Chin Chew Street (1862–1863) SAS was founded on 8 September 1862 by Edward Sherman Venn through adopting a private institution owned by Sim Quee and Tye Kim in Chin Chew Street, in Singapore. The Anglican missionary led by Venn funded the school. Sim Quee and Tye Kim remained as headmasters of their school. This was unusual for the day as most missionary schools were not usually headed by Asians. The school was then known as the St Andrew's
Church of England Mission School.
Upper Hokkien Street (1863–1872) On 10 September 1863, the school moved to Upper Hokkien Street because of the need for a better building and more space for the growing school. Soon after, Cheok Loy Fatt was appointed the headmaster. After a couple of years, the school suffered from financial difficulties, and financial support was withdrawn in 1866. Venn died in 1866, which might explain why financial support was withdrawn at this time. In 1872, the colonial chaplain J.A. Beccles successfully applied to the government for financial aid. Thus, on 22 May 1872, St Andrew's School became a grant-in-aid institution.
Victoria Street (1872–1875) In 1872, Beccles was succeeded by George Frederick Hose as colonial chaplain. Meanwhile, the growing school moved to
Victoria Street. Hose invited William Henry Gomes to act as school superintendent, in which the school prospered and grew. During the early days at the
Victoria Street site, both Hose and Gomes knew that the growth of the school would be hampered by poor accommodation. The government gave the school a piece of land on the then
Government Hill with a frontage on
Stamford Road.
Stamford Road (1875–1940) The first building to go up was the chapel in 1875 and in that same year, the school vacated its cramped premises in Victoria Street and moved into the Stamford Road site. Classes were held in the chapel, which also became an important centre of public worship. J. Romanis Lee, who became headmaster from 1912, was a benefactor of the school as it acquired many of its modern characteristics during his period as headmaster. He set about expanding the premises of the school and raised the status of the school from a second grade school to top grade in 1914, in which the school started to offer the
Senior Cambridge Examination. He also established a tradition of sports in the school; the school excelled in
boxing and
rugby union. Joseph Lee became headmaster in 1924 and the enrolment increased to 800. Lee established
John Oxenham's poem "Up and On" as the school song. The first issue of the school magazine, "Up and On", made its appearance in 1928. Reginald Keith Sorby Adams succeeded Lee as the next headmaster on 1 October 1934. By that time, St Andrew's had become well known for its boxing and rugby. The need for a bigger area than the cramped site at Stamford Road had become a problem by the early 1930s. There were scarcely enough classrooms and there was no playing field for a school which showed so much enthusiasm and aptitude for outdoor games. This site ultimately became the site of the
National Library of Singapore from 1960, before it moved to Victoria Street.
Pre-war Woodsville (1940–1942) In 1938, Woodsville Estate comprising of land, was purchased for $60,000. Adams, assisted by archdeacon Graham White, played a major role in the moving of the school to the Woodsville site, after previously rejecting two sites in Tanjong Katong and on Serangoon Road. The two-storey school buildings were completed and officially opened by S. W. Jones, the officer administering the government, on 29 July 1940. The start of
World War II in Singapore had the school closed.
Post-war Woodsville (1945–1990) Immediately after the war, the school was the first to re-open. The school was then divided into lower school and upper school. Until the arrival of Adams, who had just been released from internment,
D.D. Chelliah acted as headmaster. As the school population grew, the school grew as well with the addition of another floor in 1952. The Lim Teck Kin Tower was also added in that year. In 1955, the lower school was renamed the
Junior School, and the upper school was renamed
Secondary School. In 1956, due to the rapid growth of the junior school, it was further separated into two schools:
Junior I and
Junior II. Each junior school was run by its own headmaster, but this changed from 1960 onwards when both schools shared the same head. In 1969, pre-university classes started and in 1978, ''St Andrew's Junior College
was established and moved to Malan Road. By the 1980s, the Woodsville site was unable to handle the growth of both junior schools and the secondary school. Meanwhile, with nearby Potong Pasir developed, the school requested that a 4.18-hectare site allocated for education would be used for the St Andrew's School (secondary)''. Construction of the secondary school started on 3 November 1984 and the buildings were opened in July 1986.
1990-present now houses all three schools of St Andrew's School, three churches, a hostel named St Andrew's Hall, as well as
The Diocese of Singapore. In 1990, the two junior schools were combined into one school: ''St Andrew's school (junior)''. In 1996, the school had to relocate due to noise pollution from the recently upgraded
Pan-Island Expressway. The school was relocated in January 1996 and the new school building was declared open by the then
Minister for Education,
Teo Chee Hean, in 1997. As part of the
St Andrew's Village project, all three schools were planned to return to Woodsville and Potong Pasir. Renovation and expansion of the junior school started in 2003, and the new buildings opened in December 2004. Construction of a new secondary school started in 2003, opposite the junior school along Francis Thomas Drive, and opened in December 2004. Construction of the junior college started in June 2003 after the secondary school vacated the site and shifted to its holding location. The junior college opened in December 2005 and a ceremony was held to mark its return to Woodsville/Potong Pasir. The village was officially opened on 26 August 2006, with the ceremony being held at the 1000-seater Cultural Centre in the junior college. In addition to these three schools, the village also houses the diocesan office, the Ascension Kindergarten and three church buildings: the Chapel of the Resurrection, Chapel of the Holy Spirit and Church of Ascension. Some of the new facilities at the village include an Olympic size swimming pool, a 1,000-seat performing arts centre (Cultural Centre), air-conditioned school halls, gymnasiums, indoor basketball court, roof-top basketball court, tennis courts, cafe, rockwall, astro-turf artificial field and a sheltered bridge across the Kallang River to connect the junior and secondary schools to the junior college across the river. In 2010, piling work began for the construction of St Andrew's Hall, a 12-storey hostel with sufficient rooms to accommodate up to 600 students with facilities including a dining room for 600 people, an adjoining multipurpose hall as well as a clinic to serve the residents of the hall and St Andrew's Village. St Andrew's Hall was officially opened on 25 August 2012. Construction for a new combined indoor sports hall at the existing site of the secondary school canteen block commenced in November 2016 with target for completion by end 2018. The new double size indoor sports hall block includes a new canteen for the secondary school. The junior school also commenced the PERI upgrading in the same period which will see construction above the current library as well as a new block at the end of the quadrangle facing the junior college. There are also currently plans to redevelop the old science block which used to house the pre-university classes and currently houses Ascension Kindergarten. The redevelopment plans will include a new student leadership centre. The redevelopment plan is expected to be executed upon the completion of the indoor sports hall and PERI upgrading. == Culture ==