Shanghai's YK Pao Foundation Opens Its First Hong Kong Campus Next Month

The YK Pao Education Foundation, which has operated one of Shanghai's most distinctive bilingual schools since 2007, will open its first Hong Kong campus in August, adding a new name to Kowloon's increasingly competitive international school market.

The school will begin in temporary space at a Kowloon East campus in Yau Tong before moving to a purpose-rebuilt site on Rose Street in Kowloon Tong in 2028. The foundation is investing HK$100 million in the Rose Street renovation, which will include a gymnasium and specialist rooms. A launch ceremony held on 29 May at the Asia Society drew Hong Kong's Secretary for Education, Dr Christine Choi, alongside the foundation's trustees, according to a PR Newswire release from the foundation.

For the opening year, the school plans two Primary 1 classes, one Primary 2 class, and one Primary 3 class, targeting a minimum intake of 100 students at class sizes of 25. Annual tuition is set at HK$220,000 for Primary 1 to 3, pending Education Bureau approval.

What the curriculum looks like

The model mirrors YK Pao's Shanghai flagship: English and Putonghua as co-first languages, with an enhanced mathematics programme and a strong emphasis on Chinese culture and character development. The school has applied for IB candidate status and intends to offer the Primary Years Programme, with the Middle Years Programme to follow as the school grows. Students who complete the secondary years will have the option of continuing to YK Pao School Shanghai's Songjiang boarding campus to sit the IB Diploma.

Founding Head Cathy Braithwaite brings more than twenty-seven years of UK education experience to the role. The school expects to open with sixteen to eighteen teachers, aiming for a student-to-teacher ratio of roughly one to eight, and has already extended offers to eight teachers including staff from Shanghai with IB PYP experience.

Who it is targeting

CEO Wayne Zhang has described the early application outlook as "more positive than expected," with most prospective students coming from non-local families, particularly high-skilled professionals posted to Hong Kong. That profile sets YK Pao apart from the city's established local-international hybrids and places it in direct conversation with the English-medium schools that dominate the territory's premium international tier.

The timing reflects a moment of relative stability for Hong Kong's international school sector. Enrolment across the city has held broadly steady despite broader demographic shifts, and a school able to draw from both the mainland Chinese professional community and internationally mobile expatriate families represents a different market position from the city's established British or American-curriculum operators. Whether the bilingual model, more familiar from Singapore and Shanghai than from Hong Kong, finds traction quickly will become clear once the school publishes its opening enrolment figures.