6 years of life in Griffiths Primary School
My period of primary school life is from 1993 to 1998. WOW! Early 90s to late 90s. Alot of things changed during this period of time, alot of friends made during this period of time, alot of people gone during this period of time, alot alot alot.
Griffiths Primary School is perhaps not so well known as any other school in Singapore because of its name. Griffiths Primary School got its name from Mr James Griffiths; he officially opened the school thus the English school name.
I got enlisted into Griffiths because my old house was just beside the school. Really near. The distance from my old house to the school is just a zebra crossing. Nothing else. Staying near to the school, I always envy my classmates who have the chance to arrive in school in school bus and leaving in school bus. I got to walk. Now I laugh at how lucky I am.
This school has a buddy system; 1 primary five student will be the buddy of (take care) a primary one student. This only last for 1 week or 2 weeks depends on the need. I've long forgotten who was my buddy but thanks anyway. Without you, I might never find my way to toilet or the assembly area.
Honestly, I can't remember much during the first few years of my primary school life. One thing that I remember in primary one and two was the girl sitting beside me. Can't remember her name but I think is "Goh Hui Xin" or "Goh Xin Hui". What makes me remember her so well is her BIG eyes. Everything happened so sudden and quick. I was still in the state of shock despite passing all my subjects unknowingly. Looking back at my report book, I actually got a 100 marks for my Chinese in one of the exam. Strange, how come I can't remember the teachers congratulaing me or my parents feeling happy about it?
In primary 2, each class has to perform a show on the stage during the weekly wednesday assembly. Our class performed twice due to the "lack of class". In fact, almost all class performed twice. The first performance is quite crappy. Everyone must draw a fruit on drawing block, color it and bring it on stage, carry it above your head like a banner and wave it from left to right. This is accompanied by a background song promoting healthy eating. I drew an orange and hide behind my classmate.
The second performace is much more realistic. We put up a pirate show but I can't remember the storyline. It took us quite long to get all the crops done and to get everything else ready. The rest who are not involved in the acting will be singing the theme song while they are acting out the script. The song goes... "one eye jack, the pirate jack, was a terrible ocean thief..." I can't remember the rest.
Most of the time in primary school, I'm a super quiet boy. Some teachers even thought that I'm mute. I'm not mute, I'm only selective mute. I don't know how to communicate well with strangers. Strangers refer to my classmates and teachers. When people talk to me, I would just nod or shake my head.
Primay 1, 3, 5 is afternoon session while primary 2, 4, 6 is morning session. I guess this is almost the same for all primary school last time so no need explain much.
I got my first pair of spectacles when I was primary 2. It was the school regular annual check-up that told me to get my eye sight corrected. From then on, my nose is always supporting something for 13 years.
Fast forward to primary 4. First time in my life I got to worried so much and study so hard for an exam. Everyone is talking about the streaming exam. The principals, teachers, parents, neighbours, classmates, friends. Everyone. Suddenly, my mathematics logic got so wrong. My mum got so kan-cheong that she hire me a tution teacher. Things didn't get any better except a border line pass. Luckily, I managed to get into EM2. Afterall, I'm not a hopeless kid.
Primary 5, new classmates everywhere because of a new class. Stupid people got kicked into EM3 class and clever people got isolated into EM1 class. Perhaps it's the people in this class that I still keep in contact.
- Jia Rong
- Joanna
- Jocelyn
- Desmond
- De Ming
- Isaac
- Wee Kiat
- Daphne
- Daniel
Still got alot which I can roughly remember the face but can't remember the name. They are wonderful people that brightens up your everyday in primary school. This is the time I begin making friends. Of course, there are idiotic people too.
Being the most senior in the afternoon, it's now finally our turn to guide the junior (primary 1) during recess. I buddied with a nerdy looking boy. The boy told me to wait for his parents as they will bring food to him. We waited until the boy nearly cried because his parents is nowhere to be seen. I then use my poor pocket money to buy him some biscuits to fill him up.
The second day, finally saw his parents. It turn out that they can't find their little boy in the sea of green clothed students. So, the boy eat his delicious home make sandwhich while I eat my food bought at the school canteen. One week later, the parents of the boy decide to buy me something to eat. Sadly, they are transfering my buddy to another school because of the location. Guess it's the end of fate between us.
