Meet the Paniccias

Our daughter started in Grade 1 in January 2019 and after the summer our son started in Kindergarten. We loved the spacious campus and had friends at HKA who were very happy. But it’s always difficult to know exactly what to expect from a new school and we were not that familiar with the IB system either. We have been so happy to have chosen HKA. The teachers and specialist teachers are incredibly supportive and encouraging. There is attention given to all aspects of the children’s development. Academics are important of course, but to us in the formative years of early primary school it is probably even more important that our children go to a school that guides them and their classmates in their emotional and physical development as well. At HKA children learn life skills. They learn to be curious, creative and caring. They learn to understand their feelings. They learn that it’s OK to make mistakes, and how they can fix things when something goes wrong. They learn how to have a positive impact on the broader community and the planet they live on. Not every day is a great day and not everything people do is perfect. But in an environment of positive feedback and encouragement the progress our children have made over the years has been very impressive. And importantly our children love going to school!

Meet the Njos

We moved to Hong Kong during the peak of the pandemic and our daughter Mila joined HKA in Grade 3 after being in an IB-school in Shanghai. Our family, being a mishmash of Dutch/Indonesian and Taiwanese culture and upbringing, was looking for Mila to continue her IB-curriculum in a similar diverse environment. Several of her previous teachers highly recommended Mila to continue her education at HKA. Due to the situation we were not able to visit the school in person to get an introduction, however, Mila was adamant HKA would be the only school she would consider.

By the time we were physically able to visit the school and meet people we experienced the warmth of this community. Back then, both faculty and parents from Mila’s new classmates were – and still are – a tremendous group of people who provided genuine support to make Mila’s integration, and also ours, easier during these uncertain times. The teachers and support staff truly understand that each student has a unique character. They make efforts to provide guidance to further develop each student’s individual potential and empower them to be better equipped to navigate the more unpredictable world of future adulthood and make the right decisions for themselves.

Meet the Kellers

Hong Kong Academy embodies many of the features that lead to a kinder, gentler society. Here, we have found for our daughter a nurturing environment that emphasises the whole individual and celebrates differences of skin colour, of ability, of nationality. We have found a place that invites and cultivates diversity, that cheers a student’s strengths and supports her as needed. What a relief to find that pastoral care is as important as grades, that a student’s overall wellbeing comes ahead of everything else, to see that the teachers understand our child so completely. From the moment we stepped onto HKA’s environmentally conscious, stunning campus, we knew we had found something special.