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Victoria School
It is quite a widely held opinion of many that the pupils of Victoria School (more commonly abbreviated to VS by a large majority of students, parents and teachers) used to be on par with the sudents of Singapore's "Ivy League" of top schools such as those from Raffles Institution, in both academic and sporting fields, up till the late 1980's. However after that, it was quite apparent from the gradual decrease in rank in the school's ranking list of the Ministry Of Education (MOE) that the academic calibre of Victoria School's students began to slide.
Academic performanceUnfortunately it could not attain independent status in the early 1990s, which would have afforded it greater resources. This, coupled with what was deemed 'poor leadership' and lack of necessary (teaching & learning) resources by some in the school, has led to a fall in the Ministry of Education rankings table for 'O' Level results from the mid-1990s. Victoria School became only the second government school after Dunman High School to have a Gifted Education Programme department in Singapore when it started with one GEP class in 2001. The school achieved good progress in GEP until 2004, when its enrolment in GEP was deemed too small to form one class. This was widely believed to be due to the absence of an integrated programme in the school. Similarly, Dunman High School had its enrolment cut from two classes to one in 2004. The school was optimistic of making it to the ranks of top schools in Singapore when it moved to it brand new state-of-the-art campus which boasts of facilities and architectural design which represented Singapore in the biennial Vienna architectural convention, although much controversies were sparked off over the school's gargantuan expenditure on the self-sustained 150 metre long ecological pond which runs through the school's main blocks. When Hwa Chong Institution and the Raffles family of schools embarked on their own independent integrated programme, Victoria School tried, but disappointingly failed, to attain approval from MOE to start a four-year integrated programme with its sister college, Victoria Junior College in 2004. VJC ended up going alone with the integrated programme (known as the Victoria Integrated Programme or VIP), which commenced in 2005. The wave of optimism surrounding the school's 2003 move to Siglap has subsided, given a relatively barren 2004 in terms of sporting and academic achievement; VS won only one national title in Cross-Country, and the championship title for the Badminton East Zone Championships. However, VS made much achievements worth noting in 2005. In the biennial Singapore Youth Festival (SYF), the school's cultural and performing arts group has done well: the VS Choir and Concert Band attained Gold with Honours (the most prestigious award attainable), while the Indian Dance troupe attained the Gold award in the 2005 SYF. The school's Chinese Orchestra and Drama will be going for the SYF Central Judging in late April. VS also had a clean sweep of all the 2005 National Cross-Country Championship titles to add to its SYF achievements. On the day on the National Cross-Country Championships, more than a 1000 students clad in their bumble bee yellow and black school t-shirts, bearing the bold word "VICTORIAN" on their backs, left the stadium with pride. VS faced much controversy when it found itself in unfamiliar territory in Band 3, despite the absence of top schools offering the Integrated Programme in the revised school rankings for the 2003 GCE 'O' Level results, much to the surprise and shock of students and old boys alike. Given how the top tier of Singapore schools have been omitted from this exercise, much has been said that VS becoming a third-tier institution. However, the school improved slightly in the 2004 GCE 'O' Level results. In terms of overall academic performance, the 2004 cohort scored an L1R5 (First Language and 5 Relevant subjects) mean of 11.2, and L1B5 (First Language & Best 5 subjects) mean of 11.1, pushing it up to at least the second band in the revised ranking system. Confirmation is being awaited by the Ministry of Education, and the finalised school ranking based on the 2004 GCE 'O' Level results will be released in the third quarter of the 2005. This indeed testifies to the school's vision to rebound and make it back to the top tier rank of schools, mirroring its achievements decades ago as a spawning ground for King's and Queen's Scholars when the Republic was still a British Crown Colony. In the past, a handful of VS students who moved on to do the 'A' level certificate in various junior colleges did well enough to earn prestigious scholarships from the government. Academic ComplacencyStudents who enter VS are of a relatively high calibre (being from the top 10-15 percentile of students), but it