School Profile

School Motto:

Humility and Respect, Advancement in Virtue; Diligent Study, Pursuit of Knowledge

Educational Philosophy:

Bishop Ford Memorial School is a Catholic school. It takes God’s calling as its direction, uses love to illuminate and shepherd the faithful, serves our Lord, showers the next generation with the merciful love of the Father, and employs the most modern teaching methods to educate children. The goal is to enable them to become useful talents, achieve excellence in both character and learning, understand reason, distinguish right from wrong, handle affairs with openness, maintain an optimistic personality, and become good citizens who are creative, loving, and contribute to society.

All staff members of this school respect and cooperate with one another, striving to carry forward the spirit of Christ’s universal love as well as the essence of our nation’s traditional culture, so that students’ material and spiritual lives may achieve balanced and harmonious development.

Core Values of Catholic Schools (Excerpted from the Catholic Education Office website)

Catholic schools are committed to continuing the Catholic Church’s contribution to education. They must therefore uphold the following core values and pass them on to young people, preparing them for their future lives in the world. These values also serve as the school’s vision and mission.

Vision (Core Values):

• Truth: The object pursued by human reason.
• Justice (Righteousness): An ethical virtue that requires us to constantly and unreservedly give God and our neighbours what is rightfully theirs.
• Charity (Love): The crown of all virtues.
• Life: The priceless treasure given by God to humanity; life is sacred in its very essence.
• Family: The basic unit that constitutes society.

Mission

Catholic schools must nurture the above core values through the following means: a) Recognising that education succeeds only through the joint efforts of all stakeholders, the school must adhere to the time-tested practice of respecting stakeholders from different backgrounds and cooperating with them to fulfil the school’s vision and mission; b) Providing within the school a family atmosphere filled with mutual trust and care; c) Incorporating religious education courses designed by the sponsoring body into the formal curriculum, and fostering the Catholic spirit through regularly held religious ceremonies and activities on campus (e.g., morning prayers and religious activities frequently organised for staff and students).

Bishop Ford Memorial School was founded in 1953 (cornerstone laid in 1952) by the Maryknoll Fathers (U.S.A.). It was one of the earliest schools established by the Maryknoll Fathers and initially undertook missionary work and the promotion of education in the new districts of Hong Kong, targeting the poor and underprivileged at the grassroots level.

The founding supervisor, Rev. Fr. John A. McGrath, M.M. (涂挽靈神父), placed great importance on education. In memory of his deceased friend Bishop Frederick A. Donaghy, M.M., he founded Bishop Ford Memorial School and named it in his honour.

In 1975, the school was handed over to the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong, which has continued its efforts in educating the next generation, wholeheartedly proclaiming the Lord’s love and putting evangelisation into practice in daily life.