River Valley High School, Singapore

Template:Infobox Singapore School River Valley High School (RVHS) is a secondary school in Singapore which has, in recent years, been consistently ranked among the top secondary schools in Singapore, like Hall High School and Northwest Catholic High(both in West Hartford Connecticut, USA), in terms of academic results.

History

Founded in 1956, it was initially known as the Singapore Government Chinese Middle School and was the first Chinese secondary school set up by the government. It was later renamed Queenstown Government Chinese Middle School, then River Valley Government Chinese Middle School and finally as River Valley High School. It admitted its first batch of English stream pupils when it was selected as one of the nine Special Assistance Plan (SAP) schools in 1979. It became a single session school in 1993 and was among the first six schools to assume autonomous status in 1994. The school was recognised with many awards since 2001. River Valley High School was the first school in Singapore to achieve the Singapore Quality Class in 2001. Starting from 2006, the school will offer the River Valley Integrated Programme (RVIP), where pupils do not take the GCE 'O' Level Examinations and go on straight to prepare for the GCE 'A' Levels Examinations.

Since its establishment, River Valley High School has had seven principals, including the current one. They are:

Mr Sun Yi-Chern 孙一尘 (1956-1960)
Mr Lim Hui Eng 林惠瀛 (1960-1962)
Mr Wong Cheong Chie 王昌稚 (1962-1964)
Mr Wong Bing Chie 王炳绩 (1964-1974)
Mdm Leong Fan Chin 梁环清 (1974-1993)
Mr Tham Tuck Meng 谭德明 (1993-2003)
Ms Ek Soo Ben 易素雯 (2003-)

In recent years, the school has had very strong leaders who had helped chart the directions for the 21st century. Mdm Leong was the first of the leaders who put the school firmly on the excellence track. The school has a special fund named after her to help needy pupils. Mr Tham Tuck Meng (Principal), Miss Ek Soo Ben (Principal and Vice Principal) and Mr Martin Koh (Vice Principal) were instrumental in moulding the school as an outstanding institution in the first decade of the 21st century. All three principals were presented the RV Award of Excellence (Leadership), the highest award that the school can present to recognise excellence.

School Song

The River Valley High School school song is one of the few Chinese school songs left in Singapore. It represents the heritage of the school and the aspirations of the founders' hopes in educating the next generation. Student are reminded to bring glory to the school through excellence in both academics and behaviour.

It is from this song that the school motto, 立德立功化愚化顽, came about.

Lyrics of the school song:

海云漫漫碧波荡荡赤道绿洲有我学堂

春风化雨桃李成行立德立功化愚化顽

愿我学子勿忘勿忘他日我校光芒万丈

与日月争光兮与天地共久长

Location

The school is now situated in a holding site at the former Saint Andrew's Junior College campus at Malan Road. It will be situated there for a few years until the construction of their permanent compound in Boon Lay is completed. This will approximately take about 4-5 years, and be ready around the year 2010. The Boon Lay compound will be large enough to house six cohorts of students.

School crest

Red: symbolises radiance, progress and vitality
Blue: symbolises steadfastness, graciousness and serenity
White: symbolises purity and receptiveness to innovation

School philosophy

With the vision of being A Community Of Achievers: Rooted in Tradition, Equipped for the Future(根扎传统，开创未来) and its motto of We shall uphold virtues and contribute to society. Through personal growth, we shall guide others in the quest for knowledge and wisdom.(立德立功，化愚化顽)，it strongly believes that all students should be developed holistically so as to be great assets to the society. It has thus been promoting holistic development programmes to its students, through 5 aspects: Cognitive, Leadership, Aesthetic, Physical and Social.

Holistic development

Cognitive: Activities include its Science Niche Programme and Mathematics Talent Programme.

Leadership: The school has been promoting youth-leadership actively through the setting up of the Student Council (established since 1980), CCA Leaders Team, Class Chairpersons Committee, the Peer Support Leaders Programme (set up in 2006), and the prestigious Scholar-Leaders Programme.

Aesthetic: The school had launched its Arts Niche Programme on 14th January 2004 during its big-scale event, Cultural Night, held at Kallang Theatre. Active steps have been taken to develop students an appreciation of the aesthetics through exposure and experience, such as through its notable SYF-high achieving performing arts groups and assemblies like performances from The Tang Quartet and even activities organised by the Student Council, such as Talentime and Arts Festival.