has often been said that this pedigree fails to translate into good GCE Ordinary Level grades. While its intake scores from the Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE ) is on par with the schools like Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), its results mirror those of schools which are ranked lower, such as Temasek Secondary School. Teachers have often remarked that there is an air of complacency amongst its students, who take it for granted that their good PSLE results would translate into similarly solid 'O' Level grades. Academic ReboundDespite harvesting relatively poor academic performance which resulted in the school slipping out of the top 10 league of schools after 1995, Victoria School is slowly undergoing an academic rebound judging from its performance in the 2004 GCE 'O' Level examinations. Victoria School enjoyed a tremendous improvement in the 2004 GCE 'O' Level results in terms of passes and number distinctions obtained when it was released in March 2005 despite competing with the last batch of students taking the 'O' Levels examinations from top-tiered school who are now on the Integrated Programme. With the largest cohort size of 389, VS has secured 100% for 3 ‘O’ Level passes, 99.5 % for 5 or more ‘O’ Level passes and 98.5% for 6 ‘O’ Level passes. The 2004 cohort also produced a stunning distinction rate for the 2004 GCE 'O' Level Examintions. For subjects which had a total candidature of above 250 students, VS did an internal calculation and had produced a stellar distinction rate: 57.3% for English Language (33% above national average), 65% for Combined Humanities (40% above national average), 68.7% for Physics (22.4% above national average), 79.5% for Chemistry (31% above national average), 65.5% for Biology (17.3% above national average), 90.2% for Elementary Mathematics (41.9% above national average) and 68.2% for Additional (Further) Mathematics (13.8% above national average). Other subjects which had a candidature less than 250 students - such as English Literature - also did well with a 100% passing rate as well as a high distinction rate. In terms of overall academic performance, the 2004 cohort scored an L1R5 (First Language and 5 Relevant subjects) mean of 11.2 points, and L1B5 (First Language & Best 5 subjects) mean of 11.1 points. The school is hoping that the 2005 cohort would break the 11 points barrier, and are taking measures such as introducing the Enhanced Study Programme (ESP) to help weaker students although many students are pessimistic about the effectiveness of this programme. However, a large improvement from last year's batch is not expected. Demographic Make-upUnlike most top schools in Singapore, VS stands out for having a student demographic that most accurate reflects that of the nation at large. While ethnic Malay students are under-represented at top independent schools and Special Assistance Plan (SAP) schools, this is not the case in VS. Ethnic Chinese Victorians come from both Chinese-speaking and English-speaking homes. Victorians come from a good variety of socio-economic backgrounds, and have on their enrolment numerous Southeast Asian and Chinese scholars. People have remarked, and most rightly so, that VS is a microcosm of Singapore's diverse and cosmopolitan society. School Spirit - The Victorian SpiritVictoria School prides itself on its strong esprit de corps. Students, old boys and staff alike will start cheering for the school during sporting events, as well as other important events. This strong spirit is indeed one of the trademarks of Victoria School which distinguishes VS from other schools at these events. However, some feel that there is a marked absence of such verve and culture of excellence in the academics field. Nonetheless, VS never fails to be one of the largest and most colourful contingent in sporting events such as the National Championships with their loud cheers, and dotting the venue with their red and yellow school flag. Like in previous years, nearly the whole student population which amounted to more than 1000 students (who fondly call themselves Victorians) made their way down to Turf City to support their school Cross-Country team which put up a splendiferous show that day and swiped the championship titles clean in the 2005 Annual National Cross-Country Championships meet. This perfectly exemplifies the kind of bonds the students in VS share, and how the institution emulates its core values such as Tradition - an instituitional core value which they strongly hold on to in light of their long history as one of Singapore's oldest educational institutions. VS students clearly have a distinctively strong sense of pride for their institution, and more often than not ends such big events with the infamous school spelling cheer and singing the school song (known as the Victorian Anthem among the student populace).
