Raffles Girls' School (RGS) is an independent girls' secondary school located in Braddell,

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

. Established in 1879, it is one of the oldest schools in Singapore. RGS, together with its affiliated school

Raffles Institution Raffles Institution (RI) is an independent educational institution in Singapore. Founded in 1823, it is the oldest school in the country. It provides secondary education for boys only from Year 1 to Year 4, and pre-university education for both ...

, offers a six-year Raffles Programme, which allows students to skip the Singapore-Cambridge GCE Ordinary Level examinations and proceed to take the

Singapore-Cambridge GCE Advanced Level The Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education Advanced Level (or Singapore-Cambridge GCE A-Level) is a GCE Advanced Level examination held annually in Singapore and is jointly conducted by the Ministry of Education (MOE), Singapore Exam ...

examinations at the end of Year 6. The school was recognised by the

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

in 2006 by being awarded the School Excellence Award (recognising schools with 'exemplary school processes and practices'), among other awards. It was a member of

Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia The Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia (abbreviated as AGSA) is a non-profit organisation that promotes the education of girls in single-sex girls' schools, and promotes the image of, and support the development of, girls' schools in Australa ...

History

Before RGS became a school in its own right, it existed as a section of

(RI). The precursor to RGS opened in the RI campus of

Bras Basah Road Bras Basah Road () is a one-way road in Singapore in the planning areas of Museum and Downtown Core. The road starts at the junction of Orchard Road and Handy Road, at the ERP gantry towards the Central Business District, and ends at the junc ...

on 4 March 1844 with 11 students, five day-scholars and six boarders, who were clothed, fed and instructed by the RI management. The demand for education grew and in 1847, the school moved to RI's eastern wing, extending towards Bras Basah Road.

Edmund Augustus Blundell Edmund Augustus Blundell (8 August 1804 – 12 October 1868) was a British Colonial administrator. History Born 8 August 1804 in Taunton, Somerset, England, the son of William Blundell & Mary Ann Horniblow. He joined East India Company as a w ...

, the Governor of the Straits Settlement, described the school as "a female school designed for the education and religious training of the children of poor

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

parents" in 1855. In 1871, the school moved into a house, the George Family's Old Mansion at the corner of Bras Basah Road. In 1879, the school separated from RI and M. Nelson was appointed the school's first headmistress. Together with three assistants, she ran the school which had an enrolment of 77. Since then, 1879 has been officially regarded as the year of the founding of RGS. On 21 October 2019, RGS moved from Anderson Road, where it had been located since 1959, to its new campus at Braddell Rise, located opposite RI.

School culture and identity

Uniform

The usual school uniform is a belted, deep blue pinafore and a white collared blouse. Students customarily fold their sleeves on most shirts (except PE shirt), which also requires a colour-coded nametag (colours Black/Green (green as of 2019) Blue, Red and Yellow inherited by first-year batch to graduating batch respectively), along with the school badge, on the top left of the uniform, right below the name tag. There are also school culottes, worn with the PE shirt.

Awards and accolades

A group of four students from RGS emerged Champion at the Kids' Lit Quiz 2018, and represented Singapore in New Zealand in July that year. Joseph Toh Kim Leng won the Teaching Award in 2016, which honours outstanding teachers of English language, English literature and General Paper in Singapore. Jodie Lai, a 2015 Optimist World Championships Under-15 champion, was conferred the title of Best Sportsgirl for sailing at the 46th Singapore Schools Sports Council (SSSC) Colours Awards in 2016. Veronica Shen won the Queen's Commonwealth Essay Competition in the Junior Category in 2019 with her poem entitled 'Lost'. Earlier, Amanda Chong also won the Queen's Commonwealth Essay Competition in 2004.

Notable alumnae

* Ang Swee Chai, orthopaedic surgeon and co-founder of

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, singer and actress * Beatrice Chia, actress and director *

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, singer, actress and television host *

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, former member of parliament for

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, playwright best known for her play "

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" *

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, first female medical practitioner in Singapore * Jane Lee, first woman from Southeast Asia to scale the

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* Lee Tzu Pheng, award-winning poet * Lim Hwee Hua, first female Cabinet minister in Singapore *

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, first female judge in the Court of Appeal * Quah Ting Wen, national swimmer * Rahayu Mahzam, member of parliament for Jurong GRC *

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, member of parliament for Holland-Bukit Timah GRC * Siow Lee Chin, violinist *

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, singer-songwriter * Leaena Tambyah, founder of Singapore's first school for children with multiple disabilities *

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* Margaret Leng Tan, pianist *

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, nanotechnology scientist * Emma Yong, actress * Zhang Jingna, photographer and

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Asia honoree

References

External links

Raffles Girls' School (Secondary) website

Raffles Institution website

Raffles Institution (Secondary)

Raffles Institution (Junior College)

Raffles Programme website
{{Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia schools, state=collapsed
Secondary schools in Singapore Independent schools in Singapore Schools offering Integrated Programme in Singapore Educational institutions established in 1879 Orchard, Singapore Girls' schools in Singapore Schools in Central Region, Singapore 1879 establishments in Singapore