West Island School - ESF

Strength from Diversity: A Better School, A Better World

Welcome from Hong Kong and from an outstanding International school comprising over 50 nationalities in the heart of Asia.

We are a happy, dynamic and hugely successful school established in the best traditions of the English Schools Foundation. The ESF exists to provide excellence in learning for Hong Kong based students of all abilities, nationalities, cultures and beliefs who would like to be educated through the medium of English.

Our school is housed in an exciting and innovative environment from which we can see the University, Hong Kong’s largest teaching hospital, the new cyber port and the busy shipping lanes which demonstrate Hong Kong’s key position on the global superhighway.

We have an outstanding record of high academic attainment through a careful crafting of curriculum to meet our students’ needs. We believe in using best practice from around the world, recruiting excellent practitioners from a variety of countries and using their knowledge and expertise. Our curriculum is taken loosely from the National Curriculum of the United Kingdom in our lower years, IGCSEs form our middle years academic programme and we offer three ESF diplomas to our upper school students with the option to pursue the International Baccalaureate or the Advanced or Intermediate Diplomas especially created for our student cohort.

Throughout the school we practice the belief that learning takes place within and without classroom walls. We believe in experiential learning, the value of creativity, action and service which are core to student experience throughout the school and the power of student leadership, choice and decision making through the empowerment of our “student voice”.

West Island School’s distinction lies in the pursuit of high achievement and attainment in learning through support, encouragement, praise and motivation. We believe that excellence in academic and co curricular learning experiences are of equal importance to provide a basis for a dynamic and enriching life. Central to our philosophy is that our school and those within it can influence the world of today and tomorrow. The quality of the relationships between staff and students and within the student body is excellent and draws upon a wide diversity of nationalities, cultures and beliefs which we believe enriches and strengthens our school. Above all else West Island school is a happy school where people are valued and where all individuals who are part of our community can fulfil their potential as learners: whether student, parent, teacher or para professional.

These claims were validated by the Hong Kong Education Department which after inspection categorized our school as an “Outstanding School”. We are the only international school in Hong Kong to have received this prestigious award.

The English Schools Foundation (ESF) was established in 1967 and is the largest education foundation in Asia offering a liberal education through the medium of the English language to children of school age. ESF now operates five secondary schools, nine primary schools, two “all-through” Private Independent Schools, five kindergartens and a school for students with special needs. Our 18,000 students are drawn from over 75 nationalities. Increasingly, our schools are also the destination of choice for local families.

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