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Shirley Zhao

More than 100 parents have signed an online petition against the English Schools Foundation's plan to combine three schools in Ho Man Tin into one large learning campus.
The petitioners want the foundation to delay the plan for at least a year to allow more time to address parents' concerns such as teachers' workload and admission changes.
The Kowloon Learning Campus will consist of King George V School (KGV), Kowloon Junior School (KJS) and Jockey Club Sarah Roe School, which occupy adjoining sites.
ESF chief executive Belinda Greer said each school would retain its own identity and the funding models for the schools would not change.
With the principal of KJS leaving in the summer, Greer said it was a good opportunity for the foundation to consider creating a senior leadership team across all three schools.
According to the proposal, the principal of KGV will become head of the new campus and the ESF will appoint new heads for the secondary KGV and primary KJS. The principal of Sarah Roe, which caters for pupils aged five to 19 with special education needs, will remain unchanged.
The new leadership set-up will be in place for the start of the new school year in September.
Students from each school will be able to share each other's facilities, while teachers will work together to design a curriculum that allows for student movement in and between those facilities.
"We are looking at different models of learning of our schools and seeing how we can make best use of the resources that we have, such as the people and the facilities, to enhance children's learning," said Greer.
She said no staff would be laid off during the process and promised that if there were any resources saved from streamlining the management and facility sharing, they would be used to enhance the quality of teaching.
The plan is due to be discussed at an ESF board meeting on Wednesday.
So far, 103 parents have signed the online petition asking the ESF to allow more time to address parents' concerns.
One worry for parents is that the move could allow all pupils from KJS to enter KGV automatically, thus reducing the chance for children at other ESF primary schools to get into the popular secondary school. Greer said that currently only a few KJS pupils would go to ESF secondary schools other than KGV.
If the foundation did decide to allow all KJS pupils to enter KGV, it would ensure that the handful of places previously taken by children from other schools in the same catchment area would be preserved.
However, she said she could not promise that the concerned parents would not be affected because catchment areas were reviewed every year.
Crystal Ng, whose child is a pupil at KGV, said she worried that the principals and teachers at the school would have to tend to children from the other two schools when they visit and might ignore the needs of KGV students.
Another parent, speaking anonymously, feared that the other two schools would not have teachers qualified to look after pupils from Sarah Roe.
Aadithya Naik Ajay, a 12-year-old student at KGV, said he feared that the junior students from KJS would mess up the school's science lab. "I hate [the plan]," he said. "They are little kids and they will run around."
KGV principal Dr Ed Wickins said there would be arrangements in place for children visiting each other's schools.
Such visits would be conducted in an orderly way with children accompanied by their own teachers and teaching assistants, especially for children from Sarah Roe, he said.


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ESF - English Schools Foundation

100 parents sign petition against plan to combine three ESF schools

ESF chief executive Belinda Greer (right) and King George V School principal Dr Ed Wickins, who will become head of the new Kowloon Learning Campus under the proposal. Photo: David Wong

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