From the Principal
I am very much honoured to be given the opportunity to serve as the Principal of La Salle College. Having served in La Salle for more than 30 years has enabled me to think deeply about the Lasallian spirit of Faith, Service and Community and internalize it in my thinking and beliefs.
I graduated from the University of Hong Kong in 1984 and joined La Salle in the same year. I majored in Chinese History in my undergraduate studies. At the time when I graduated, there was an opening in La Salle for a Chinese Language and Chinese History teacher. Since I wanted to be a teacher, I applied for the post. Luckily, I was employed by Brother Alphonsus Chee and started to serve here. In the first few years, my teaching duties were mainly F4-5 Chinese Language and F3-5 Chinese History. And after that, as the Education Department introduced Putonghua into the formal curriculum, I also started teaching that subject. I was promoted to be the Panel Head of Chinese (Senior Forms) in 1995 and then Vice Principal in 2006.
During the years of service here, I cannot agree more with the mission statement of our school that La Salle College is committed to providing a high quality human and Christian education to our students. It embraces the notion that students here at La Salle can fully realise their potential and can achieve excellence in all things, including academic studies, sports and cultural activities. To excel oneself is an expression of determination, perseverance, hard work, planning, etc. of one’s attributes which students are expected to nurture and develop. On top of that, our school also emphasizes the importance of value education. To nurture the spirit of service is another educational aim in our school. Lasallians are meant for others. We must not forget that when St John Baptist de La Salle founded the Christian Brothers, the aim was to serve those poor children that had no chance to attend school. So, it is always our intention to serve the last, the lost and the least. We do expect our students to reciprocate what they have received from society to those who are in need.
Many old boys are very active in serving the school even long after they graduated. This is a true reflection of the spirit of serving. Also, La Salle students and old boys have a special bond with the school. I think this is what the spirit of community is. To associate and work zealously together toward a common good is an atmosphere we cherish at school. La Salle is truly something more.
Recently, I was interviewed by some students and they asked me what my plans are and what my expectations of La Salle students will be. La Salle is a well established school and everything is on track and runs well. I would rather look more deeply into the details of the plans and how they would be implemented. For example, in the promotion of eLearning at school, my focus apart from the hardware, will be on how the use of eLearning tools changes the pedagogy of teachers so that there is more interaction in class which could enhance learning. Another example will be the exchange programmes. We have more and more exchange programmes that could enhance student learning. Apart from providing more and more opportunities to students, I would look at how we can make the programmes help the participants to reflect and apply what they have learnt in class in real-life situations. These are the things I would like to concentrate on at this moment.
It is the aim of the school to nurture our students to be decent Lasallian gentlemen with a healthy body and mind, be responsible, compassionate, ready to serve others with a caring attitude and most important of all cherishing the Lasallian spirit of Faith, Service and Community. I truly believe that our students will show all these character traits when they graduate from Form Six.
Wun-Sing TONG
Principal, La Salle College