ACS (Primary) Will Start to Accept Girls & Name of Old Campus Will be Changed, Too

Last Updated on 2023-03-07 , 11:11 am

When you think about people who say that they bleed red, gold and blue, you probably have a school in mind.

Yup, Anglo-Chinese School (ACS).

With multiple campuses across Singapore, ACS is known for being a boys’ school at the primary and secondary levels, but that’s about to change soon.

Starting in 2030, ACS (Primary) will be taking in female students, making it a co-ed school.

According to the announcement made by the Ministry of Education (MOE) today (9 February), the school will also be shifting over 12km away from its current campus at 50 Barker Road to Tengah.

Here’s all you need to know about how this development is going to work.

Plans for the Current ACS (Primary) Campus at Barker Road

For starters, all students who enrol in ACS (Primary) until 2029 will continue to study at the Barker Road campus until they graduate from the school, so there’s no need to panic about having to wake your children 45 minutes earlier than usual just for them to get to school on time.

After that, the campus in Tengah will be opened in 2030. For Phase 1 admissions, it will admit both male and female siblings of existing students from the Barker Road campus.

According to the press release issued by MOE today (9 February), “MOE will allow ACS(P)@Barker [i.e. ACS (Primary)] to continue to admit younger male siblings at P1 from 2030 onwards, as long as they have an older sibling still studying at ACS(P)@Barker”.

And because this is probably more confusing than when you tried to learn how to bet on TOTO for the first time, we break it down for you.

Basically, the Barker campus will still take in male students whose older brothers are studying at ACS (Primary) from 2030 onwards.

ACS (Primary) at Barker Road to Eventually Consolidate with ACS (Junior)

However, the cohort sizes for these intakes will decrease until ACS (Primary) at Barker consolidates (basically, merge) with ACS (Junior), which is located at Winstedt Road.

And yes, these two schools are different schools.

The consolidation is expected to happen around 2023, and the new school will operate under the name of ACS (Junior).

The newly-formed ACS (Junior) will continue to operate from both the Barker Road and Winstedt Road campuses until around 2039.

Afterwards, the entire school will be shifted to Barker Road.

So, TL;DR: The ACS (Primary) campus at Barker Road will “merge” with ACS (Junior) and take on the latter’s name, but the new ACS (Junior) will eventually operate out of the current site of ACS (Primary) at Barker Road.

This will mean that ACS (Junior) will continue to be a boys’ school while ACS (Primary) will be a co-ed one.

Plans for the New ACS (Primary) Campus at Tengah

As for the campus at Tengah, the new ACS (Primary) will start operations in 2030 after accepting 11 classes of Primary 1 students.

That’s about 330 students.

According to Mr Richard Seow, Chairman of the ACS Board of Governors, the school’s shift in campus will let the board “strategically review and reorganise [ACS’] primary schools to respond to wider national trends such as low birth rates and with more younger families moving to new and emerging estates”.

ACS Initiated the Shift in Campus

Apart from that, MOE also revealed that ACS had actually initiated the shift in the ACS (Primary) campus after the school suggested relocating in order to “serve the wider community”.

After discussions with MOE began early last year, ACS was offered the site at Tengah, which has seen an increase in Build-to-Order (BTO) projects.

In particular, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) recently rolled out two projects in November 2022 comprising 2,077 BTO units.

The projects, which have waiting times of only a little over three years, bring the total number of BTO units in the area to almost 17,000.

However, MOE also told ACS that it would have to take in female students if they decide to relocate to Tengah in order to “meet the local community’s needs”.

ACS to Partner With Methodist Welfare Services to Set Up Special Education Primary School

And that’s not all.

New schools will be set up in Singapore over the next few years as well.

In particular, ACS will be partnering with Methodist Welfare Services to set up a special education (SPED) primary school in the upcoming years.

The school will focus on admitting students with autism spectrum disorder who can access the national curriculum, bringing the total number of schools in Singapore which accepts such students to five.

The school, which has yet to be named, is slated to be opened in 2026.

It will first accept students at an interim site, which is the site of the former Chua Chu Kang Secondary School, before moving to its permanent campus next to ACS (Primary) in Tengah in 2031.

“This will allow greater partnerships between the two schools and provide more opportunities for students from both schools to interact through joint activities and academic learning,” MOE added in the press release.

Regarding this partnership, Mr Seow from ACS said, “We are deeply grateful to have this honour of serving students with special needs by providing them with quality education.”

He added that this partnership has been something that the Board of Governors at ACS have been envisioned for a long time and that the board is “truly appreciative” that they get this “humbling opportunity to serve humanity in a new way”.

Third Pathlight School to Relocate to Punggol Instead of Tengah

Aside from the relocation and partnership for ACS schools, the third campus of Pathlight School will also be shifting its location.

Although the school was supposed to relocate to Tengah, it has been decided that the campus will be shifted to Punggol instead.

According to MOE, Punggol was chosen as the school’s newest location as “A review of the geographical spread of the existing [SPED schools that cater to students with autism spectrum disorder who can access the national curriculum] has also shown a need for a new SPED school to meet the needs of the growing population in the North-East region of Singapore”.

Currently, the school is operating out of two interim sites at the former Chong Boon Primary and Secondary Schools. It will continue to do so until the Punggol campus is ready to take in students in 2032.

Just like the SPED school set up by ACS and Methodist Welfare Services, the third campus of Pathlight School will take in around 850 students—500 primary and 300 post-primary school students.

“In planning for the setting up and relocation of schools, MOE takes into account the current and projected population, as well as planned housing development programmes, in order to ensure sufficient school places for our population,” MOE mentioned.

“We will work closely with the schools to ensure a smooth transition to their new sites and continue to respond promptly to the changing demand for school places across Singapore.”

Relocation and Opening of Other Primary Schools in Singapore

Last but not least, MOE also announced the opening or relocating of multiple schools in Singapore.

The schools that will be relocated include Pioneer Primary School and Bukit View Primary School.

The former will be relocating to Tengah in 2026, while the latter will be relocating 2km away from its current site at Bukit Batok East to a new location in Bukit Batok West in 2027.

According to MOE, the relocation of Bukit View Primary School is to “meet the growing demand for school places in Bukit Batok West”.

Apart from that, the new Bukit View Primary School will also be equipped with better facilities.

For now, Bukit View Primary School will continue to admit Primary One students before the entire school moves to the new campus in 2027.

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On the other hand, two new primary schools in Tengah will be opened in 2028, while one new secondary school in Sengkang will be opened in 2026.

This is to meet the rise in demand for spaces in primary and secondary schools in Tengah and the northeast region of Singapore, respectively.

MOE will announce the names of these new schools, which will open with slightly larger cohort sizes, at a later date.

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