Programme. The academically rigorous IB programme provides unified international standards for educational excellence, a critical asset for internationally mobile families.

 

Intentional Diversity

HKA is a highly diverse international school with a student body representing over 42 countries. Teaching at HKA reflects an international view rather than emphasizing any one national curriculum, and the school actively seeks broad representation of all races, religions and socio-economic backgrounds in the school community. HKA is committed to intentional diversity as a means of promoting open-mindedness and tolerance, important qualities in this changing world.
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