Neha Patil (Editor)

St. Catharine's School for Girls (Kwun Tong)

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Phone
  
+852 2345 3039

Founded
  
25 November 1968

St. Catharine's School for Girls (Kwun Tong)

Address
  
26 Hong Lee Rd, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong

Similar
  
St Paul's School (lam Tin), Sing Yin Secondary School, Fukien Secondary School (K, Saint Antonius Girls' Coll, Shun Lee Catholic Secondar

St Catharine's School for Girls, Kwun Tong (Chinese: 聖傑靈女子中學) is located in Hong Lee Road, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong. It is a girls' secondary school.

Contents

History

The school was established by its first principal, The Rev. Joyce M. Bennett, who was contacted by the Educational Department in 1965. Ms. Bennett first visited the school site at Ngok Yue Shan in late 1965. As the government first requested an establishment of 24 classes in the school, Ms. Bennett then planned to set up four different subjects (Arts, Science, Commerce and Technical) to satisfy the government. Ms. Bennett retired in 1983.

The school name

The name originally proposed for the school was "St. Anne's", St Anne being the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary. But the Chinese members of the school organizing committee thought that the name is not good when translated into Chinese. After a long search, Ms, Bennett proposed the name "St. Catharine's", after Catherine of Alexandria, the patroness of young women, wheelwrights, attorneys, and scholars. She was considered to be a particularly appropriate model for a school which was to combine academic and technical education. St Catherine's feast day, 25 November, was considered a suitable day for school celebration.

Principals

  • The Rev. Joyce Bennett, OBE(1968 - 1983)
  • Mrs. Lau Li Kwok Kin, Clara(1983 - 1993)
  • Dr. Sun Pong Tak Ling(1993 - 2008)
  • Mrs. Ip Au Tak Hing(1994 Jan- Aug,2005 Sept- 2006 Jul)
  • Ms. Heung Yuk Mui, Astella(2008 - now)
  • Class names

    The school set up five Form One classes in September 1968. As Ms. Bennett thought it is unwise to name the five classes with ‘A’ to ‘E’ since people may think the classes are ranked according to the students' quality, she eventually picked five women from the New Testament as the names of the classes:

  • Mary: a woman who was attentive to the teaching of Jesus,
  • Martha: a busy cook,
  • Dorcas: a seamstress,
  • Priscilla: a tent-maker and
  • Phoebe: a deaconess
  • These women were all considered good role models for the girls.

    Before the year of 2009, there was one more class name of "Ruth" (Ruth was a Jewish woman whose story is found in the Old Testament) for form 1 to form 5. This class name was removed due to shrinking the number of classes of each form.

    References

    St. Catharine's School for Girls (Kwun Tong) Wikipedia