St Catharine's School for Girls, Kwun Tong ( zh, t=聖傑靈女子中學) is located in Hong Lee Road,

Kwun Tong Kwun Tong is an area in the Kwun Tong District of Hong Kong, situated at the eastern part of the Kowloon Peninsula, and its boundary stretches from Lion Rock in the north to Lei Yue Mun in the south, and from the winding paths of Kowloon ...

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 is a girls' secondary school.

History

The school was established by its first principal, The Rev.

Joyce M. Bennett Joyce Mary Bennett (; 22 April 1923 – 11 July 2015) was the first Englishwoman to be ordained a priest in the Anglican Communion in 1971. Biography Bennett was born in London. She was educated at Burlington school, Westminster, which was eva ...

, 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 Catherine of Alexandria (also spelled Katherine); grc-gre, ἡ Ἁγία Αἰκατερίνη ἡ Μεγαλομάρτυς ; ar, سانت كاترين; la, Catharina Alexandrina). is, according to tradition, a Christian saint and virgin, wh ...

, 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.Joyce M. Bennett ''This God Business'', (her autobiography) Religious Education Resource Centre, Kowloon 2003; pp. 297-8

Principals

*Joyce Bennett (1968–1983) *Lau Li Kwok Kin, Clara (1983–1993) *Sun Pong Tak Ling (1993–2008) *Ip Au Tak Hing (January – August 1994, September 2005 – July 2006) *Heung Yuk Mui, Astella (2008–present)

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' capability, she eventually picked five women from the New Testament as the names of the classes: * Mary (Magdalene): a woman who was attentive to the teaching of Jesus, * Martha: a busy cook, *

Dorcas Dorcas ( el, Δορκάς, Dorkás, used as a translated variant of the Aramaic name), or Tabitha ( arc, טביתא/ܛܒܝܬܐ, Ṭaḇīṯā, (female) gazelle), was an early disciple of Jesus mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (, see discussi ...

: 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

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Catharine's School for Girls, Kwun Tong Christian schools in Hong Kong Girls' schools in Hong Kong Educational institutions established in 1968 Kwun Tong Protestant secondary schools in Hong Kong Anglican schools in Hong Kong