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Raffles Institution is an independent boys' secondary school in Singapore. It is well known for being consistently ranked first or second among secondary schools in Singapore in the official annual school rankings published by the Ministry of Education. RI was further recognised by the Ministry of Education in 2004 by being awarded the School Excellence Award (the pinnacle of awards in the Ministry of Education's masterplan), among others. [1] (http://www.moe.gov.sg/press/2004/pr2004sea_sda.htm) RI offers the Integrated Programme, or the Raffles Programme, together with Raffles Girls' School (Secondary) and Raffles Junior College. It also offers an internal Gifted Education Programme. Founded in 1823 as Singapore Institution by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the founder of modern Singapore, it is school with the longest history in Singapore. It was renamed "Raffles Institution" in 1868 as a tribute to Raffles. SymbolsInstitution AnthemThe school's Institution Anthem was written by E W Jesudason, (Headmaster 1963–1966); Interestingly, RI went for more than a century without having a song to call its own. Auspicium Melioris Aevi When Stamford Raffles held the torch Come heed the call Rafflesians all MottoThe school motto reads "Auspicium Melioris Aevi", Latin for "Hope of a better age", signifying the school's desire to be the hope of a better age. School visionTo be a World-Class school delivering a well-rounded education of the highest standards to the best and the brightest. The Principle Of HonourIn intellectual pursuit, I shall reflect discipline and passion for learning and in personal conduct, I shall live in integrity and regard individuals, groups and the community with kindness and respect, and in so doing, uphold the Rafflesian Principle of Honour. Reads the Rafflesian Principle of Honour – a guideline to how to live one's life as a Rafflesian. Plaques with the Principle of Honour are placed prominently in each classroom in the campus to serve as a reminder of one's place in society. During the Orientation Programme for Secondary One students, the Principle of Honour is also permanently implanted into the students' subconscious. School coat of armsThe school shield is a modified version of the Raffles coat of arms – granted permission to use by his family. The Raffles shield is heater shield divided per fess, the top half in green and the bottom in yellow, inscribed with a two headed eagle - a traditional symbol of power and majesty - on head looking back on the past to draw strength, and the other, onto the future. The top half of the fess is decorated with two medallions. They were presented to Sir Stamford Raffles by a Javanese prince. The upper crest bears an Arabic inscription pledging loyalty, and dangling from it, another bearing a dagger. These medallions were incorporated into the crest in recognition of the services he rendered the British Empire to the East. Above the Raffles shield is the headgear of a knight, and above that, the crest, a crown with a gryphon's head couped facing Dexter. The gryphon - a stately creature, majestic and strong, symbolizing stability and success for the school. Awards and credentialsRaffles Institution has received many awards over the years as Singapore's premiere institution, these awards include
Mentions in the pressRI has also been mentioned in the press (http://www.ri.sch.edu.sg/news/index.htm) several times, both local and international. These include several mentions in The Straits Times and an article in the Wall Street Journal in May 2004. Other credentialsThe RI Bras Basah Campus is featured on the $2 bill in the legal tender of Singapore. HistoryThe original campus of RI was located along Bras Basah Road, where Raffles City (a hotel and shopping centre) now stands today. The school relocated to Grange Road in 1973, and in 1990 moved to its current location at Bishan in central Singapore. Its address at 1 Raffles Institution Lane makes it the only secondary campus in Singapore with a road named after it. RI also has an alumni, noted for its interest and active participation in Singapore's political scene. This includes current Minister Mentor Mr. Lee Kuan Yew and current Senior Minister Mr. Goh Chok Tong and three ex-presidents of Singapore. RI has had a total of 24 headmasters to date. The present headmaster is Mr. Bob Koh CultureUniformLower Secondary students wear a white shirt and white shorts. Upper secondary students have the option of wearing pants, one which most take up – unique among most schools in Singapore, RI boys may choose to wear shorts in their senior years. On Mondays, the boys wear a green-and-black striped tie in addition to their bleached apparel. Shoes are to be white-based, and cannot have any flashy designs and colours. Socks are banned from going below the ankles, and high-cut shoes (basketball shoes) are disallowed. The students are to wear their badges on the top left side of their breast pockets. Teachers have a formal gown for special occasions which include Headmaster's Assembly, a time where the Headmaster delivers his termly report. They are also given special green ties with a single small Raffles Institution logo imprinted on it. AffiliationMain section: Affiliation (Raffles Junior College article) RI is affiliated with Raffles Junior College, and both campuses are co-housed in Bishan side-by-side and run an open campus concept, where students of both schools can access both campuses.
