Our Girls

Quotes

Miss Cheng Wai Sim

Head of Physical
Education Department

Limited resources has always hindered the School's development. The New Secondary School curriculum requires students to pursue a wider range of knowledge as well as placing emphasis on the enhancement of students’ interpersonal skills and life experiences. Simply putting our girls through the paces of a few sports and aesthetic activities will not satisfy the needs of 21st century education. A whole range of extra-curricular experiences is needed t widen young people's perspectives.

In our Physical Education curriculum, elements such as bowling, golf and sport climbing have been added to further expand our girls’ horizons in sports. In the last academic year, some of the girlswere also able to take an abridged 3-day-2-night Outward Bound course with funding partly provided by the School. The experience was eye-opening for those who attended, building their confidence and strengthening their character. This activity is actually not new to Hong Kong schools. Many DSS schools have been sending their students to the full regimen of the 5-day-4-night course for many years. The course instructors told us that our short coursecould in no way compare with what the children could learn from the full regimen.In this case, money could move mountains!

In terms of facilities, HYS is in dire need of funding for expansion, repairs and maintenance of existing facilities. The elements have not been kind to 30-year-old outdoor pool, causing the tiles to crack and fall off – a sorry sight to behold.

In terms of manpower, the School needs extensive funding to hire more experienced and skilled sports professionals. When I first came to Heep Yunn, the School had 7 sports teams (basketball, volleyball, table tennis, athletics, swimming, fencing and hockey). Today, we are supporting 16 teams with outstanding results. For the past 26 years, the School has been the Division I Overall Girls Champion in Inter-School competitions organized by the Hong Kong Schools Sports Federation, having been awarded the Bank of China (HK) Bauhinia Bowl ( formerly the Omega Rose Bowl ). The tremendous amount of resources invested in the sports department throughout the three decades has continued to yield outstanding sports girls, supporting the girls to build their confidence through training, and developing a camaraderie amongst themselves. Working together as a team, they also gain experiences in communication and team work. Last year, we considered eliminating some teams to cut costs. The teams facing the chopping board were naturally unhappy, but the outcry from the other surviving teams and former students told us how proud they were to be members of the school teams, and that no one team should or could be left behind. In the end of course, no team needed to shut down, but in the foreseeable future, without extra funding, no new team can be established either.

Girls of HYS: Are you willing to let our school backslide and others pass us by? Parents of HYS girls: Do you want your daughter to lose her competitive edge in the society from a drop in resources? HYS needs to change to the DSS mode because we need to stay ahead of the competition, to move with the times, to develop the multifarious talents of our girls, and to prepare for a highly competitive and diversified information age. If we turn to the DSS mode, HYS will enjoy greater autonomy, enjoy more resources to fine-tune our curriculum and improve our facilities, not to mention increase our staff establishment. All these changes will only produce more talented leaders of tomorrow who reflect our school motto of commitment to our faith and love for our fellowmen. This is why I believe HYS should join the Direct Subsidy Scheme.