History

Early history

St. Nicholas Girls' School was established by the Sisters of the Infant Jesus near the Town
Convent at Victoria Street on 16 January 1933 as a Chinese-medium primary school for girls.
The school began with an enrolment of 40 pupils in two classes, Primary One and Primary
Two. At that time the entire teaching staff consisted of only two people, the principal who
taught English, and another teacher who served as a Chinese instructor.[1] At that time, the
principal, Sister Francoise Lee, felt the need to cater to Chinese Catholic girls.[2] She pushed
for the expansion of the Town Convent to include a Chinese school. That school was built on
the former building complex of Hotel van Wijk, run by missionaries to provide education for
daughters of Chinese-speaking families, including disadvantaged families and wealthy
Chinese merchants alike.[3] The decision to purchase Hotel van Wijk was in part a preventive
measure against moral corruption. The former building complex was a hotbed for prostitution
activities, thus the purchase would indirectly reduce such influence on the girls living in the
convent.[4] Sister Francoise Lee led a fund raising to make the purchase possible. However,
the English section of the convent occupied the new building, while the Chinese section was
relocated to the old buildings, citing reasons of a larger English population needing more
space.[5] In 1941, the school expanded into a full school.

World War II

During World War II, the convent complex became a refuge for many, serving as an air raid
shelter to safeguard the orphans, the sisters and some Carmelite nuns and the charges of the
Good Shepherd Sisters. Many unfortunates, such as the poor, sick and handicapped were also
sent to the convent to be cared for. One of the school's buildings eventually became a shelter
for as many as they could house.[6] During the Japanese occupation of Singapore, it was
known as Victoria Street Girls' School until 1945. During this period, the Japanese paid for
the wages of the sisters and were responsible for necessities in the convent. The European
nuns had to wear armbands to show they were not British, and were required to learn
Japanese and to teach a Japanese curriculum.[7] The Japanese did, however, treat the sisters
with civility, and those living on the complex were allowed to do so in relative peace during
the occupation, as long as they complied with the Japanese governmental system.[8] Despite
this, the convent experienced a decline in students, having no more than 200 students.[9] In
1964, the school was separated into primary and secondary sections.

Attainment of SAP Status

St. Nicholas Girls' School faced an enrolment crisis in the late 1960s to the 1970s as the
government was emphasising English as the main medium of instruction over Chinese, and
thus many parents were pulling away from St. Nicholas Girls' School when they realised it
was a Chinese-medium school. Lee Poh See, the second principal of the school, played an
integral role in rebranding the school as a bilingual institution in the late 1960s to the early
1970s, purchasing English textbooks en masse to supplement the then-dominantly Chinese
education of the students. This was done in an effort to appeal to parents who were seeking
English-medium schools, whilst still retaining its Chinese roots. This move paid dividends in
1979 when St. Nicholas Girls' School received Special Assistance Plan (SAP) status under
the new long-term government initiative to preserve the best Chinese-stream schools as
bilingual schools. Under this scheme, the school offers both English and Chinese as first
languages to Special Stream students. The already strong bilingual culture of the school thus
allowed it to adapt seamlessly to the SAP scheme, bringing it out of its precarious situation
and giving it a new shot at prominence.[10] In the same year, a pre-primary section was
established.

Relocation to Toa Payoh

By 1980, the Victoria Street premises could no longer hold the whole school and some
classes had to move out. They were temporarily held at the former Tao Nan School building
at Armenian Street and the former Raffles Girls' Primary School at Queen Street.

In 1982, St. Nicholas Girls' School was provisionally relocated to Toa Payoh. It moved to its
current campus in Ang Mo Kio in 1985 when the site was completed. During this time,
another school, CHIJ Secondary (Toa Payoh), was set up and officially opened on 17 August
1985. CHIJ Secondary (Toa Payoh) is still in operation at the Toa Payoh campus.[11]