College History

 In the Beginning
The story of La Salle begins in 1917 when the Brothers of St. Joseph's College opened a junior school on Chatham Road, near Rosary Church. Kowloon was expanding rapidly at this time and demand for school places was rising. Br. Aimar, the Director of St. Joseph's, realized that a new school building was necessary. He acquired a piece of land on Boundary Street in the late 1920's as a site for the new La Salle College.

On 5th November, 1930, Sir William Peel, the Governor of Hong Kong, laid the foundation stone of the new building. By 3rd December 1931, the work on the building and the playgrounds was sufficiently advanced to allow the opening of eight classes under the management of 5 Brothers from St. Joseph's College and 4 Assistant Masters, Messrs. Charles Dragon, Francis Chan, James Ng and Benedict Lim, from the Chatham Road School. 303 students were present on that day.

On 6th January 1932 came the formal inauguration; seven Brothers headed by Rev. Br. Aimar as Director, took over and a few days later 40 boarders occupied their quarters to the west of the building. There were then 540 students in 14 classes.

For seven years the College thrived under the wise guidance of Br. Aimar. The students achieved excellent results in the Matriculation Examinations, the laboratories were getting into shape, four Tennis courts and a full-sized football pitch were built and the lovely statue of St. John Baptist de La Salle that now stands in front of the College was erected. The number of students increased to 805 in 1935 and 1060 in 1939


War-Time and Exodus
The outbreak of World War Two in 1939 brought great disruption to the life of the school. The HK Government requisitioned the buildings as an internment camp and later a hospital. The Brothers had to arrange for temporary classrooms to be built across the road and classes continued there. In the afternoons, Brothers helped in the hospital.

On Christmas Day, 1941 the Colony surrendered to the Japanese and, soon after, the Brothers were ousted from the College. The buildings were turned into a storage depot. The Japanese encouraged civilians to leave the Colony, as food was in short supply. A number of Brothers, including the founder and principal, Bro-Aimar, traveled to Vietnam where they remained for the duration of the War.


Post-War Recovery
Br. Cassian, O.B.E., energetically undertook restoration of the College after the war in 1946. Soon the College made a remarkable recovery and had about 600 pupils on its roll. The British Military Authorities, however, once again requisitioned the College in 1949 and it was turned into the 33rd General Hospital. Under the directorship of Br. Patrick Toner, the school was moved to temporary buildings on Perth Street, Homantin. Despite the considerable difficulties, few school activities suffered by this change.

Br. Felix was appointed Director of the School in 1956 and with untiring efforts, re-acquired the College buildings from the Military Authorities on 1st August 1959. Twelve years of forced exile had come to an end. Student numbers grew steadily and this in turn led to a separation of primary and secondary divisions. La Salle Primary School was erected in 1956 and Br. Henry was appointed Headmaster

The Modern La Salle College
Towards the mid 1970's, the Brothers, under the directorship of Br. Raphael, decided the then aging building was functionally inadequate and would have been too costly to refurbish. The old building with its majestic dome had to be knocked down to make way for progress. While classes were continuing, a portion of the school grounds were used to erect a new superstructure with modern facilities. The Governor at the time, Sir Murray MacLehose, officially opened the new school on 19th February, 1982, which was also the Golden Jubilee year of the school.

The new College building stands seven floors high and has a current enrollment of over 1800 students. Four impressive blocks surround two quadrangles, the lower, dotted with benches and greenery and the upper a standard size basketball court. All rooms are centrally air-conditioned and have double-glazed windows. In addition to the classrooms, there is an extensive range of facilities for academic use and for extra-curricular activities. At the time of construction the school was considered among the most modern in Asia. Br. Alphonsus Chee and Br. Thomas Lavin were largely responsible for developing these facilities.

Since a major part of the School building is above standard, the Government is not responsible for its maintenance. Replacements of plant and machinery as well as the upkeeping of existing facilities require substantial sums of money. The Brothers, the Principal Br. Francis, and some Old Boys initiated the idea of a Foundation which aims at provides sufficient funds to do just this. In early 1992, the La Salle Foundation was established with Mr. Michael Sze as the first Chairman.


Recent years
To enhance communication between teachers and parents, the La Salle College - Parent Teacher Association was established in January, 1995 and has become an integral part of the life of the school.

In September 1996, the track and field were in urgent need of re-surfacing. The La Salle Foundation with the help of the Parent Teacher Association raised over five million dollars and the Hong Kong Jockey Club contributed the same amount. The project was completed in October 1998 and the facilities were re-named the La Salle College-Jockey Club track and field.

In December 1998, the Lasallian Schools in Hong Kong under the chairmanship of Br. Patrick Tierney, hosted the 3rd gathering of the APLEC, Asia-Paciflc LasaIlian Educators Congress, in La Salle College. About 130 delegates, from Asia-Pacific, took part. As a direct result, the Hong Kong LasaIlian Family Office was established in April 1999 with Br. Thomas Lavin as the Coordinator. This Office aims to draw together the various members of the Lasallian Family in Hong Kong.

In September 2000, Br. Thomas rejoined the staff and became the Supervisor and Principal of the College. The School Improvement Programme began with the Ground Breaking Ceremony on 9th April 2003. In 2005, two Annexes were completed, one along La Salle Road and the other on top of the old tennis courts, and named the Br. Aimar Wing and Br. Cassian Wing after the school’s first and second Principals. The new wings provided an additional 32 rooms with state of the art facilities to enhance student activities and support continuous school development.

In 2004, Br. Thomas retired as Principal and Dr. Paul LAU (68) took this office. He was the first layman to take the post after 10 Brothers before him. Br. Thomas continued his role of Supervisor until he became Brother Visitor of the Penang District in 2008. Br. Patrick then took over as Supervisor.

In April 2007, Mr. WONG Yen Kit took the reins as Principal. In September 2008, Mr. Nicholas Ng, the former Foundation Chairman, was invited to be the Alternate Supervisor alongside Br. Patrick. In September 2010, on the retirement of Mr. WONG Yen Kit, Br. Steve, from New Zealand, was appointed Principal.

Between 2010-2016, under the leadership of Br. Steve, the College underwent a complete refurbishment modernizing the facilities to align with an international outlook and benchmarking. In support of international benchmarking, the College implemented BYOD for eLearning, a 10-day timetable, an adaptive pedagogy and numerous national and international exchange programmes including Paris, Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai, Zhongshan, Ningbo, Melbourne, Perth, Auckland and Buenos Aires. Br Steve was reassigned to be the Principal of Oakhill College Sydney in 2016. Mr. Tong Wun Sing, having taught at the College since 1984, was appointed Principal in September 2016.

In 2019-2020, with Br. Patrick taking up the Auxillary Visitor post in LEAD, Br. Thomas was appointed Supervisor of the College.

In order to facilitate STEM education, which was introduced in 2017, and to give students hands on learning experiences, the College opened an Aerospace Lab in 2021. During the Covid-19 pandemic, our College successfully implemented hybrid learning to foster new ways of learning.