Sitting nicely on a small hill opposite Springleaf Estate along Upper Thomson Road, this school has been forgotten since its closure in 1997. This is the previous campus of Upper Thomson Secondary School and Seletar Institute.
Upper Thomson Secondary School started in 1965, the same year Singapore achieved its independence. When it was first established, the classes were split into English and Chinese streams. In its first year, there were 13 classes of 484 Secondary One students taught in English and 10 classes of 365 students taught in Chinese.
As years went by, the number of student intakes rose to 1,500 to 2,000, where Chinese made up a majority of 80% or more. The school offered Secondary One to Four educations for all races of Singaporeans.
Despite limited budgets, Upper Thomson Secondary School had good facilities. Its premises consisted of a main block, assembly hall, a science laboratory block, basketball court and a man-made pond.
Many early batches of Upper Thomson Secondary School students excelled in table tennis and badminton, winning numerous trophies in national competitions for their alma mater.
In 1988, the school moved to a new site in Yishun and changed their name to North View Secondary School. The old campus was taken over by Seletar Institute (SI), which was established in the same year, and the old buildings were given fresh paintings, renovations and fitted with air-conditioners. A library, conference room, gymnasium, art studio, staff lounge and computer room were also added.
Seletar Institute was one of the four original centralised institutes (CI) in Singapore that offered three-year study and General Certificate of Education Advanced Level (Singapore Cambridge). The other three were Outram Institute (OI), Jurong Institute (JI) and Townsville Institute (TI). Outram Institute and Jurong Institute had merged to form Millennia Institute (MI) in 2004, while Townsville Institute closed down in 1995.
Likewise, Seletar Institute could not escape the fate of closure as Ministry of Education (MOE) announced there would not be any more enrollment of ‘A’ Levels students in 1996. The institute was closed a year later, and the campus was left vacant and forgotten for more than a decade.
Published: 02 May 2011
My name is Ian Martin and was a former student from 1977-1980 and can we visit the school when we visit there?
Regards
Hi Ian, its main gate is locked most of the time. There’s a CCTV at the entrance so it’s not advisable to trespass the compound.
Why didn’t they demolished the school???
Probably due to a lack of plans… for now
The school is abandoned (although I see caretakers maintaining it sometimes) and, like other abandoned buildings, it is not listed in any present-day maps
I was in the final batch of students at SI. Really great natural environment perfect. Not many schools in SG are embedded in nature. Best years of my teenage life there.
Those are fond growing up memories we have there. It made me who I am today and those parts of me will be sorely missed. Something not everyone can understand. I am very glad to have many close friends from those days, including a little god-daughter.
Hi, I was in Upp Thomson Sec School, year of 1975 before leaving for overseas. I’ve lost total contacts with my classmates and schoolmates. Linking up with 1 might lead to others. I used to play badminton on very competitive level with fellow schoolmates like Foo Kong Fai, Tan Guan koon (mango), lionel and Ang Cheng Lam and dearest Sim Kian Bee. Our teacher/trainer was Mr Richard Chee. Some of us made it to SAFSA and the national squad. If by some miracle I can find them thru your help I will be most grateful. Please contact me at jonaafr@gmail.com
Yes… Missed those days…. And missed you guys out there from Seletar institute!!!
Miss those days. I pass by it almost everyday. Class of 79.
Hey, you know what, I was the one who supervised the building of the school under the PWD of old! Still have some old photos taken with school as background.