Belilios Public School

Belilios Public School (Chinese: 庇理羅士女子中學, abbreviated as BPS) is the first government school for girls in Hong Kong, founded in 1890. It was also the first bilingual school in Hong Kong. It is in North Point.

Belilios Public School
Location
51 Tin Hau Temple Road, North Point, Hong Kong
Information
TypePublic
MottoClimb High See Wide
Established1890
PrincipalMs Ho Yuk Yee
Number of students850 students
Colour(s)Green and orange    
Medium of instructionEnglish
Websitehttp://www.belilios.edu.hk/
Belilios Public School
Traditional Chinese庇理羅士女子中學
Simplified Chinese庇理罗士女子中学
Literal meaningBelilios Girls' Secondary School

History

In 1890, the Hong Kong Government set up the Central School for Girls at Old Bailey Street as the counterpart to the Central School (Queen's College, Hong Kong). Mr. Emanual R. Belilios, a Jewish philanthropist donated HK$ 25 000 for a new building for the Central School for Girls in 1893, at the old site of Central School where a three-storeyed building was erected between Hollywood Road and Gough Street.

The school was renamed Belilios Public School in honour of Mr. Belilios. In 1946 after the Second World War, BPS moved to Hospital Road. In April 1965, the school moved again, to its present premises in Tin Hau Temple Road. To mark the occasion, a new school motto (Climb High, See Wide), a school song and a new school badge were created.

Founder
Belilios Public School in 1897.
Belilios Public School in 2005.

The successful opium trader Emanuel Raphael Belilios was born in Calcutta, India, on 14 November 1837. His father was Raphael Emanuel Belilios, member of a Jewish Venetian family. Emanuel married Simha Ezra in 1855, and in 1862 he settled in Hong Kong and engaged in trade. Belilios had a house in the mid-levels, and another on the Peak of Hong Kong Island. He kept a camel at his peak residence.[1]

In the 1870s, Belilios was chairman of the Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited.[2] In 1876, he became Chairman of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. Belilios died in London on 11 November 1905.

“Thirty years after he set foot on Hong Kong, he was appointed to the Legislative Council in recognition of his many contributions to Hong Kong society. However, Mr. Belilios was best remembered for being a great philanthropist. Before he made the $25,000 donation to enable our school to have a new 3-storeyed building, he had donated $5,000, one third of the total costs for setting up the Alice Memorial Hospital, which served as one of the major teaching hospitals for students of the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese (which later became the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong). With a view to promoting the welfare and education of Chinese girls who were driven to crimes and prostitution by poverty, Mr Belilios also made available the funding for establishing a probation home for girls. There was and is also an abundance of scholarships established with Mr Belilios' donations either during his lifetime or upon death. They have enabled needy students to pursue education at the universities.”[3]

Class Structure

There are 24 classes; this includes 4 classes each for F.1- F.6.

House
House Name Color
Yan HouseBlue
Yee HouseYellow
Lai HouseGreen
Chee HouseRed

Achievements

BPS is one of the most prestigious secondary schools in Hong Kong. While its students generally achieve superb academic results, the school promotes also all-rounded development in different fields of arts, music and sports. Entrance hurdles are high and the school is reputed to have one of the toughest admission criteria in Hong Kong.

The following were its achievements in the year 2016/17 –

Performing arts
  • The 68th Hong Kong Schools Speech Festival: 2 Champions, 7 First runners-up in the English section; 8 Champions, 6 First runners-up in the Chinese section.
  • The 53rd Schools Dance Festival: Honours Award and Choreography Award in Bulgarian Dance, Highly Commended Award in Slovak Dance (Trio).
  • The 69th Schools Music Festival: 2 Champions, 7 First runners-up
  • Hong Kong School Drama Festival: Award For Outstanding Script, Award For Outstanding Director, Award For Outstanding Performer, Award For Outstanding Stage Effect, Award For Outstanding Cooperation, Award For Commendable Overall Performance.

Sports
  • The Swimming Team : Champion in A Grade 50m Butterfly and B Grade 50m Free Style Division One .
  • The Volleyball Team : First Runner-up in Division Two

Notable alumni
This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

See also

References
  2. "History 1871–1880" Archived 12 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited
  3. Belilios Public School's official website.
  4. Rebecca Chan Chung, Deborah Chung and Cecilia Ng Wong, "Piloted to Serve", 2012
  5. https://www.facebook.com/PilotedToServe
  6. http://www.cnac.org/rebeccachan_piloted_to_serve_01.pdf
  7. Hong Kong Performing Art Directory Categories/Xiqu Artist LAU Wai-Ming
  8. "Louise Kwong | HK Phil". www.hkphil.org. Retrieved 15 September 2020.

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