Kellett School

The short version

The short version

Kellett School is Hong Kong’s longest-established British-curriculum international school: a not-for-profit association founded by parents in 1976, now teaching roughly 1,550 students from Reception to Year 13 across two preparatory schools (Pok Fu Lam and Kowloon Bay) and the Kowloon Bay Senior School, with a dedicated sixth-form campus reported to have opened in August 2026.

It teaches the English National Curriculum to IGCSE and then GCE A-Levels — there is no IB stream — and its most recent British Schools Overseas inspection rated it outstanding.↗↗

For 2026-27, tuition is HK$218,200 (Preparatory), HK$271,300 (Senior Years 7–11) and HK$279,100 (Sixth Form).

The structural story is the capital charge: from September 2025 every new joiner pays a HK$40,000 Annual Capital Levy each year instead of buying a mandatory debenture — Kellett’s own wording is blunt that the levy is non-redeemable, non-refundable, non-transferable and confers no admissions priority.

A Senior School new joiner therefore pays HK$311,300 all-in for 2026-27.↗

What the school is

British, not-for-profit, and honest about the waitlist

Kellett’s governance is the associational model British expats recognise from home: a not-for-profit in which all fee income is reinvested, and a HK$500 Annual Association Fee per family that carries voting rights on Board membership.

The senior school was established only in 2007 — Kellett was a prep school for its first three decades — and the purpose-built Kowloon Bay campus followed in June 2013, with six science labs, a theatre and black box, a pool and a rooftop “Sky Pitch”.↗↗

Quality signals are external and current: a British Schools Overseas inspection judged Kellett “an outstanding school” providing “an outstanding quality of education”, and in December 2021 COBIS awarded the school its highest tier, Patron’s Accredited Member.

Around 40% of students are reported to speak English as an additional language — a more mixed intake than the school’s “British school for British families” image suggests.↗↗

On demand, Kellett is unusually plain-spoken: its official fees page states that “Kellett School has had a waitlist in place for some years”, and one directory reports the school saying 2026/27 classes are full with fluid waitlists.

Post-exodus, Hong Kong’s market has softened in places — but the city’s established British school has not softened with it. Treat Kellett as a school you queue for, and file early.↗↗

Academics in practice

The IGCSE-to-A-Level pathway, done to UK-independent standard

Kellett is unapologetically an English-system school: the National Curriculum through the prep years, IGCSE in Years 10–11 and A-Levels in the sixth form.

Positioning repeated by school guides — that it is the only Hong Kong school offering both IGCSE and A-Levels to a standard directly comparable to UK independent schools — is the school’s own claim and should be read as such, but the inspection record and results history give it substance.

For families heading back to UK universities, or to UK boarding or day schools mid-posting, the pathway is frictionless.↗↗

Results are strong and are reported via the school’s own channels: secondary coverage citing the school’s results pages puts 2025 GCSE outcomes around 85% A*-A and 2025 A-Level outcomes around 75% A*-A.

We could not independently verify the underlying tables this pass, so treat the exact percentages as reported — but ask admissions for the published breakdowns; the school does publish them.↗↗

Budget for the extras the fee page excludes: bus, uniform, lunch, some ECAs, overseas trips — and Senior School students need their own laptop or iPad under the school’s bring-your-own-device policy. Tuition is billed in three instalments weighted 40/30/30 across the terms, pro-rated for mid-term starters.↗

Admissions and cost

The levy switch of September 2025, explained properly

The mechanics, from the school’s own page. Every Kellett student must be covered by either a debenture or the Annual Capital Levy.

For all new offers the ACL applies at HK$40,000 per year: a “fee for service” that is non-redeemable, non-refundable and non-transferable, confers no admissions priority or any other right, is not an asset, and is charged by the Kellett School Association Limited.

Over a seven-year secondary career that is HK$280,000 of sunk capital cost per child — the honest number to compare against other schools’ refundable debentures.↗

The debentures still exist for those who want priority.

The ladder as reported: a Golden Jubilee Debenture at HK$20 million (non-redeemable, covering up to three children), a Foundation Debenture at HK$10 million (15-year life, redeemable at par), a Corporate Debenture at HK$1 million (8-year life), and a HK$120,000 refundable individual debenture that carries no priority over corporate holders or siblings.

A reported HK$5 million Foundation Certificate also circulates in directories. All applicants must meet the curriculum requirement regardless of debenture cover.↗↗

Why the switch matters beyond Kellett: a mandatory-debenture school converting to an annual levy is a demand signal the whole market reads.

It lowers the entry barrier for a two- or three-year posting (no HK$120,000+ locked up), raises the long-stay cost (the levy never comes back), and suggests the school prefers recurring capital income over a debenture book in a softer market.

Under EDB Circular 15/2023, such charges require Education Bureau approval with use-of-proceeds reporting — the levy sits inside that regulated frame.↗↗

Entry costs are conventional: application fee HK$2,000 (Reception–Year 4) or HK$2,500 (Years 5–13, assessment included), plus the HK$500 family Association Fee. The Education Bureau’s profile records 2025/26 fees of HK$208,800–267,100, so the 2026/27 schedule represents a rise of roughly 4.5% — in line with the city-wide median for the year.↗↗

The family experience

Two campuses, one queue, and the Kowloon Bay question

Kellett families live with a two-site reality: the original Pok Fu Lam preparatory campus on the island’s west side (2 Wah Lok Path), and the Kowloon Bay campus (7 Lam Hing Street) holding the second prep school and the senior school under one award-winning roof.

A child can spend their whole Kellett career on one side of the harbour or the other depending on entry point — which side matters enormously for the daily run, so ask at offer stage, not after.↗↗

The community is the closest Hong Kong comes to a British county-school atmosphere at scale: long-serving staff, an active parent body, and a school that generations of British Hong Kong families treat as the default.

Directories describe waitlists across year groups and selection particularly at Year 7 — the pinch point where prep-school families and new arrivals collide. The reported opening of a dedicated sixth-form campus in August 2026 suggests the school is still investing through the soft market.↗↗

Who thrives here: British and Commonwealth families wanting an unbroken UK pathway; long-stay families who value the not-for-profit model; households happy on either side of the harbour with the bus map.

Who should look elsewhere: IB-committed families (there is no IB stream), families wanting a bilingual Chinese-English environment, and short-posting families for whom even the levy-plus-tuition total near HK$300,000 needs employer support.↗

Take these to the school

Questions that move beyond the tour script