NOMAD 2008 on Schoolbag.sg

NOMAD 2009 has made it on the news at schoolbag.sg with an article entitled “Back to School in the Swinging Sixties”

Follow this link to see the article on the Schoolbag website, or click here to view the pdf version of it.

 

Transcript of Interview with Tan Joo Kheng

JinXiang: Good afternoon Mr Tan, thank you for granting us his interview. 

JinXiang: How did the name Ang mo kio came about? 

Mr Tan: Actually the name probably came from the historical records. Because the word                             Ang mo kio is came from dialect translation means European bridge. And probably there was    a bridge around here build by the columbium people . 

JinXiang: So what was Ang mo kio known as before it was developed into a new town?

Mr Tan : Actually it was only a continuation of a rubber estate from Serangoon garden all to Mayflower and then the other parts were all bushes. So actually there was nothing outstanding about the place except there was a series of path all of the place. And if you look at the map of those days, you will find the number of path. But when you go down and

walk and take a look you will find that those path don’t even exist. 

JinXiang: So what amenities were there back in 1970s? 

Mr Tan: When you talk of the amenities, I was thinking in terms of what were there available back in 1979. In the year 1979, it’s the time I step into this place. And not very far from the school the present school site, there use to be a wet market and a number of shops and that was really a town centre at that time. There were shop houses in this area. 

JinXiang: What is unique about Ang Mo kio? 

Mr Tan: There is nothing unusual about Ang mo kio except the development had been a very peaceful one. So people move in as the houses were ready. 

JinXiang: Were there many people living in Ang mo kio in the 1960s? 

Mr Tan: Actually in the early 70s, Ang Mo Kio new town has not been build, is only built after 1975 then the town was being built around the area. So in terms of people living in Ang mo Kio at that point of time, there were not many people only a few thousand people living around he small blocks here.  

DaoQian: I shall take over and ask you about Ang mo kio Secondary School. 

DaoQian: Do you have any idea that was Ang mo kio secondary school the first seconday school built in Ang mo kio?  

Mr Tan: Yes, It was the first school. Because there was one other school and that was a primary school.  

DaoQian: So why was the school named after the town? 

Mr Tan: The named of the school was done by the people in the Ministry of Education and in those days school were named after places or roads. Just like Thomson Secondary School, Upper Thomson Secondary School and here we have Ang Mo kio Secondary School. 

DaoQian: So what was the challenges you faced as the first principal of the school? 

Mr Tan: When the school was ready, the school building was ready, the school was already functioning at a borrow building namely the premises of HuiYou Secondary. So we have our first batch of Sec 1 classes since January of 1979. Then later in the year end of April the school was handed over to the Ministry and then to me. And then after the handing over, the furniture came in. The furniture came in literally every member of the staff and  students. At that time the students were not around but we manage to get a few and we all had to collectively help to carry the furniture into the class room like the tables and chairs. 

DaoQian: So Do you have any impression of the Ang mo kio student back then? 

Mr Tan: Actually the student back then were very eagle to come to school because here we are having is a brand new school and here is a school that is downstep to them. So we started off with the Secondary 1 classes in the 1979. then the following year we open our classes to pupils from secondary 1 to 4 plus class for a level of the Chinese stream. 

DaoQian: So any idea on how many teacher in our school? 

Mr Tan: I cant remember.  Because some teachers did not belong to our school because our school was being use to house pupils from mayflower primary school because there school was under construction.  

DaoQian: So what is your most memorable moment during your term of office in the school? 

Mr Tan: I think the thing being in the school was that there was a lot of things to be done and then we try to do the things as fast as we could. Just like one of thing we had to do is the opening ceremony. In the past, schools that want to prepare for their opening ceremony had borrow bands and dancers from other school in their neighborhood but when we prepare our own in the year 1980s , we have literally everything ourselves. We have our own dancers; we have our band perform the tune that we wanted because we engaged company to do it to supply us our equipment and to prepare our pupil to play the require the music that we wanted for the function. We were part of the community, we also encourage our facility to be use by the people association so there was a decentralized parade using our school drums. And during those days, the parade for the decentralized has being held all over the island in housing estate.  

DaoQian: So were there any school songs back then? 

Mr Tan: Talking about the school song, I don’t know what is the present school song. We had one song that was compose for us by a Filipino friend from Melina. He composed for us and then when I brought the song and the music back; it was set to the brass band for Mr. Ananta to the ACDC. 

DaoQian: Were you involved in creating the school motto? 

Mr Tan: I cannot say I was involved; I was involved in literally of everything. But quite a lot of things are collective effort by a group of people. That mean staff members contribution, members from SAC, because at that time, our school committee consisted of people from the commercial sector. Just like the first chairman. The first chairman was once who work in an insurance company. 

DaoQian: What was the school motto then? 

Mr Tan: I cannot remember. 

DaoQian: So do you have any idea what does the school logo represent or rather are there any school logo back then? 

