River Valley High School, Singapore

River Valley High School
立化中学
立德立功，化愚化顽
We shall uphold virtues and contribute to society. Through personal growth, we shall guide others in the quest for knowledge and wisdom
Location

6 Boon Lay Avenue

Singapore 648961
Information
Type Autonomous Secondary
Established 1956
Session Single session
School code 3103
Principal Mrs Teo Khin Hiang (Dec 2012 - present)
Colour(s) Blue, White, Red
Team name Team RV
Publication "RV Times"
Website http://www.rivervalleyhigh.moe.edu.sg/

River Valley High School (RVHS) is an educational institution offering the Integrated Programme in Singapore. Founded in 1956, RVHS is widely regarded as among the top schools of Singapore, in the fields of academics, co-curricular achievements and leadership development.

In 2008 River Valley High School officially became a 6-Year Integrated Programme Full School. RV students no longer take the GCE 'O' Level examinations, and would instead follow a six-year Integrated Programme which allows students to proceed directly for the GCE 'A' Level examinations at the end of the 6 years. The final batch of GCE 'O' Level students graduated from River Valley High School in 2007.

History

Beginnings

Founded in 1956, River Valley High School (RV) was the first Chinese secondary school set up by the government. Initially known as the Singapore Government Chinese Middle School when it occupied the premises of Seng Poh Primary School, it was later renamed Queenstown Government Chinese Middle School when it was moved to Strathmore Avenue.

Ascendance

River Valley High School admitted its first batch of English stream pupils when it was selected as one of the nine Special Assistance Plan (SAP) schools in 1979. It shifted from River Valley to West Coast in December 1986. Due to the smaller school campus at the West Coast site, the school became a double-session school. It reverted to a single-session school in 1993 after adding new blocks to the West Coast site. It was among the first six schools in Singapore to assume the ascendance to autonomous status in 1994. For its achievements in its CCAs, it was also one of the first schools to receive all three available Sustained Achievement Awards when it was first offered by the Ministry of Education in 2001.

Twenty-first century

Starting from 2008 , the school offers the River Valley Integrated Programme (RVIP), where pupils do not take the GCE 'O' Level Examinations and proceed to prepare for the GCE 'A' Levels Examinations.

Leadership

Since its establishment, River Valley High School has had nine principals, inclusive of the current one. They are:


The current Vice-Principals are:

The school has a special fund named after Mdm Leong in aid of needy pupils. Mr Tham Tuck Meng (Principal), Miss Ek Soo Ben (Principal and Vice Principal) and Mr Martin Koh (Vice Principal) were presented the RV Award of Excellence (Leadership), the highest award that the school presents in recognition of excellence in leadership.

Mr Koh Yong Chiah was requested to step down in December 2012 to assist the Corrupt Practices Investigations Bureau.[1]

School song

The River Valley High School school song is one of the few Chinese school songs still present in Singapore.

It represents the heritage of the school and the aspirations of the founders' hopes in educating the next generation. Students are reminded to bring glory to the school through excellence in both academics and behaviour.

The school song is written in literary Chinese, giving it a poetic touch. The lyrics are written in verses of four characters, a parallel to Chinese idioms. However, the last phrase of the song is not in tandem with the rest of the song as it is made up of 2 lines of 6 characters each, making it irregular in accordance to traditional Chinese literary rules.

Location

Seng Poh Primary School

The government set up its first Chinese school, Singapore Government Chinese Middle School (now known as River Valley High School), on the premises of Seng Poh Primary School.

Strathmore Avenue

At Strathmore Avenue, the school was renamed Queenstown Government Chinese Middle School (now known as River Valley High School).

Jalan Kuala

In 1958, it was relocated to Jalan Kuala and renamed River Valley Government Chinese Middle School.

West Coast Road

The school was housed at along 698 West Coast Road from 1986 to 2004 at the current site of Commonwealth Secondary School. The campus was taken over from a previous junior college, after an extension to the facilities by an auditorium, a special function rooms block and a new classroom block. The auditorium was able to house over 2000 students at any one time and was the centrepiece of events held within the school. A smaller multi-purpose hall on top of the canteen supplemented the multi-purpose hall as another gathering location for the students.

The school garden is in the heart of the school, and is an integral part of the aesthetics of the school.

The school directly faced the Pandan Reservoir, the running track around the perimeter of the reservoir offered an ideal location for the school to hold its runs and Physical Education sessions. It had 3 basketball courts and a football field complete with a gymnasium.

The School building was selected for upgrading under the Ministry of Education's PRIME program in 2004.

Queensway

When the campus at West Coast road was selected for PRIME in 2004, the school shifted its location to a temporary holding school in Queensway. It operated at the location from 2005 to the middle of 2006. In the middle of 2006, the school announced its RVIP programme and was allocated a brand new building in Boon Lay for that purpose. The school then shifted its location again to the former Saint Andrew's Junior College campus at Malan Road so that it is able to accommodate a larger student population, with its first batch of Year 5 students in 2009, until the new building in Boon Lay is completed.

