School History
Discover the rich history of Cantonment Primary School, from its roots in the historic Tanjong Pagar estate to its founding in 2011.
The Beginnings of Cantonment Primary - A History and A Journey
Cantonment Primary is situated in the Tanjong Pagar estate. The name Tanjong Pagar reflects its origins as a fishing village in the 19th century. It means "cape of stakes", which was inspired by the presence of kelongs in the area. In the mid-1980s, Tanjong Pagar became the first area in Singapore to be gazetted under the government's conservation plan. One of the highlights of the Tanjong Pagar estate is Cantonment Road, which got its name from the contingent of Indian sepoys stationed here in 1819. "Cantonment" refers to the permanent military accommodation established by the sepoys.
There was once a "Cantonment School" established in 1954, which later merged to become Keppel Primary School in 1984. Cantonment Primary School started in January 2011 with five classes of Primary One students and one class each from Primary Two to Four. The Principal, Mrs Soh Mei Foong, together with an Administrative Manager, three key personnel and nine teachers, looked into establishing the school.
Cantonment Primary's location at the fringes of the civic district, is rich opportunity for the school to tap on the rich authentic resources in the environment to share and impress on our students the country's heritage and legacies. The Cantonment Primary school premises were built with enhanced facilities with the Primary Education Review & Implementation (PERI) recommendations. Those purpose-built facilities provide greater opportunities for the school to facilitate student-engaged teaching and learning.
When the school first opened, catering to four levels immediately was not easy for the teachers, however, the staff enthusiastically rose to the challenge, constructing multiple opportunities for holistic education. The school song our students heartily belt out has lyrics penned by our teachers and put to music, composed by a teacher, Mrs Lydia Wong and her talented husband Mr John Wong. Some of our parent volunteers, led by Mr Wong Ngai Yin, father of Mrs Charmaine Steup (covering Subject Head / English), creatively painted beautiful wall murals in the Media Resource Library (MRL) and Mr Tan Keng Joo, a talented pottery enthusiast and a fellow Principal, designed and moulded a ceramic wall piece for the school to commemorate the school's official opening on 5 July 2013.
The tough work of the pioneering years were made lighter by numerous labours of love lavished by the extended network of being One Cantonment family.