Tanglin Trust School

Tanglin Trust School (TTS) is an international school in Singapore. The school teaches a British-based curriculum and is intended primarily to serve the British expatriate community in Singapore. The school has over 2,000 students. Though the majority of students come from the United Kingdom, around 40 different nationalities are represented among the student body. Very few Singaporean students attend the school, however, as the Singapore government's regulations prevent most of its citizens from attending international schools within the country. The school was founded in 1925. For much of its existence, the school was a primary school, but in the mid-1990s, the school expanded and now also offers full secondary education.

In 2006, "The Guardian" newspaper named Tanglin Trust School as one of the best UK-curriculum international schools in the world. [ [http://education.guardian.co.uk/publicschools/story/0,,1970352,00.html A guide to schools abroad that offer a British curriculum] , educationguardian.co.uk, 12 December 2006.]

"The Good Schools Guide International" remarked that the school is "a well-resourced, well-run school with a sound academic record and good facilities." [http://gsgi.co.uk/countries/singapore/tanglin-trust-school?]

History

The school was founded on the island of Singapore in 1925 by Anne Griffith-Jones. The school was initially known as Tanglin Preparatory School, and operated from premises within the Tanglin Club. It opened with just five students, but soon began to grow rapidly. At the time, many British expatriates living in Singapore sent their children away to boarding school in Britain at an early age. The school offered the alternative of providing British-style education in Singapore, so parents could postpone boarding school until an older age.

In 1935, Griffith-Jones opened a second school – the Tanglin Boarding School in the Cameron Highlands (now part of Malaysia). Again this was intended as a near-by alternative for expatriate families living in the region who would otherwise have to send their children to boarding schools in Britain. Many children who attended the school in Singapore up to the age of eight then went on to the boarding school in the Cameron Highlands, which catered for students up to the age of 13. The Japanese occupation of the Malay Peninsula in 1942 forced the closure of both schools, as British expatriates in the region (including Griffith-Jones) were interned by the Japanese. The schools reopened after the war. In 1948, the school in Cameron Highlands had to be put under full-time armed guard after terrorists surrounded the school, and was eventually forced to close by the Federal Government for security reasons. However the school in Singapore continued to flourish.

In 1958, Griffith-Jones retired and sold the private company Tanglin School Ltd to the British European Association in Singapore. In 1961, governance of the school was handed over to a non-profit education Trust known as the Tanglin Trust Ltd.

In 1971, the Trust opened a second British international primary school in Singapore called Weyhill Preparatory School. Three years later the Trust also took over the running of another international school in Singapore called Raeburn Park School, which had originally been in opened in 1954 by the Singapore Harbour Board for the children of its expatriate staff. In 1981, the three schools were merged into one at its present campus on Portsdown Road. Initially, the campus housed two largely separate-functioning infant and junior schools known as Tanglin Infant School and Tanglin Junior School. A separate nursery school (known as Winchester Nursery School) also operated at different premises for a few years, but this was later moved to the Portsdown Road campus. In the late-1980s, the administration and curriculum of the schools was centralised under a single Head Teacher and the name Tanglin Trust School was adopted.

The school expanded its student age-range beyond primary school in 1996. It now takes in students up to the age of 18, and prepares the secondary-age students for GCSE and A-Level examinations.

Alumni

Well-known alumni of Tanglin Trust School include:

*Daniel Bennett – professional football player for the Singapore national football team and in Singapore's S.League
*Philip Jeyaretnam – Singaporean writer and lawyer
*Blair McDonough – Australian actor

References

External links

* [http://www.tts.edu.sg/ Official website of the Tanglin Trust School]
* [http://www.gsgi.co.uk/countries/singapore/tanglin-trust-school Profile at the Good Schools Guide International]