Malan Road

The school was situated in a holding site at the former Saint Andrew's Junior College campus at Malan Road. It was situated there for a few years until the construction of their permanent compound in Boon Lay was completed.

Boon Lay

The school relocated to a new modern campus situated in Boon Lay in 2012. The campus was built in a span of 5 years, at the cost of $79 million. The Boon Lay compound is large enough to house six cohorts of students due to the RVIP Programme.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the new campus took place on 16 January 2008 and there was a RV big walk to celebrate the opening of the new campus on 2 January 2010..

It was officially opened on 15 January 2011, in conjunction with the School's 55th Anniversary Celebrations.

The campus bears a distinctive architecture and modular layout, with staff facilities, learning courtyards, track & stadium, sports & physical training halls, science research laboratories, student leisure enclaves & co-curricular activity centres.

School crest

Red: symbolises radiance, progress and vitality
Blue: symbolises steadfastness, graciousness and serenity
White: symbolises purity and receptiveness to innovation

School uniform

The school uniform is unique to River Valley High School, one of the most outstanding and identifiable uniform designs in Singapore. The uniform is all white, with a school logo at the front left chest that reads RV in red and blue - the school colours.

Chinese culture

River Valley High School, being a Special Assistance Plan school, has a very strong Chinese environment. Chinese language, culture and history are often emphasized in the School. It is compulsory for all Year 1 to 4 students to take up Higher Chinese as a subject, Chinese culture lessons are also mandatory in lower secondary and students can opt for Chinese Literature in upper secondary. All students and most of the staff of River Valley High School are competent in both English and Chinese. This is expressed in many ways. For example, the national pledge is recited in both English and Chinese and speeches during major events are given in English, and then repeated in Chinese.

This kind of environment immerses the students in a literary environment, where Chinese is a common medium of communication between the students, and sometimes even between the students and the teachers (during off-lesson hours).

School Events

RV Cultural Night

Once an event to celebrate half-decade anniversaries, the flagship product of RV's performing arts niche achieved a higher level when it became a bi-annual event for the school to showcase the dazzle and standard of its performing arts groups.

The RV cultural night is usually a 2-day event spanning a weekend during the second term of the schooling year. It features performances put up by the various performing arts groups of the school.

The 2 days are usually differentiated by theme, often one being Asian and the other being international. This allows the performing arts groups to experiment with new styles of performances, and also enhances the flexibility of the performing arts groups to be able to adapt to a myriad of themes and styles. The dazzling performances of the groups often impress the public, both in a casual and a professional aspect.

Academics

River Valley High School had been among the top performers in Singapore in the General Cambridge Examinations 'O' Levels. Its academic niche has always been the sciences and mathematics-related subjects.

Entry requirements

Traditionally, River Valley High School benchmarks its entry cut-off point at an aggregate of 253 for the Primary School Leaving Examinations. As River Valley High School has no affiliation with primary schools (not even River Valley Primary School), its doors are open to all who meet the cut-off point requirement. Certain appeals may be accepted, but the entry aggregate is never below 249. For 2009, 2010 and 2011, it had an entry score of 251, 253 and 254 respectively.

River Valley High School students must offer Higher Chinese at 'O' Levels (in Year 4). Higher Chinese is compulsory throughout Years 1 to 4.

Examination Standards

Being a Special Assistance Plan and Autonomous school, the school is able to set its own standards in terms of teaching and testing. The school is adept and well known for teaching a certain topic to a greater depth than that required by the Ministry of Education (Singapore). This allows the student to understand the topic more thoroughly and in order to apply their knowledge in more situations. The examinations in River Valley High School are pitched at a high standard, challenging the students to think and analyse the situation before being able to come to a conclusion. In RV, this is believed to allow the students to better apply their in-depth knowledge.

2014 Promotion Criteria

The promotional criteria in RV are combined with a very stringent subject combination selection process.

Students who fail to meet any of the academic criteria may be given a Conditional Promotion. Those who fail to meet any holistic development criteria will only be advanced to the next level of study.
This ensures that the students are fully able to cope with whatever subjects they are offering, and that they will be able to do their best in the national examinations.

School Examinations

All students are required to take examinations at the end of the year. Years 5 and 6 students also sit for a mid-year examination.

From 2010 to 2012, students who did well in Term 1 to 3 were exempted, either under the Partial Exemption Scheme (PES) or the Full Exemption Scheme (FES). Under the PES, students did not have to take the papers for subjects which they scored 80% in the Continual Assessments. Those emplaced under FES were exempted from the Exams. The exemption schemes were only applicable to Year 1 to 5 students. The exemption schemes are now defunct, with effect from 2013.

