Our History
About Us
Our History
ST. JOHN BAPTIST DE LA SALLE
The primary school building was completed in 1952. It was equipped with furniture from SJI. The school was named after the Founder of the Christian Brothers Schools, St John Baptist De La Salle.
DE LA SALLE SCHOOL
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De La Salle School in Kampong Bahru opened its classrooms in January 1952 under the charge of Rev Bro Thomas, Headmaster and Director. The first batch of teachers and pupils came on transfer from SJI. There were 7 teachers and 196 boys in seven classes, from Primary 1 to Standard 5.
His Lordship, the bishop of Malacca, Monsignor Micheal Olcomendy blessed the school on 24 January 1952.
On 14 May 1952, it was officially declared open by Mr R M Young, the Director of Education.
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De La Salle School in Kampong Bahru made remarkable progress. Good discipline and high academic standards were established. Enrolment increased rapidly, and the school was filled to the capacity of 960 pupils in 24 classes. Indeed, the cry from year to year was for more room!
DE LA SALLE SCHOOL CHOA CHU KANG
In November 1992, De La Salle School accepted the offer from the Ministry of Education for relocation to Choa Chu Kang on quid-pro-quo terms. It meant that the school would exchange her freehold land in Kampong Bahru for a site in Choa Chu Kang and be provided with a 90% government grant to develop the standard facilities of a primary school.
With news of the school’s relocation, enrolment began to fall rapidly from 1993, and was below 500 in 1995. Meanwhile, the school had to raise funds for its new building. Before end of 1995, the Principal negotiated with the Ministry of Education for a holding school for De La Salle near to Choa Chu Kang. The School was offered the former Teck Whye Primary School building for 2 years.
DE LA SALLE SCHOOL CHOA CHU KANG
Groundbreaking of the new school site took place on 18 December 1995. Rear Admiral (NS)Teo Chee Hean, then the Minister for the Environment and the Second Minister for Defence officiated at the groundbreaking ceremony as the Guest of Honour.
Rev Father Nicholas Ho, then the Parish Priest of the Holy Family Church, and a former student of De La Salle School, blessed the new school grounds at 11 Choa Chu Kang North Street 52.
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On 2 January, De La Salle School admitted her first batch of female students for the Lower Primary classes. Four hundred P1 pupils and two hundred P2 and P3 pupils attended school in the afternoon session at the holding site in Jalan Teck Whye building. (Greenridge Primary School used the same premises in the morning).
The eight Upper Primary classes of P4 - P6, comprising boys only, attended morning school in the Kampong Bahru Road premises.
Mr Anthony Thng, President of the Christian Brothers’ Old Boys’ Association (CBOBA) and Chairman of the De La Salle School Management Committee, organised a fund-raising dinner for De La Salle School at the Orchid Country Club on 12 July 1996. The Guest of Honour was our President of Singapore, Dr Tony Tan, then the Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore. It was on that event that Dr Tony Tan announced that the government grant for the development of government-aided schools would henceforth be raised from 90% to 95%. The news was indeed a great welcome relief for De La Salle School.
On 17 November 1996, De La Salle School marked the closing of a 45-year chapter in Kampong Bahru Road with the following:
1. The “Last-Hike-to-Mount-Faber” took off from the school’s main gate in the morning. Dr S Vasco, Member of Parliament for Tanjong Pagar GRC was the Guest of Honour.
2. The “Farewell-to-Kampong Bahru Dinner” was held in the school’s multi-purpose courtyard. Mr Choo Cheok Hai, the former Principal of De La Salle School graced the occasion as the Guest of Honour.
3. On the evening, Mdm Vivienne Tan, the Principal then, received a relic of the Founder, St John Baptist De La Salle from Rev Bro Michael Broughton who had brought it back from the Mother House in Rome.
DE LA SALLE SCHOOL TECK WHYE
The whole school functioned in the holding school at 36 Jalan Teck Whye with 14 classes in the morning and 16 classes in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, the new school building, designed by Andrew Tan Architects Pte Ltd and built by Koon Seng Construction Pte Ltd, was taking shape.
