The English Schools Foundation has been joined by many other international schools in catering for Hong Kong's elite and middle classes, whether local or foreign.
In the early years of the 20th century, some of the most prominent local institutions such as the Diocesan Girls' School and St Paul's Convent School admitted many non-local children.
But as they became part of the aided sector, and expatriate teachers were replaced by local ones, their focus naturally swung to the Chinese population.
The past three decades has been marked by the rise of international schools offering a genuine alternative to boarding schools overseas, and more exclusive education for the globally-minded local community who can afford the fees. Hong Kong today probably has a larger concentration of international schools than any other city in the world, and the largest in Asia.
These 50-odd schools, with British, North American, Australian, French, German, Jewish, Korean, Japanese, and South Asian traditions, have grown rapidly to provide a rich diversity of high quality education beyond the local sector.
The Lutheran Hong Kong International School, which opened in the same year as Island School, is among the most prominent and exclusive, along with Chinese International School. The latter was founded by community leaders in 1983 to ensure that an international education could be gained without dispensing with Chinese culture and language. The Yew Chung Education Foundation, a locally-based Christian organisation headed by Betty Chan Po-king, followed Chinese International in giving an east-meets-west twist to international education. Among the most pioneering of them has been Li Po Chun United World College, which opened in 1992, teaching the International Baccalaureate diploma.