YK Pao Brings Its Shanghai Bilingual Model to Kowloon This September

One of Shanghai's most recognised bilingual school brands is crossing the border. The YK Pao Education Foundation will open YK Pao School Hong Kong in September 2026, initially welcoming around 100 pupils across Years 1 to 3 at a temporary Kowloon East campus before eventually relocating to a purpose-rebuilt site on Rose Street in Kowloon Tong. According to The Standard, the foundation's CEO Wayne Zhang confirmed the school intends to run two Primary 1 classes, one Primary 2 class, and one Primary 3 class of 25 students each in its inaugural year.

The new institution is modelled closely on the Shanghai flagship, which has operated since 2007 and is known for an immersive Putonghua-English co-teaching approach and a strong emphasis on character education alongside academic rigour. The Hong Kong school will serve children aged six to 15 and is explicitly not-for-profit, a distinction that sets it apart from the majority of the city's premium international schools.

What the curriculum looks like

The school will follow an IB Primary Years Programme pathway within a bilingual frame, aiming to produce what the foundation calls "confident bicultural thinkers." Instruction will move between English and Putonghua across subjects rather than separating languages by lesson, a model that research on dual-language immersion broadly supports for both linguistic and cognitive outcomes. The Kowloon Tong site, once fully rebuilt, will span more than 8,000 square metres and is expected to be ready by 2028.

Philip Pao Sohmen, Co-Founder of the YK Pao Education Foundation, said the programme is "designed to benefit children at a formative age, equipping them with essential linguistic skills and cultural awareness." The founding head of the Hong Kong school is Cathy Braithwaite, who comes with international school leadership experience.

Timing and context

The opening arrives as Hong Kong's education authorities actively encourage schools that can serve both local and non-local families, and as parental interest in structured Putonghua instruction continues to rise among the city's internationally minded middle class. YK Pao HK will not be competing directly with the city's established British or IB-only international schools; its not-for-profit model and bilingual identity position it closer to a gap that has been growing for some time.

The school site on Rose Street was awarded to the foundation by the Hong Kong SAR Education Bureau, a signal of official backing that gives the project more institutional stability than a purely commercial entrant would enjoy. Whether the September intake meets its target of roughly 100 pupils will be an early test of how much demand has already built up.