River Valley High School Integrated Programme (RVIP)

Starting from 2006, River Valley High School will start offering the 6-year Integrated Programme, allowing its students to take the GCE 'A' level examinations at the end their sixth year in the school. It is also set to offer the Bicultural Studies Programme (Chinese), joining Dunman High School, Hwa Chong Institution and Nanyang Girls' High School. This programme will groom students with a good foundation in Chinese language, history and culture, and an understanding of contemporary China.

Desired outcomes

Curriculum framework

The unique features of the RVIP curriculum:

Programmes

The RVIP curriculum offers 5 different programmes:

The Construct, Integrate, Differentiate (CID) Programme

The Construct, Integrate, Differentiate (CID) Programme is an integrated curriculum that focuses on knowledge construction with differentiation features to cater to the diverse talents and interests of the students.

The CID Programme provides students with opportunities to construct their own learning by integrating knowledge from various disciplines, using modes of inquiry appropriate to the subject or project that they are working on. In the CID Programme, students spend their freed time constructively on inquiry-based and research-oriented project work. Teamwork is emphasised through collaborative and co-operative learning.[4]

CID Extended Learning

After completing work in the Learning Clusters, they are ready to embark on new ventures. The CID Extended Learning is designed with the objectives of providing students with the opportunities to engage in individualised research in an area of strength.

All students must complete coursework in Research Methods and opt to undertake research in one of the following programmes: the Junior Scientists Programme, Innovators Programme, Mathematics Talent Programme and the Explorers Programme.

Students can also seek attachments at the local or overseas institutes for the CID Extended Learning.

The CID Extended Learning also provides students with the requisite ASK to undertake their Project Work in Year 5. They can also opt to study the new subject, "Knowledge and Inquiry" in Year 5 and 6.

The Research Methods Course is an extension of what the students have learnt in their Learning Clusters but in more depth and using the research method appropriate to the individualised research. Students will learn both quantitative and qualitative methods.

After completion of their work, student will have opportunities to present their research findings at the RVIP Symposium held at the beginning of Year 5. The Symposium will also bring together distinguished speakers who will share on their work and challenges of research with the students.

The Junior Scientists Programme provides students with opportunities to engage in further scientific research in an area of their choice. Students will learn advanced scientific research methods, especially in the biomedical sciences.

The Innovators Programme focuses on idea and product innovation. It seeks to further develop students' interest in the area of creativity in technopreneurship by honing their engineering and design skills in innovation related work.

Students who excel in Mathematics and are interested in pursuing more demanding coursework can join the Mathematics Talent Programme. Students will progress from Ancient Chinese, Greek, Russian and Egyptian mathematics to modern European and American works on Abstract Algebra, Calculus, Logic and Engineering & Financial Mathematics.

The Explorers Programme is a wide-ranging programme that covers exploration into a student's research interests in the humanities, arts and languages. This Programme extends students' research interest developed from the Learning Clusters for Aesthetics and Language Arts, Humanities and Chinese. Students can opt to work on long-term projects with our local museums, the National Archives, performing arts groups or with the local universities. Opportunities for further learning are provided through overseas exchange programmes in China, Hong Kong, Thailand and Malaysia.[5]

Academic Programme

The Academic Programme allows students to explore both breadth and depth across a range of subjects. Students complete work in the Foundation and Exploration subjects before proceeding to the Consolidation subjects.

Subjects allow students to have a good understanding of the various disciplines: Mathematics, Science, Aesthetics and Language Arts and the Humanities. New subjects such as Aesthetics, Biomedical Science and Economics may be offered to students. The RVIP is a 6-year course leading to the G.C.E "A" Level Examination. Teacher-mentors will guide the students in their choice of subjects. The table shows the Foundation, Exploration and Consolidation subjects spanning a 6-year coursework. In Years 5 and 6, students will follow the revised G.C.E. "A" Level curriculum. Every student will be required to take at least 1 contrasting subject, that is, at least one Arts/Humanities or Mathematics/Science subject outside his main area of specialisation.[6]

CHAMPS Programme

CHAMPS is an acronym for

CHAMPS is a unique and integrated Pupil Development Programme designed by RV. It focuses on the nurturance of values and character. It seeks to develop life skills, and the social, national, cultural and moral consciousness of the students. ASK will be infused in the teaching and learning of PDP. Besides the core modules in CHAMPS, students would complete at least 1 PDP elective module each year.[7]

CCE Programme

CCE is an acronym for

CCE is a programme designed by MOE. It teaches students to be responsible to family and community; and understand their roles in shaping the future of Singapore.

Co-Curricular Programme

The principal feature of the school's Co-Curricular Programme (CCP) is to support the holistic development of students and stretch them beyond the academic domain. The CCP is designed to uncover talents, develop potential, build character, stretch physical and mental capacities and cultivate a lifelong interest in healthy activities.

