Climbing higher with Mount Kelly
“School establishment always involves a lot of challenges and hard work, but it is also one of the most rewarding things you can do,” says Peter Kenny, director of Mount Kelly...
“School establishment always involves a lot of challenges and hard work, but it is also one of the most rewarding things you can do,” says Peter Kenny, director of Mount Kelly School Hong Kong, which is due to open in September this year, teaching a curriculum modelled after that of the sister school in the UK.
On such matters, he is not just venturing an opinion, but speaking from hard-earned experience, having previously served as the founding principal of Renaissance College Hong Kong (RCHK) and, in other roles, handled essential aspects like campus design, project management, recruitment, marketing, technology implementation, and curriculum development.
At RCHK, he recalls, the key issue in the period prior to opening in 2006 was whether construction would be completed on time. For Mount Kelly, similar concerns arose around delays at the New Territories campus. But solutions have been found and, by and large, things remain well on track for welcoming the first classes in line with the original schedule.
“Thankfully, we have located excellent sites - in the Kowloon City district and Tuen Mun, which will now be fully operational in September next year,” Kenny says. “This offers a new choice for parents in Hong Kong. These are permanent sites, not temporary or ‘plan B’. Basically, the two campuses will offer the same curriculum in parallel from pre-prep, or ‘playgroup’, all the way through kindergarten to Year 6, with the Tuen Mun campus carrying on to Year 8.”
Noting that many parents remain unsure about the relative merits of the IB (International Baccalaureate) versus the UK national curriculum and other options, Kenny is quick to highlight similarities rather than differences.
For example, on graduation, both IB and A-Levels give access to universities in Hong Kong and around the world. Therefore, in practice, they have the same status and acknowledgement. Also, in the senior years, they both have a syllabus with the content and essential knowledge that students have to learn and on which they are assessed.