Best Schools for SEN and Learning Support in Hong Kong

How Hong Kong differs from other Asian cities

Most international hubs in Asia have one or two schools with serious SEN provision and a long tail of mainstream schools that decline complex profiles at admissions. Hong Kong is different. The English Schools Foundation operates a city-wide framework that places learning support inside its core operating model. Twenty-two schools share an approach, a referral pathway, and a specialist setting at Jockey Club Sarah Roe School.

ESF was established in 1967 as a government-supported foundation, with inclusion written into the charter rather than retrofitted. Sixty years on, it is the only Asian international system where a child can move from a mainstream ESF primary into the Sarah Roe School and back again without changing foundation or paperwork. Outside ESF, the historic premium tier has built learning-support departments of comparable depth, supported by a Hong Kong therapy market that no other Asian city quite matches.

How to read SEN claims

Almost every international school in Hong Kong will say, on the tour, that it is inclusive. The word does different work at different schools.

The named team. A real learning-support department has a head, a primary and secondary lead, and named specialists. A vague reference to "our learning support team" without titles is a signal provision is thin.

The roll share. A school with proper provision can say directly how many students are on individual plans. Ten percent of the roll on ILPs is doing different work from a school carrying two percent.

In-house versus visiting. Hong Kong's strong external therapy market is double-edged: schools can claim "speech therapy available" when they mean they let a private therapist visit your child. Direct employment is the higher standard.

The exit pathway. A school that takes a child with significant additional needs and counsels the family out at the end of primary is not the same as one that has retained students through to IB Diploma or A Level.

The additional charge. Most schools that run proper learning-support programmes charge for them as a separate annual fee or hourly specialist sessions.

The strongest mainstream schools

Jockey Club Sarah Roe School (ESF)

Jockey Club Sarah Roe School is the only dedicated specialist setting inside any major Asian international school foundation. It serves around 70 students aged 5 to 19 on the ESF Ho Man Tin campus, with an individualised curriculum, on-site occupational therapy and speech and language therapy, and qualifications routed through ASDAN and AQA Units rather than IGCSE or IB. Fees match the ESF schedule. The model is school first, with specialist staffing throughout. Admissions are by referral, often from another ESF school after structured assessment.

Strongest for: students with significant or complex learning needs who benefit from a small, structured, therapy-integrated environment.

ESF mainstream framework (West Island, Sha Tin, Island, KGV, South Island, Discovery, Renaissance)

The seven ESF secondary schools each run a learning-support department under the foundation's framework, with primary feeders on the same referral pathway. Individual learning plans are standard; classroom support runs alongside small-group withdrawal where needed. The ESF Educational Psychology Service operates across the foundation and is one of the few in-house psychology teams in the region.

The strongest ESF secondaries for learning support are West Island, Sha Tin College, and Island School. Each carries an IB Diploma cohort alongside the IB Career-related Programme, which allows a student with a vocational profile to graduate with a recognised qualification without being forced through a six-subject Diploma. South Island adds BTEC options.

Strongest for: mild to moderate needs, and students who may need an alternative examination route at sixth form.

Hong Kong International School (HKIS)

HKIS runs the largest learning-support team in the American-curriculum tier. Student Support Services covers primary, middle, and high school with dedicated specialists at each level, in-house counsellors, and routine collaboration with external psychologists. For families arriving with an existing IEP or 504 Plan, HKIS reads those documents fluently and translates them into a school learning plan. Accommodations on AP courses run through the College Board.

Strongest for: mild to moderate learning differences within an American-curriculum context, particularly with existing IEP or 504 documentation.

Kellett School

Kellett is the strongest pure British-pathway school in Hong Kong for learning support. A published inclusion policy, a learning enhancement department across Kowloon Bay and Pok Fu Lam, and a non-selective admissions policy that has held even as academic results have risen. Twenty-seven percent of 2025 A Level grades at A* or A were posted alongside students with named additional needs on the roll, a different signal from a selective school posting similar grades. Exam-access arrangements run through Cambridge and Edexcel, and the culture keeps students through to A Level rather than counselling out at GCSE.

Strongest for: mild to moderate learning differences within a British pathway, including dyslexia, ADHD, and processing difficulties.

Canadian International School (CDNIS)

CDNIS runs a learning-support department across the full IB continuum, on a single 14-storey campus in Aberdeen. The Ontario Secondary School Diploma stream, which all Grade 12 students complete alongside the IB Diploma, provides an additional examination path for students who benefit from a more granular credit-based system. The 2025 IB average of 37.7 with 39.4 percent at 40 or more was posted by a school that does not concentrate selection at the top.

Strongest for: mild to moderate needs within a full IB continuum, and families with a Canadian university pathway.