Every year after exam, we are allowed to bring our own game to school and play. UNO card game is the best as many people can play together. "Many people can play" doesn't mean I play it too because I belong to the "few who don't know how to play" type.
Those who are richer will bring (and show off) their GameBoy or Sega. That time, GameBoy is still the first generation. Remember the brick size GameBoy that has dim yellow screen? They were so "in" and everyone was snatching to be the next in the queue to play it. Game Gear (a Sega handheld console I think) is even better than GameBoy! It has bigger color screen but it need 6 AA battery to power it. The owner will be the one playing along with a huge crowd surrounding him.
Being a poor boy, I always didn't get the chance to play except once. Wee Kiat finally lend me his GameBoy and I randomly select a game. It was a motorcycle game. He forced me to return (snatched) back his GameBoy when I haven't even complete a track. Nevermind, since it's yours, you decide. I blame no one.
My classmate, Isaac, failed his primary 5 and got to demote to EM3. After some discussion (or begging), he got to stay on in EM2. Surprisingly, he did well! Suddenly, his science is so good that he even score higher than me.
Too many things to write about primary school life. I feel that I'm beginning to write non important things into this entry.
I still remember the days of country eraser fighting contest. Not an official contest but everyone was so excited about it. All you need is a country eraser and you can start the match! Country eraser is a rectangle type of eraser that has the flag of a country printed on one side. It's sold for 10 cents at the school bookshop. Good business I must say. It's a turn based competition. Simply flip and flick your eraser to make it land on top of your opponent's eraser to win his eraser. The loser got to sacrifice his eraser =( I won't say I'm a pro at it but at least I manage to win quite a lot of erasers.
It is certainly immoral to make us queue under the blazing hot sun after our recess. Of course, it's not a problem when we are having our fun running around under the hot sun during recess. Why can't they make us assemble in the hall or in some place where there is shade or shelter. Talk about torture.
I still remember that after a recess, the canteen got so dirty that we are called up for lecture by our principal. She is scolding us from the comfort of her office through the PA system. Thus, lesson got stopped and we all stand still at our seats listening to her scolding on the speaker.
Wee Kiat and I would always rush to help the teachers to carry book to/from another location. Not that we are bootlicking the teachers, we are just damn bored of sitting in the classroom waiting for the next boring lesson to start.
Some mentally wrong guy would then purposely open my bag and insert nonsense into my bag while I'm away helping the teacher. An example of a common litter in my bag is tissue paper. Does my bag resembles a dustbin? Once, I purposely put lots of correction ink on my zip so that the culprit will get his hand dirtied. Desmond Chua, do you remember that you got caught although you don't want to admit when I confronted you.
At primary 6 level, you are the oldest in the school meaning you will get to bully people. HAHAHA! Of course I'm not a bully. Those prefects are bullies instead. They enjoy finding fault with lower primary students and write their name into the little blue notebook. Satifaction face on the prefects face result in my hatered towards them. Bully lower primary student only. Upper primary student who violated school rule are given a free pass.
There is this lucky chance that a prefect accidentally drop her notebook and I pick it up. WOW! The book is filled with names with lots of offenses such as shirt not tuck in, throwing litter on floor, no name tag, no badge and other crap. Knowing that the prefect will go frantically searching for her notebook, I tear it into pieces secretly and dump the book into a huge bin. No one manage to recover it. Whoever the prefect is, blame it on your bad luck (and attitude).
Primary School Leaving Examination AKA PSLE first paper (English) is on 5th October. I remember it's the same days as the Chinese's lantern festival. No chance to play with lantern and fire as I got to study for my mathmatics exam the next day. My form teacher in primary 6 is Miss How. I remember her for her strange surname and her long hair, skinny look. Not ghost but a good teacher. Thanks.
Luckily I did well for my PSLE. Personally, I'm quite satisfied with my glorious result and I can get into an Express stream. Cool. I didn't bid farewell or compare result with my fellow friend and classmate because I was too shy to show my result. Satisfied with my result doesn't mean I have scored well. And that's how my connection with my primary school mates end. Too bad there we don't have MSN or SMS at that time.
Wee Kiat and Desmond are my best friends. We would always create birthday card and give presents for the birthday boy secretly. Although I know that they are trying to insert the birthday card into my bag, I still pretend not to know anything. Yes, I still keep the card although it's full of spelling mistakes.