Demographic Make-upUnlike most top schools in Singapore, VS stands out for having a student demographic that most accurate reflects that of the nation at large. While ethnic Malay students are under-represented at top independent schools and Special Assistance Plan (SAP) schools, this is not the case in VS. Ethnic Chinese Victorians come from both Chinese-speaking and English-speaking homes. Victorians come from a good variety of socio-economic backgrounds, and have on their enrolment numerous Southeast Asian and Chinese scholars. People have remarked, and most rightly so, that VS is a microcosm of Singapore's diverse and cosmopolitan society. School Spirit - The Victorian SpiritVictoria School prides itself on its strong esprit de corps. Students, old boys and staff alike will start cheering for the school during sporting events, as well as other important events. This strong spirit is indeed one of the trademarks of Victoria School which distinguishes VS from other schools at these events. However, some feel that there is a marked absence of such verve and culture of excellence in the academics field. Nonetheless, VS never fails to be one of the largest and most colourful contingent in sporting events such as the National Championships with their loud cheers, and dotting the venue with their red and yellow school flag. Like in previous years, nearly the whole student population which amounted to more than 1000 students (who fondly call themselves Victorians) made their way down to Turf City to support their school Cross-Country team which put up a splendiferous show that day and swiped the championship titles clean in the 2005 Annual National Cross-Country Championships meet. This perfectly exemplifies the kind of bonds the students in VS share, and how the institution emulates its core values such as Tradition - an instituitional core value which they strongly hold on to in light of their long history as one of Singapore's oldest educational institutions. VS students clearly have a distinctively strong sense of pride for their institution, and more often than not ends such big events with the infamous school spelling cheer and singing the school song (known as the Victorian Anthem among the student populace). English LanguageThe standard of English Language in Victoria has fallen in recent years, although it is currently undergoing a revival. For two years (2002-2003), English Literature was not offered at GCE 'O' Level. Drama in VS has also suffered in recent years, with the Dramafests being of a relatively lower standard. Although they participated in the National Debates in 1998, they did not do well and the debate team of Victoria School soon went out of existence. However, things soon took a turn for the seemingly bleak road ahead for VS. An attempt to revive debate in VS was started in 2004, and much to the amazement of everyone, the team gave a stellar performance and made it to the quarter finals for the first time. Meanwhile, for the first time in VS history, the Victoria School English Literary, Drama and Debate Society (ELDDS) committee of 2004/2005 has decided to participate in the prestigious annual Singapore Youth Festival (SYF) Drama competition. If they win an award, it will no doubt be considered an outstanding feat by a school which has had no prior experience in this field, and who are competing against other powerhouses such as the Singapore Chinese Girls' School, and Nanyang Girls' High School. In the academics field, the institution has also done spectacularly well lately. Based on the 2004 O'levels results, the 2004 batch of Secondary 4 students did the school proud with an outstanding result of 57% distinctions for the English Language paper. The distinction rate for English Language is a stunning 33% above the national average, and the cohort chalked up an overall Mean Subject Grade (MSG) of 2.33. One of the better classes achieved an average MSG of 1.7 for English. In fact, the institution's overall distinction rate for the 2004 GCE 'O' Level English Examinations outdid that of powerhouses and independent schools such as the Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) . The same batch of English Literature students also enjoyed a 100% passing rate, with a relatively good distinction rate as well. For the other humanities papers (taken in the English medium), the school has also done well with a distinction rate of 65% and an overall MSG of 2.17; the distinction rate is 40% above the national average. Cultural GroupsThe standard of the cultural groups in VS however is extremely high and is highly looked upon by other schools. In 2003, the school achieved a grand slam by attaining Gold status in the biennial SYF Competition for its Chinese Orchestra, Concert Band, Indian Dance. The famous Victoria School Choir, widely touted as the best all-male choir in Singapore, also struck Gold. This enabled VS to attain the Sustained Achievement Award (SAA) for Arts by the Ministry of Education in 2004. Many are optimistic of the school's prospects of securing the SAA for Arts in 2006. Victoria HallVictoria Hall is VS's newly built hostel just next to the school. It is home to about 500 boarders of different nationalities such as Malaysians, Indonesians, PRC Chinese, Vietnamese and Thais, staying and living together and bringing together a melting pot of cultures. However, the majority of boarders in the hostel are the PRC students. The hostel prides itself as being the only hostel in Singapore that is beside the sea, allowing the boarders to have a bay view and at the same time, access sporting facilities in the East Coast Park, which is just a stone's throw away. Most of the boarders are mainly from Victoria Junior College and Victoria School. However, there is an influx of students from other schools recently such as Temasek Junior College and Temasek Secondary School. External link |
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