Yishun Town Secondary School

Yishun Town Secondary School 毅道中学 (yì dào zhōng xúe) Sekolah Menengah Yishun Town
File:Ytss logo.png
Location
Yishun
Coordinates	1°25′57.46″N 103°50′15.85″E
Information
Type	Government, Autonomous
Motto	We Will Excel
Established	1986
Session	Single
School code	3045
Principal	Mrs Tan Chuen Yin
Enrolment	Approx. 1,200
Colour(s)	Blue, yellow
Website	[1]

Yishun Town Secondary School (abbreviation: YTSS) is an autonomous government secondary school in Yishun, Singapore. The students are referred to as YTzens.

Motto

We will Excel.

School logo

The school logo incorporates the letter Y. It stands for the town Yishun and for its youthfulness, with a zeal to forge forward to face the challenges of the new millennium. The four arrows represent the development of the heart, body, mind and soul. The circle symbolises the goal of a well-rounded pupil. The blue background represents a peaceful school atmosphere. Yellow arrows and circle represent the vibrancy of the school's endeavours.

School Song

Together in work and in play

In all our endeavours

Forward we shall go

With a zeal to learn

An eagerness to serve and a tenacity

Of purpose

Show our love and loyalty

To country and school

Let's aspire to greater goals

In all that we do

Chorus: Onward, onward we shall go Yishun Town will excel (2x)

School Rally

Come my brothers and sisters of Yishun Town With one voice, oh let us sing To keep our flag and colours flying high We pledge to make this our destiny

Though the storms and trials of life may come

As we strive towards our goals See the light of our spirit shine through We'll excel in heart, body, mind and soul

Yishun Town, let this be our gift to you As we stand tall to face the challenge Let all around us hear our cry as we shout

We will excel We will excel

Transport

File:Ytss facade.jpg

The entrance of the holding school in Sembawang (2006-2007)

The campus is located at Yishun Street 21. The nearest MRT station is Yishun, a five minute walk to the school.

PRIME

The old school hall (1986-2005)

In December 2005, YTSS was relocated to a holding premises in Sembawang due to PRIME (Programme for Rebuilding and IMproving Existing schools). The upgrading is complete, and YTSS moved back to its premises in November 2007, in time for the 2008 academic year.

Notable achievements

2005

The school achieved the following awards from the Ministry of Education:

Sustained Achievement Award

• Academic Value-Added (Normal Stream)
• Uniformed Groups

Achievement Award

• Gold Award for Academic Value-addedness in Normal Stream
• Gold Award for Trim and Fitness Programme

YTSS is national championSHIP in the following:

• 46th National InterSCHOOL

Chess Competition (Secondary Girls Category

)

• 1st National Interschool

B logging Championship (Most Popular Blog)

2006

The Information Technology Club was second in the National Mobile Robot Competition. This was the first national award the club had received since its inception in 1998. However, this proved to be a swansong for the 9-year old IT Club, for it was merged with two other CCAs to form the Infocomm Society the following year.

The boy's Volleyball team reached the regional finals in both age groups (Divisions B and C), losing to regional winners Xinmin Secondary School in both matches, both by one set to two. However, in the North Zone Basketball Girls 'C' Division championships, Yishun Town were the eventual champions.

The school sent 610 members to enter The New Paper's Big Walk 2006, an annual walkathon event in Singapore, the biggest ever contingent sent by a school in Singapore.

There also have been successes in the Air Rifle as well as the Chess teams. The 'B' and 'C' Division Air Rifle Girls got into National 2nd and 3rd places respectively, while the Air Rifle Boys and Air Pistol teams received national rankings, most of which in the top 10. The Girls team in Chess received National 2nd, with their top-scoring individuals earning National 7th and 8th places. In the National Inter-school Athletes championships (even though the school does not have an official CCA that is related to Athletics) the school won a bronze medal in the Shot Put 'C' Boys category.

Also in 2006, the school received a Sustained Achievement Award in Academics. The school had maintained in the Top 30 schools in the Express Stream for four consecutive years, as well as being in the top-banded school for the Normal Stream for three consecutive years. SJAB, Girl Guides, NCC and The Boys' Brigade maintained their Gold Awards, and the NPCC, Silver. For the year 2006, NPCC achieved its highly coveted gold (after a period where they maintained as a silver unit). The school has been given another Sustained Achievement Award for the Uniform Groups category.