Isaac, Daniel and De Ming would form another gang. Isaac is the playful boy that goes around creating lots of trouble and joke. Daniel being the uber big and tall guy. Standing beside him, you will feel your shortness. How can anyone grow so big! Coincidentally, he is Louis best friend in secondary school. De Ming is the happy go lucky guy that is tall too but not as giantic as Daniel. We enjoy erasing the blackboard. HAHA! Yes, it's still blackboard, not white board.
How can I possibly forget the cousin Jocelyn and Joanna. Joanna is a better girl because she is not as fierce as that Jocelyn. That Jocelyn like to boss her way around because she think that being a prefect and backstage girl is so cool. I always got scolded by her for some reasons which I can't remember. Once, I got so fed up and hit her on the head with my empty water bottle. She cried and threaten to complain me to the teacher. End up nothing happen. Serve her right for irritating me. That's the first and last time I make a girl cry.
The girl name Lee Jia Rong, I still remember her after 10 years.
Who can forget about the puberty check in primary 6 that all guy detest. Sitting in a room waiting for the nurse to see your private part is not a good feeling especially if your underwear has cartoon on it. When it's my turn, the female nurse unzip my pants. Luckily I hold on the pants or it will fall to the floor which is like so embarassing. She just see see and say "hmm ok" and ask me to wear back my pants. Of course ok lah, what could be wrong. Luckily I manage to control myself so as not to get an erection while the nurse is checking.
The end of my primary school life marks the end of my principal and vice principal. Mrs Mary Fletcher and Mr Loh both retired. How can I ever find them back although they can't even recognize and remember me. Thanks for giving me a place in the school to study and excel.
There are alot of more things but I can't possibly type everything out. This is already my longest entry. Whatever the days future might be, I am proud to be from Griffiths Primary. Even if one day the school close (touchwood), I will not be ashame to say that I'm a student of it.
Griffiths Primary School has undergone a huge renovation and makeover. The new school now is very different from the time I studied. Everything changed. Location of general office changed, toilets changed, bookshop changed, canteen orientation changed, new garden, new assembly area, new hall, new music room, hydroponic plant area changed, library moved. When I went back, I still need to take some time to find everything. The teachers are all different now. Only 2 teachers are still there from my time.
Gathering sometime yea?
Griffiths Primary School is perhaps not so well known as any other school in Singapore because of its name. Griffiths Primary School got its name from Mr James Griffiths; he officially opened the school thus the English school name.
I got enlisted into Griffiths because my old house was just beside the school. Really near. The distance from my old house to the school is just a zebra crossing. Nothing else. Staying near to the school, I always envy my classmates who have the chance to arrive in school in school bus and leaving in school bus. I got to walk. Now I laugh at how lucky I am.
This school has a buddy system; 1 primary five student will be the buddy of (take care) a primary one student. This only last for 1 week or 2 weeks depends on the need. I've long forgotten who was my buddy but thanks anyway. Without you, I might never find my way to toilet or the assembly area.
Honestly, I can't remember much during the first few years of my primary school life. One thing that I remember in primary one and two was the girl sitting beside me. Can't remember her name but I think is "Goh Hui Xin" or "Goh Xin Hui". What makes me remember her so well is her BIG eyes. Everything happened so sudden and quick. I was still in the state of shock despite passing all my subjects unknowingly. Looking back at my report book, I actually got a 100 marks for my Chinese in one of the exam. Strange, how come I can't remember the teachers congratulaing me or my parents feeling happy about it?
In primary 2, each class has to perform a show on the stage during the weekly wednesday assembly. Our class performed twice due to the "lack of class". In fact, almost all class performed twice. The first performance is quite crappy. Everyone must draw a fruit on drawing block, color it and bring it on stage, carry it above your head like a banner and wave it from left to right. This is accompanied by a background song promoting healthy eating. I drew an orange and hide behind my classmate.
The second performace is much more realistic. We put up a pirate show but I can't remember the storyline. It took us quite long to get all the crops done and to get everything else ready. The rest who are not involved in the acting will be singing the theme song while they are acting out the script. The song goes... "one eye jack, the pirate jack, was a terrible ocean thief..." I can't remember the rest.
