A Visit to The Nord Anglia International School in Hong Kong

While I was in Hong Kong this summer, I not only had the opportunity to meet some of the people in the Nord Anglia Education Leadership Team, but I also got to visit one of the Nord Anglia schools in Hong Kong - The Nord Anglia International School (NAIS) located in Lam Tin.  Hong Kong is a former British colony and there is a lot of European influence in the city and at NAIS.

The principle of the school, Mr. Brian Cooklin generously gave me a tour of the new school, which just opened this past September (2014). Mr. Cooklin also allowed me to interview him for Reach A Student and share his insight.  Besides the school tour and interviewing Mr. Cooklin, I was also able to interview a Year 5 teacher, Mr. Williams, and his student Ava.

This year was the school's first year operating as a new school, and I must say that it was amazing how developed they were for a school still just 9 months old.  Prior to becoming the campus of the Nord Anglia International School, the property was previously used as a Catholic Boy's School and when that school moved out, Nord Anglia was awarded the space to use.  I learned that there was a lot of construction that needed to be done and everyone worked very hard to get the school ready in just a few months for new students to begin classes last September.

The learning environment is really beautiful and the students and teachers I met were all very nice and welcoming.  NAIS follows a British curriculum and that might be the biggest difference between the Nord Anglia International School and Windermere Prep.  I spent a long time looking at a lot of their students work, much of it on display in the corridors and I can tell you that it is all of very high quality.  Mr. Cooklin explained they use Nord Anglia Education's High Performance Learning techniques and I was very impressed by their approach.

Another difference that I really like was how they separate students in the school into 4 houses; Windsor (red), Sandringham (yellow), Caernarfon (green) and Balmoral (blue).  These are the names of grand homes and castles in the United Kingdom.  When students do something well, they are given a colored token that represents their house which they deposit in clear cylinder at the front of the school.  The cylinder with the most chips at the end of the year wins, so there is a lot of team or house spirit.  These houses also compete in school competitions against each other throughout the year.  I thought this house system was really unique and fun.

All their classrooms were well designed and the school had excellent learning facilities.  They had a gymnasium similar to ours at WPS, an Art room, Computer Lab, A full Science Lab, Library, Music Rooms and so much more.  I saw students doing drama, playing in their playground where Mrs. Cooklin had painted a beautiful Panda and so many other things you might see at a school in America, only this wasn't America, it was all in Hong Kong – a city on the other side of the world from Windermere Prep.  Needless to say, I was beyond impressed and it makes me happy to know that we are now a part of the Nord Anglia family of schools.

If you would like to see some of the photos of my tour of the Nord Anglia International School, please click the main image and scroll to see many more.