![Fairfield Methodist Girls' School](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Fairfield_Methodist_Girls%27_School.jpg)
Fairfield Methodist School (Primary) and Fairfield Methodist School (Secondary) are two schools located on
Dover Road. Founded in 1888 as the Anglo-Chinese Girls School, they are among the oldest primary and secondary schools in Singapore. Their current premises are at the neighbourhood of
Dover
Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...
in
Queenstown,
Central
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
Singapore.
History
Founding
The Beginning
Miss
Sophia Blackmore
Sophia Blackmore (18 October 1857 – 3 July 1945) was an Australian Christian missionary. She founded the Fairfield Methodist Schools, and also Methodist Girls' School, Singapore, Methodist Girls' School in Singapore. She was the first woman miss ...
, a 32-year-old Australian missionary from the Methodist Women's Foreign Missionary Society, had just established her
first school
Three-tier education refers to those structures of schooling, which exist in some parts of England, where pupils are taught in three distinct school types as they progress through the education system.
Terminology
In a three-tier local educ ...
in Singapore. Meanwhile, several influential Chinese families were persuading her to teach their daughters.
A widow later offered Blackmore her home along
Cross Street
Cross Street ( Chinese: 克罗士街; ms, Jalan Silang) is a street in Singapore starting from Shenton Way in Downtown Core and ending at the junction of South Bridge Road in Chinatown which is in Outram Planning Area which then becomes Upper ...
for teaching.
On August 1888, the Anglo-Chinese Girls' School began with just eight
Peranakan
The Peranakans () are an ethnic group defined by their genealogical descent from the first waves of Southern Chinese settlers to maritime Southeast Asia, known as Nanyang (), namely the British Colonial ruled ports in the Malay Peninsula, th ...
girls.
Contradicting accounts
However, there have been conflicting and differing stories on how the school really started, especially from the history book,
Singapore: A Biography.
According to the sources, Fairfield was started in August 1888 by Miss Sophia Blackmore, a 31-year-old missionary from the Methodist Mission. Her mandate in 1888 was to start a girls' school in Singapore in an enclave called Telok Ayer. She finally managed to start a class for eight Nonya girls in a little room at Cross Street. During that time, education for girls was definitely not favoured by the early traditional Chinese immigrants, even among the liberal-thinking Baba merchants. Miss Blackmore then started going house to house, trying to persuade families to enroll their girls in her school. However, little by little, they suspected that she was a government spy sent to catch them secretly gambling at cards. They had started to pass the word that the young missionary lady was in fact a 'mati-mati' agent who was helping the British government enforce its new law against gambling.
Miss Blackmore's habit of asking for the women's names and writing them down in her notebook seemed to have alarmed the women. This was actually done as a record of who she visited, but still, the parents were suspicious of her. In spite of the differences and even suspicion from parents, Miss Blackmore persevered in her vision for a girls' school, and found that the parents were starting to welcome her more cordially, and would even invite her to sit down and chat over a cup of tea. They started to become more receptive to the idea that it would be good for their daughters to get a little education.
In June 1888, Miss Blackmore finally managed to get her first pupil. She recalls,
How pleased we were when one little girl, hearing of the school, clapped her hands and begged her mother to let her attend. She had been nicknamed 'Ganadolf', which means bald, because her head had been shaved during sickness. Not much knowledge entered that little bald head, but her own willingness to come to school helped others to decide.
After Ganadolf's mother agreed to send her daughter to school, a few other mothers followed her lead. Altogether, seven more pupils were signed on. Soon, she managed to rent out the front room of Nonya Boon, a rich widow's front room. The Anglo-Chinese Girls' School was finally founded.
Early years
The school was soon renamed Telok Ayer Girls' School. It is a common misconception that it was the original name the school was founded as. However, it is currently unknown when the name change took place.
