Discovery College () is a private independent school operated by the ESF in

Discovery Bay Discovery Bay (DB) is a resort town on Lantau Island, Hong Kong. It consists of mixed, primarily residential, development, in particular upmarket residential development and private and public recreational facilities, including garden houses, ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. It offers both primary and secondary education on one campus. The school first opened in August 2008 after replacing another ESF school,

Bauhinia School ''Bauhinia'' () is a large genus of flowering plants in the subfamily Cercidoideae and tribe Bauhinieae, in the large flowering plant family Fabaceae, with a pantropical distribution. The genus was named after the Bauhin brothers Gaspard and Jo ...

, which first opened in January 2002. Discovery College has five houses, and provides education from year 1 to year 13. Discovery College was established by the

English Schools Foundation The English Schools Foundation (ESF) is an organisation that runs 22 international schools in Hong Kong. It is Hong Kong's largest English-medium organisation of international schools. It was founded in 1967 with the passage of the English Sc ...

to serve the needs of the local and expatriate communities in Hong Kong. It is a full Years 1 to 13 school offering the

International Baccalaureate The International Baccalaureate (IB), formerly known as the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the IB Dip ...

(IB) Primary Years Programme (PYP) for Years 1-6, Middle Years Programme (MYP) for Years 7-11, and

Diploma Programme The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) is a two-year Curriculum, educational programme primarily aimed at 16-to-19-year-olds in 140 countries around the world. The programme provides an internationally accepted qualification fo ...

(DP) for Years 12-13. Under the Private Independent School Scheme, 70% of the students of Discovery College must be Hong Kong permanent residents.

History

Plans to set up Discovery College as one of ESF's first private schools began in 1999. As a private ESF school, Discovery College would not receive recurrent government subsidy. In 2001, the

Education and Manpower Bureau The Education Bureau (EDB) is responsible for formulating and implementing education policies in Hong Kong. The bureau is headed by the Secretary for Education and oversees agencies including University Grants Committee and Student Fina ...

(EMB) granted ESF a lot of land in

Ma On Shan Ma On Shan may refer to: * Ma On Shan (peak) ( zh, t=馬鞍山, s=马鞍山, l=saddle peak, links=no), a mountain in the New Territories of Hong Kong * Ma On Shan (town), a New Town in the New Territories on the foot of Ma On Shan mountain * Ma On ...

and another in Discovery Bay to build two primary-cum-secondary schools under the Private Independent School Scheme. The Discovery Bay site would eventually become the permanent campus of Discovery College. Designed by

Integrated Design Associates Integrated Design Associates (IDA) is a Hong Kong-based architectural firm set up in 1999 by its founder and principal, Winston Shu. The company is known for their sustainable, "green" designs, and their main body of work comprises internationa ...

, the permanent campus was built between 2003 and 2008. The 70,000 sq ft campus cost HK$290 million, of which HK$137 million was granted by the

Hong Kong Government The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, commonly known as the Hong Kong Government or HKSAR Government, refers to the Executive (government), executive authorities of Hong Kong Special administrative regions of China, ...

. Operated by ESF Educational Services Limited (ESL), an ESF subsidiary, Discovery College needs to repay ESF its capital costs of HK$168 million within 20 years of opening. In 2007, the primary section of Discovery College opened in a temporary site in

Lai King Lai King, or Lai King Hill, is the colloquial name for a residential area including a number of private housing and public housing estates, located on Mo Shek Shan (), east of Kwai Chung, New Territories, Hong Kong. It is centred on Lai King Estat ...

, merging with former ESF primary school Bauhinia School. About two thirds of the school's students were transferred from Bauhinia School. The 450 students moved into the Discovery Bay campus when it began operation on 20 August 2008.

Curriculum

Discovery College adopts a range of long-standing

programmes: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), Middle Years Programme (MYP), Diploma Programme (DP), and the newly added Career-related Programme (CP), a curriculum for students aged 16-19 that is more personalized for those who are more certain of their future career paths.

References

English Schools Foundation schools Association of China and Mongolia International Schools International Baccalaureate schools in Hong Kong {{HongKong-edu-stub