HISTORY OF ST PAUL'S SCHOOL
How it began..............
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| 1st day of St Paul's School declared by Lady Goode |
In its' early years, St Paul's School saw massive and significant changes. Within a decade , a piece of vacant land was transformed into an education institution with buildings and facilities that were modern for that era.
Though the 10th year marks the end of its first decade, the history of the school dates back as far as pre-war years. In fact the beginning of the school was actually associated with the coming of the Anglican Mission to Beaufort Town in 1939.
Fr. Collier ,the then Rector as well as Principal of All Saints’ School, Jesselton through some Beaufort students took great interest in a small private school in Beaufort which was then being run by an Anglican Parish, Mr. Chin Ah Fook.
When Mr. Chin retired, he handed the school tp Fr. Collier and from then on, the school was then known as All Saints Branch School. The School was then situated on a site near the then tennis court of Beaufort Club. However, later when the Chinese self supporting church in Beaufort came into communion with the church of England, the school moved into the church with Mr. Kok Yu Kong and Mr. Leong Fun Yin running a bilingual school in English and Chinese simultaneously.
After the war, the English section of the school came under the care of Kung Ming Chinese School.
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| St Paul's Primary School in the 60s |
However, in 1954 when Kung Ming School found the task of running the school unmanageable, Mr. Kok Yu Kong and Stanley Ho took over the separated English section and thus then the first seed of St Paul’s School was planted. Mr. Kok and Mr. Stanley Ho can said to be the co founders of the school.
It was however, not until 1955 that the school had its own building. On the 5th of January that year, the present primary school building , a chapel and a teachers’ quarters were completed. The student number was then only 96 with Mr. Kok Hon Siong as Principal. Mr. Kok Hon Siong’s years as principal were significant. It was under him that the secondary school was started in 1958.
in January on the following year. 1960, however was a hallmark in the history of the school for it was then that the school presented its first batcIn 1959, Rev. Fr. Tudball became the priest in charge and the principal of the school. Under his principalship the school expanded very rapidly and by the end of 1959, and additional block of classroom was constructed. Fr. A Tudball left at the end of 1960 and his place was taken over by Miss Owen Parker whose term of office was rather short for she left the school h of candidates for the Sabah Junior Certificate Exam.
On January 1961, Mr. Norman Bisset took over as the principal of the school. It was through him the school received numerous gifts of Science equipments from Australia under the Colombo plan. Regrettably, Mr. Bisset did not stay long for he left the school at the end of 1961.
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| St Paul's Secondary School in the early 70s |
The following principal ,Mr. Thien Thau Kiong came at the end of 1962. Under him, the expansion of the school took a significant change ,for it was him who spearheaded the construction of the present secondary school building. 20th January 1963 was a historical occasion for the school as the State Director of Education , the Hon Mr. G.D. Muir laid the foundation stone and the parent building of the secondary school found its home and it is here that the school celebrated the end of the first decade. It was also noteworthy to mention that the school hostel was also completed at this period.
Mr. Thien left the school in August 1963 and his place was momentarily taken over by Rev. Fr. James Pun who served for about a term before retiring at the end of the same year.
In January 1964, Mr. Noel Chin became the principal of the school. The student number was 290 then. Under him, the expansion of the school was further accelerated. By the end of the same year, work on a new Science Block costing RM43,00.00 began and it was completed in the following year.
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| Mr. Noel Chin |
The Science Block was officially declared opened on the 25th June 1966 by the Hon. En. Mohd Dun B Banir. Thus, at the end of 1966, the school was able to present its first batch of Science candidates in Physics and Chemistry for the School Certificate Examinations. The end of 1965 also saw the completion of the school library to cater for the increased number of students which then stood at 475.
1966-1967 saw the further expansion of the school. A new block of 4 classrooms was built adjacent to the ‘old block’ In 1967, St Paul’s was officially divided into primary and secondary school, with the primary school occupying the old building built in 1950s. Mr. Chong Cheng Cheong became the headmaster of the primary school.
By 1968, an additional two classes were completed below the new block as the students number has increased to 600. It was also a sad year for the school as the then and charismatic principal, Mr. Noel Chin whom had devoted so much for St Paul’s left to take up a new appointment as the new principal for All Saints School in Kota Kinabalu.
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| Father Hurford |
His place was taken over by Rev.Fr.Collin Hurford. Under Fr. Hurford a badminton court was built and works on the school ‘padang’ began. The padang was built on a reclaimed swamp costed the school RM20,000.00. In addition, to this, a new Home Science Room was constructed under his tenure.
Fr. Collin Hurford left the school in September 1971, and was replaced by Mr. Goh Chit Yong. Under his principalship, the school had achieved high standards in the fields of both education and sports. Both areas could be witnessed by the number of successes in public examinations and the sports.
1973 can be considered as a year of achievement for the school. As a result, of the high performance of 96% passes in JCE of 1972, the school was able to start off with two Form Four classes and for the first time the school was able to have separate Form 4 Science and Arts classes. Apart from academic successes, the school also shone brightly in the field of sports. For the first time in history , the school captured the championship of the District Inter-School Sports, thus breaking the monopoly of the rival school, St John’s School. This was not to mention the successes in other games particularly basketball and table tennis where the school consistently uphold the top place.
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| Mr. Goh Chit Yong |
St Paul’s has emerged a long way towards becoming one of the biggest schools in the State today. It will continue to progress in the years to come.The school will undoubtedly keep in mind those who have contributed one way or another into making St Paul’s of what it is today.
The Present St Paul's Secondary School
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| The frontage of the school - 2007 |
I was pleased to be a VSO volunteer at St. Pauls from October 1963 to December 1964 under first Father Pun and later Noel Chin both of whom I have fond memories.
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