St. Paul's Co-educational College

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Template:Infobox School St. Paul's Co-educational College (Traditional Chinese: 聖保羅男女中學), (often abbreviated as St. Paul's Co-ed., St. Paul's or SPCC) is located at 33 Macdonnell Road, Mid-levels, It is operated under the Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS), and was the first school to join the scheme. It was founded in 1915 as St. Paul's Girls' College by the Anglican church. The motto of the School is 'Faith, Hope and Love'. Students perform very well academically and in inter-school competitions. Famous for its choirs, orchestra and harmonica orchestra. It was the first school in Hong Kong to have compulsory uniforms (1918). The college has two affiliated primary schools: St. Paul's Co-educational (Kennedy Road) Primary School (previously St. Paul's Co-educational College P.M. Primary School) and St. Paul's Co-educational (Macdonnell Road) Primary School (previously St. Paul's Co-educational College A.M. Primary School). The secondary school lessons are taught in English, except Chinese Language, Mandarin and Chinese History. Ironically, the affiliated primary schools teach predominently in Cantonese, apart from English.

During World War II, St. Paul's College merged with St. Paul's Girls College when its campus was destroyed by the Japanese. They become St. Paul's Co-educational College from 1945, the first co-educational school in Hong Kong. After the completion of the new school buildings, St. Paul's College went back to being a successful individual institution in its own right. St. Paul's Co-ed. remained co-educational.

The current principal is Dr. Anissa Chan (since September 2004). The chairman of the School Council is Professor Sheung-Wai Tam. The school currently has plans to make itself a world class institution, famous abroad while still holding on the unique Hong Kong characteristics.

The two affiliated primary schools will be merged once the new campus in Wong Chuk Hang is completed, after which the secondary school itself will expand into the existing Macdonell Road primary school campus.

1 Access
2 Campus
3 Uniform
4 School hymn
5 Notable alumni
6 International liaison
7 See also
8 External links

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Access

The school is currently on the route of Citibus route 12A from the Central bus terminal and the Green Minibus route 1A from the Central Star Ferry Pier. The school is also accessible by taxi, or even on foot if the gradient is not too taxing for the individual. Schoolbus services are provided to students.

Image:SPCC.JPG

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Campus

Being situated on the mid-levels, the school campus is naturally deprived of space. The school comprises currently of six floors, including the roof structure, and two "underground" floors, which are only partially underground. (Flooring system is based on American style, which counts floors the similarly to the Chinese style, to avoid confusion.)

The lowest floor contains an outdoor irregular patch of ground affectionately named the triangular football pitch, due to the roughly triangular shape, the gymnasium, a table tennis room, and a boys' changing room.

One floor up and there is the girls' changing room as well as the Design and Technology Workshop.

On the first floor, there is a staffroom, two music rooms, six Form One classrooms and a boys' lavatory. There is also an outdoor tiny playground for badminton. A White Champaca (or White Sandalwood, Michelia alba) tree grows from this playground through the open air, passing all the corridors to a point higher than the school's current highest point. The lower exit on this floor enters the Peak Tram Trail between Macdonnell Road and Kennedy Road.

On the second floor, there are the six Form Two classrooms, the Lower Sixth Science B classroom, a staff room, a stationary office/sick room, the arts room, the Integrated Science Laboratory, a girls' lavatory, and the covered playground which also contains table tennis tables, and overlooks the tiny ground floor playground and the slope, now steps with plants, between them. This playground is also used to hold game stalls on games days and club activity days. The backstage of the Hall on the third floor is also accessible from here.

On the third floor, there are two staffrooms, six Form Three classrooms, boys' lavatory, The Sir Robert Kotewall Hall, the Biology and Advanced Biology Laboratories, the "red brick football playground" (yet another small playground that overlooks the primary school premises), and the canteen which is inside the primary school campus, but are for secondary school use only. on this floor is access to the sixth and seventh floor of the primary school campus, also for secondary school use only.

On the fourth floor, there are two staffrooms, the New AV Room, Classrooms of Forms Four and Five, from A to B; Form Four Classrooms C to E, girls' lavatory and the computer room on the lower fourth floor of the New Wing; Form Five C to E, boys' lavatory and Multimedia Learning centre (MMLC) on the upper fourth floor. Two sets of wooden stairs lead down to the third floor outside the Hall, and up towards the roof of the Hall, where there is an outdoor basketball court. The Macdonnell Road entrance is also situated on this floor, near one of the staffrooms.

