User:Iain.Letourneau/sandbox

Hsinchu County American School (Simplified Chinese characters: 新竹县美国学校; Traditional Chinese characters: 新竹縣美國學校; Pinyin: Xīnzhú xiàn měiguó xuéxiào; abbreviated as HCAS) is a private American International School located in Zhubei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan. Ideally located 750m from the Hsinchu High Speed Rail Station and Liujia Train Station, and 7km from the world renowned Hsinchu Science and Industrial Park, HCAS seeks to attract many top talented students from the Silicon Valley of Asia as well as from other locations in Taiwan. HCAS is a K-12 international school that offers an innovative North American curriculum in English based on Common Core Standards. We at HCAS challenge our students academically by offering a broad range of courses including Advanced Placement (AP) courses and enabling our high school students to design an academic program best suited to their interests, abilities, and goals.

Campus
HCAS occupies a single five-story building constructed in 2016. Facilities include thirty-five classrooms, four labs (Biology/Chemistry, Physics, Computer, and Robotics), two-room Art studio, Dance studio, Music room, three playrooms, cafeteria, theater, indoor gymnasium, outdoor basketball court, mini-soccer field, and two playgrounds.

Academics
From 3rd grade onward, students take classes in both English Literature and English Writing/Grammar. ELL (English Language Learning) classes are provided for students who require additional support in the English language.

Elementary School
Elementary school at HCAS consists of Pre-K2 (4 years old) to grade 5 students. In addition to core subjects in English, Social Studies, Math, and Science, students also take classes in Art, Music, Computer Science, and Physical Education. Students from 3rd grade onward have the choice of taking Chinese or French. Library classes are scheduled weekly with a librarian.

Middle School
In addition to French, students now have the option of taking Spanish classes. In 2018, HCAS will introduce German and Japanese classes for middle and high school students.

High School
The core subject classes are divided into regular and honors. Students have the opportunity to choose all of their classes as long as they fulfill graduation requirements based on American High School Common Core Standards. Students who wish to do so can take Advanced Placement (AP) classes in English, Social Studies, Math, Science, Foreign Languages, Computer Science, and Art. Students may also take a course as an independent study or independent research based on their personal interests under exceptional circumstances.