Most of the time in primary school, I'm a super quiet boy. Some teachers even thought that I'm mute. I'm not mute, I'm only selective mute. I don't know how to communicate well with strangers. Strangers refer to my classmates and teachers. When people talk to me, I would just nod or shake my head.
Primay 1, 3, 5 is afternoon session while primary 2, 4, 6 is morning session. I guess this is almost the same for all primary school last time so no need explain much.
I got my first pair of spectacles when I was primary 2. It was the school regular annual check-up that told me to get my eye sight corrected. From then on, my nose is always supporting something for 13 years.
Fast forward to primary 4. First time in my life I got to worried so much and study so hard for an exam. Everyone is talking about the streaming exam. The principals, teachers, parents, neighbours, classmates, friends. Everyone. Suddenly, my mathematics logic got so wrong. My mum got so kan-cheong that she hire me a tution teacher. Things didn't get any better except a border line pass. Luckily, I managed to get into EM2. Afterall, I'm not a hopeless kid.
Primary 5, new classmates everywhere because of a new class. Stupid people got kicked into EM3 class and clever people got isolated into EM1 class. Perhaps it's the people in this class that I still keep in contact.
- Jia Rong
- Joanna
- Jocelyn
- Desmond
- De Ming
- Isaac
- Wee Kiat
- Daphne
- Daniel
Still got alot which I can roughly remember the face but can't remember the name. They are wonderful people that brightens up your everyday in primary school. This is the time I begin making friends. Of course, there are idiotic people too.
Being the most senior in the afternoon, it's now finally our turn to guide the junior (primary 1) during recess. I buddied with a nerdy looking boy. The boy told me to wait for his parents as they will bring food to him. We waited until the boy nearly cried because his parents is nowhere to be seen. I then use my poor pocket money to buy him some biscuits to fill him up.
The second day, finally saw his parents. It turn out that they can't find their little boy in the sea of green clothed students. So, the boy eat his delicious home make sandwhich while I eat my food bought at the school canteen. One week later, the parents of the boy decide to buy me something to eat. Sadly, they are transfering my buddy to another school because of the location. Guess it's the end of fate between us.
Every year after exam, we are allowed to bring our own game to school and play. UNO card game is the best as many people can play together. "Many people can play" doesn't mean I play it too because I belong to the "few who don't know how to play" type.
Those who are richer will bring (and show off) their GameBoy or Sega. That time, GameBoy is still the first generation. Remember the brick size GameBoy that has dim yellow screen? They were so "in" and everyone was snatching to be the next in the queue to play it. Game Gear (a Sega handheld console I think) is even better than GameBoy! It has bigger color screen but it need 6 AA battery to power it. The owner will be the one playing along with a huge crowd surrounding him.
Being a poor boy, I always didn't get the chance to play except once. Wee Kiat finally lend me his GameBoy and I randomly select a game. It was a motorcycle game. He forced me to return (snatched) back his GameBoy when I haven't even complete a track. Nevermind, since it's yours, you decide. I blame no one.
My classmate, Isaac, failed his primary 5 and got to demote to EM3. After some discussion (or begging), he got to stay on in EM2. Surprisingly, he did well! Suddenly, his science is so good that he even score higher than me.
Too many things to write about primary school life. I feel that I'm beginning to write non important things into this entry.
I still remember the days of country eraser fighting contest. Not an official contest but everyone was so excited about it. All you need is a country eraser and you can start the match! Country eraser is a rectangle type of eraser that has the flag of a country printed on one side. It's sold for 10 cents at the school bookshop. Good business I must say. It's a turn based competition. Simply flip and flick your eraser to make it land on top of your opponent's eraser to win his eraser. The loser got to sacrifice his eraser =( I won't say I'm a pro at it but at least I manage to win quite a lot of erasers.
It is certainly immoral to make us queue under the blazing hot sun after our recess. Of course, it's not a problem when we are having our fun running around under the hot sun during recess. Why can't they make us assemble in the hall or in some place where there is shade or shelter. Talk about torture.
I still remember that after a recess, the canteen got so dirty that we are called up for lecture by our principal. She is scolding us from the comfort of her office through the PA system. Thus, lesson got stopped and we all stand still at our seats listening to her scolding on the speaker.
Wee Kiat and I would always rush to help the teachers to carry book to/from another location. Not that we are bootlicking the teachers, we are just damn bored of sitting in the classroom waiting for the next boring lesson to start.
