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 Ms Tan Siok Cheng in 1999. Ms Tan Siok Cheng retired at the end of 2008 and was succeeded by Mrs Yue Yoke Mun.
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 two sessions. Primary One and Two students study during the afternoon session, while other students study during the morning session.
Read more about this topic: Raffles Girls' Primary School
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