2007

The ex-principal of Yishun Town, Mr. Tan Teck Hock, is now the principal of Serangoon Junior College. Here he introduced painful and unpopular measures, such as the toughening of the school discipline, as well as the introduction of the afternoon lessons. He transformed the school from one with a bad reputation, troubled with hooliganism and bad academic performance back in the late 1990s, to the much improved school it is today.

2008

The school was the only school in Singapore to win all six Sustained Achievement awards, as announced by principal Tan Yee Kan on 22 September.

2009

YTSS celebrated its 23rd Speech Day together with its official school opening. The event was named as 'Speech Day cum Official Opening '09'. The event was opened by Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee, Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs and Member of Parliament of Nee Soon East Constitiuency. Accompanying him was Director Of Schools (North Zone) and other distinguished guests. .

2011

YTSS will be celebrating its 25th anniversary on the ‎9 Jul 2011 Saturday. The committee proposed the theme “25:00 - We Will Excel” The 25:00 is a symbol of the 24hr timing, an hour after 24:00, to represent the future. The 25 represents 25 years in history. We have chosen the theme of “We will excel” as that of the school motto. This allows us to go back to the very basics of our vision that made the school what it is today and serves as a reminder for the Ytzens to continue to strive for excellence. There are 2 main foci in the theme. The celebration of 25 years of founding is an opportunity for the school to take stock of our achievements and to look forward into the future. The key focus for Speech Day is that this should be a celebratory event for the students to celebrate the school’s success and achievements. The school NPCC unit has also attained the 5 years consecutive gold award, aka Outstanding Achievement Award.

Student leadership

There is a Student Council, and a group of CCA Leaders and Monitors board, formerly known as the Honorary Student Council.

Student council

File:Ytss sc.jpg

The logo of the student council in YTSS

Renamed from the Prefectural Board in 1999, the Student Council (SC) are student leaders serving teachers and students. Chosen by the recommendation of teachers at the Secondary 1 level, they are nurtured into Student Leaders come Secondary 3. They help run the school.

Since July 2006, there has been a school-wide presidential election to decide the run-off between two council candidates. The elected president will assume its position during the council investiture.

List of student council chairpersons

Principal	Year
Lim Yam Meng	1986–1995
Ooi Cheng Hock	1995–1999
Tan Teck Hock	1999–2005
Tan Yee Kan	2005–2011
Ng Chuen- Yin	2011 -2012

Year	Order	President	CCA	Vice-President/s	CCA
1999-2000	1st	Ronnie Shu	Boys' Brigade	Quek Wee Boon	NPCC
2000-01	2nd	Lou Shi Nee	Basketball	Kenneth Chew	Boys' Brigade
2001-02	3rd	Sin Hui Zheng	St. John	Nur Dayana	NCC (Sea)*
2002-03	4th	Lim Mei Esther	Band	Arivinthan Ahwahday	NPCC
2003-04	5th	Tan Hseng Ho, Gabriel	Boy's Brigade	Pang Jia Khee	Girl Guides
2004-05	6th	Ong Eng Wu	NCC (Land)	Noradilah Wasani	School Band
2005-06	7th	Nikita Sharda	Basketball	Tong Zhi Hao Jeremy	NCC (Land)
				Apoorva	NPCC
2006-07	8th	Kevin Peh	NCC (Land)	Mendoza Ethel Nicol	Basketball
				Pang Zhuang Yi	NPCC
2007-08	9th	Shubaashini	Library	Samantha	NPCC
				Ken Seah	Boys Brigade
2008-09	10th	Ng Shi Wei	Boys Brigade	Ho Hui Sze	Choir
				Shammini Gunasegaran	Choir
2009-10	11th	Wong Jia Hui	Basketball	Timothy John	Boys Brigade
				Khoo Ai Hui, Amanda	NPCC
2010-11	12th	Sherrin Pok	Infocomm Club	Murni Marisa	Girl Guides
2011-12	13th	Marcus Khoo	Choir	Lye Ji Kang	Boys Brigade
				Alicia Soh	Basketball

*Footnotes:

• NCC (Sea) has been disbanded since 2003.

Honorary student council

The Honorary Student Council Board (HSC) was established in January 2002. CCA Leaders and Lead Monitors are invited to join midway through their third year (it was the start of the fourth year during the first two batches of HSC). These students are members of the HSC for a term lasting 12 months. They assume membership positions from their seniors on 1 July. However, unlike the Student Council, the selection for the President is not known until late August.