In 1893, the new principal, Emma Ferris, found that the furniture had been removed because the landlady had decided to rent the room out to someone else to be used as a shop. She managed to find a new site for the school in a corner house along
Telok Ayer Road. By then, the school had 30 students.
The principal, Miss Olson, realised that she required more space in the building and tried to raise funds for a new building. The biggest donation (US$5,000) came from a Mr James Fairfield from
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
(patron of New England Branch of Women's Foreign Missionary Society or "WFMS"). This allowed the school to construct a new school building on a site provided by the government at Neil Road. The school moved from Telok Ayer into the new premises on
Neil Road
Neil Road ( Chinese: 尼路) is a one-way road in Chinatown and Tanjong Pagar in the planning areas of Outram and Bukit Merah in Singapore. The road starts at the junction of South Bridge Road, Maxwell Road and Tanjong Pagar Road and ends at Ka ...
in 1912, and was promoted to a 'first-rate school' by the British Government. The relocated school was renamed Fairfield Girls' School. By 1917, the growth of the school had forced a hundred Fairfield girls to study in a dark shophouse. In response to this, a new block extension was completed, consisting of six classrooms and a chapel hall in 1924.
During the Japanese occupation of Singapore, the school was shut down. It only reopened in 1945. Between 1942 and 1944, the school building was taken over by the Japan Military Force.
In 1958 the school was renamed to Fairfield Methodist Girls' School.
On to Dover
![Students of Fairfield Methodist School (Primary) - 20051028](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Students_of_Fairfield_Methodist_School_%28Primary%29_-_20051028.jpg)
In 1983, the school moved to its current Dover campus to accommodate a larger population of students. Concurrently, the school went co-educational, becoming the first Methodist School in Singapore to do so, and became two separate schools, Fairfield Methodist Primary School and Fairfield Methodist Secondary School, each with its own administration, but still under the Fairfield Methodist School Board of Management. The schools also saw its first intake of boys as well. Both schools remain housed in the same campus and share common facilities.
Fairfield (Primary)
To highlight the common history, heritage and close relationship of the Fairfield Methodist Schools, the name of the school was changed from Fairfield Methodist Primary School to Fairfield Methodist School (Primary), effective from January 2009.
Fairfield (Secondary)
Fairfield Methodist Secondary School was granted autonomous status in 1996, for its academic and co-curricular achievements. Like its Primary counterpart, the school was renamed Fairfield Methodist School (Secondary) in January 2009.
Buildings of Fairfield
Achievements
Fairfield Secondary
In 1987, Fairfield Methodist Secondary set up its Pioneer batch of The Boys’ Choir, headed by Mrs Seet. There was no Girls’ Choir then.
87% of Sec 4 Express leavers were eligible for Junior College in 2007. The school achieved 76% distinctions in English Literature, compared with a national average of 37%, and 73% in Maths, compared with a national average of 55%.
The number of pupils with 7 distinctions increased from 17 in 2010 to 27 in 2011. The number of pupils with 8 distinctions increased from 4 in 2010 to 11 in 2011. The school's Symphonic Band won a Gold award in the 2008 National Band Competition. Also in 2008, the school won Gold with Honours in the National Chinese Short Play competition, and 2nd prize in the Drama of History competition. The school's Boys’ Brigade won Gold in the JM Fraser Award for Excellence. The school's choir won Gold in the SYF 2007.
Fairfield's English Drama won consecutive Gold with Honors in the years 2009 and 2011, for their performances of Hamlet and Over the Wall.
In 2008 FMSS received a School Distinction Award from the Ministry of Education. It has also been awarded the Best Practice Award (Teaching and Learning), the Outstanding Development Award (Character Development), and the Sustained Achievement Awards for Academic Value-Addedness, Uniformed Groups and Sports.
Notable alumni
Before 1983
Fairfield Primary
*
Jamie Yeo
Jamie Yeo (; born 17 April 1977) is a Singaporean actress, model and radio DJ.
