Bukit View Secondary School

Bukit View Secondary School (BtVSS) (simplified Chinese: 百德中学; traditional Chinese: 百德中學; pinyin: Băidé Zhōngxué) is a Government-funded secondary school, located in Bukit Batok, on the western part of Singapore. The school aimed to nurture creativity, passion and resilience in all her students to be people with moral integrity and are responsible to self and society.

School Crest

The school emblem takes the shape of a yellow circle with four equilateral triangles inlaid in the centre of the circle. The first green triangle forms the initial 'B' of Bukit and the remaining one in blue represents the initial 'V' of View. The peaks of the three green triangles form 2 letters 'S' representing Secondary School. The yellow circle represents the brilliance of the sun that signifies our aspirations for a bright future through education. The three green triangles (mountains) symbolise the broad and solid educational foundation on which the pupils will continue to scale higher peaks in their studies, with determination, and to the best of their abilities. The blue triangle (sea) represents the virtue of magnanimity of our pupils. It is also the deep sea of virtues and morals that our pupils have to acquire through education.

The school's Chinese name, 百德 also means One Hundred Virtues.

History

The building of the school began on September 30, 1984 and was completed on December 29, 1985. She started classes with 450 students in the Secondary One and Two levels, and a teaching body of 15 on January 3, 1986, headed by the school's first principal, Mr Ow Chiong Hoo. In the same year, the school saw the first Investiture of the BtVSS Student Council, the formation of the School Military Band and the Library. The school was fully functional with the completion of the outdoor fitness stations and the landscaped garden. In 1987, Bukit View held their first Track-and-Field Meet, and also was the convenor of the West Zone Secondary Schools Badminton Tournament. The school facility also installed an electric kiln installed for students to explore their artistic talents through pottery. On July 15, 1988 Bukit View was officially opened by Mr Chai Chong Yii, MP for Bukit Batok. A school lecture hall was built and officially opened by the newly appointed MP for Bukit Batok Dr Ong Chit Chung on 6 November 1989. In 1997 Bukit View also participated in the 2-day Pesta Sukan National 10's Rugby Tournament for the first time.

On November 13, 1999 Bukit View, along with 7 other schools in Singapore and the National Institute of Education adopted the two-hectare Mandai Forest near Upper Seletar Reservoir Park to help restore the forest patch that was devastated an invasion of the Smilax-variable creeper plant on its grounds, over the years. The adoption project also planned to use the forest habitat restoration to facilitate hands-on learning of forest ecology and biodiversity and equip students and teachers with field-based learning strategies. It was also an opportunity for students from different schools to collaborate on a project that is both about learning and saving the natural environment.

The abbreviation BtVSS was created for the school to prevent constant confusion between the school and Bedok View Secondary School since they share the abbreviation of BVSS in official records. Late 2007, the school held a uniform design competition among the students. The winning entry was a brown theme; the shirt is white with the school's logo and name sewn on with brown shorts or pants for boys, for girls, they have the option between culotte and pinafore. The pinafore differs from the standard, having a more vest-like appearance. Student numbers in 2008 had also reduced to 4 Express classes, 2 Normal (Academic) classes and 1 Normal (Technical) class.

A student team led by Madam Maziyan Abdullah, participated in the 2008 World Media Masters on 28 March 2008, organised by IT Leisure and Education and supported by Creative Community Singapore, an initiative of the Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts (MICA). The team, along with those from 15 other schools participating in the programme, had been provided with professional training on producing computer games since August 2007, enabling them to experience real-life computer game production work and a chance for selected winning team to market their game product commercially international.

Bukit View - host of important events and speeches

Bukit View played host to a number of educational activities for their educational zone. In 1987, she organized the first Annual West Zone Inter-Primary Schools Languages, Maths & Science competitions. She was also the host for the finals of the inaugural Primary Inter-School Chinese Debate between Pei Chun Public School and Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus (CHIJ) on 23 June 1990. The Debate, organized by Mr Ow, saw the Convent emerging as winners for the first of the bi-annual competition.

Between the years 1989 and 1991, the school hall was the venue of choice for important speeches delivered by VIPs from various social levels. They were organized by the Bukit Batok Community Centre Current Affairs Club, and chaired by MP, Dr Ong. Members of the public heard Dr S. Vasoo, MP for Tiong Bahru, delivering his thoughts on having a social network to help the needy, in his speech titled Perspectives on the lower-income group on 23 October 1990. On 23 August 1991 a speech on China's foreign policy was delivered by Mr Zhang Qing, the then-Chinese Ambassador to Singapore to the public. Singapore Ambassador to the US Professor Chan Heng Chee co-chaired a public forum titled The Challenges of Democracy on 12 November 1991.

Project PRIME (Programme For Rebuilding And Improving Existing Schools)

The Ministry of Education launched PRIME on 11 May 1999 to upgrade or rebuild about 290 schools built over the last 20 to 30 years, and as part of the Ministry's "Thinking Schools, Learning Nation" vision ensuring all schools have a conducive physical environment to enhance teaching and learning. Schools constructed before 1997 are upgraded with the construction of extension blocks and alteration of existing school buildings, or rebuilding that involves the construction of new buildings either on existing site or on available vacant sites. The project was implemented over a period of seven years from 1999 to 2005, in three phases with an estimated cost of S$4.46 billion.

Bukit View's upgrading programme took place in June 2005, in Phase 6 of Prime project. This upgrading consisted of the building of the New Block housing the new library, professional sharing room and computer labs. The Old Block and School Hall/Canteen were being refurbished. The Technical Block was expanded to include Chemistry, Biology and Physics Labs, F&N department and the Design & Technology (D&T) Department by December 2006. The upgrading of the main school area was completed by May 2008, and seeing through the completion of the school field and a new indoor sports hall.

Young Designers' Award

Bukit View Secondary School culture encourages art and design with her students. This culture resulted with a total of 19 awards with their innovate designs, in the 12 years' of Young Designers Award. In years 1997 - 2000 alone, she has produced seven winners consecutively in the Award competition.

Bukit View won their first Young Designer Awards in 1989, with the Snap-up Toilet Seat by Leon Koh, and the Unishade designs by Laurence Wong and Jason Ho. In 1990, Li Jianguang (Joeel Lee)'s unique design titled Two-in-One Kettle, showed a two-compartment kettle which enabled water and coffee or tea to be boiled, with a slot allowing disposable filters to be fitted in on one side while water boils in the other. This design came with a 240-volt heater in the middle, to speed up the heating. This unique design was mentioned in the feature article published in The New Paper.

On September 22, 1993, 16-year-old Ow Hee Jiann won an 2nd prize in the Intermediate category of the Young Designers Award for his innovative wheelchair design. In 2000, 14-year-old Choo Shiling won the top prize in the Junior Category of the Young Designers Award, with her design Nature Seat. Her winning entry beat the other 228 entries in that category.