Principal's Message
“Come whatever on the road ahead
We did it before, and we’ll do it again.”
– From The Road Ahead (NDP 2021 Theme Song)
We Did It Before, and We Will Do It Again!
Happy new year to all! A warm welcome to our new P1 students and parents. To all our existing students, a very warm welcome back home. With the opening of our new MOE Kindergarten MK@Hougang, I am also delighted to welcome our K1 students and their parents to our newly expanded Hougang Primary (HGP) family!
This year, we will be celebrating an important milestone, as HGP turns 25 and welcomes the birth of its kindergarten! While we mark the school’s silver jubilee, i.e. HGP25, with pride and joy, it is important that we reflect on our journey thus far and reimagine the road ahead to bring the school forward.
Since its founding at the start of the millennium, the school has focused on holistic education and character development for our children. This has enabled HGP to build a strong school identity and remain a choice school in the northeastern region of Singapore. Today, HGPians enjoy a wide range of learning opportunities outside the classroom, such as learning journeys, school-based enrichment programmes and co-curricular activities (CCAs). Our well-established Applied Learning Programme in Science and Learn for Life Programme in Outdoor Education provide authentic, collaborative and hands-on learning experiences that not only expand our children’s knowledge beyond the textbook, but also deepen their values as well as strengthen their socio-emotional competencies. Collectively, these have translated to positive outcomes in terms of student engagement and performance, both academically and non-academically. Indeed, we are immensely proud that one of our students from the graduating cohort of 2023 received the prestigious Lee Kuan Yew Award for All-Round Excellence (Primary Section) last year for embodying our school motto for every child to Excel with Character.
In hindsight, the path taken by the school in the past 25 years has been tremendously purposeful and rewarding. With the ongoing shifts in the education landscape to better prepare students for an enigmatic and exciting future, the road ahead for the school is likely to be filled with new and innumerable possibilities for learning and growth, like when we first started our journey more than two decades ago. This prompted us to take bold steps to transform the learning spaces and experiences for our students, even as we stay committed to our fundamental beliefs in holistic education and character development. In 2024, we embarked on a reimagination and rebranding of the school library. Called World of Wonders @ HGP, the newly renovated library aims to wow the children in the future of learning, by piquing their curiosity and arousing their interest in reading. The recent roll-out of the Emerging 21st Century Competencies (E21CC) framework and Ed Tech Masterplan initiative by MOE have also provided us with the impetus to redesign our students’ learning. In line with these national imperatives, the school will build on existing platforms and scale up innovative practices in the coming years to accelerate our students’ acquisition and application of the E21CC, as well as infuse technology-enabled learning experiences in the curriculum.
Last year, we engaged and empowered our staff, students, parents, alumni and School Advisory Committee in the conceptualisation and painting of a wall mural entitled “The Future of Singapore and Future of Learning” outside the staff room. Under the guidance of a local artist, everyone played a part to complete this meaningful and memorable masterpiece depicting the future that we imagine collectively. As the school embarks on the road ahead, we call on the continued support and partnership of all our stakeholders, in order to turn any adversity and challenges into renewed hope and opportunities, propelling us towards HGP50 and beyond. We did it before, and we will do it again!
Happy 25th Birthday, HGP!
Jason Goh
Principal