The school teaches its students for public examinations. The school motto is: Faith, Hope, Love" (「信、望、愛」). The school teaches the students other things to gain higher qualities of moral (德), intelligent (智), physical (體), social (群), art (美) and heart (靈).
The father of the school is Rev Henry Noyes. In 1879, he built a school in Guangzhou, teaching Mathematics and Science. Later he built more schools in Taishan, Jiangmen and Hong Kong.
In 1978, someone built the 5th school which is Shatin Pui Ying College. Mr Wong Wai Wah was the Principal. In the first year, the school worked on the campus of Baptist Lui Ming Choi Secondary School at Lek Yuen Estate. In September 1979, the school could move into Wo Che Estate. The school library was opened since September 1982.
In order to make it possible for all the Form 3 students to study as Form 4 in the school, the school changed the class structure. The Student Union was set up in September 1995 and Parent-Teacher Association in 1996. In 1996, Principal Wong gave up working and the Vice Principal Ms Yau Oi Yuen started doing his work. The elite class system was deleted in September, 1996.
The library system was changed to use computer since September 2001. The new wing building of the school has been finished since July 2005. In the new wing, there are classrooms for higher forms classes, a new library, some special rooms and computer rooms.
Exchange students from Italy and Germany help the students learn English. The school has many English activities such as English Tutorial Class, English Drama Competition, Form 1 Bridging Programme, Lyrics-writing Course, English Immersion Speech Competition, Interviewing Tourists, English Phonetics Class, English Enhancement Course, Summer English Class, Overseas Immersion Course, Summer English Camp for senior form students, Summer English Day Camp for junior form students, Intra-school and Inter-school English Debate Competitions and English Musicals.
The Chinese Language teachers write their own teaching units for the students. There are many Chinese activities such as Creative Writing Class, Chinese Week, Prose Writing Class, Reading Club, Modern Poetry Writing Class, Verse-speaking Gathering, Story Writing Class, and Seminar on Reading, Seminar on Modern Poetry, Intra-school and Inter-school Chinese Debate Competitions and Report and Comment on Chinese Words of Wisdom.
The school teaches Putonghua. There are many activities such as Putonghua Day, Tongue-Twisters, Putonghua Class, Singing Contest, Putonghua Broadcast and Putonghua Corner. Students in the school can learn more about the Chinese culture from the activities such as Workshop on Chinese clipart, Chinese Tea Tao and Chinese Culture and General Studies Competition.
All Form 1 new students are Band 1 students. All of the Form 3 students can study as Form 4 in the school. Students have good results in public examinations. The average passing percentage for the HKCEE and HKALE is higher than 90%. The best student in HKCEE got 8As in 2004.
All Form 6 students in the school are from the Form 5 in the same school, except the exchange students from other countries. Most of the Form 7 students can study in the universities these years.
According to the government, the school teaches Chinese language, English language and Mathematics very well from 2000 to 2006.
The school gives the good students some awards, such as scholarships, Academic Awards, Flying Eagle Awards and Improvement Awards. The school gives money to some students to take part in some inter-school competition and courses in some universities such as The University of Hong Kong, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. There are some tutorial classes to improve junior students' skills in both English and Chinese languages and also Mathematics.
Reading Time is designed to help students having a good reading habit. Reading Days are held by the school library for all students to read or to take part in activities related to reading.
There are many computer subjects in the school, such as Information Technology (IT) for Forms 1 to 3, Computer and Information Technology (CIT) for Forms 4 and 5, and Computer Applications (CA) for Forms 6 and 7.
The school has organised 3 musicals, The Comeback Kid, Soul for Sale and The Last Move. The songs inside are written by the students and past students. Every Form 1 student has to play at least 1 musical instrument. The Photography Club and the Audio-Visual Group teaches students many skills, such as film editing, image recording, lighting, backdrop setting and sound engineering.
The school invites some guest speakers to the school to give speeches. Students can know more about the political, social and economic issues in Hong Kong and around the world. The school lets the students to join some extracurricular activities such as "The Youth Summit", "Dinner with Outstanding Citizens" and "Hong Kong International Model United Nations". The school lets the students to join mainland and overseas cultural tours.
The students can take leadership-training courses and extracurricular activities, such as activities such as “Youth Leaders Auditorium 2005”, “The 6th Basic Certificate Course for Student Leaders”, “Outstanding Leadership Development Programme” and “Youth Think Tank Training Project”. There are Free Talks so that students can have better training in giving speeches.
This award is only for the students who have good learning habit, good examination results, good self-discipline, good responsibility, community skills and studies in school activities. There are 4 phases in this award. Students can get a Bronze Eagle Badge in Phase 1, a Silver Eagle Badge in Phase 2, a Gold Eagle Badge in Phase 3 and a cup in Phase 4.
There are many activities to teach students about the Christian principles, such as Gospel Week, Gospel Camp Evangelical Team, Evangelical Broadcast, Bible Study Groups and Christian Fellowship.
There is a school song with Chinese lyrics. Its melody is the same as the song O Christmas Tree and there are two paragraphs. There is also a school hymn with English lyrics. There are three paragraphs in this school hymn.
All boys in the school wear white shirts and green trousers, and all girls wear white dresses with green drawstrings as summer uniform. The boys wear grey trousers and the girls wear grey dresses with white socks as winter uniform. Both boys and girls wear green ties when wearing winter uniform.
When students have physical education lessons, they wear PE uniform. From 2000, students can wear PE uniform to school without changing at school. From 2001, the PE uniform has been changed into a new format that is grey and blue in colour. The PE T-shirts have 3 different colours, namely black, blue and red, with respect to the students’ house.
The class names are combined with one number and one English character, such as “6B”. After the New Secondary School program was out, the number of classes and students per class was changed. There are about 30 students in each class from Form 1 to Form 6. 1A and 1B are remedial classes whereas 1C to 1E perform better in exams. The classes are mixed when students go into Form 2 or Form 3.
All Form 3 students have to choose their subjects after finishing their year. After finishing 2 and a half years of High Form study, students have to join the public exam, DSE (usually in April).
Each Form forms a House, with its own chairman and committee members elected by the students in the own Form. Each House has its own colour such as black, blue or red, just like the students’ PE uniform. The forms from the same colours form some cheering teams during the sports days.