Early life
Yeo was born in Singapore on 17 April 1977. She attended Fairfield Methodist Primary School and Nanyang Girls' High School before moving to Dayton, Oh ...
: Celebrity
*
Kit Chan
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: Singer
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Joshua Tan
Joshua Tan Wei En (born 19 August 1990) is an Australian actor and singer based in Singapore.
Career
Tan has become a local celebrity after the successes of ''Ah Boys to Men'' movie series as Ken Chow by director Jack Neo.
Personal life
T ...
: Actor (Ah Boys to Men)
Fairfield Secondary
*
Elim Chew
Elim Chew (born 1966) is the founder of the street wear brand, 77th Street (Streetwear Brand), 77th Street.
Career
Elim's first attempt into the retailing turned out to be a huge success in the retail scene. Prior to that, she was in Britain und ...
: Entrepreneur; Founder,
77th Street street wear
Streetwear is a style of casual clothing which became global in the 1990s. It grew from New York hip hop fashion and Californian surf culture to encompass elements of Sportswear (fashion), sportswear, punk fashion, punk, Skateboarding#Culture, sk ...
brand
*
Cher Ng
Ng Cher Yong (born 1972), known professionally as Cher Ng, was a Singaporean DJ under the moniker DJ Cher. He is the co-founder and managing director of Zouk Kuala Lumpur, and co-founder and property developer oTREC– Malaysia and Kuala Lumpur ...
: Co-founder, Zouk, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Founder, T.R.E.C, the largest entertainment zone in Malaysia
*
Selena Tan
Selena Tan (born 1971) is a Singaporean executive producer, director, writer and actress. She is best known as one of the cabaret trio, the Dim Sum Dollies. In 2000, Selena founded Dream Academy, which produced a variety of performance shows.
E ...
: Actress
*
Megan Zheng
Megan Zheng (also known as Megan Tay, ) is a Singaporean actress & novelist who starred in two Singaporean movies: '' Homerun'' and '' One More Chance''. For her role in ''Homerun'', Zheng, then 10 years old, became the first Singaporean to ...
: Actress; First Singaporean to win a
Golden Horse Award
The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards () is a film festival and awards ceremony held annually in Taiwan. It was founded in 1962 by the Government Information Office of the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan. The awards ceremony is us ...
, the Chinese equivalent of the
Oscars
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
See also
*
Fairfield Methodist School (Primary)
Fairfield Methodist School (Primary) and Fairfield Methodist School (Secondary) are two schools located on Dover Road. Founded in 1888 as the Anglo-Chinese Girls School, they are among the oldest primary and secondary schools in Singapore. Th ...
*
Fairfield Methodist School (Secondary)
Fairfield Methodist School (Primary) and Fairfield Methodist School (Secondary) are two schools located on Dover Road. Founded in 1888 as the Anglo-Chinese Girls School, they are among the oldest primary and secondary schools in Singapore. Th ...
*
Miss Sophia Blackmore
Sophia Blackmore (18 October 1857 – 3 July 1945) was an Australian Christian missionary. She founded the Fairfield Methodist Schools, and also Methodist Girls' School in Singapore. She was the first woman missionary sent by the Woman's Foreign ...
*
Methodist Girls' School, Singapore
References
External links
School websiteSchool leadersA walk down Neil RoadExhibition on women pioneers to open on Thursday at the National Museum*
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[{{Cite book, title=Sophia Blackmore in Singapore : educational and missionary pioneer, 1887-1927, publisher=General Conference Women's Society of Christian Service, Methodist Church of Singapore, year=1987, isbn=9971847485]
Official website* Diana Chee-Chung
Methodist Schools' FoundationSpeech by Ms Grace Fu, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of National Development & Ministry of Education at the FMSS 120th Founder's Day Service, 1 August 2008.
Dover, Singapore
Queenstown, Singapore
Primary schools in Singapore
Educational institutions established in 1983
1983 establishments in Singapore
Methodist schools in Singapore
Secondary schools in Singapore