On 30 September, the staff and pupils celebrated Children’s Day in the newly completed school building. The day further commemorated with a Hand-Over Ceremony of the new De La Salle School during which the symbolic key of the school was presented to the Principal.
On 9 November, De La Salle School vacated the holding school and moved to her spanking new premises at 11 Choa Chu Kang Street 52. The school’s Annual Thanksgiving and Prize-Presentation was, for the first time, held in a proper school hall.
A week later, on 16 November, the “Hello-to-Choa Chu Kang” Dinner was held in the new school grounds. Gracing the occasion as Guest of Honour was Mr Yeo Cheow Tong, then the Minister for Health and the Environment, and Member of Parliament for the Hong Kah GRC.
DE LA SALLE CHOA CHU KANG
On 2 January, a staff and pupil population of 66 and 1560 respectively began a new chapter in Choa Chu Kang for the 46-year-De La Salle School.
The new De La Salle School was blessed by His Grace, the late Most Rev Gregory Yong, Archbishop of Singapore on 27 May 1998. Rev Father Joachim Kang of St Teresa’s Church and Rev Father Augustine Tay of St Joseph’s Church concelebrated the High Mass held in the school hall, and thereafter, proceeded with the Archbishop to bless all areas of the school.
After the blessing of the entire school, the bronze statue of St John Baptist De La Salle, sculpted by renowned artist, Rev Bro Joseph McNally, was unveiled in the school’s assembly square.
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On 1 October, Children’s Day, Mr Yeo Cheow Tong, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, and MP for Hong Kah GRC officially opened the new De La Salle School.
The school’s official opening ceremony was marked successfully by the staging of a musical on the life of the Founder, entitled “In Celebration of De La Salle”.
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The school’s enrolment grew to more than 2,400. In October 2001, the Ministry of Education identified the school for further upgrading under PRIME Phase 4. The offer was accepted. Upgrading works would begin in 2002 and be completed by 2004.
On 16 November 2001, the school year closed with the Annual Thanksgiving Mass, celebrated by Fr Augustine Tay. It was followed by the Prize-Presentation Ceremony with Mr Anthony Thng, the Chairman of the School Management Committee as the Guest of Honour. Present, too, was Mrs Beatrice Wang Chee Ting, the Principal-Designate of De La Salle School.
On 21 November 2001, De La Salle celebrated her 50th Anniversary with a Golden Jubilee Dinner at the Singapore Mandarin Hotel. His Grace, Most Reverend Nicholas Chia, the new Archbishop of Singapore was the Guest of Honour.
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In January 2002, De La Salle School ushered in the New Year under the leadership of the late Mrs Beatrice Wang Chee. It marked a new beginning for De La Salle School that had just turned 50. The school, though slated to undergo the Programme for Rebuilding and Improving Existing schools (PRIME) upgrading project in 2003, was informed in February 2002 that the project would be put on hold. Mrs Wang thus made plans to improve the existing school facilities to enhance Lasallians’ learning.
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In 2003, the Outdoor Classrooms @ De La Salle School was launched to provide Lasallians with sensory experiences where they explore and learn about soil, water, plants and animals. With majority of our Lasallians living in high-rise dwellings, outdoor classrooms bridged the gulf between natural habitats and sophisticated modern living. The Outdoor Classrooms @ De La Salle School will continue to be a living and learning environment that is readily accessible to our Lasallians and teachers.
De La Salle School strongly believes in the holistic development of every Lasallians who enters her doors. Opportunities are given for Lasallians to demonstrate their development in both the academics as well as the aesthetics. In order to enable us to show our appreciation of our Lasallians’ abilities and gifts in their aesthetics development, De La Salle School has put up several Musicals such as Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (2004 & 2009), Sleeping Beauty’s Dream (2005), Holy Moses (2006), Annie Junior (2007), Disney’s Aladdin Junior (2008), High School Musical Junior (2010) and Noah The Musical (2011). In the effort to reach out to the community and to live up to our Founder’s mission of helping the last, the lost and the least, the school adopted several children’s homes for the Musical Charity by sponsoring less privileged children to experience the marvel and greatness of live theatre.