The HSC was dissolved in mid-2007. In place a group of CCA Leaders and Monitors was formed.

List of honorary council chairpersons

Year	Order	President	CCA	Vice-President	CCA
2002	1st	fill in	fill in	fill in	fill in
2003	2nd	fill in	fill in	fill in	fill in
2003-04	3rd			fill in	fill in
2004-05	4th	Tan Yue Kiat	IT Club*	Nur Ashiqin	Choir
2005-06	5th	Zhang Xing Long	Volleyball	Chan Shu Min	Chinese Dance
2006-07	6th	Gerard Loh	NCC (Land)	Lim Yi Ling	Basketball
2007-08	7th	Tan Chin Rong	NCC (Land)	Derrick Lim Sheng Hui	NCC (Land)

*Footnotes:

• Now known as the Infocomm Club.

Culture and distinctives

The old school building and its facade (1986-2005)

In between the upper and lower secondary classroom blocks in the holding campus.(2006-2007)

The courtyard of the new school campus (2008-onwards)

Outdoor eEducation

Students join at least an adventure camp, and an outdoor enrichment activity. They can also take part in other activities such as overseas field trips. The Sec 3 camp is held every year, and since 2007, have been held at Kahang Organic Rice Farm, Malaysia.

Yishun Town students have gone to places includingd Lijiang (of Yunnan, China), Auckland, Perth, Sabah and Mount Kinabalu (both in east Malaysia). They once also held overseas leadership camps in Peninsular Malaysia.

Values inculcation program (VIP)

This program was formed in 2005 as a result of an integration between Pastoral Care (PC) and Civics and Moral Education (CME) [2]. The aim of the VIP is quite similar to both the PC and CME lessons once held before the integration. That is to enable the students to make well and informed choices, as well as to become responsible and moral citizens that could contribute to the society. The VIP Program is compulsory for all students.

Innovation and Enterprise (I&E)

An initiative (Innovative, Daring, Enterprising and Achievable Suggestions, or IDEAS) allows students to generate, develop and implement new and innovative ideas on school-related issues. Awards are given to recognise students who have come up with innovative ideas that benefit the school. The I&E program is offered to all students in YTSS. [3]

Creative Skills Inquiry (CSI)

CSI provides students with the opportunities to develop the spirit of inquiry, to be critical and creative. It requires students to work in teams, see interconnections between the different disciplines, undertake research and to present their findings innovatively and confidently. This program is offered to students when they are in the Lower Secondary levels. [4]

Learning Styles

Learning styles was introduced 2007, by principal Tan Yee Kan, as the upper secondary equivalent of the CSI programme. Its teaches the Dunn and Dunn Learning Styles system, in which students are taught how to use their learning style to study in the most efficient manner. The trainings are typically held during curriculum time, over a two day period, and are conducted by Teo Yew Chye. The trainer is known to incorporate martial arts into the lessons to enhance it.

Houses

The houses of Yishun Town were created in 1999. They are operational only for track-and-field competitions (previously the track-and-field competitions were inter-class)

• Vinson (green)
• Bromo (blue)
• Everest (yellow)
• Etna (red)

They are names of mountains (Vinson and Everest) and volcanoes (Bromo and Etna). Vinson has won the school-based track and field competitions 3 years in a row (2002–2004), until Bromo ended its run in 2005. Etna won in 2006. However, principal Tan Yee Kan ended the use of houses in 2007 and introduced an annual cross country run. The run is held at Sembawang Park.

Other Programmes and activities

Programmes includes the annual Speech day, Drama-In-Curriculum Programme, Beyond Classroom Day and Community Heart Day. Besides, overseas field trips are held annually. One of the few special programmes would be the production by the Drama Club in 2008, named 'Twisted'.

Notable alumni

• Kelly Poon, female winner of MediaCorp TV Channel U's Project SuperStar
• Hazlina Halim, newscaster and television presenter at MediaCorp Suria who is also a radio deejay at MediaCorp Ria 89.7 FM

Sister schools

• Zhu Hai Experimental High School, Zhu Hai City, Guangdong, China (珠海市实验中学)
• Jinan No.19 Middle School, Jinan, Shandong, China (山东济南市第十九中学)