St Stephen's College (Hong Kong)

The establishment of the college dates back to 1901. A group of prominent Chinese businessmen approached the Church Missionary Society to administer a school for their sons. The inspiration came from Sun Yat-sen. The aim was to achieve a standard of teaching and level of equipment comparable to the best public schools in England. In 1903, St Stephen's College was officially established on Bonham Road in Western District. In the 1920s, the government granted the school 37 acres (150,000 m²) on the Stanley Peninsula in recognition of outstanding contributions to education. The foundation stone was laid in April 1928 by the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Cecil Clementi, and in May 1929, the college was fully functional in its new buildings, many of which are still in use today.

During the Battle of Hong Kong in the Second World War, heavy fighting took place around the college, which was among the last British strongholds to surrender to the Imperial Japanese Army. Shortly after the surrender, the Imperial Japanese Army broke into the college (which served as a military hospital during the battle) and murdered wounded soldiers of the Allied forces, in what would be known as the St. Stephen's College massacre. The Japanese later merged the college with part of Stanley Prison to form the Stanley Internment Camp.

The college reopened after the war and a chapel was built in 1950 to remember those who died during the Japanese occupation.

Originally a private school, St Stephen's College became a government-funded public school during the late 1900s. Since the 2008–2009 academic year, the college has become a Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) school, which is a historic change to the college as it freed the school from the centralised funding system that currently administers secondary education in Hong Kong. Students enrolled in the 2002 Primary 1 class at St Stephen's College Preparatory School, also based in Stanley, were the first group of students to enter the DSS system. In order to upgrade the school administrative level, this is the first secondary school in Hong Kong to employ a registered professional housing manager on its staff to manage and handle all property and facilities-related issues for and on behalf of the school.^{[citation needed]}

St Stephen's College has a house system and divides its students into six houses with six different colors. Some names of the houses came from the names of the first few principals of the college:

• Barnett House (Orange) - The Ven. E. J. Barnett;
• Stewart House (Purple) - The Revd. A. D. Stewart;
• Hewitt House (Red) - The Revd. W. H. Hewitt;
• Martin House (Blue/White^[16]) - Canon E. W. L. Martin;
• Priestley House (Green) - Mr. C. T. Priestley;
• College House (Yellow^[17])

Before the 2009–2010 academic year, as a local school in Hong Kong, the college had been providing three years of junior secondary, two years of senior secondary and two years of matriculation education under the English 3223 education system.

After the educational system reform was launched by the government, the college has started providing three years of senior secondary education from Form 4 since the 2009–2010 academic year under the New Senior Secondary 334 Scheme. Meanwhile, the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) had also commenced in the academic year of 2014–2015. The IBDP is a two-year curriculum and is monitored under the International Baccalaureate Organization rather than the Education Bureau of Hong Kong. Since IBDP is two years long, the college will provide a one-year IBDP bridging course to help student adapt to the essay and discussion emphasized IBDP education mode.

Many different publications are made by the college, including:

• Official School Magazine
  • Chimes (鐘聲) (Biennially or triennially published since 1909^[18]) (Published in years ending in 2, 4, 7 and 9)
• Student Magazine
  • E (biannually published since 2016)
• Parent-Teacher Association
  • Newsletter (會訊) (Triannually published since 1996^[19])
• Students' Association (SA)
  • Choi Choi/Choi Tsz^[20] (采茞) (Halted)
  • Stephen's News (提聞) (Quarterly published by SA 2010-2011 (Alpha) in 2010 to 2011)
  • Paper Two Pieces (紙兩張) (Quarterly published by SA 2011-2012 (SOAR) in 2011 to 2012)
  • Echo (回聲) (Semi-annually published by SA 2012-2013 (ECHO) in 2012 to 2013)
• Chinese Society
  • 思藻 (Quarterly published since 2010)
• English Society
  • St Stephen's College Times (Semi-annually published since 2008)
• Mathematics Society
  • Mathematics Challengers Paper (2010 to 2011)
• Music Society
  • MUSO Monthly (2012)

St. Stephen's College Preparatory School (Chinese: 聖士提反書院附屬小學) is the preparatory primary school of St Stephen's College. St. Stephen's College Preparatory School was founded in 1938 with only one building for classrooms, boarding house and dining hall. During the Second World War, the preparatory school was used for guard quarter by the Japanese. The preparatory school re-opened in 1947, with a new building. Another building of dormitory was built in the 1950s. The preparatory school has started to give boarding places for girls in the 1960s. The preparatory school has 21 classes of more than 600 students.

St Stephen's College was used for filming advertisements, TV shows, movies and MVs.

• Education in Hong Kong