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The late Principal, Mrs Wang Chee Ting retired on 31 December 2004 and the school welcomed the new Principal, Miss Bernadette Jane Lim Bee Hiong who took office on 15 December 2005. With the massive pupil enrolment of 2400 and staff strength of 100, the school appointed Mdm Ng Siew Choo as the 2nd Vice-Principal with the 1st Vice-Principal.
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In September 2007, the school organised a Charity Walk & Family Day in aid of The Children of Gawad Kalinga in the Philippines. The Charity Walk was a fundraising initiative led by our Christian Brothers’ Schools (CBS) and our Lasallians and their families were invited in the 2km walk at West Coats Park and participated in the fun-filled activities after the morning walk.
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In July 2008, the school presented the Mother Tongue Language Programme ‘Spice Up the Learning of Mother Tongue Languages’ at the MOE Excellence through Continuous Enterprise and Learning (ExCEL) Fest. The school shared the unique ways of conducting Learning Journeys in the Mother Tongue Languages which serves to deepen Lasallians’ rootedness to Singapore and organising Mother Tongue Week to reinforce the learning of the languages through games and inter-class competitions. Lasallians were involved in overseas language and cultural immersion trips to China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei and India to enable them to acquire valuable experiential life skills in a global context.
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In 2009, the school announced that De La Salle School would undergo the PRIME upgrading project from January 2011 to December 2012. The school was held at the former Teck Whye Primary/Secondary site located at 38 Jalan Teck Whye for 2 years before moving back to its existing site.
DE LA SALLE SCHOOL
In November 2010, a ‘Reconnect & Reminise’ Gala Dinner was organised for all Lasallians at 11 Choa Chu Kang St 52 with Mr Choo Cheok Hai, Principal from 1968 - 1987 as the Guest of Honour.
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In January 2011, De La Salle School went single session at the holding site in Teck Whye Cresent. FI8ESTA’11, a fundraising carnival was organised at the school compound in Teck Whye Cresent to raise funds for the School Building Fund with Mr Alex Yam, Advisor to Yew Tee Grassroots Organisation as our Guest of Honour. The 1st Charity Golf Tournament was held at Raffles Country Club with Mr Gan Kim Yong, Minister for Health as our Guest of Honour at the Prize-presentation Ceremony cum Dinner after the tournament.
Mrs Daphne Sing joined the Lasallian family as the 3rd Vice-Principal after her completion of the Leaders in Education Programme (LEP) and took over the leadership of the school on 15 December 2011 while the school bid farewell to Miss Bernadette Jane Lim.
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In 2012, an Arts Festival entitled Inspirations from around the World was put up to showcase Lasallians’ abilities and talents in the area of visual and performing arts.
PAGES or ‘Purposeful Adventure for Growth and Experiences’ is the main platform for our Lasallians to put into practice the values, life skills and Social Emotional Competencies that they have learnt during curriculum time. PAGES is the camping experience given to every Lasallian from Primary 1 to Primary 6 where they learn to inculcate the school values and impart life skills through enjoyable and meaningful activities. Camp activities are adventurous in nature and provide opportunities to toughen character. Camping takes the Lasallians away from their usual comforts where they learn the value of gratefulness and appreciate what they have, rather than complain what they do not have. Recognising that most of our Lasallians live in the concrete jungle of HDB flats, camping provides many opportunities for Lasallians to gain new experiences such as living in the community and working in teams.
Enabling Lasallians in a Lasallian community to learn how to learn and to learn how to live; empowering them to be persons of integrity and persons for others has been the mission of the Christian Brothers’ Schools in Singapore. In De La Salle School, the holistic education of our Lasallians has been our focus and will continue to be in line with the vision of our founder St John Baptist De La Salle. The Character and Talent development of our Lasallians plants the seed by which our vision of a “Lifelong Learner” and a “Caring Citizen” will emerge in the future.
The final phase of upgrading work was completed at the end of November 2012 and Lasallians were grateful for the new building and upgraded facilities to start the new school year at 11 Choa Chu Kang Street 52 in January 2013. The school is grateful to the School Management Council members, parents, Lasallians, alumni and the comminuty for their generous support and donations to the School Building Development Fund.