Some mentally wrong guy would then purposely open my bag and insert nonsense into my bag while I'm away helping the teacher. An example of a common litter in my bag is tissue paper. Does my bag resembles a dustbin? Once, I purposely put lots of correction ink on my zip so that the culprit will get his hand dirtied. Desmond Chua, do you remember that you got caught although you don't want to admit when I confronted you.
At primary 6 level, you are the oldest in the school meaning you will get to bully people. HAHAHA! Of course I'm not a bully. Those prefects are bullies instead. They enjoy finding fault with lower primary students and write their name into the little blue notebook. Satifaction face on the prefects face result in my hatered towards them. Bully lower primary student only. Upper primary student who violated school rule are given a free pass.
There is this lucky chance that a prefect accidentally drop her notebook and I pick it up. WOW! The book is filled with names with lots of offenses such as shirt not tuck in, throwing litter on floor, no name tag, no badge and other crap. Knowing that the prefect will go frantically searching for her notebook, I tear it into pieces secretly and dump the book into a huge bin. No one manage to recover it. Whoever the prefect is, blame it on your bad luck (and attitude).
Primary School Leaving Examination AKA PSLE first paper (English) is on 5th October. I remember it's the same days as the Chinese's lantern festival. No chance to play with lantern and fire as I got to study for my mathmatics exam the next day. My form teacher in primary 6 is Miss How. I remember her for her strange surname and her long hair, skinny look. Not ghost but a good teacher. Thanks.
Luckily I did well for my PSLE. Personally, I'm quite satisfied with my glorious result and I can get into an Express stream. Cool. I didn't bid farewell or compare result with my fellow friend and classmate because I was too shy to show my result. Satisfied with my result doesn't mean I have scored well. And that's how my connection with my primary school mates end. Too bad there we don't have MSN or SMS at that time.
Wee Kiat and Desmond are my best friends. We would always create birthday card and give presents for the birthday boy secretly. Although I know that they are trying to insert the birthday card into my bag, I still pretend not to know anything. Yes, I still keep the card although it's full of spelling mistakes.
Isaac, Daniel and De Ming would form another gang. Isaac is the playful boy that goes around creating lots of trouble and joke. Daniel being the uber big and tall guy. Standing beside him, you will feel your shortness. How can anyone grow so big! Coincidentally, he is Louis best friend in secondary school. De Ming is the happy go lucky guy that is tall too but not as giantic as Daniel. We enjoy erasing the blackboard. HAHA! Yes, it's still blackboard, not white board.
How can I possibly forget the cousin Jocelyn and Joanna. Joanna is a better girl because she is not as fierce as that Jocelyn. That Jocelyn like to boss her way around because she think that being a prefect and backstage girl is so cool. I always got scolded by her for some reasons which I can't remember. Once, I got so fed up and hit her on the head with my empty water bottle. She cried and threaten to complain me to the teacher. End up nothing happen. Serve her right for irritating me. That's the first and last time I make a girl cry.
The girl name Lee Jia Rong, I still remember her after 10 years.
Who can forget about the puberty check in primary 6 that all guy detest. Sitting in a room waiting for the nurse to see your private part is not a good feeling especially if your underwear has cartoon on it. When it's my turn, the female nurse unzip my pants. Luckily I hold on the pants or it will fall to the floor which is like so embarassing. She just see see and say "hmm ok" and ask me to wear back my pants. Of course ok lah, what could be wrong. Luckily I manage to control myself so as not to get an erection while the nurse is checking.
The end of my primary school life marks the end of my principal and vice principal. Mrs Mary Fletcher and Mr Loh both retired. How can I ever find them back although they can't even recognize and remember me. Thanks for giving me a place in the school to study and excel.
There are alot of more things but I can't possibly type everything out. This is already my longest entry. Whatever the days future might be, I am proud to be from Griffiths Primary. Even if one day the school close (touchwood), I will not be ashame to say that I'm a student of it.
Griffiths Primary School has undergone a huge renovation and makeover. The new school now is very different from the time I studied. Everything changed. Location of general office changed, toilets changed, bookshop changed, canteen orientation changed, new garden, new assembly area, new hall, new music room, hydroponic plant area changed, library moved. When I went back, I still need to take some time to find everything. The teachers are all different now. Only 2 teachers are still there from my time.
Gathering sometime yea?
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