Belilios Public School


Belilios Public School is the first government school for girls in Hong Kong, founded in 1890. It was also the first bilingual school in Hong Kong.

History

In 1890, the Hong Kong Government set up the Central School for Girls at Old Bailey Street as the counterpart to the Central School. Mr. E. R. Belilios, a Jewish philanthropist donated HK$ 25 000 for a new building for the Central School for Girls in 1893, at the old site of Central School where a three-storeyed building was erected between Hollywood Road and Gough Street.
The school was renamed Belilios Public School in honour of Mr. Belilios. In 1946 after the Second World War, BPS moved to Hospital Road. In April 1965, the school moved again, to its present premises in Tin Hau Temple Road. To mark the occasion, a new school motto '', a school song and a new school badge were created.

Founder

The successful opium trader Emanuel Raphael Belilios was born in Calcutta, India, on 14 November 1837. His father was Raphael Emanuel Belilios, member of a Jewish Venetian family. Emanuel married Simha Ezra in 1855, and in 1862 he settled in Hong Kong and engaged in trade. Belilios had a house in the mid-levels, and another on the Peak of Hong Kong Island. He kept a camel at his peak residence.
In the 1870s, Belilios was chairman of the Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited. In 1876, he became Chairman of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. Belilios died in London on 11 November 1905.
“Thirty years after he set foot on Hong Kong, he was appointed to the Legislative Council in recognition of his many contributions to Hong Kong society. However, Mr. Belilios was best remembered for being a great philanthropist. Before he made the $25,000 donation to enable our school to have a new 3-storeyed building, he had donated $5,000, one third of the total costs for setting up the Alice Memorial Hospital, which served as one of the major teaching hospitals for students of the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese. With a view to promoting the welfare and education of Chinese girls who were driven to crimes and prostitution by poverty, Mr Belilios also made available the funding for establishing a probation home for girls. There was and is also an abundance of scholarships established with Mr Belilios' donations either during his lifetime or upon death. They have enabled needy students to pursue education at the universities.”

Class Structure

There are 24 classes; this includes 4 classes each for F.1- F.6.

House

House NameColor
Yan HouseBlue
Yee HouseYellow
Lai HouseGreen
Chee HouseRed

Achievements

BPS is one of the most prestigious secondary schools in Hong Kong. While its students generally achieve superb academic results, the school promotes also all-rounded development in different fields of arts, music and sports. Entrance hurdles are high and the school is reputed to have one of the toughest admission criteria in Hong Kong.
The following were its achievements in the year 2016/17 –

Performing arts