Orientation campEvery year, the new intake of Secondary One students go through an orientation camp, which lasts 3 days and 2 nights. The camp takes students out of their comfort zone and puts them through tough challenges, in an effort to imbue in them the "Rafflesian Spirit". At the end of the camp, they receive their school badges in the formal Junior Rafflesian Investiture Ceremony. Each batch of students also has their own batch song, which they will pass down to their juniors as secondary 4 students. The secondary 4 and secondary 1 students of any year would have the same batch song. The three batch songs are
Prefectorial boardRaffles Institution boasts one of the most vibrant, active, and effective Prefectorial Boards in Secondary Schools in Singapore. The Board is split into 4 main departments: Welfare, Communications, Human Resource and Discipline, each handling the respective matters. It is currently headed by Timothy Chow Zhihao and Huang Kaiyang as the Head Prefect and Deputy Head Prefect respectively. The Prefect Master is Mr Paul Lim and is currently assisted by his deputy, Mr Teo Chai Yaw. The Board organises many events and activities, ranging from talentimes, interests groups and some formal occasions. The Board is also responsible for unique events such as Rafflesian Spotlight, a competition in the performing arts, ranging from singing, to dancing, to band performances. Class Executive CommitteeEvery class in Raffles Institution has its own Class Executive Committee (CEC). The CEC comprises 3 students, the Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer. Often, the class members vote for classmates to take up these positions, but some Form Teachers may choose to impose this task upon themselves. The CEC has many roles in each class. The Chairman is to take class attendance daily, and will be assisted by the Secretary in all administrative matters. The Treasurer is in charge of managing and collecting money for the class funds. Also, the CEC often helps out with school functions, such as the Open House, the Secondary 4 Graduation Ceremony, just to name a few. Thus, the CEC plays a vital role in the day-to-day running of school activities and are the stepping-stone in fostering class spirit. School legendsThe swimming pool is thought to be slightly short of being an Olympic-sized pool (at around 49 metres). According to school legend (probably promoted by the prefectorial board to scare new students during orientation programmes), this is because a grave was found at one end of the pool, making it impossible to build the full 50 metres. However, few have actually bothered to measure the length of the pool. The land on which the present campus was built was formerly occupied by a cemetery, giving rise to numerous ghost stories and reported sightings, especially during overnight camps, outside the staff rooms, science (notably biology) labs and around the Clock Tower. There is one particularly potent haunting on the third floor of the Administration Block, in the corridor leading to the Biology laboratories. It is belived that students that walk along the corridor late in the night would see the head of a floating baby, which is belived to be the ghost of a baby foetus preserved in the Biology laboratories. Also at this spookiest part of the school, which happens to be one of the most poorly lit places at night, there is a male and female toilet at the end of the corridor on 3 stories all on top of one another. Particularly the female toilet (during school hours it is a male toilet) at the ground level, there are numerous reports of ghost sightings. Probably due to the fact that the mirrors of the toilet are removed (which the school administration declines to explain), the pupils who are already stressed out by the sheer amount of work will tend to be overconscious of their surroundings and imagine things which are not there. But there are also many pupils who swear to it but not many people can actually prove it. HousesThe five houses of Raffles, all (but one) of which are named after former headmasters, are Moor, Morrison, Buckley, Bayley, and Hullett, respectively represented by the colours red, blue, green, yellow and black. Moor was the first headmaster of the school; Buckley was a former secretary to the headmaster; Hullett was the Raffles Institution's longest-serving headmaster; Bayley was a headmaster regarded to have "raised the Raffles Institution to a large and flourishing establishment"; and Morrison was the co-founder of Raffles Institution. The houses determine the residence in which boarding students live; they also determine all teams in intramural sports and competitions, and the results from these competitions are summed up in a yearly point system; as such, the houses are a very important part of the school and command a great amount of loyalty from their members. House Events