I scored 4 points lower than the national top score in my PSLE. But I did not get to go to my 'first choice' school, Cedar Girls.
By a twist of luck, I ended up being posted to TKGS. I was apprehensive because having come from a co-ed school, it felt kind of weird to be in a school where everyone was a girl! I mean, what was it going to be like with all classmates girls only? What was going to be the difference? How different would it exactly be? Was it true that all the girls in every girl school would become 'gila' and very rowdy?
Anyway, I resisted and remained very miserable about the posting even on the day we had to report to the secondary school. YP brought me there - her school was just next door to TKGS. After the briefing, YP even brought me to Katong Shopping Centre. But even that didn't cheer me up. Sigh.
I was posted to the 1st 'technical' class. It was known to be a technical class because the girls in this class attended technical workshop and 'metal work' and 'wood work' classes in place of home economics (what they called 'homec' then).
The MEP students (including me) were distributed amongst all the different 9 classes, technical and homec.
My form teacher was a pretty lady called Miss Cynthia Ng. She was tall and spoke in a loud and clear voice. I quite liked her, and I remember that she looked rather stylo in sunglasses when she took us on a class outing to the East Coast beach after the exams.
The way she chose the class monitress, however, was not very good. First, she asked, "Who in your former school was a prefect?"
Almost every single girl had her hand up.
So she shook her head and asked again, "Who in your former school was a head prefect?"
This time, several hands went up. Miss Ng looked around and simply pointed to a Sikh girl whose hand was raised. "Ok, you will be the monitress," she said.
The monitress turned out to be ok, rather responsible and capable but I didn't quite like the way Miss Ng had gone about chosing our monitress.
My grades in the 1st year plummeted at the end of the year. I was shocked. So were my teachers. I remember that the principal then, Miss Bandara, left an encouraging note on my report book. The feeling I got was that: I was now in a big ocean, not small pond anymore. A bit scary thinking, actually.
My classmates came from many different schools. My partner was a tall girl called Zhao Yongya (Eng Ngar). She was a very humble girl, who taught me not to be afraid to ask questions even if the questions may seem silly.
One day, while we were in the toilet, I wondered aloud what the container looking like a drum was for? You know, the one for putting the toilet roll so that we can 'pull' the toilet paper as we would do with tissue in a tissue box. Yongya told me what it was for, and then when I said, "Aiyoh, I was so silly,", she said, "No, don't worry. It's ok to ask. This, I may know but you may know some other things that I don't know. So we can learn from each other."
Wow, that was so inspiring and encouraging, right?!
Another classmate I recall is a friendly girl called Bao Lijin. She told us to call her 'Bao'. I felt odd at first but soon got used to it. Special name, hor?!
My best friend in 1/7 was a girl who lived in AMK. her name was also very special: Yang Mengbing - Yeo Mon Ping. We used to wonder why she was given this name. Her parents were very kind and hospitable when we visited their home during CNY. (Yes, during our times, somehow we were more into visiting one another at our homes.)
C1's daughter was also in 1/7. She formed her own clique with ppl sitting sround her. We kept apart most time, so much so that when our classmates found out that we were cousins, someone asked me, "How come you are cousins?!"
Another pair of cousins in the class was Yang Shufang and Yang Shuhui - Sok Huang and Sok Hui. Both were quite loud and gila. 'Havoc' girls.
Maybe one day I should look for some old photos to post here - then I can better recall all others, too.
By a twist of luck, I ended up being posted to TKGS. I was apprehensive because having come from a co-ed school, it felt kind of weird to be in a school where everyone was a girl! I mean, what was it going to be like with all classmates girls only? What was going to be the difference? How different would it exactly be? Was it true that all the girls in every girl school would become 'gila' and very rowdy?Anyway, I resisted and remained very miserable about the posting even on the day we had to report to the secondary school. YP brought me there - her school was just next door to TKGS. After the briefing, YP even brought me to Katong Shopping Centre. But even that didn't cheer me up. Sigh.
I was posted to the 1st 'technical' class. It was known to be a technical class because the girls in this class attended technical workshop and 'metal work' and 'wood work' classes in place of home economics (what they called 'homec' then).
The MEP students (including me) were distributed amongst all the different 9 classes, technical and homec.
My form teacher was a pretty lady called Miss Cynthia Ng. She was tall and spoke in a loud and clear voice. I quite liked her, and I remember that she looked rather stylo in sunglasses when she took us on a class outing to the East Coast beach after the exams.
The way she chose the class monitress, however, was not very good. First, she asked, "Who in your former school was a prefect?"
Almost every single girl had her hand up.
So she shook her head and asked again, "Who in your former school was a head prefect?"
This time, several hands went up. Miss Ng looked around and simply pointed to a Sikh girl whose hand was raised. "Ok, you will be the monitress," she said.
The monitress turned out to be ok, rather responsible and capable but I didn't quite like the way Miss Ng had gone about chosing our monitress.
My grades in the 1st year plummeted at the end of the year. I was shocked. So were my teachers. I remember that the principal then, Miss Bandara, left an encouraging note on my report book. The feeling I got was that: I was now in a big ocean, not small pond anymore. A bit scary thinking, actually.
My classmates came from many different schools. My partner was a tall girl called Zhao Yongya (Eng Ngar). She was a very humble girl, who taught me not to be afraid to ask questions even if the questions may seem silly.
One day, while we were in the toilet, I wondered aloud what the container looking like a drum was for? You know, the one for putting the toilet roll so that we can 'pull' the toilet paper as we would do with tissue in a tissue box. Yongya told me what it was for, and then when I said, "Aiyoh, I was so silly,", she said, "No, don't worry. It's ok to ask. This, I may know but you may know some other things that I don't know. So we can learn from each other."
Wow, that was so inspiring and encouraging, right?!
Another classmate I recall is a friendly girl called Bao Lijin. She told us to call her 'Bao'. I felt odd at first but soon got used to it. Special name, hor?!
My best friend in 1/7 was a girl who lived in AMK. her name was also very special: Yang Mengbing - Yeo Mon Ping. We used to wonder why she was given this name. Her parents were very kind and hospitable when we visited their home during CNY. (Yes, during our times, somehow we were more into visiting one another at our homes.)
C1's daughter was also in 1/7. She formed her own clique with ppl sitting sround her. We kept apart most time, so much so that when our classmates found out that we were cousins, someone asked me, "How come you are cousins?!"
Another pair of cousins in the class was Yang Shufang and Yang Shuhui - Sok Huang and Sok Hui. Both were quite loud and gila. 'Havoc' girls.
Maybe one day I should look for some old photos to post here - then I can better recall all others, too.
1 comment:
Yes it is funny and heartwarming to see all those faces and hear their comments again, right?
I went back to DHS (new campus in Tanjong Rhu) and met up with my volleyball/PE teacher. He was so touched and surprised cos no one else in my cohort did that.
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