monk's hill secondary lives on

even though monk's hill secondary school became history in 2006, images of its past glories are still being flashed about. today, when i visited the new amenities centre at macritchie reservoir park, i came across the above photograph (taken by some straits times photographer), and the caption that went with it.

the school merged with balestier hill secondary school in 2007 and its premises have since been taken over by acs junior school. however, the old pre-war monk's hill school building still stands.

my association with monk's hill secondary went back to the days when i studied at newton boys' school. from my classroom, i could see the students of the integrated - malay and english - school streaming out of the main gate at dismissal time.

when i attended secondary school, i had a chance to go back to the area when my own school played against the monk's hill secondary team in an exciting action-packed rugby match. the bodily actions continued even after the match.

in 1987, i was posted to teach at monk's hill secondary. i taught there until 1998 - the year i requested a transfer to a primary school in woodlands. so, i spent some years in the old building and some in the new.

in the 70s, monk's hill secondary school excelled in a number of sports, one of which was cross-country running. their girls' teams were formidable. i remember the teacher in charge as one mr willie tan whom i used to run into at macritchie reservoir when i was training the balestier hill secondary runners. in the middle of the 80s, they had one sikh boy - whose name i cannot remember - who won the individual championship for his division.

picture from national archives of singapore