Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' School (Secondary)

Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' School (Secondary)
巴耶利峇美以美女子中学

Look Up, Lift Up
Location
Hougang
Information
Type Government-Aided, Secondary
Established 1916
Session Single Girls
School code 7026
Principal Mrs Quek Li Gek
Enrolment Approx. 1,350
Colour(s) Blue, red, gold
Website Link

Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' School (Secondary) (abbreviation: PLMGSS) is an all-girls school located in Hougang, Singapore, running on a single-session catering to students in the Express, Normal Academic and Normal Technical streams. Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School (Primary) and Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School (Secondary) celebrate their rich heritage of 100 years in 2016. From the school’s early humble beginnings of being a small school of just 24 students in 1900s, the school has become a school of choice, with the Primary and Secondary schools together offering a holistic education to over 3000 students. Since 1995, PLMGS (Sec) has been offering Higher Mother Tongue languages and specialised deep-learning programmes in Maths, Science and Aesthetics to her students. There are over 100 staff, approximately 60% of them are Christiansand 25% of the staff are Alumni of the school.

The current Principal, Mrs Quek Li Gek is an alumnus of Paya Lebar Methodist Girls School. Mrs Quek started her career as a Teacher in Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ Secondary School. She then worked in the Curriculum Planning and Development Division in MOE, and served in various leadership positions in Compassvale Secondary School and in St Andrew’s Junior College. Before she joined PLMGSS, she was the Assistant Director of the Guidance Branch in the Student Development Curriculum Division, Ministry of Education.

History

On 31 October 1916, the Secretary of the Methodist Episcopal Building and Location Board purchased a piece of land with an area of 93,000 sq ft (8,600 m2) in the district of Amokiah and started the school known as Paya Lebar School. This was the beginning of Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' School .

It was started as a branch of the Anglo-Chinese School with the name Paya Lebar English School. The first headmaster was Mr. Robert Hanam. It began in 1917 with a staff of three and a pupil enrollment of 24 boys. In 1918, it began taking in girls. It was an elementary school providing education up to Primary 4.

In 1935, Mrs Chew Hock Hin became Principal. She is regarded as founder because she was founder of the Girls' School and reorganised the school with help from the American Crusade Fund. The school after World War II was co-ed with the boys in the PM Session and the girls in the AM Session. It became a government-aided school in 1949 when still a primary school. In 1954, the school presented its first batch of School Certificate girls who scored 100%.

In 1986, Paya Lebar MGS made its move from Boundary Road to the present campus along Lorong Ah Soo. The year also saw the creation of two schools, Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' School (Primary) and PLMGSS.

In January 2005, PLMGS (Sec) moved out to a holding site when it started its redevelopment project under PRIME 6.

On 3 January 2007, it moved back to its upgraded premises at Lorong Ah Soo and the school was officially reopened by Minister Teo Chee Hean in October 2007. In 2006, PLMGS (Sec) received the School Distinction Award (SDA). In 2012, the school has won the School Excellence Award (SEA). This pinnacle award in the MOE Masterplan of Awards is given only to a select number of schools which have attained excellence in both education processes and outcomes. It is given to schools who distinguished themselves in having achieved overall systemic excellence in providing holistic education. It is the highest and most prestigious award in the Ministry of Education Masterplan of Awards framework.

Co-curricular activities

Co-curricular activities are a large feature of the school life for every girl. Each girl is developed holistically in the CCA she chooses to excel in. The CCA can be in the field of performing arts, sports, uniform group or a club/society. Girls with special aptitude are given opportunities to participate in enrichment and competitions to challenge the status quo to stretch their learning.

The school has 9 performing arts groups, namely: Band, Choir, Harp Ensemble, Chinese Drama, Dance, English Drama, Guitar, Guzheng Ensemble and Handbell Ensemble. All the performing arts groups have achieved at least a silver in the past few Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging Competitions. With sustained achievement in the Aesthetics, the school has been selected to be the East Zone's Centre of Excellence (COE) for the Performing Arts.

PLMGS (Sec) received the pinnacle BLAZE award in the 2015 National Arts Education Award. This award recognised the school for

The school has 3 Uniform Groups (UGs) - The Girls' Brigade, the National Police Cadet Corps and the St John's Brigade. All the UGs develop programs to engage the girls and to help them build character and leadership.

The school has 6 Sports teams that participates actively in the annual National Schools Games. They are Badminton, Table Tennis, Swimming, Track & Field, Volleyball, and Netball. In the Inter-School Badminton Zonal Competition 2015, the team emerged 3rd in the ‘C’ Division and ‘B’ Division. In the Inter-School Table Tennis Zonal Competition 2015, the team emerged 4th in the ‘B’ division.

Affiliation

The school is affiliated with Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' School (Primary) (PLMGPS), giving PLMGPS students priority for admission. PLMGSS is also religiously affiliated to the Methodist Church in Singapore and other Methodist Schools in Singapore including: Methodist Girls' School, Anglo-Chinese School, Fairfield Methodist Secondary School and Geylang Methodist Secondary School.


Notable alumni

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/26/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.