Hong Kong · History
Fifty years from a Wan Chai letter to two campuses and 1,550 pupils
Kellett School began in 1976 when a frustrated parent wrote to the South China Morning Post. Half a century later it is Hong Kong's benchmark British international school, still parent-owned and not-for-profit.
In September 1976, Joanne Elliott could not find a school place for her daughter. Her response was to write a letter to the editor of the South China Morning Post. That letter drew a circle of like-minded parents, and the result was a new school, opened with 44 students in two classrooms in Wan Chai. It was the Chinese Year of the Fire Dragon. The school has used a dragon in its logo ever since.
Origins
The founders wanted smaller classes than they saw elsewhere in Hong Kong and a British-style education strong in the arts and sport. The school was initially called Starters, led by Joanne Elliott and her family working alongside the first Principal, Vivienne Steer. Within a year it had tripled in size to 122 pupils and had already moved once. A facility in Taikoo Shing opened in January 1978. By 1980, the school had been awarded a plot of land in Wah Fu, Pok Fu Lam, and moved into a purpose-built campus there. A second phase of that building followed in 1981. The plot overlooked Kellett Bay, named after Irish Royal Navy Captain Sir Henry Kellett, and the school took the bay's name as its own.
Growth and campus expansion
Vivienne Steer led the school until her retirement in 1996, when Ann McDonald became the second Principal. The Pok Fu Lam campus was extended in successive phases, with the sixth and final phase completing in August 2007, delivering facilities the school's founders had originally envisaged. Around the same time the board updated the school's formal name to Kellett School, The British International School in Hong Kong.
By the mid-2000s, a shortage of senior school places in Hong Kong prompted the board to extend Kellett to age 13. In 2007 the school was awarded a temporary senior site shared with Elsa High School in Shau Kei Wan, less than a kilometre from the old Taikoo Shing premises. It was a stopgap. In August 2009 the Hong Kong government awarded Kellett a greenfield site in Kowloon Bay, and a purpose-built four-form senior school opened there in September 2013, alongside a second preparatory school on the same campus. The award-winning Kowloon Bay building, designed by the P&T Group, won the International Property Awards title for Best Public Service Architecture in Asia Pacific in 2016.
Ann McDonald retired in 2019 after steering the school from a small primary to an all-through institution with more than 1,300 students across two campuses. She was awarded an OBE that year for services to education and the British community in Hong Kong. In recognition of her tenure, the school established the Ann McDonald Fund for bursaries. Mark Steed, previously Principal of the Berkhamsted Schools Group and Director of Jumeirah English Speaking School in Dubai, became the third Principal and CEO in July 2019.
In April 2024, Paul Tough succeeded Steed as Principal and CEO. Tough had previously led The British School in Tokyo and, before that, Discovery Bay International School in Hong Kong.
Curriculum and accreditation
Kellett follows the Early Years Foundation Stage and English National Curriculum throughout, with pupils progressing to IGCSE and A Level in the senior school. It is a co-educational day school for ages four to 18, running from Reception through Year 13. The school has been a founding member of FOBISIA (Federation of British International Schools in Asia) since that body's inception. Both preparatory schools were among the first in Hong Kong to be granted membership of the Independent Association of Prep Schools (IAPS) in 2018. The senior school joined the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC) in 2019. In late 2021, as recorded by Hong Kong's Education Bureau, Kellett became the first school in Hong Kong to be awarded Patron's Accredited Member status by COBIS (Council of British International Schools), joining only six other schools across Asia at that level. A British Schools Overseas (BSO) inspection in 2023 rated the school outstanding across every category.
In the 2024 to 2025 examination cycle, 85.1 per cent of GCSEs were graded A* or A and 99.7 per cent at A* to C. At A Level, 60.6 per cent of grades were A* or A, with 42 per cent of candidates achieving three or more A* to A grades.
Present day
Kellett turns 50 in 2026, and the anniversary coincides with its most significant round of development since the Kowloon Bay campus opened. A dedicated Sixth Form Centre is opening in August 2026 at The Bay Hub on Kai Cheung Road, connected to the Kowloon Bay campus by a footbridge. The two-floor, 3,716 square metre facility has capacity for 240 students and includes over a dozen classrooms, a small lecture theatre, specialist higher education counselling rooms, and independent study spaces designed on the model of a university environment. Simultaneously, the original Pok Fu Lam campus is undergoing a multi-year refurbishment, with work scheduled mainly in school holidays to limit disruption.
The school now has around 1,550 pupils drawn from more than 40 nationalities, still governed by a parent-led board, still structured as a not-for-profit association. It has remained those things since the letter to the editor in 1976.