Fajar Secondary School (FJS) Chinese: 励进中学 is a newly merged co-educational secondary school in Bukit Panjang, Singapore. It is formed with the merger of Chestnut Drive Secondary School (CDSS) and Fajar Secondary School (FSS).
Chestnut Drive Secondary School (CDSS) 1968-2015
Chestnut Drive Secondary School (CDSS) received her first cohort of students on 4 January 1968. She started as a Chinese Integrated School with an enrolment figure of 787. The school was officially opened by then Member of Parliament, Mr. P. Selvadurai on 12 June 1969.
The school is situated in a choice private residential district in Upper Bukit Timah. It was built to serve a vast area, with students coming from Woodlands, Jurong, Bukit Batok, Choa Chu Kang and even Yishun.
The school conducted classes for both the English and Chinese streams in her early years until 1988 when the Chinese Stream was phased out due to the implementation of the national curriculum.
The School Advisory Committee and Pupil Welfare Fund were set up in the 1970s during the tenure of the first principal, Mdm. Lo Pui Yu. The school song was composed in 1976 by the third Principal, Mr. Lee Thiam Lock.
Under the stewardship of the seventh Principal, Ms. Chan Mee Leen, the school underwent a phased reconstruction which was completed in 2005. On 9 July 2005, the new campus was declared officially opened by Dr. Teo Ho Pin, Mayor of North-West District and Member of Parliament for Holland-Bukit Panjang GRC. In 2011, the school celebrated its 45th anniversary with an original musical.
On 15 December 2012, Mdm Tan Miao Ling was appointed the ninth Principal of CDSS, taking the mantle from Mr. Teoh Teik Hoe.
In late 2014, the school started her preparations for merger with Fajar Secondary School to become Fajar Secondary School, 励进中学, from 1 January 2016. On 21 November 2015, the school finally closed her doors with a fitting function “Celebrations 2015” where CDSS ex School Leaders, Pioneer Teachers, Senior Educators, ex-staff and ex-students attended. The function was graced by Ms Sim Ann, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth & Ministry of Finance and MP for Holland-Bukit Timah GRC.
Fajar Secondary School (FSS) 1994-2015
In January 1994, with an enrolment of 307 students and a teaching strength of 17 teachers, Fajar Secondary School (FSS), 法嘉中学
[1] started its functioning at Greenridge Secondary School with Mr Law Ngee Seng (1994 – 1995) as the 1st Principal before it was shifted to its current premises at 31 Gangsa Road in 1996. The campus was officially opened on 11 July 1998 with Mr Saminathan Gopal (1995 – 2001) as the 2nd Principal. Mdm Goh Mee Mee became the 3rd Principal from 2001 to 2007. Mdm Ng Shok Yan was its 4th Principal (2008 - 2013) with Mrs Sng Siew Hong being the 5th and last Principal from Jan 2014 to Dec 2015 before the merger of Fajar Secondary and Chestnut Drive Secondary to form Fajar Secondary School, 励进中学 from Jan 2016.
Even as a young school, FSS established itself in the area of Co-curricular Activities. The school had 6 Uniformed Groups (UG) and had received the Sustained Achievement Award (SAA) for the UG category for twelve consecutive years (2002 – 2013) before the SAA was removed from the revamped MOE Masterplan of Awards. Of worthy mention were the Scouts UG who received 9 Gold Awards since 2004 and sustained 6 consecutive Gold Awards from 2009 to 2015. To encourage an active lifestyle and a love for sports, the school offered a range of games played at competitive levels. In the area of performing arts, the school won an impressive array of awards for Modern Dance and the Symphonic Band at the SYF Arts Presentation since 2003 with English Drama achieving Gold (with Honours) Award in 2005 and a Distinction Award in 2013 - pinnacle awards which highlighted the standards that could be achieved through sheer hard work and determination.
FSS was an oasis of learning with programmes that provided abundant opportunities for the holistic development of each student. The school was awarded the Development Award (DA) for National Education (NE) as well as for Character Development (CD) for providing the knowledge, experience and tools for the students to know and understand Singapore and for having put in place systems and processes for the effective development of students’ character.
