This year, Tanjong Katong, our east coast “heritage” campus, celebrates its 10th birthday. Although many students from TK’s inaugural class are now scattered around the globe, we continue to welcome a new generation of TK students every year. In August the number of students expanded as we opened our new Nursery programme for two year olds.

One of these youngest additions to the TK family was a 2-year old student, Lara Melwani who has a remarkable connection to TK's past: Lara’s grandmother, Vidya Hassomal was a secondary student at the Tanjong Katong Girls’ School, the school that occupied the TK campus for over 40 years, until 1994.

The Tanjong Katong Girls’ School was established in January 1953 with seven classes, 250 students, and ten teachers. It was the first post-war government English girls' school built in colonial Singapore. Vidya Hassomal attended the school from 1965 to 1969.

Ms Hassomal was born in the Tanjong Katong neighbourhood and lived in Singapore until she married and moved to the Canary Islands, Spain. She raised two sons in Spain. They attended university in the UK and stayed on to work in London.

Four years ago, her youngest son Mohit and his wife Ridhi decided to leave London and move to the east, settling in Singapore. Their daughter Lara was born in Singapore two years later. When it came time to select a school for Lara, they chose TK because of its exceptional outdoor play spaces. When they visited TK, they fell in love with the Outdoor Discovery Centre (ODC). The ODC is “exactly what they want for Lara”, Ms Hassomal says. “They don’t want her spending her entire day closed up in a classroom.”

Ms Hassomal had the chance to visit TK in May during our celebration of outdoor classroom day. It was a real “trip down memory lane” for her.

She has wonderful memories of her childhood and her time at Tanjong Katong Girls’ School. Although she noticed that the school has changed in many ways, the main building where the classes were held still looks much the same. The garden and play area in the centre of the school was an indoor field and she remembers attending sports events and PE classes there.

Not all of Vedya’s memories of the campus are pleasant. Back in the 1960’s none of the classrooms were air conditioned and she has not forgotten how hot the classrooms were!

She and her friends used to stop in at the Katong News Agency across the road after school to buy little knick knacks and stationery, etc. When Ms Hassomal visited TK, she was delighted to find the store is still in business - run by the same owners!

At CIS, we believe it is important to foster connections with our local community. Each year TK hosts the Tanjong Katong Girls School Secondary 1 classes. Maintaining strong ties to their history and traditions is very important to them. During their visit, the girls spend time with former students and teaching staff, tour the campus, and learn what it was like to be on the original campus. It is an event that our principals and teaching staff look forward to each year, as they gain new insights and information about the history of the TK site.

Life has brought Ms Hassomal “full circle”. She now feels she has more reason to visit Singapore than ever before. We look forward to welcoming Ms Hassomal back for another visit to TK and hope she will share more of her memories with us.

Meanwhile, Lara is settling into her new learning environment where our inquiry, play-based teaching approach nurtures her curiosity and allows her to explore, investigate and imagine. She has already become part of our TK family.