HKUGA Primary School (also called Hong Kong University Graduates Associate Primary School; Chinese: 港大同學會小學) is a private co-educational primary school located at No. 9 Yee Shing Street in Chai Wan, Hong Kong.
Overview
It was founded by the Hong Kong University Graduates Association in 2002.[1] According to the Hong Kong Economic Times, the HKUGA Primary School is "one of the most sought-after DSS schools".[2] Every year, the school receives roughly 6,000 admittance applications for 120 spots.[3] Applicants go through three rounds of interviews.[3] The interviews test group activities, reading, logical questions, conversations, and how familiar parents are with the school.[1]
It is a Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) school.[3] It is a through-train school (Chinese: 一條龍學校) in which the primary school students proceed directly to the linked secondary school Hong Kong University Graduate Association College without going through the central allocation process.[3] Author Ian Tsang cautioned parents to consider the considerable distance between the two schools: the primary school was in the Eastern District, while the secondary school was in the Southern District.[1] The school emphasises reading and independent learning.[4] Unlike the typical school which would have teachers teach different subjects, HKUGA Primary School follows the approach of having teachers each teach a single subject. The aim is to have the teachers specialise and become experts in their subject.[1] It follows the biliteracy and trilingualism [zh] pedagogical approach in which students are taught how to read in English and Chinese and how to speak in Cantonese, English, and Mandarin.[1] To reduce student stress, the school does not hold exams for students in the first and second grades.[1]