Nexus Junction: Balestier Hill West Primary School

Saturday, 26 September 2015

Balestier Hill West Primary School - School Song

On Thursday evening (Hari Raya Haji), I suddenly developed a nostalgic itch to find the lyrics of the school song of my primary school - Balestier Hill West Primary School - which I attended from 1970 to 1975. Like many other old Singapore primary schools, Balestier Hill West Primary no longer exists. Over the past 20 to 30 years, many of these schools have been closed or merged with/into others because of the lack of students (due to Singapore's declining population / birth rate). Unfortunately, my Google searches were in vain. I simply could not find any internet article or post containing the lyrics of the school song. In fact, searches for general articles about Balestier Hill West Primary were just as fruitless, although there is this very nice photo from the National Archives of Singapore:

http://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/photographs/record-details/29f1f046-1162-11e3-83d5-0050568939ad

I have decided to jot down what I think were the lyrics of my old school song so that it can be indexed by Google. In case any alumni of Balestier Hill West Primary were to suddenly develop the same itch to find the lyrics of the old school song in future, they can use this post as a start:

Come, ~~let us~~ let's all gather here today,
Ready to study, work and play,
Faithful, true, giving of our best
To Balestier Hill School West.

Our school so dear,
Ever ~~faithful~~ loyal to you ~~, I'll~~ we'll remain.
~~Our alma mater~~ Her motto we'll revere,
To persevere and progress,
We'll try, try, again.

Unfortunately, as all these words were drawn from my memory, I cannot attest to the correctness of the lyrics. Please correct me if you spot any mistakes.

Update 2017-06-12
Sabaruddin Slowjack Joha from the BHWS.sg Facebook group has actually posted the full lyrics in his Facebook post back in November 2011. Sabaruddin's post can be seen from here:

https://www.facebook.com/slowjack/videos/10150388688841912/

I have amended my original post with the correct lyrics from Sabaruddin's post.

NJ

7 comments:

Unknown said...: I can't recall a thing of the school song...I was there from 72-77; 4:10 pm, December 23, 2015
Unknown said...: I started the BHWS group awhile back and we've gathered quite a group. Join this Facebook group and catch up with your Pri sch mates!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/bhws.sg/; 7:54 am, November 08, 2016
NJ Wong said...: Hi Paul,

Thanks for starting the Facebook group. I've joined!; 10:48 am, November 08, 2016
Anonymous said...: Lyrics of school song seemed correct except for line on" giving of our best". Should be "giving all our best" from my recall.; 8:52 am, June 11, 2017
NJ Wong said...: Hi Anonymous,

Thanks for the feedback. Actually, after I joined the BHWS Facebook group in November last year, I realised that a Sabaruddin Slowjack Joha had already posted the actual school lyrics in the Facebook group way back in November 2011.

This is the link to Sabaruddin's post:

https://www.facebook.com/slowjack/videos/10150388688841912/

Sabaruddin's lyrics are from the score sheet from the back of the exercise book, so it is the definitive version.

Anyway, according to the score sheet, "giving of our best" is correct.

However, I was wrong in "Our alma mater we'll revere". Apparently, it should have been "Her motto we'll revere".

I will amend my original post to reflect the corrections.

Thanks for your comments.

Regards,
NJ; 3:20 pm, June 12, 2017
Anonymous said...: Hi NJ,

I was there 74-77 (if i remember corrcetly) . i really hope that i could meet up with all the school mate as well as teacher (if possible) i still can remember Mr.Lim (Very fierce) and Mr. lee , discipline master.

After graduate for 40 years , i really missed and thankful all the teachers; 4:17 pm, November 21, 2017
NJ Wong said...: Hi Anonymous,

Thanks for your comment. I cannot remember many of the teacher names except that of my form teacher Mr Edward Tan Ah Khai (he taught Mathematics), and principal Mr Woon Sui Cheong. I don't remember if the discipline master is a Mr Lee (the name doesn't ring a bell), but there was a very stern looking discipline master during my time.

Besides, it was a different era back then, where capital punishment is frequently meted out for the trivialest of offences. I will always remember my form teacher (Mr Edward Tan) for giving me one strike with a ruler on the palm of my hand for scoring 99 marks (out of 100) for a maths test. He said that I should have scored the full 100 marks, and gave me one stroke as my "reward". Ah! Those were the good ol' days! :-)

Regards,
NJ; 6:03 pm, November 23, 2017