On the Fifth floor, are the three Upper Sixth Science classrooms and two Lower Sixth ones, one of which is isolated by the Chemistry and Advanced Chemistry Laboratories that take up a portion of the corridor. The classroom is isolated because safety regulations disallows students to enter or walk through the labs. Also on this floor are the Physics and Advanced Physics Laboratories, the girls' lavatory, and the basketball court on top of the Hall, with a shack as the boys' changing room.

The Sixth Floor houses the English Society Room. The Sixth and Seventh floor in the Primary School building houses an Old AV Room, the Geography Room, the History Room, the Form Four F and Form Five F, Lower and Upper Sixth Arts classroooms, and the school library. This portion in the primary school section are relatively removed from the main campus, and is nicknamed "Siberia" by students.

1 Calder Path also hosts the schools' (both primary and secodary) swimming pools, and the Alumli Association offices.

The current layout is subject to change. The school is already building a small block behind the Hall which will raise the building up to thirteen floors. After the completion of the Primary School's new campus in Wong Chuk Hang, the current Macdonell Road campus will be assimulated into the secondary school. This part is subject to rebuilding.

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Uniform

St. Paul's Co-educational College is renowned as the first secondary school that requires students to wear school uniforms, thus beginning the culture.

The uniforms of St. Paul's today are one of the stereotypical styles of Hong Kong student uniforms. The idea behind the uniform is often cited as to be as simple and plain as possible. This implies no make-up and only a pair of simple ear rings for girls, and boys should not have long hair that will touch the shirt's collar.

The male summer uniform is a white short-sleeved shirt, a metal school badge above the sole chest pocket on the left, with deep blue trousers, white socks and black shoes; The winter uniform is a long-sleeved white shirt with grey trousers, with a red school tie with tiny blue school badges on them (these are worn with the summer uniform for ceremonial purposes as well). The deep blue suit-jacket style blazer with a large silver-brimed school badge sewn onto the chest pocket is optional.

The female summer uniform is based on the traditional cheung sam, plain blue with darker blue brims, with white socks and black shoes. The school badge is positioned below the collar in the middle. The winter uniform is similar, except that the dress is long-sleeved, of a thick material, without different coloured brims and is very dark blue. Again, the blazer is optional. At below 12 degrees Celsius or for specific health conditions, girls are allowed to wear a white long-sleeved shirt and long blue trousers.

Wool jumpers are optional for the summer and winter. These must be dark blue. They can either be customised with a the SPCC logo on it, or completely dark blue, where if the metal school badge is concealed, it must be replaced onto the jumper. The jumpers can be sleeveless, long sleeves, buttoned or unbuttoned.

Sports wear is common for boys and girls: a white, short-sleeved top with a modernized school badge and 'SPCC' on it on the left side of the chest, with a pair of dark blue shorts, white socks and sports shoes that are should be mostly white. However, the shorts for boys and girls are slightly different. Those for boys are looser (similar to basketball shorts) while those for girls are more tight-fitting (similar to volleyball shorts).

Swimming gear: swimming trunks for boys and swimsuits for girls. They are of the same colour, the same red and white stripes running vertically, and the words 'SPCC' sewn onto them near the left hip.

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School hymn

The school is well-known for being keen on music, ironically their school hymn is not written by an alumnus/alumna or teaching staff or anyone directly related to the school, but using a hymn written by J. Baptiste Calkin & Sebastian W. Meyer, which is also used by schools such as S.K.H. Lam Woo Memorial Secondary School.

We build our school on Thee, O Lord;
To Thee we bring our common need;
The loving heart, the helpful word,
The tender thought, the kindly deed;
With these we pray Thy Spirit may
Enrich and bless our school alway.

We work together in Thy sight,
We live together in thy love;
Guide Thou our faltering steps aright,
And lift our thoughts to Heaven above.
Dear Lord, we pray Thy Spirit may
Be present in our school alway.

Hold Thou each hand, to keep it just;
Touch Thou our lips, and make them pure;
If Thou art with us, Lord, we must
Be faithful friends and comrades sure.
Dear Lord, we pray Thy Spirit may
Be present in our school alway.

We change, but Thou art still the same;
The same good Master, Teacher, Friend.
We change, but Lord, we bear Thy name,
To journey with it to the end;
And so we pray Thy Spirit may
Be present in our school alway.

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