Red Swastika School - History

History

Red Swastika School started with eight classes in a wooden building and a staff of ten under the Principal, Mr Chuang Shih Ie. The school was relocated to Bedok North Avenue 3 to make way for the development of Changi area.

Grown from an initial student population of 300 in the founding year to about 2200 presently, Red Swastika School, as a choice school in the east of Singapore, owes much to the dedication, understanding and support of dedicated school management, staff, parents and pupils.

The Red Swastika School was founded by the World Red Swastika Society (Singapore Administration Centre), a religious and charitable organization. As an extension of its charitable mandate and to achieve the noble objective of transforming people through education, the Society built a school on a site at Somapah Road in Changi. The over three acres piece of land was donated by the then President of the Society, Mr Quek Shin, who saw the need to provide free primary education for the poor and to aid in the promotion of education in the outlying areas. Originally known as "Wan Tzu School", the school was later renamed "Red Swastika School". The foundation stone was laid at the school opening ceremony on 13th January 1951.

During its first 31 years from 1951 to 1981, Mr Chuang Shih Ie, the pioneer principal, transformed the school from a wooden single-storey building with six classrooms at Somapah into a well-equipped school with modern facilities at the present site at Bedok North Avenue 3 in 1981.

Mr Wong Sin Eng, the school's second principal, took charge of the school in 1982. He continued to expand the infrastructure and develop other programmes to meet the demands of the evolving educational curriculum. As good progress was made over the years, the school was selected as one of six primary schools to pilot the use of both Chinese and English as the medium of instruction in 1987. In 1990, it became a Special Assistance Plan (SAP) School.

When Mr Wong Sin Eng retired in 1994, Mr Chia Tai Ching, took over the reins and continued the good work. A new three-storey extension building was completed in 1997, with a large hall, a three-storey building, a resource library, advance computer laboratories and comfortable teachers' common room. In addition to academic excellence, the school looked into the development of good character in pupils and also in Information Technology. As the school grew, the need to improve communication with the parents and to strengthen ties with former pupils led to the formation for the RSS Parent -Teacher Association in 1997 and the Alumni Association in 1998. Mr Chia retired in Dec 2001 and was succeeded by Mr Ong Kian Hin in 2002. The school increased its CCA offerings to promote more platforms for holistic pupil development. The school underwent further infrastructural development and the restructured school building was officially opened in 2007 before Mr Ong retired in Dec 2007. 2007 also saw the school achieving 3 Sustained Achievement Awards, in the areas of Physical Fitness, Sports and Aesthetics.

Mr Chua Ying Hwee took over as the school's fifth Principal from 2008 to 2010. During his leadership, through strategic review and execution, the school continued to progress remarkably in academic excellence. It also forged stronger ties for better school-home collaborations, and established a pupil talent management and leadership development programme to develop holistic excellence in pupils. The school's internationalization efforts also became the flagship programme with 5 key partners schools in China. By introducing social constructivism through the implementation of effective knowledge management, action learning, sense-making, Xingzhi culture, and the design of progressive integrated learning infrastructures, the school made a quantum leap during its external validation by MOE and is set to meet the demands of the 21st century. During this period, Mrs Jenny Leong served alongside Mr Chua Ying Hwee as the Vice-Principal. In 2011, she took over as the school's sixth Principal.