Takeoff for quiet Lantau school

It doesn't look like an international school - more like a building site, with the top two floors derelict and no signs to identify it. In the midst of low-rise houses in a quiet south Lantau village, the three-storey building that houses Lantau International School's Pui O campus is unremarkable. Built in 1978 as the Sea Breeze Hotel, it was later abandoned. The school's second campus opened in September on the refurbished ground floor. The first, in nearby Tong Fuk village, opened in 1994 in a former public school, which had closed due to a lack of children. The Pui O expansion came after the primary school attracted a growing number of pupils, especially from fast-developing north Lantau. From one class of seven children when it was established, the school now has nine classes with 172 pupils. Six classes are held in Tong Fuk and three in Pui O. When the primary school opened, Lantau was accessible only by sea. Population growth took off with the opening of Chek Lap Kok airport and the Tsing Ma Bridge. Tung Chung, on the airport's doorstep, quickly metamorphosed from a sleepy village to a new town of high-rise housing blocks. Headmaster Serge Berthier said the school had benefited from the population explosion. 'The airport has had a big impact on the school because today many pilots prefer to live on Lantau because of its green environment,' he said. The school runs coaches from Discovery Bay and Tung Chung on the other side of the island, but the journey can be rough, especially on rainy days. The only link is the single-lane Tung Chung Road that snakes through the hills, but road widening is under way. Although new residential blocks continue to rise in Tung Chung, many new settlers prefer the more unspoilt environment to the south of the island, pushing rents up in the villages. Construction of the Pui O campus is still incomplete, with its first and second floors not yet opened after the Town Planning Board rejected its application for them to be turned into classrooms in August last year. With the intake expected to grow further this September, Mr Berthier plans to open a classroom on the ground floor of a village house in Tong Fuk as a contingency plan. The village has many natural assets, located beside Pui O beach and the hilly Lantau Country Park. The beach, marshlands and woods are regularly used for science lessons. In November, teachers, pupils and some parents camped out on Pui O beach for a two-day activity that featured fishing, hiking, games and sport. The school holds after-class clubs with activities such as soccer, music and drama. They are open to all village children, regardless of what school they attend. Lantau International School uses English as its medium of instruction and has adopted the SATs examination - Britain's national measurement of academic performance. All teachers are required to be native-English speakers and hold a postgraduate diploma in primary education. One teacher is responsible for all subjects in a class, which have a maximum of 22 pupils. Mr Berthier said the school had grown steadily, and in 2004 began offering full primary classes. He expects the numbers to rise to about 230 pupils by 2012. The only other international school offering primary classes on Lantau is the English Schools Foundation's Discovery Bay International School. Mr Berthier said that while DBIS catered mainly for Discovery Bay residents, LIS pupils came from a broader range of families. 'LIS does not cater exclusively for the expatriate population. It is a school accessible to the middle-class of Hong Kong. Most of the parents are skilled workers, with a great number, such as pilots, flight attendants, engineers and air traffic controllers, working for airlines. 'But we also have the children of civil servants living in Tung Chung. We have received more than 85 applications for next year.' Mr Berthier said there were many reasons parents chose LIS. For some, it was the closest primary school to their home. Some considered it good value for money - fees are about HK$5,000 a month - while others thought the quiet village environment was beneficial to their children's early learning. Paul Dodds, who lives in Mui Wo, has two children at LIS, a son in Primary Six and a daughter in Primary Three. Mr Dodds, a retired engineer with the Mass Transit Railway Corporation who has been in Hong Kong for more than 30 years, said he learned of the school from friends in the expat community. 'I wanted to send my kids to a non-Chinese-speaking school on Lantau and heard that LIS had a good reputation and its tuition fees were cheaper than ESF schools, ' he said. 'I didn't consider sending them to Hong Kong Island either. Transport would be horrendous. 'There has been an increasing demand for English-speaking schools on Lantau. Even some of the local Chinese parents have sent their children here because they want their children to speak English.' Another parent, Sandra Keys, director of a human resources consultancy in Central, sent her daughter, now in Primary Five, to the school five years ago after the family moved to Tong Fuk. She said the fact that it was nearby was not the only consideration. 'The school particularly helps students build up confidence. My daughter is quite shy. This has helped her a lot,' she said. 'The class sizes are small and the teaching quality is good. Teachers here create a culture of learning that excites students to learn rather than just teaching facts.' Lantau International School has pupils from 23 countries, with British children making up a quarter. Chinese pupils, including from Hong Kong, the mainland and Taiwan, come second, at slightly more than 20 per cent.