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
Some may note the extremely pagan undertones of the school song.
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
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 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 CCA T-shirt.
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.
- The last batch of RGS girls who took the O Levels in 2004 worked hard and clinched 11 out of the 21 top places in Singapore, successfully beating RI and emerging as the top school of Singapore 2004.
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