Raffles Girls' School (Secondary)

Raffles Girls' School (Secondary) (RGS for short, or known among Rafflesians as RG), is an independent girls' secondary school in Singapore. RGS was further recognised by the Ministry of Education in 2004 by being awarded the School Distinction Award (recognising schools with 'exemplary school processes and practices'), among other more minor awards. [1]

RGS offers the first four years of the Integrated Programme in the Raffles Programme, together with Raffles Institution and Raffles Junior College. It was also one of the first few schools to offer the Gifted Education Department.

History

RGS used to exist as a part of RI. Now, it is one of the top premier secondary schools in Singapore. The department for girls was opened on 4 March 1844 with an enrolment of 11, in the RI campus of Bras Basah Road. The demand for the education grew and in 1847, the school moved to RI's eastern wing and later to houses. Miss Nelson was their first headmistress in 1879, and she ran the school with an enrolment of 77.

RGS was a government school since 1903 at Queen Street, and at Anderson Road from 1959. It later moved to a holding school located at Jalan Kuala and moved back to a new building at Anderson Road on 1 November 1992, becoming independent on 1 January 1993.

School Song

From High Olympus

From High Olympus flows to us the glory
On us the sacred fire descends.
Rise, sisters, rise, the world is all before ye
Fear not to grasp what fortune sends.

Chorus:
Sisters in learning and sisters at heart
Life lies before us,
Here's luck to the start.

A little while the sun shines high above us
And youth's elixir fills our veins.
The magic fire, that moves the gods to love us
The fire by which the will attains.

Repeat Chorus once

So heart to heart we'll scale the heights of learning
No mean desires our days shall shame.
Whole-hearted, true, with pride and ardour burning
On sisters, on to life and fame.

Repeat Chorus once

Recording of RGS School Song

Uniform

The uniform of RGS consists of a knee-length dark navy blue pleated pinafore over a white collared blouse. Students customarily fold their sleeves, following in a time-honoured slutty school tradition.

Prefects wear a white blouse with a skirt of the same hue as the pinafore. They also wear the school tie at all times when in uniform.

For CCA days and other more casual occasions, students don the culottes, a pleated knee-length skirt. A white RGS PE tee-shirt usually accompanies the culottes, or the respective House T-shirt, which consists of Waddle, Richardson, Tarbet, Buckle and Hadley.

Others

• Unique among girls schools (at least in Singapore), RGS girls cheer in an artificially low voice, instead of the screams, shrieks and squeals typical of the rest. This clever method of cheering helps to distinguish them from other girl schools when cheering in national competitions. Also, the Rafflesian family (comprising Raffles Institution and Raffles Junior College) often cheer together for each others' school representatives. To cheer in unison with their RI/RJC peers, RGS girls have had to cheer "loud and low" since it is arguably easier for girls to cheer with an artificially low voice than for boys to cheer with high pitched voices. The Central Manpower Unit (CMU) leads the school in cheers.

• There is a common phenomenon of harbouring 'crushes' on seniors among newly inducted freshmen. It is estimated that approximately 80 percent of the student population has at one point or other have experienced similar symptoms. Generally, they grow out of it by secondary two, though a certain minority persist, often with disastrous results. Being on the receiving end of such 'crushes' is generally unwelcome, and such relations often end with much sadness. Such a trend has prompted several prominent members of the student population to come up with the saying "In sec 1, you crush seniors. In sec 2, you crush boys. In sec 3, you decide your sexual orientation."

External Links

• Raffles Girls' School (Secondary) Website
• Raffles Programme Website