I noticed the surge in visitors finding my blog via the Google search, "Greendale Secondary School" in recent months, probably due to secondary one posting exercise after PSLE. curious, I searched for Greendale Secondary School myself, and the first few results were... Appalling, to say the least. Call this a review of my four years in Greendale Secondary — today I'm defending my alma mater, this is why Greendale Secondary School is not as bad as forums made it out to be.

Look, I know parents are worried. Is Greendale a good school? Greendale is a new school, what are its achievements? Is Greendale a school filled with gangsters? How are the teachers in Greendale? Do they care about the students? Looking at the top few Google search results, I'd be worried too, if I were a parent.

I'll be honest, I wasn't the best student. The horror stories are true: as a student, I skipped classes, climbed out of school gates, I got into both verbal and physical fights, I never did my homework. Everyone goes through those embarrassing teenage years we rather not remember, and I was a real handful during my rebellious phrase. But something must have gone right for me to be where I am today.

My teachers in Greendale were that something right.

Celebrating its tenth anniversary only in 2016, Greendale Secondary School is new but the teachers certainly aren't greenhorn (pun totally intended HAHAHA). My teachers knew how to deal with students, and had their way with me.

There are bad students everywhere. But hey, news flash, you don't have to live with your mistakes if you turn over a new leaf. Did it ruin my life? No, because I learnt. How could I not, when I had incredibly persistent teachers who made it their mission to turn my life right?

I know I wouldn't have the patience to constantly listen to some lame puppy love woes of a student who never paid attention in class. It took a while, but my teachers' persistent care and concern eventually broke my walls down.


I'm sure all parents know you don't apply most of the lessons you learn in school when you step into society. Even some of the modules I took in Ngee Ann Poly's Mass Comm became obsolete information although I only graduated in 2016. The world is changing at a ridiculously fast pace and adaptability is now one of the most sought-after skills.

The most important takeaway in your teenage years, in my humblest opinion, is the skills you learn and character you develop. I wasn't an exceptional student from a top secondary school but with the values Greendale instilled in me, I learnt so much more that was applicable to real life, the working world.

Greendale Secondary is not Singapore's top secondary school. Ranking by PSLE cut off point, Greendale is not even in Singapore's top 100. So? Ngee Ann Poly's Mass Comm, the most established media school in Singapore, still wanted me. (With the encouragement of my teachers from Greendale Secondary, I went for an interview because my O Level score didn't make the cut, and got into Mass Comm through that interview.)

I'm still lousy at studies upon graduation. My GPA in poly didn't bring me to any of the three main universities in Singapore. I'm not good at this studying thing, I admit. I don't have a degree. So? I stayed resilient, I climbed my way up the old school method, and I'm a manager at 21. The skills and the values Greendale Secondary School imparted accelerated my path to success.


If you aren't interested in personal development — academics wise, my teachers magically turn my horrifying L1R4 of 39 in secondary three to 15 for O Levels. That was reduction of more than half, in a year. Although I take a credit for my hard work that got me to where I am today, it wouldn't have been possible if not for my teachers woke me up and rooted for me.

One instance was when I struggled to speak in Chinese four months to O Level, but Greendale didn't give up on my or my classmates who were just as horrible in our Mother Tongue. Instead, my class had two Chinese teachers instead of one.

My strong-willed Chinese teacher, god bless her, pulled out some of the weakest students and gave us tuition two-to-one and even one-to-one. I went from F9 to B3. If grades don't say anything, please remember these Chinese blog posts were written by a girl who couldn't read a word of Chinese beyond Primary 2 level.

Honestly, there's not a lot of huge success stories behind Greendale graduates simply because most of my peers or seniors are still in universities. Trust me, we're working hard to change that.



The name of a school doesn't matter. The environment — the teachers who define the environment — does, and I can safely vouch for the passionate teachers in Greendale Secondary School.

P.S. I can't believe the rebellious teenager stayed up till 3am furiously typing this post because of the infuriating Google search. Shout out to my stalker teachers — I bet y'all can't believe it too.

Everyone told me secondary school was going to be the best years of my life, I scoffed and thought, "if these were the best years, I'd hate to think what's gonna happen the rest of my life." But they were right - indeed, those were the best four years of my life thus far.  Just like any human being, I made mistakes. I made most of them when I was 15 and these are the mistakes I come to regret even till today. My brother just turned 15 last month and watching him grow reminded me of the mistakes my friends and I made and the lessons we learnt through the hard and painful way.

I was randomly browsing through my Facebook last night and I chanced upon an album that brought back so much memories. Then I scrolled through the various albums I had for the past few years and every one of them brought back a special memory for me. I guess you guys won't be interested in the all the young punks / ah lian stories I have but still, I hope to write down all these precious memories before they fade away as I get older.

My secondary 1 life wasn't all that interesting, and I didn't have much friends because it took me a long time to adapt to secondary school life. But I had the best three years after that and I never regretted choosing Greendale as my first choice. Although I do regret several decisions I made regarding friendships (I was and still am not good at handling friendships). I do wish to go back and amend my mistakes but you know what they say - once the moment's gone, it's lost forever.

But I never regret knowing these people who played a big role in my life at a point, and helped to shape my life in one way or another. Thank you, and I do miss you even if I am silent about it.

I once read an article online that says we lose many of our high school friends after we graduate because when we fought in secondary school, we were forced into reconciliation to avoid highly awkward situations. But there is no such need anymore after we graduate. And before long, a couple of years would have passed and it would have been too late to make amendments and restarting the friendship just doesn't feel right. Besides, we no longer see each other that often so when misunderstandings arises, we are no longer that motivated to make things right again. I'm not sure how true this is for you guys, but it's definitely like that in my situation.

But what I want to say is that, cherish your secondary school lives, for they will be the best 4/5 years of your lives. And don't be afraid to make mistakes because that's the only way you'll truly learn. If you don't make mistakes now, then when?

P.S. Any negative remarks made on my ask.fm regarding this post will be ignored.