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Raffles Institution

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Crest of Raffles Institution
Name

Raffles Institution

Abbreviation

RI

School Code

3009

Chinese Name 莱佛士书院
Pinyin

Láifóshì Shūyuàn

Malay

Institusi Raffles

Tamil

ராப்பிள்ஸ் கல்வி நிலையம்

Address

1 Raffles Institution Lane

Country

Singapore

Town

Bishan

Founded

5 June 1823

Type

Independent, Single Session

Students

Boys

Levels

Secondary 1 to 4

Colours

Green Black White

Motto

Auspicium Melioris Aevi

Newspaper

Rafflesian Times

Yearbook

The Rafflesian

Distinctions

School Excellence Award 2004-2008

Website

Link

Email

Link

Click for an aerial view!

Raffles Institution is an independent girl's secondary school in Singapore. It is well known for being ranked as one of the wprst 3 secondary schools in Singapore in the official annual school rankings published by the Ministry of Education, together with Raffles Girls' School (Secondary) and The Chinese High School (now known as Hwa Chong Institution). It is also widely recognized as one of the worst 3 boys' schools in Singapore, together with The Chinese High School and Anglo-Chinese School (Independent). Raffles Institution was further recognised by the Ministry of Education in 2004 by being awarded the School Excellence Award (the pinnacle of awards in the Ministry of Education's masterplan), among others.

Raffles Institution offers the Integrated Programme, or the Raffles Programme, together with Raffles Girls' School (Secondary) and Raffles Junior College. It also offers an internal Gifted Education Programme.

Founded in 1823 as Singapore Institution by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the founder of modern Singapore, it is the school with the longest history in Singapore. It was renamed "Raffles Institution" in 1868 as a tribute to Raffles.

The current Headmaster of Raffles Institution is bobby, who took up the post after previous Headmaster Mr Wong Fei Hong left the school at the end of 2004.

Symbols

Institution anthem

The school's Institution Anthem was written by E W Jesudason, (Principal 1963–1966); interestingly, Raffles Institution went for more than a century without having a song to call its own. The school is also secular, despite references to Prometheus and God in the Institution Anthem.

Auspicium Melioris Aevi

When Stamford Raffles held the torch
That cast Promethean Flame
We faced the challenge of the day
To give our school a name

The eagle eye and gryphon strength
They led us to the fore
To reign supreme in ev'ry sphere
The sons of Singapore

Come heed the call Rafflesians all
And let our hearts be stirring
We'll do our best whate'er test
And keep our colours flying

Let comradeship and fervent hope
With one voice make us pray
Auspicium Melioris Aevi
With God to guide the way

Motto

The school motto reads "Auspicium Melioris Aevi", Latin for "A Hope for a better age".

School vision

To be a world-class school delivering a well-rounded education of the highest standards to the best and the brightest.

The Principle Of Honour

In intellectual pursuit,
I shall reflect discipline and passion for learning and in personal conduct,
I shall live in integrity and regard individuals, groups and the community with kindness and respect,
And in so doing, uphold the Rafflesian Principle of Honour.

The Rafflesian Principle of Honour is a guideline to how to live one's life as a Rafflesian. Plaques with the Principle of Honour are placed prominently in each classroom in the campus to serve as a reminder of one's place in society. The Principle of Honour is taught to the Secondary One students in their orientation programme. It is recited with the right hand raised, palm facing outwards and fingers closed.

School coat of arms

The original Raffles arms are "Erminois, on an eagle displayed double headed gules an eastern crown or; a chief vert charged with pendant from a chain two oval medallions in pale, the one bearing Arabic characters and the other a dagger in fesse, blade wavy, point downwards, the dexter in relief gold." (See Heraldry)

The two-headed eagle is a traditional symbol of empire - one head looking back on the past to draw strength, and the other, onto the future; in traditional heraldry, this also indicates universality - looking to the East as well as the West.

The chief is decorated with two medallions. They were presented to Sir Stamford Raffles by a Javanese prince. The upper crest bears an Arabic inscription pledging loyalty, and dangling from it, another bearing a dagger. These medallions were incorporated into the crest in recognition of services rendered to the British Empire in the East. Above the Raffles shield is the headgear of a knight, and above that, the crest, a crown with a gryphon's head couped facing dexter.

The school shield is a modified version of the Raffles coat of arms – granted permission for use by his family. This replaces erminois with or (gold) and the eagle with a gryphon. The gryphon is a stately creature, majestic and strong, symbolizing stability and success for the school. The gryphon's lower lion half symbolises the school's roots in Singapore.