Mr Tan: I cannot remember. 

ALL: Thank you Mr. Tan.

 

Students involved in the Oral History Project

The following students were involved in the Oral History Project as part of NOMAD 2008.

 

Interview with Mr Lai Fah Chong on his childhood

by

Tan Yi Zhen of Class 22

 

Interview with Cheo Sow Ling on her childhood

by

Chin Wei Ni Winnie of Class 22

 

Interview with Lai Siew hung on fashion in the 1960s

by

Goh Tsi Hui Amelia of Class 23

 

Interview with Phang Ban Heng on living conditions in the 1960s

by

Tan Zhengjie and Johnaton Phang of Class 25

 

Interview with Mr Koo Kim Seng, a grassroot leader, on Ang Mo Kio in its early years

by

Lim Zhi Le Jerome and Lu Junyao of Class 2A

 

Interview with Mr Tan Joo Kheng, the Principal of AMKSS, on his experience of running the school in its pioneer years

by

Wong Jin Xiang and Tay Dao Qian of Class 3A

 

Interview with Mr Koo Ah Lek, SAC member of AMKSS, on his experience as an advisory member of the school

by

Wong Jin Xiang of Class 3A

 

Inclusion of Lim Shoo Wen’s name in the ‘About Us’ Page

Please see this link to see the inclusion of Lim Shoo Wen’s name as one of our collaborators, and in the area of Film.

https://amkssnomad.wordpress.com/contact-us/

 

NOMAD 2008 in the news

NOMAD 2008 is proud to have a full page feature article in the Straits Times’s IN supplement on Monday, the 14th of July 2008.

Please click here to read more.

 

Student Make-Up Assistants

There were many students who were not appropriately acknowledged for their involvement in NOMAD 2008. This is the first of the different student groups I will be listing in the next few days in acknowledgement of their contribution.

The following students from the Cheerleading Club contributed to the mammoth task of making up some 400+ student performers for this year’s NOMAD:

Fiona Chua Hui Ying (3C)
Ang Xiao Si (3D)
Chloe Low Yan Ling (3D)
Heidi Heng Zhi Ping (3D)
Liaw Si Li (3D)
Phyllis Low Mok Wee (3C)
Yeo Shi Jia (3D)
Tan Xiao Wei (3D)

 

Official NOMAD 2008 Press Release 2

Dear friends and colleagues in the media,

Date: 4th July 2008 (Friday), and 5th July 2008 (Saturday)
Time: 7.30pm to 10.00pm
Venue: Ang Mo Kio Secondary School, 6 Ang Mo Kio Street 22

On the 4th and 5th of July 2008, Ang Mo Kio Secondary School will be presenting the fruits of its well known and innovative school arts programme in an school-based, site-specific, inter-disciplinary, multi-media and community based arts production titled 1964.

With the year 1964 as the jumping board to a variety of artistic adventures, the school that surprised Singapore in 2005 with a swimming pool in its school canteen has gone to yet further lengths this year to stretch the boundaries of school-based art making.

 

Symphonic Overture by Wong Kah Chun

Full Synopsis:

The “Symphonic Overture” for band is written in celebration of the opening of the NOMAD Festival 2008. The composer has collaborated with the Ang Mo Kio Symphonic Band earlier in the year, and have created this work as a homage to the technical proficiency of the student musicians.

A mysterious beginning leads full flight into a tumulteous flurry of notes in the woodwinds, and modulates from key to key, before plunging into the actual first section of the work. Here, a heroic theme marches through rhythmic punctuation before reaching a more sombre lyrical passage, and then returns once more.

 

NOMAD 2008 Facebook Event Page

A Facebook Event page for this year’s NOMAD has been set up by our publicity team. Please direct all alumni, friends and family from the AMKsian family there to help spread the word via this medium.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=18219659148

 

 

Oral History: Transcript of Interview with Koo Ah Leck

The following is a transcript of an interview with Mr Koo Ah Lek conducted on 10 April 2008 by Secondary 2 student Jin Xiang.

JinXiang: Thank you sir for granting us an interview. Let us start our first question. When were you first appointed as a SAC member?

Mr Koo: Let me give you a history how I become a SAC member. I joined the school SAC member in 1979 and that was the year when the school started. I was introduced by Mr Tan Joo Keng the first principal of Ang Mo kio Secondary. He was actually my school teacher when I was in Outram Secondary school back then. And after I left school, I still keep in touch with Mr Tan regularly. And one day, he called me and asked me would I be interested in doing some community work and I was invited by the school principal. The school principal said the first thing he need to do is to form a school SAC and he invited me to sit in the committee and sit as a treasurer. And that was the first time I heard of the SAC. So I told him I am not very familiar with the SAC and he told me to come and join for 1 term which is 2 years and after that you can decide do you wish to continue. Then that was supposed to be a 2 year term and it turned out to be a long 30 year term.