The CCP is delivered through a broad framework of Co-Curricular Activities (CCA) and Enrichment Programmes. These also allow the students to demonstrate initiative, self-directedness, independent learning and decision-making. Pupils are also encouraged to take up leadership positions to hone their leadership skills. All pupils must participate in one core co-curricular activity.[8]

Co-curricular activities (CCAs)

River Valley High School is home to a plethora of co-curricular activity groups, a substantial proportion of which stands among the best in the nation. It has achieved the Sustained Achievement Award in three areas: Physical Fitness, Aesthetics and Uniformed Groups.

Performing Arts

Singapore Youth Festival Arts Presentation (Distinction) - 2013 Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging (Gold) - 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2009
Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging (Gold with Honours) - 2005, 2007, 2011

Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging (Gold) - 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2011
Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging (Gold with Honours) - 2005
Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging (Silver) - 2009
4th Asian Symphonic Band Competition, 2nd Prize - 2002

Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging (Gold) - 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2009
Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging (Gold with Honours) - 2007, 2011

Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging (Gold) - 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2009, 2011
Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging (Gold with Honours) - 2005, 2007
Singapore Youth Festival (Merit) - 2013,2015
INTERKULTUR Shaoxing World Choir Games (Gold Diploma) - 2010
Prague Christmas Advent Festival (Gold Diploma) - 2012

Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging (Bronze) - 2009
Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging (Silver) - 2011 Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging (Distinction) - 2015

Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging (Gold) - 2003, 2011
Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging (Gold with Honours) - 2009
Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging (Bronze) - 2005, 2007

Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging (Gold) - 2007
Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging (Silver) - 2009
Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging (Bronze) - 2011

RV's niche is in performing arts, and every student, teacher, parent and members of the top management involves and supports the performing arts programmes fully. The four performing arts groups in RV bring the school's performing arts achievements to their respective pinnacles in the 21st Century. RV's performing arts is well known in the local scene for producing performances of high standards. For the achievements that the performing arts groups have obtained, the school is awarded with the Sustained Achievement Award for Arts since 2001.

Uniformed groups

have been consistently awarded the "Corps Achievement Award (Gold)" - 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012

The uniformed groups have also been an integral part of RV. The uniformed groups form parades in school for important events such as the annual speech day. They are also well-recognised as one of the premier uniformed groups in the West Zone Cluster. The uniformed groups have been contributing many awards and accolades to the school, often bringing along with them fame and honour.

The uniformed groups are an iconic feature in RV, making them stand out among other CCAs. The uniformed groups members are respected in the school for what they are doing, and what they have helped the school to become

For the achievements, the school has been awarded with the Sustained Achievement Award for Uniformed Groups since 2001.

Sports

RV also offers sports CCAs:

National Schools Games Awards:

  • C Boys Division - Third
  • C Girls Division - Fourth
  • C Boys Team Quanshu - Bronze
  • C Girls Team Quanshu - 4th
  • A Girls Team Quanshu - Bronze
  • C Boys Individual Events - 5 Golds, 2 Silvers, 2 Bronzes
  • C Girls Individual Events - 2 Golds, 2 Silvers, 2 Bronzes
  • B Boys Individual Events - 1 Bronze
  • A Girls Individual Events - 3 Bronzes

Clubs and societies

2007:

2008:

2009:

2011:

Awards and accolades

The Ministry of Education, Singapore gives out awards annually to recognise the efforts of the school in promoting various aspects of education. River Valley High School has always been a prominent recipient of these awards, being one of the first five schools to receive the Sustained Achievement Awards. In 2000, River Valley High School was also one of the first school to receive all three Sustained Achievement Awards available then.

In 2002, River Valley High School was independently audited and was awarded the Singapore Quality Class.

When the School Excellence Award and the School Distinction Award were established in 2004 to succeed the school ranking system that was becoming obsolete due to the introduction of the integrated programme, River Valley High School was one of the three schools to receive both special awards.

Notable alumni

Government and politics

Entertainment

The Arts

Corporate

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://sg.theasianparent.com/river-valley-high-principal-removed-from-his-position/
  2. ↑ The RVIP Graduate
  3. ↑ RVIP Curriculum Framework
  4. ↑ The Construct, Integrate, Differentiate Programme
  5. ↑ CID Extended Learning
  6. ↑ The Academic Programme
  7. ↑ RVIP Pupil Development Programme
  8. ↑ The Co-Curricular Programme
  9. ↑ National Junior Robotics Competition 2008 Results
  10. ↑ National Junior Robotics Competition 2010 Results
  11. ↑ FIRST Lego League World Festival 2008 Awards List
  12. ↑ From FIRST LEGO League Singapore 2009 Team with Thanks!
  13. ↑
  14. ↑ http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=59498649&ticker=QMBN:GR

External links

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