Introduction

Taking to heart the motto of "the greatest compassion goes beyond the veins of causation, and the greatest empathy transcends the divide between self and others", Abbot Fat Ho had during his time in the monastery (1930-1972) provided care for the weak and the sickly and advocated the building of a hospital. He was also deeply concerned that many of the local children were unable to go beyond primary schooling. It was his wish to build a secondary school. This wish remained unfulfilled, however, when he passed away in 1972.Venerable Chi Wai, the present Abbot, was committed to completing his master's unfulfilled dream. Whilst actively engaged in the planning for the building of the Tian Tan Big Buddha, he continued in his emphatic pursuit of the development of a secondary school in the Island District. A parcel of land was allocated for the purpose by the Government in 1977, and the school project proceeded with the full support of all sectors of the community. The school campus, supervised by the Hong Kong Buddhist Association and sponsored by Po Lin Monastery, was opened on 31 July, 1978. Children in Lantau Island could now enjoy secondary schooling and a more satisfying environment for their studies.

Our school was founded in 1977. It was a government aided school run by the Buddhist Association and sponsored by Po Lin Monastery. Situated in Tai O, it was the first co-ed secondary school on Lantau Island. To accomplish Venerable Fat Ho’s unfulfilled wish of providing education, Venerable Chi Wai endeavored to form a school and named it ‘Buddhist Fat Ho Memorial College’. Due to the successful application for ‘School Improvement Projects’ in 2004, an additional school premise was built. It has four storeys including a counseling room, a computer room, a multimedia learning centre and a multi-purpose activity room. Besides, we established a notable gallery and an art gallery throughout the school. Moreover, we set up wifi service around the school campus in 2008. Furthermore, we created a resource bank for different subjects and provided Cable TV network. In addition, we have been providing a boarding house for our students since 2007 where they receive in-house training.

We strive our best for developing various curricula, catering for learner diversity and individual interests. We have both CMI and EMI streams for S.1 to S.6 students. And for Chinese, English and Mathematics, we develop and implement the ‘School-based curriculum’. Through different groupings, co-operative learning, drama teaching and an English online learning scheme, we try to maximize our students’ multilingual skills. In September 2009, we joined the Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) and we were recognized by the EDB for admitting non-Chinese students (NCS). Based on that, we have developed our tailor-made Chinese curriculum for those NCS students to better equip them for the GCSE and GCE, which can fulfill the requirements for further studies. Besides, to ensure all-round development, we make use of the local district resources to organise various visits and exchange activities.

For the NSS curriculum, we offer different subjects for our students. Besides, to equip students with vocational skills, we cooperate with different post-secondary institutes to provide applied learning courses. We utilize every resource we have to widen their horizon by exploring our society and the world. We hope to nurture our students to be an active, passionate and responsible person.

In order to enhance students’ confidence and persistence, we organize a wide variety of sports activities for our students such as Sports Day, hiking and cross country running. Besides, we set up a lion dance club, a kung fu class, a cheering team and a Chinese opera class. Moreover, we set up various sports teams including rugby team, table-tennis team, basketball team and football team. Through joining the extra-curricular activities, we hope to develope our students to be a confident and motivated person who contributes the society in future.  

Since 2009, all staff and students do morning exercises every day. Besides, our principal, teachers, staff and students have formed teams to join the Trailwalker for 4 consecutive years. This year, the Principal has again led our teachers to join this activity to show our students what willpower is.

Our school strives to create a harmonious learning environment. We have won the “Caring school” Award for seven consecutive years. Our teachers and students will join hands to make our school to be one of the most hoarmonious school campuses in Hong Kong.