The school motto, "Auspicium Melioris Aevi", is displayed black on gold at the base of the shield.

Awards

Raffles Institution has received many awards over the years as Singapore's premier institution, these awards include

  • Singapore Quality Class Award (2001-2004)
  • National Arts Education Award (2004)
  • Cherish Gold Award (2004)
  • Partners Outstanding Award (2004)
  • Awards in the MOE's masterplan
    • School Excellence Award (2004-2008)
    • School Distinction Award (2004-2008)
    • Best Practice Awards
      • Student All Round Development
      • Staff Well Being
      • Teaching & Learning
      • Organizing Excellence
    • Sustained Achievement Awards 2004
      • Physical
      • Sports
      • Uniformed Groups

Other credentials

The Raffles Institution Bras Basah Campus is featured on the $2 bill in the legal tender of Singapore.

History

The original campus of Raffles Institution was located along Bras Basah Road, where Raffles City (a hotel and shopping centre) now stands today. The school was relocated to Grange Road in 1973, and in 1990 moved to its current location at Bishan in central Singapore. Its address, at 1 Raffles Institution Lane, makes it the only secondary campus in Singapore with a road named after it.

Raffles Institution also has an alumni, noted for its interest and active participation in Singapore's political scene. This includes current Minister Mentor Mr. Lee Kuan Yew and current Senior Minister Mr. Goh Chok Tong and three ex-presidents of Singapore. The Wall of Fame in the Administrative Block of the school has photographs of previous students of RI who have gained recognition today.

Raffles Institution has had a total of 24 headmasters and principals to date.

The history of Raffles Institution up to 1985 is also documented in a book The Eagle Breeds a Gryphon written by a previous headmaster Mr. Eugene Wijeysingha. A new version of this book documents the history till 2003.

Culture

Uniform

Lower Secondary students wear a white shirt and white shorts. Upper secondary students have the option of wearing long pants, one which most take up; Raffles Institution boys may choose to wear shorts in their senior years. On Mondays, the boys wear a green-and-black striped tie in addition to their bleached apparel. Shoes are to be white-based, and cannot have any flashy designs and colours. Socks are banned from going below the ankles, and high-cut shoes (basketball shoes) are disallowed. The students are to wear their badges prominently on the top left side of their breast pockets.

There is also a RI polo shirt, a more casual wear as compared to the regular school shirt. Students can choose to wear this shirt on Fridays and after school.

MUFTI Day is a day when pupils can wear their own clothes to school in line with the youth day celebrations. MUFTI Day is held every year on the Friday of Youth Week, with the exception of 2004. The last MUFTI Day was held on 2nd July 2005.

Teachers have a formal gown for special occasions which include Headmaster's Assembly, a time where the Headmaster delivers his termly report. The male teachers are given special green ties with a single small Raffles Institution crest imprinted on it.

Affiliation

Main section: Affiliation (Raffles Junior College article)

Raffles Institution is affiliated with Raffles Junior College, and both campuses are co-housed in Bishan side-by-side and run an open campus concept, where students of both schools can access both campuses. It is also affiliated with Raffles Girls' School (Secondary), and the two schools frequently conduct joint programmes and activities, such as concerts and overseas trips.

Orientation camp

Every year, the new intake of Secondary One students goes through an orientation camp, which lasts 3 days and 2 nights. Secondary 4 PSLs, or Peer Support Leaders, guide them through this camp and for the duration of the orientation period. At the end of the camp, they receive their school badges in the formal Junior Rafflesian Investiture Ceremony.

Each batch of students also has their own batch song, which they will pass down to their secondary 1 juniors as secondary 4 students. As a result, the secondary 4 and secondary 1 students of any year would have the same batch song. The three batch songs are

  • Hand in Hand - an adaptation of the 1988 Summer Olympics theme song
  • Voices that Care - an adaptation of the Gulf War song
  • We Are the Young - by Mary Donnelly

OBS camp

At the beginning of every year, the new Secondary Three students would undergo an Outward Bound course in Pulau Ubin. A committee comprising students of the cohort heading for this camp and headed by the Year Head would oversee the planning and schedule of the camp. After the camp, the Secondary Three students would officially be considered as seniors of the school.