German Swiss International School (GSIS)

GSIS operates an English stream and a German stream side by side, each with its own learning-support provision. The English stream runs IB then A Level; the German stream runs through to the German International Abitur drawing on German special-needs pedagogy. Provision is strongest in primary and lower secondary. At sixth form the academic profile narrows (English-stream IB averaged 40 points in 2024), and families with significant additional needs should expect a careful conversation about whether the Diploma is the right route.

Strongest for: mild to moderate needs in primary and lower secondary, across either the English-language pathway or the German Abitur stream.

Hong Kong Academy

Hong Kong Academy is a smaller IB school on a single Sai Kung campus, founded with inclusion as a stated part of its identity. The roll is around 550 across the full IB continuum. Parent signal points consistently to a culture where students with additional needs feel known by staff and where attrition through to Diploma is unusually low for a school of its size. Sai Kung is the consideration: the campus is far from the Mid-Levels and Hong Kong Island clusters where most international families settle.

Strongest for: mild to moderate needs within a small-school IB environment, particularly for families already in the New Territories.

Dedicated SEN settings (outside the mainstream school structure)

Some children's needs sit beyond what any mainstream international school can provide. Hong Kong has a developed network outside that structure.

Bridge Academy runs a structured programme for children with complex learning profiles, often including autism spectrum conditions, with small class sizes, integrated therapy, and a transition pathway back to mainstream where appropriate.

The Therapeutic Centre combines speech therapy, occupational therapy, and educational support under one roof for children whose primary need is therapy with educational input alongside.

Tutorworks provides one-to-one and small-group academic support for students attending mainstream schools who need substantially more than the school's own learning-support department can deliver, including IGCSE and IB Diploma support.

These are not schools in the conventional sense. Families sometimes combine attendance with partial mainstream enrolment. Several Hong Kong educational psychologists work across both worlds and can advise on the right blend.

At a glance

Fee ranges are 2025 to 2026 published annual tuition. ESF schools also charge a one-off Capital Levy; CDNIS, GSIS, HKIS and Kellett require capital notes or levies. Verify current figures with each school.

What to watch for

Selective inclusion. Some schools accept students with additional needs at admissions and then move them on at the end of primary, before IGCSE, or before the Diploma. A real learning-support programme retains students through to school-leaving.

The newer-school gap. Several recently opened premium schools in Hong Kong post strong academic claims while their SEN departments are still building. Teacher reports of understaffed provision at one new-entrant premium school have surfaced consistently enough that families considering it for a child with additional needs should expect a candid conversation about current capacity.

The capital-levy question. ESF, CDNIS, CIS, GSIS, HKIS, and Kellett all require a capital contribution alongside fees. For a family switching into a stronger SEN setting after starting elsewhere, the levy is part of the financial decision.

Therapy coordination. A mainstream school that can host external speech therapy, occupational therapy, or behavioural support during the school day operates differently from one that cannot. Logistics matter as much as policy.

Related reading

• Best international schools in Hong Kong
• Best IB schools in Hong Kong
• Best schools for university placement in Hong Kong
• International school fees in Hong Kong

FAQs

Will my child's existing IEP or EHCP transfer to a Hong Kong school? Not automatically, but it is valuable supporting evidence. ESF schools, HKIS, Kellett, CDNIS, GSIS, and Hong Kong Academy all engage with overseas documentation as part of admissions and use it to develop a Hong Kong learning plan.

Do Hong Kong international schools have to accept a child with additional learning needs? No. International schools are private institutions outside the Education Bureau's local-school framework and acceptance is at the school's discretion. The ESF framework is the closest thing to a structured assurance because it is foundation-wide.

Is SEN support charged separately from tuition? Often, yes. Most schools that run a proper learning-support department charge a separate annual fee or hourly specialist sessions on top of mainstream tuition.

What does SEN support look like at sixth form? Options narrow. ESF secondaries offer the IB Career-related Programme alongside the Diploma, and South Island adds BTEC. Kellett offers A Levels with exam-access arrangements. HKIS uses the standard US transcript and College Board accommodation process. Hong Kong Academy is IB Diploma only.

Can a child move between an ESF mainstream school and the Jockey Club Sarah Roe School? Yes. The transition runs through the ESF framework and the Educational Psychology Service, and movement in either direction is one of the reasons the system was set up. No other Asian international foundation offers the same pathway.

Sources

• ESF Educational Psychology Service and Inclusion framework, esf.edu.hk
• Jockey Club Sarah Roe School, jcsrs.edu.hk
• HKIS Student Support Services, hkis.edu.hk
• Kellett School inclusion policy, kellettschool.com
• CDNIS learning support, cdnis.edu.hk
• GSIS learning enhancement, gsis.edu.hk
• Hong Kong Academy inclusion programme, hkacademy.edu.hk
• Bridge Academy Hong Kong, bridgeacademyhk.com
• The Therapeutic Centre, therapeuticcentre.com.hk
• Tutorworks, tutorworks.com.hk

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