School History

Dating back to as early as 1860, the Canossian Missions have already set out to preach the love of God with the notion of advocating the importance of universal "equality" in education. Instilled with this mission, the Canossian Daughters of Charity have set their hearts and souls on the provision of equal education for girls in the Southern District, which was utterly lacking in that era, and founded the first catholic girls' school in Aberdeen in 1897 named Pui Tak Canossian Primary School.

In the 70s, Aberdeen was nothing but a primitive fishing village. Facilities seemed to be lacking and among these, transportation, recreational and infrastructural amenities were of no exception. Much had to be done.

Soon came a surging demand for female education. With an insufficient number of places available to female students, many who wished to further their studies in secondary schools were put off.

To cope with the pressing issue witnessed, the Canossian Missions were determined to establish a college for girls. In the year 1973, they were granted a site by the government for the building of the school. A year later, construction of the school began and Pui Tak Canossian College finally came into existence in July 1975. On 26th November 1976, a solemn Inauguration Ceremony was officiated by Rev. Bishop John Baptist Wu and Mr. Kenneth W. J. Topley, the Director of Education (Hong Kong), followed by the blessing of the School by the Bishop.

In its very first year, the School, with Sister Esther Ling as the Founding Principal, started with six Form 1 classes and three Form 2 classes with a total of only 353 students taught by fifteen teaching staff in full. Not until 1981 did it amount to twenty-nine classes from Forms 1 to 7, increasing the total number of students to an approximate 1,000.

In 1997, at the Reunification of the Motherland, Chief Executive Tung's new policy addressed to reducing the floating classes in secondary schools. Our school immediately applied to the former Education Department to reduce our classes from 29 to 24.

In August 1984, Sister Esther Ling was transferred from the school and her position as principal was then taken over by Sister Amelia Ip until her retirement seven years later. In 2013, our third principal Mrs. Grace Chan retired, Ms. Susanna Wong became our current principal.

Since its very beginning, Pui Tak has dedicated itself wholeheartedly to the education of outstanding students, students that would help contribute to society, and we are proud of them. We shall endeavour to give of all our best and shoulder the mission of education under the philosophy of our foundress, Saint Magdalene of Canossa.