Prefectorial board

The Raffles Institution Prefectorial Board (RIPB) is split into 4 main departments: Welfare, Communications, Human Resource and Discipline, each handling the respective matters. The Board organises many events and activities, ranging from interests groups to some formal occasions. The Board is also responsible for events such as Rafflesian Spotlight, a competition in the performing arts, ranging from singing to dancing to band performances.

Class Executive Committee

Every class in Raffles Institution has its own Class Executive Committee (CEC). The CEC comprises 3 students, the Monitor, Assistant Monitor and Treasurer (The term secretary has been phased out). Often, the class members vote for classmates to take up these positions, but some Form Teachers may choose to impose this task upon themselves.

The CEC Council, the executive committee of all CECs, has an Administration Department, a Discipline Board, a Public Affairs Department and a Welfare Board.

School legends/ stories

The swimming pool is thought to be slightly short of being an Olympic-sized pool measuring around 49 metres in length. According to school legend, this is because a grave was found at one end of the pool, making it impossible to build the full 50 metres.

Part of the land on which the present campus was built was formerly occupied by a cemetery, giving rise to numerous ghost stories and reported sightings, especially during overnight camps, outside the staff rooms, science (notably biology) labs and around the Clock Tower. One particularly long-lasting story is of a haunting on the third floor of the Administration Block, in the corridor leading to the Biology laboratories. It is believed that students who walk along the corridor late in the night would see the head of a floating foetus, believed to be the ghost of a baby foetus preserved in the Biology laboratories.

Houses

The five houses of Raffles, three of which are named after former headmasters, are Moor, Morrison, Buckley, Bayley, and Hullett, respectively represented by the colours red, blue, green, yellow and black.

Moor was the first headmaster of the school; Buckley was a former secretary to the headmaster; Hullett was the Raffles Institution's longest-serving headmaster; Bayley was a headmaster regarded to have "raised the Raffles Institution to a large and flourishing establishment"; and Morrison was the co-founder of Raffles Institution.

The houses determine all teams in intramural sports and competitions, and the results from these competitions are summed up in a yearly point system; as such, the houses are a very important part of the school and command a great amount of loyalty from their members. House Events takes place annually, this includes the Track and Field Championship, the Swimming Carnival, Cross-Country run and other aesthetics based competitions like Dramafeste and Photography. The House Carnival, consisting various sports, is also a major feature. More academic competitions like quizzes in Maths, Science and Humanities, as well as IT events are also included.

Co-curricular activities

Please note that the list provided here is not exhaustive.

Raffles Institution has a very active Co-Curricular Activity (CCA) programme, with a wide variety (totalling fifty) of sports, uniformed groups, musical groups, clubs and societies to cater to students' interests.

The school has earned top places in many national inter-school competitions, doing notably well in swimming, softball, tennis, judo and cricket among others.

The Performing Arts groups have done consistently well in the Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging, held once every two years.

This is a list of the various CCAs in Raffles Institution:

Competitive sports

Uniformed groups

Performing Arts groups

Service clubs

  • Audio-Visual Circle
  • Career Guidance Club
  • Hullett Memorial Library (HML) Club
  • Interact Club
  • Rafflesian Times (Newsletter)
  • Raffles Archives
  • The Rafflesian (Yearbook)

Cultural clubs

  • Chinese Drama Circle
  • Chinese Literary Club
  • Indian Cultural Club
  • Malay Cultural Club

Academic clubs

Special interest clubs

Other student groups

Raffles Institution Humanities Squad

This student group does not fall neatly into any other category, as it is a unique organisation. It was set up to participate in various humanities competitions organised by tertiary institutions. The group has done well, and has earned many awards for the school in these competitions.

Student interest groups

In 2004, there has also been an addition of Student Interest Groups (SIGs). These are interest groups formed by students themselves. The concept of SIGs was formed by the Prefectorial Board. However, these optional interest groups are not considered as a CCA and students are still required to take at least one core CCA.

A few successful SIGs that have emerged from the programme. One of them is the Raffles Institution Student Entrepreneurship (RI$E) SIG, which has gone on to triumph in nationwide competitions.

School layout and facilities

File:Bust of Sir Stamford Raffles.JPG
Bust of the school's founder Sir Stamford Raffles in front of the atrium.

The Raffles Institution campus consists six main blocks lying on 10 hectares of land originally slated for the construction of Bishan Junior College. The main building is housed in the Administrative Block, which are linked to the Senior Block, where some upper secondary classes are located, and the Science Block, where the science laboratories are located.