Physical: There are a number of activities organised annually, such as the Sports Camp (for the CCA-Sports group), Secondary 3 Adventure Camp, Outward Bound School Courses (OBS) and on a smaller scale, Secondary 2 Team-Building Day, with its aim more focused on letting the secondary 2 pupils know their schoolmates better before being streamed to different classes in Upper Secondary. In addition, overseas expeditions, such as trips to Mount Kinabalu, were planned by the PE Department, to let students be involved in physically-challenging activities.

Social: The school has been encouraging the spirit of volunteerism so that at the end, its pupils will have a better idea about how they can contribute to society and in turn, inspire and lead others to serve our country and the community. The River Valley Big Hearts Award was launched to recognise students who are outstanding in community work. As well, the Interact Club was set up to promote volunteerism in the school. Furthermore, pupils are expected to initiate their own community service projects (as a CCA, class or individual) as part of independent learning and personal growth.

Academics

River Valley High School have always been among the top performers in Singapore in the General Cambridge Examinations O Levels. Its niche has always been the sciences and mathematics-related subjects. For the class of 2004, River Valley High School achieved a Mean Student Grade of 9.6, placing it at its height for the past ten years.

Starting from 2006, River Valley High School will start offering the 6-year Integrated Programme, allowing its students to take the GCE 'A' level examinations at the end their sixth year in the school. It is also set to offer the Bicultural Studies Programme (Chinese), joining Dunman High School, Hwa Chong Institution and Nanyang Girls' High School. This programme will groom students with a good foundation in Chinese language, history and culture, and an understanding of contemporary China.

Co-curricular activities

River Valley High School excels in all aspects of its co-curricular activities. It has achieved the Sustained Achievement Award in three areas: Physical Fitness, Aesthetics and Uniformed Groups. RV is a school which is traditionally strong in performing arts. For the past 10 years, all the four performing arts groups, namely the Chinese orchestra, choir, concert band and dance society had been well acclaimed and established as one of the primes in their respecitive fields locally. Recently, these groups have also started to expand internationally, taking part in several international programmes and competition, spreading the name of RV far and wide. Students involved in these four groups show great commitment and excellence in their field of expertise. The four cultural groups has also consistently achieved the gold award at the Singapore Youth Festival competition throughout the years. The importance of performing arts in RV is so much so that it is one of the important pillars of supporting RV's name.

The uniformed groups have also been an integral part of RV. The uniformed groups form parades in school for important events such as the annual speech day. They had also been well recognised in the cluster as being among the permier uniformed groups around the west area. The uniformed groups have been contributing many awards and accolades to the school, often bring along with them fame and honour.

The sports in RV is still in its infant state, though there is much effort put in in the past 2 years to promote it. Given enough time, it is believed that the sports will eventually excel in the many competition that they participate in.

Clubs and societies

Chinese Language Drama and Debate Society (CLDDS)
Infocomm Club
English Language Drama and Debate Society (ELDDS)
Interact Club
Mind Sports Club

Performing Arts

Chinese Orchestra
Choir
Concert Band
Dance Society
String Ensemble

Sports and games

Athletics
Badminton
Basketball
Netball
Table Tennis
Volleyball (Initiated in 2006)
Wushu

Uniformed groups

Notable alumni

Hee En Hua (Popular Singaporean comic artist)
Sherwayn Tan (President's Scholar 2004)
Kym Ng (Singapore MediaCorp TV Actress)
Wendy Cheng (Singaporean celebrity blogger, Xiaxue)
Lim Tee Heong (Singaporean composer based in Australia)
Jiu Jian (Radio Heart FM100.3 presenter)
Ng Yu-ying (First Violinist in the T'ang Quartet)
Chang Hwee Nee (President's Scholar 1981)
Choo Wee Khiang (Politician)
Marcus Chin (TV Host/Actor)
Kong Yee Seng (Malaysian Brick Magnate)
Chang Hwee Nee (Deputy Secretary,Policy, MOE)
Sharon Au (popular tv celebrity)
Kaira Gong (National Day 2006 singer)

External links