DGS looks back at its history during another turning point for the school. This week it became a Direct Subsidy Scheme school.
While the junior school had been a fee-paying private school, the senior was aided, free to students up to the end of Form Three. Starting from Form One, students now pay fees, this year $3,800 a month, for the privilege of attending one of the city's top schools.
DGS is the latest elite school to join the Direct Subsidy Scheme, joining St Paul's Convent School, Diocesan Boys' School, St Paul's College and St Paul's Co-Educational College, among others.
It has made the move for a key practical reason. Under government policy it had to decide whether to form a through school with its linked junior school, or sever the connection. The latter was unimaginable as there are strong ties between the two that share the Jordan Road campus.
To become a through school, the two had to share the same ethos and mode of funding. If DGS had remained aided, de-linking from the junior, students from the latter could no longer be given preferential admission.
'We feel the junior school has done such a good job preparing students for English-medium education. We didn't think we could forsake them,' principal Stella Lau Kun Lai-kuen said.
DGS was invited by government to make the move and made the decision after consulting with parents and staff. 'We got 100 per cent support from everyone,' Ms Lau said.
