Story of Beatty Secondary

In March 1953, the Deputy Director of Education, Mr R.E Ince invited the Principal of Victoria School, Mr R. F. Bouford, to visit a school building which was almost ready to be taken over by the Education Department from PWD. This was situated near the former Rumah Miskin Police Station along Serangoon Road. The Supervisor of Victoria Continuation School, Reverend Daniel Elijah Sundram, was asked to accompany them as an interested party. The school was later named BEATTY SECONDARY SCHOOL.

Beatty Secondary School was officiallly opened on 6 July 1953 by Mr R. M. Young, the Director of Education. The co-educational school functioned immediately after the opening ceremony. The morning and afternoon sessions, however, functioned as different schools. While the morning school had Mr A.G. Meyer, a Raffles trained teacher, then the Principal of Tampines Morning School, the afternoon school had Reverend Daniel E. Sundram.

The school began with 323 students in eight classes: 3 Standard Six classes from Bartley Secondary School and 3 Standard Seven and 2 Standard Eight Classes from Victoria Continuation School. This was a departure from the original plan of having only 120 students in Standard Six.

In January 1954, the rest of victoria Continuation School, including the staff, moved in. In addition, the students from Gan Eng Seng School and Serangoon Continuation School did likewise. By now, there was 23 classes functioning with 928 students. With such a diverse student population, the plan then was a ‘one-school’ policy. Subsequently, internal arrangements were made by Mr A.G. Meyer and Reverend Daniel E Sundram. Henceforth, the school functioned as one school in the morning under one single Principal.

The afternoon session was used to accommodate classes from other schools. In 1956, the afternoon session classes were moved to Kwong Avenue Primary School. In the same year, the girls were transferred to Cedar Girls’ Secondary School. Beatty Secondary became full fledged all-boy secondary school. 20 students from Chinese Middle School were also admitted to the Post School Certificate class. Hence, the beginning of pre-university education in Beatty Secondary.

The afternoon session was re-introduced to Beatty Secondary in 1960 and was run as part of the Beatty Secondary School administration.

Over the years, the student population increased significantly. The old school premises and facilities were inadequate for both the staff and students. In the late 1970s, Mr Lim Bok Hai, the then school Principal, initiated the move to larger premises with better facilities. The old Beatty Secondary School eventually moved to its present premises in Toa Payoh in March 1982. It was officially opened on 26 July 1983 by Mr Michael Liew, the former Member of Parliament for Boon Teck. In the same year, girls were re-admitted to Secondary One. The school saw the graduation of its last batch of Pre-U 3 students in 1991. From 1992 onwards, it has functioned as a full-co-educational secondary school. The school turned single session again in 1996. In 1996, the school had 40 clasess with a total population of 1,500.