takes place annually, this includes the Track and Field meet, the Swimming Carnival, Cross-Country run and other aesthetics based competitions like Dramafeste. CCAsRaffles Institution has a very active Co-Curricular Activity (CCA) programme, with a wide variety (totalling fifty) of sports, uniformed groups, musical groups, clubs and societies to cater to students' interests. Such sports include swimming and water polo, rugby, softball, and many others. A list of CCAs can be found at the Raffles Institution website. Rugby is considered one of the premier sports of RI which all Rafflesians learn to play during their Physical Education programme. The school has earned top places in many national inter-school competitions, doing notably well in swimming, softball, tennis, judo and cricket among others. In the biennial Singapore Youth Festival of 2003, all, save one, of the Musical Groups bagged a Gold Award; the last was awarded silver. School layout and facilitiesThe RI campus consists six main blocks lying on 10 hectares of land. The main building is housed in the Administrative Block, which are linked to the Senior Block, where some upper secondary classes are located, and the Science Block, where the science laboratories are located. The Junior Block is the newest block on campus, being completed in 1997. It houses the lower secondary students in its four stories. The Design Centre is home to various facilities. These include the art galleries, art rooms, robotics laboratory and a Macintosh Lab. It also serves as a link to the Hong Leong Swimming Complex. The Shaw Foundation Ceremonial Hall (also known as the "dining hall"), Hullett Memorial Library, and Boarding House are wedged between the Junior Block and Design Centre, in an unnamed block. Hullett Memorial LibraryThe Hullett Memorial Library (HML) is situated between the Junior Block and Design Centre and is named after RI's longest serving headmaster, Mr. R. W. Hullett. With nearly 50 thousand books and around 50 computers with internet access, the HML is the most well equipped secondary school library in Singapore. The library also has full-time staff in charge of the place. The HML is designed with the era of Sir Stamford Raffles in mind, so the furniture in the library is custom made, according to the regency style furniture that was used in Raffles' time. Incidentally, it was founded in 1923, making it the oldest library in Singapore. In fact, the origins of Singapore's National Library Board lie in the HML. Sports facilitiesRI offers many sports facilities, the largest of which is the 400-metre track that circles the field. The field is used by CCA groups like rugby, softball and the track and field team to conduct trainings. In addition to that, RI has an Olympic sized swimming pool behind the design block. RI has a gymnasium housing the judo dojo, table tennis training area and a rock wall. In the Albert Hong Hall is a weights room. The campus also has two tennis courts, two basketball courts, three squash courts and two cricket bowling alleys. There is also an underground shooting range. Lastly, RI has an artificial turf commonly termed as the "Astroturf" by all in the school. It is used for hockey training and for many people to play their own sports and games. The turf was donated by the Prince of Brunei in 1994. Boarding facilitiesRI has a Boarding Complex consisting of five blocks. These are named after the houses in the school. Moor is the block only catering to girls. The boarding blocks each can accommodate 90 pupils and every block has its own staff, which is overseen by a Boarding Master. Boarders consist of RI pupils interested in boarding life, scholars from other countries (mostly ASEAN countries), as well as pupils from other secondary schools and junior colleges. Educational facilitiesThe administrative, junior, and senior block all contain classrooms. Each classroom is fully air-conditioned with a console and a projector. The administrative block has three lecture theatres, one audio-visual theatre (AVT), one music laboratory and one band room. In the science block, there are three levels of laboratories — one for each sub-discipline of science, chemistry, physics, and biology. Each floor has four laboratories allocated to it, except for the third floor, which has three biology labs and one Exploratory Lab for research in life sciences. IT facilitiesThe entire school has four general-purpose computer labs, one Macintosh laboratory, and one X-lab (not to be confused with the Exploratory Laboratory) for research in computer studies. Connectivity is supplied to all buildings by the campus LAN, with additional WiFi access blanketing most areas. The IT Department (http://www.ri.sch.edu.sg/departments/it/) is responsible for maintaining maximum uptime to mission critical systems. External links
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