St. Gabriel's Secondary School

St. Gabriel's Secondary School ("SGSS" or colloquially "St. Gabs") is an all-boys government-aided Roman Catholic secondary school at 24 Serangoon Avenue in Serangoon, Singapore. The school is affiliated to St. Gabriel's Primary School and Catholic Junior College and is one of 7 Gabrielite schools in Singapore.[1] Classes are provided in the Express, Normal Academic and Normal Technical streams.

The principal of St. Gabriel's Secondary School is Mr Marcel Lee and its vice-principals are Miss Jackie Cheng and Mr Anith Kumar S/O Nadesan.[2]

The nearest MRT station is Serangoon.

The school's mission is "Shaping lives for Service to God and Nation".

History

St Gabriel's School opened on 3 June 1953 (costing $175,000 with a government contribution of $71,000) at the junction of Hillside Drive and Upper Serangoon Road. Under the supervision of Rev Bro Louis Gonzaga (Founder) and seven pioneer teachers, the school accepted 212 pupils for its first intake, consisting of only five classes: two of Primary 1, one each of Pri­mary 2, Standard 1 and Standard 2. The school was officially declared open on 13 December 1953 by the then Bishop of the Diocese of Singapore and Malacca, Mgr Michael Olcomendy. In 1954, Brother Elzear became the school's first full-time director (Principal).

Brother Louis Gonzaga took over as director in 1955 and Brother Elzear left to take over management of Parish School in Johore Bahru, Malaysia. In 1958, under the supervision of Brother Camillus, the afternoon session began functioning on its own. Brother Raymond was made director. This year also marks the publication of the first St. Gabriel's School Annual (Magazine).

In 1959, the school had its first Secondary Four class, thus attaining the status of a full school. Under the leadership of Brother Adolphus, the class sat for the Overseas School Certificate Examinations (Cambridge) and achieved a high passing rate of 90%.

Brother Emmanuel took over the reins in 1961. Mr Leo Remedios and Mr Paul Lee became first two senior assistants of the school. 1961 also marked the formation of St. Gabriel's Old Boys' Association. Brother Noel became director in 1963.

By 1968, St. Gabriel's School had a total of 47 classes for both the morning and afternoon sessions, with an enrolment of 2,000 students. The school was reaching its available capacity. To solve this problem, the primary section of the school was relocated to a new building on Highland Road on 2 January 1969 and officially declared open on 12 July 1969, hence the creation of two separate schools, St. Gabriel's Primary School and St. Gabriel's Secondary School.

With the establishment of the Primary School, the Secondary School was reorganised, with a shift in emphasis towards technical education. Some premises were converted into machine and electrical workshops to cater to the needs of pupils of SGSS and three neighbouring schools. Brother Emmanuel took over the reins again in 1969 following the sudden death of Brother Noel. Leadership was passed on to Brother Edmund James in 1974 and Mr Peter Tan was appointed Senior Assistant of the school.

The Brothers of St. Gabriel's were at the helm of the school for 30 years (1953–1983) before the leadership was passed on to lay principals in 1984. In line with Ministry of Education's guidelines, the school went single-session in 1986. The school had its first and only female principal, Mrs Ng Peng Hock, in 1990.

In May 1992, St. Gabriel's moved to its current premises at Serangoon Ave 1 and was officially opened in August 1993. At present, the school teaches the default GCE 'O' and 'N' Level syllabus as outlined by the Ministry of Education.[3]

Academic achievements

An early example of academic success for St Gabriel's came in 1970 when the school attained 71% passes in the Senior Cambridge examination results.[4]

St. Gabriel's School produced its first President's Scholar in 1978 (Dr. Ramani, graduated 1975). The school has its second President's Scholar, Francis Chong, in 1989.[5]

In the 2009 National Secondary School Rankings, St. Gabriel's Secondary School was ranked a Band 3 and 8 (Normal and Express respectively). The school was also awarded the Achievement Award for Academic Value-Added in years 2007-2009[6] and Sustained Achievement Award for Uniformed Group, Aesthetics and Sports in years 2008-2009.[7]

The school has also met the requirements for the Singapore Quality Class (SQC) for business excellence with effect from 31 January 2008.

Since 1998, St. Gabriel's has achieved the Academic Value-Added Award for the O-Level Examinations. It has also received the Sustained Achievement Awards for Uniformed Groups since 2002.[8]

Music

The school has been noted for its band (now called the Concert Band), which was giving public performances as long ago as 1969.[9] In 1971 the band was one of three from Singapore to win a competition to perform in Kuala Lumpur to promote goodwill between Singapore and Malaysia.[10] [11] It undertook another tour of Malaysia in 1981.[12]

The band won a Gold at the Singapore Youth Festival (SYF) in 1999, 2007 and 2009.[13]

The school choir won a Gold in the SYF in 2011.[14]

Uniform and discipline

St. Gabriel's students wear white shirts, with dark blue short trousers in Secondary 1 and 2, and dark blue long trousers in Secondary 3, 4 and 5. School ties must be worn on Mondays.

For significant breaches of school discipline, the standard consequence is corporal punishment. Students receive caning, preceded and followed by counselling; parents are informed.(page 7) Students who are late to school for a sixth time in one term are automatically given two strokes of the cane.page 8 Students are also caned for truancy, fighting, skipping class, smoking and disrespect. Most caning recipients are upper secondary students, aged 15 or 16.

The strokes are administered across the seat of the offender's trousers; normally the punishment is meted out privately in the school office but sometimes it is given in front of the offender's classmates. In very rare serious cases it can be done in front of the whole school. Usually, either one or two hard strokes will be sufficient to provide a salutary lesson but there may be more if necessary (the legal maximum is six). After emptying his back pocket, the offender bends over at 90 degrees with his hands on the seat of a chair, with his feet wide apart for stability, so that his buttocks are prominently presented for safe punishment with the trouser cloth smoothed across the target area.

Caning is typically carried out by the Discipline Master or the Operations Manager who are both experienced in applying the cane hard and accurately. A 4ft long rattan is used.

Brother Emmanuel, principal of St Gabriel's from 1961 to 1963 and again from 1969 to 1974, has been described by the Catholic News as "a disciplinarian whose cane has graced the backsides of many boys". He is quoted as saying that many of those he caned have told him of the need for the discipline they received from him. In his view, the punishment must be a careful, considered ceremony: "No one should ever cane a boy on impulse", he said.[15] As of 2012, at age 78, Bro. Emmanuel is still on the school's Management Committee as Supervisor.[16]

In 1970, seven or eight boys were found to be smoking ganga (cannabis), but the problem was stamped out with counselling, guidance and warnings, according to the then principal.[17]