Raffles Girls' Primary School

Infobox Singapore School
name = Raffles Girls' Primary School
莱佛士女子小学 (Láifóshì Nǘzǐ Xiǎoxué)


motto = Knowledge Begets Success
established = 1844
type = Government Primary
session = Single
principal = Ms Tan Siok Cheng
city/town = Bukit Timah
school code = 1073
enrollment = approx. 2700
colours = green, black, white
homepage = [http://schools.moe.edu.sg/rgps/main.html Link]

Raffles Girls' Primary School (Abbreviation: RGPS) is a primary school for girls located in Bukit Timah, Singapore. It offers the Gifted Education Programme (GEP) to Primary Four to Primary Six students. Despite its name, RGPS is not considered part of the Raffles family of schools, which consists of Raffles Girls' School (Secondary), Raffles Institution and Raffles Junior College. It also bears no affiliation to Raffles Girls' School (Secondary).

The five values of RGPS are Learning, Creativity, Graciousness, Responsibility and Integrity, and the school motto is "Knowledge Begets Success".

History

Raffles Girls' School was established on 4 March 1844 with six boarders and five scholars. It started off as a moral development and vocational training school. The school was co-located with Raffles Institution at Bras Basah Road. However, the two schools separated in 1847; by 1881, RGPS was conducting its own classes.

In 1928, the school moved to Queen Street but was forced to vacate the premises during the Japanese Occupation in World War II. The building was occupied by the Kempeitai as its headquarters during the war years. After the war ended in 1945, the school was re-opened and temporarily housed in St. Anthony's Convent. In 1946, it returned to its Queen Street building.

After the war, afternoon classes for primary school students were started. At the time, there were only nine primary school classes, with Mrs Ambiviagar as Principal. In 1959, the secondary school classes became Raffles Girls' Secondary School, which moved to a new building in Anderson Road. The primary school classes were renamed Raffles Girls’ Primary School, and remained at Queen Street. Morning classes were started with V Pestana as the principal of the school. Ida Goh was the next principal from January 1960 to November 1969. In 1979, RGPS moved to bigger premises at Holland Grove Road to cope with the increasing number of students. The principal then was Lim Soo Noi. In 1984, it was one of the two primary schools initially selected for the Gifted Education Programme. Lim retired in 1985 and her position was taken over by Koh Mei Ling until 1988. The next principal was Nanda Bandara, who was succeeded by the present principal, Tan Siok Cheng, in 1999. Ms Tan Siok Cheng is retiring at the end of 2008. However, the name of her successor is unknown.

In November 1999, Raffles Girls’ Primary School moved to its present campus at Hillcrest Road, which was built to accommodate more than 2700 pupils in 2 sessions. Primary One and Two students study during the afternoon session, while other students study during the morning session.

Co-Curricular Activities

The Ministry of Education introduced Co-Curricular Activities into all Singapore schools to emphasize the inculcation of values and character formation. Participation in CCAs is compulsory for students from Primary Four to Six, and optional for students from Primary One to Three.

Achievements

These are the school's achievements since 1999.
*Softball (Senior division 3rd in 2005)
*Basketball (Senior division champion for 5 consecutive years)
*Ice Skating (2nd-place team placing for 4 consecutive years)
*Brownies (8 Chief Commissioner’s Badges in 2005)
*Choir (3 Singapore Youth Festival Gold awards)
*Chinese Dance (4 SYF Gold awards)
*Concert Band (2 SYF Gold awards)

chool Song

The School Song was composed in the 1960s, when Ida Goh was the principal. She requested that all teachers think of the lyrics for the School Song. Eventually, Patricia M Tan’s set of lyrics was adopted. These lyrics, together with the score composed by Ng Chiau Kong, form the RGPS school song that is used today.

The lyrics are:We shall try to do our bestNever stopping for a restAlways ready to help each otherEager to learn from one another

Together, we shall striveTo build a better lifeTogether, togetherAll the way

We are polite, quick to obeyGrow in wisdom day by dayWe are girls from RGPSAlways striving to be the best

Together, we shall striveTo build a better lifeTogether, togetherAll the way

Uniform

The uniform of RGPS consists of a knee-length navy blue pleated pinafore over a white, round-collared blouse and shorts underneath. Prefects wear an additional green prefect tie over the pinafore. A different attire is worn during physical education classes — a white t-shirt with a coloured band (either red, blue, yellow or green) on the sleeves indicating the house and a pair of navy blue shorts.

Facilities

The Hillcrest campus has 4 blocks spread over 2.71 hectares with 52 classrooms, 31 special rooms, 4 music rooms, a parade square, which also serves as a netball / basketball court), a field, a hall, a canteen and a Media Resource Library. Recently in October 2008, the RGPS Indoor Sports Hall has been completed.

Outstanding Pupils

Rebecca Margaret Ranee Jeyaraj was the top student of Singapore in the year 2006, she scored a total of 281 points for her PSLE.

In 2007, Vanessa Malishree Dharmaratnam was the top Indian pupil, with a score of 285.

External links

* [http://schools.moe.edu.sg/rgps/ Raffles Girls' Primary School Website]