The school believed firmly that partnerships developed with stakeholders such as parents, alumni and the community would bring forth the best education in the students. For the meaningful engagement with stakeholders, the school was awarded the PARTNERS Award in 2013. Besides having a strong Parent Support Group (PSG) which facilitated seminars, workshops and gatherings to engage parents, parents were also involved through regular Parent-Teacher Sessions organised by the school to build strong tripartite relationship between the school, parents and students. The school was also the receiver of the CDAC 5-Year Award in 2015 in recognition of the support and contributions towards building a cohesive and resilient community that strived for upward social mobility through self-help and mutual support.
FSS staff were placed in areas of work that harnessed their individual strengths and passion with strong emphasis on continual learning. For example, teachers actively engage in upgrading their skills through attending conferences, reading Master's Degree courses, developing lessons based on the guiding principle of differentiated learning to meet the learning needs of the students, prototyping innovation projects and sharing them at various national and international platforms. Thus, academic programmes could be tailored to cater to students with different abilities. As each student was being nurtured to their level best, students in the GCE 'O' Level course were even offered up to 8 subjects if they were deemed able to cope.
With emphasis moving towards student-centric, values-driven education, the school had developed a strong values-based Character Education (CE) Curriculum designed to develop in students a passion for learning, confidence in the pursuit of success and the humility to lead and to serve - The FAJAR values (Learn with Humility, Give with Joy, Shine with Confidence) served the underlining foundation of each Fajarian’s core values. In manifesting leadership skills, the school capitalised on the creation and breaking of Singapore Records as one of the many platforms used to engender a sense of togetherness in our students through team-building via the achievement of a common task. The school had, since starting with the 1st record on 31 Aug 2009, broken 38 Singapore Records and 1 Guinness World Record with the 38th record conceptualised and broken with SG50 in mind. Following the tradition of teaching the newly-Secondary 1 students to embrace school values, student leaders guided them and senior citizens from Bright Hill and Sun Love to create this 50-cent milestone Singapore Record.
In 2014, the school established its Student Leadership Programme as a Signature Niche Area under the Learning for Life Programme (LLP) in the area of community and youth leadership, anchoring on the belief that every student could be developed as a leader. The desired outcomes for students were that they would nurture into leaders who lead their own lives responsibly, impact the community they live in and contribute meaningfully to the society and nation. The LLP, guided by the “3E” framework of “Educate-Encourage-Empower”, was built on existing structures and framework and provided further opportunities and platforms to develop leadership competencies. • Educate all students through a differentiated leadership development programmes (e.g. Sec 1 to 3 Leadership Series, Character Education Lessons, Training programmes for Student Leaders & CCA Leaders, participation of cluster/national events such as National Secondary School Student Leaders Conference and Outward Bound School); • Encourage all students to apply and transfer their learnings through leading self and/or leading others through the varied platforms within and beyond the school (includes student leadership positions, recognition structures and awards such as NYAA, Northwest CDC Outstanding All Rounder Student Award, EAGLES and ECHA nominations) • Empower students to initiate and lead in school and community services (e.g. school Speech Day, NE Commemorative events, Values In Action (VIA) initiatives, students self-initiated improvement projects and Level Dialogues with school leaders). This LLP will continue to be manifested in the new merger school.
In creating a platform for Fajarians to reminiscent and appreciate the school at its current site prior to the holding site at 58 Chestnut Drive, a commemoration event known as the Nostalgic Moments was held on Friday morning, 23 Oct 2015 for the Secondary 1 to 3 students and staff. Prior to this, the graduating cohort of Secondary 4 and 5 students had their Graduation Ceremony on Friday morning, 2 Oct 2015.
With this, the school closes its chapter of 21 years as it awaits the new chapter – The New Dawn, when the school functions at 58 Chestnut Drive and moves back to 31 Gangsa Road in January 2018.