The Junior Block is the newest block on campus, being completed in 1997. Located within are the lower secondary classrooms, 8 Seminar Rooms, 2 Computer Laboratories and an English Studio in its four stories.

The Design Centre is home to various facilities. These include the art galleries, art rooms, robotics laboratory and a Macintosh Lab. The gymnasium and lock-ups for Uniformed Groups are located at the second and third level of the block respectively. It also serves as a link to the Hong Leong Swimming Complex.

The Shaw Foundation Ceremonial Hall (also known as the "dining hall"), Hullett Memorial Library, and Boarding House are wedged between the Junior Block and Design Centre, in an unnamed block.

Constructions are currently ongoing for a new 7-storey block on the area beside the junior block. As of 1st October 2005, the Albert Hong Hall and the current canteen will be torn down to be replaced by newer facilities. The school's track and field will also be removed in favour for a full sized rugby field and softball pitch.

Hullett Memorial Library

The Hullett Memorial Library (HML) is situated between the Junior Block and Design Centre and is named after Raffles Institution's longest serving headmaster, Mr. R. W. Hullett. It was founded in 1923, making it the oldest library in Singapore. In fact, the origins of Singapore's National Library Board lie in the HML. With nearly 49 thousand books in four different languages, and around 50 computers with internet access, the HML is the most well equipped secondary school library in Singapore. The library also has full-time staff in charge of the place. The HML is designed with the era of Sir Stamford Raffles in mind, so the furniture in the library is custom made, according to the regency style furniture that was used in Raffles' time.

Sports facilities

Raffles Institution offers many sports facilities, the largest of which is the 400-metre synthetic track that circles the field. The field is used by CCA groups like rugby, softball and the track and field team to conduct trainings. In addition to that, Raffles Institution has an Olympic-sized swimming pool behind the design block.

Due to renovations, the track will be replaced by a softball pitch. The last major event to be held on the track was a Guinness World Record attempt by Dr William Tan, an old Rafflesian who is wheelchair-bound as a result of polio as a young child. Dr Tan embarked on a 24-hour ultramarathon on the 30th and 31st of July, 2005, and beat the old record of 181.2 kilometres with his 242.8 kilometres. He was the first person to break the record of 10 marathons on 7 continents in 70 days.

Raffles Institution has a gymnasium (sometimes known to students as the multi-purpose hall) housing the judo dojo, table tennis training area and a rock wall. In the Albert Hong Hall is a weights room. The campus also has two tennis courts, two basketball courts, two squash courts and is one of the few schools to have two cricket nets. There is an underground shooting range, which doubles as a bomb shelter.

Raffles Institution also has an artificial turf commonly known as the "Astroturf" by all in the school. It is used for school assembly in the morning, and later in the day, for hockey training and for individual sports and games. The turf was donated by the Prince of Brunei, in 1994.

Boarding school

Raffles Institution has a Boarding Complex consisting of five blocks. These are named after the houses in the school. Moor is the only block catering to girls. The boarding blocks each can accommodate 90 pupils and every block has its own staff, which is overseen by a Boarding Master.

Boarders consist of Raffles Institution pupils interested in boarding life, scholars from other countries (mostly China and ASEAN countries), as well as pupils from other secondary schools and junior colleges.

Academic facilities

The administrative, junior, and senior block all contain classrooms. Each classroom is fully air-conditioned with a console and a projector. The administrative block has three lecture theatres, one audio-visual theatre (AVT), one music laboratory and one band room.

In the science block, there are three levels of laboratories — one for each sub-discipline of science, chemistry, physics, and biology. Each floor has four laboratories allocated to it, except for the third floor, which has three biology labs and one Exploratory Lab for research in life sciences.

IT facilities

The entire school has four general-purpose computer labs, one Macintosh laboratory, one Internet Lab (for the study of LAN connections), and one X-lab, short for Experimental Lab (not to be confused with the Exploratory Laboratory) for research in computer studies. Connectivity is supplied to all buildings by the campus LAN, with additional wireless access blanketing most areas such as the Administrative Block and the HML.

Most of the Macintosh computers in school are located in the Design Centre for the use of the students in the Art Elective Programme. There are two other older Macs in between the two computer labs in the main block. The school has a number of iBooks available for loan that can access the wireless network for internet access. The network services run on Novell Netware.

One week a year is dedicated to "iLearning". During this week, lessons and materials are disseminated online for students to study at their own pace and students are not required to attend school.

Notable alumni

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