Saint Anthony's Canossian Secondary School

St. Anthony's Canossian Secondary School (Abbreviation: SACSS) is a girls' secondary school located in Bedok, Singapore. It is part of the Canossian (Canossian Daughters of Charity, FDCC) family of Catholic girls' schools in Singapore.

Relative to the long history of Music and Visual Arts in the Singapore schools' instructional curriculum, Dance and Drama programmes have both been relatively recent additions to the core curricula at select secondary schools. By integrating the two dynamic Performing Arts programmes into the existing Music and Visual Arts curricula at SACSS, the school has been able to widen students' appreciation of Arts as well as cater to the unique needs of students with different artistic talents through the expanded range of programmes. In 2002, The school receive recognition for its Niche in Performing Arts Education.

History

In August 1879, Fr Jose Pedro Santa Anna de Cunha of St Joseph's Church started a school for poor parishioners. As a result, the St. Anna's School with an enrolment of 6 students opened in Middle Road. In 1886, the school became known as St. Anthony's Boys' & Girls' School. The boys' and girls' school split 15 years later. The first four Canossian sisters arrived to run the Portuguese Mission school, and there the poor and neglected found refuge. The younger girls attended school while the older ones learned sewing and embroidery. The 1900s marked the beginning of a new era for the school. St. Anthony's Girls' School was renamed St. Anthony's Convent in 1906. Subsequently, a new chapel, quarters for the nuns, a kindergarten and first Junior Cambridge class (equivalent to Secondary 3 or 4) were added.

The school buildings survived the war and Japanese Occupation. The Japanese military police took over the school and the sisters were placed under house arrest. When the war ended, the buildings were used to house war orphans. In 1952, the wooden convent was demolished and a 5-storey building constructed in its place. The following year, the new school was officially opened.

In 2002, the School introduced a brand new uniform to commemorate its first year of being a government-aided autonomous girls' school. The year 2002 ended with a watershed historical event of the handover of stewardship of St. Anthony's Canossian Secondary School to its first lay principal in its 108-year history. Sr. Cecily Pavri, being the last Canossian nun to lead the school, handed over the reins of leadership to vice-principal Mrs Jennifer Loh on January 1, 2003.^[1]

Present-day

In January 2011, St. Anthony's underwent renovations through the PRIME programme. Construction is slated to be completed by the end of 2012.^[2][3] Classes are held at temporary premises in Changi. It maintains relationships with other students from Roman Catholic schools in Singapore such as the St. Patrick's School boys and CHIJ convent girls.

Notable alumnae

• Cynthia Koh: Actress, Mediacorp
• Belinda Lee: Television presenter and actress, Mediacorp

Affiliation

SACSS is affiliated to:

• Canossa Convent Primary School
• Saint Anthony's Canossian Primary School
• Catholic Junior College

Awards and Achievements

Ministry of Education Awards

• MOE School Distinction Award 2008
• MOE Best Practice Teaching and Learning Award 2007
• MOE Sustained Value Added Award (Acacdemic) 9th award (2010)
• MOE Sustained Value Added Award (Aesthetics)2nd Award (2009)
• MOE Character Development Award 2010
• Singapore Quality Class Award 2009

Co-Curricular Activities (CCA) Achievements

Singapore Youth Festival 2015 Results:

Angklung/Kulintang Ensemble: Certificate of Distinction

Concert Band: Certificate of Distinction

Choir: Certificate of Distinction

Drama: Certificate of Distinction

Guitar Ensemble: Certificate of Distinction

Indian Dance: Certificate of Distinction

Modern Dance: Certificate of Distinction

References

External links

• School Website
• Profile on MOE website