Victoria Shanghai Academy (VSA) Hong Kong
Reviews & Information

4.5 stars. I really liked VSA, and I wish I could give it five stars, but if I'm being honest, 4.5 stars is already a bit of a stretch. The reason: Although the school teachers were very good and nice, the students were often rude and mean. As I looked at the other reviews, I noticed quite a few people observed that unless you were in the school from kindergarten/grade 1, you would never really fit in. I agree - and although sometimes the students make an effort, you know you will never truly replace those bonds. But even aside friendship, the bullying in the school is not to be ignored. EXTREMELY cruel bullying occured to other students as I went to VSA. The one very popular girl convinced everyone else to do the same to one girl - and I'm sure it made her life terrible. All for a bad reason, which I won't state, due to privacy reasons and respecting this girl's privacy. The school teachers were very nice and taught very well, but sometimes I thought that it was TOO easy. However, it was quite light-hearted. I almost never did my homework and simply finished it on the bus because it was so simple. Also, even though VSA focused on well-being, some of the students were really cruel and made other's well-being... well, turn... bad, I guess. The well-being lessons, although very important, were very easy and I think most students just snoozed through it, and it was the perfect lesson to pass notes and whisper to friends. It wasn't really taken seriously by students. How hard would it be to make a slight improvement to that class? Now for the specialist lessons... Overall, I think that it was just fun. It didn't really teach me anything, and it was just a break from class. Maybe others would disagree with me, but from my experience, the classes were just mediocre and didn't really require any brainpower. PE was just being athletic. However, one time there was an incident in which we were required to do a Google Slides about a sport or activity we had chosen to improve upon and our progress. The PE teacher thought only one of our Google Slides was any good, and just because it was prettier than the others, and looked as though more work had been put in - although that was just because it looked nice. He shamed every one of us one by one as he went through our slides - and it was SO embarrassing. During PE lessons, if you were a slow runner or someone un-athletic, people would often roll their eyes, especially if you were in a team with some athletic people. It was embarrassing to be one of those people who just wasn't SPORTY. Drama was fun, in my opinion, there were lots of interesting projects but I didn't really learn much - or anything from it... Other than Wikipedia was not to be trusted. That's the other thing: Why is Wikipedia banned in almost every International School in HK?

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I think that if people want an IB school, a good option is VSA. First of all, VSA provides a bilingual education for all students. If a student needs development for their Chinese, VSA provides extra help for those students. Teachers in VSA (especially the upper years) encourage all students to be bilingual in their work. Secondly, VSA has almost finished a $420,000,000 dollar campus expansion, which will provide good facilities for students and teachers. Also, most of the rumours about VSA are fake. While I was reading this website, I came across a very strange review - one made by Alex Zhang. There has never been any snakes in the school campus, although there are a family of wild boars nearby, they've never actually come close to any of the staff and students. Thirdly, VSA provides many great opportunities for students to have a bit of fun. For example, this year (2022), VSA offered many extra activities/challenges, like making posters for special events. There's also a daily challenge to help improve student's Chinese. The staff are friendly and helpful, although some teachers can be quite strict and mad sometimes. Usually teachers get mad because something or someone is annoying them. VSA also cares about the safety of students, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are rules about taking your mask off and talking while eating, as well as reminders to wash and sanitise your hands. However, there have been a few cases recently, but most of the people are safe. So to conclude, VSA is definitely a good IB school.

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It's a pretty good school but some teachers are biased and get mad, other than that its a good school and every student is friendly and nice

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Iv'e spent the past 9 years at Victoria, Personally I loved it, I made strong connections with a loads of teachers and still keep in contact with them after I left. In my opinion Vsa is as culturally Chinese of an international school as you can get. I remember walking up to Canadian International in Y5 for exhibition and not seeing a single word of mandarin on their boards, me and my friends looked at each other and were both thinking the same thing "NO WAY" compared to ours that had to be done with a half half ratio. Yes mandarin in a difficult subject to learn, me as a foreigner found it even more difficult then most of my classmates but that was normal, Vsa has a good support system for us though, In primary school I don't remember much but I never failed a single mandarin exam, the teachers gave me extra sessions when I needed it without me asking for it and even if I spoke up about it or simply had a chat with my teacher after school I knew that she would always be there to help me. In secondary starting from Y6, we were placed into 2 separate classes for mandarin, Chinese B and regular Chinese, this was by far the best decision the school has made in my opinion, All the foreigners in my grade as well as some local students who just needed extra help in the subject, the class was super interactive and definitely helped me, I looked forward to play classes every week. We had 2 teachers are regular one and and an extra one to help. My favourite part of my journey in Vsa would have had to be the Drama and Music, I was super enthusiastic about that since y1 and have always auditioned and had SO MUCH fun rehearsing and performing and it was always the highlight of my year. The thing that the school could improve on is making sure theres always a 10/10 happy environment, sometimes teachers and us students can get carried away in the work and it wouldn't be a fun place to be in.

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In my last year at VSA. I was one of the head prefects. During my 5 yrs there. I think that there has been a lot of improvements. It’s a good school!

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