School history
Discover the rich history of New Town Primary School, from its roots in 1960s Queenstown to its present home at Tanglin Halt Road.
School History
In the early 1960s, Queenstown used to be a swampy area, where settlers lived in huts and farmed vegetables and livestock. As Singapore’s population grew, the need to provide adequate housing led to plans to develop Queenstown as Singapore’s first new town with mass public housing flats.
New Town Primary School got its name because it was situated in this new town where high-rise, low-cost Housing Development Board (HDB) flats were built.
It was officially opened on 26th July 1965 by Dr Goh Keng Swee, Minister of Finance. This made New Town Primary School as old as the nation state of Singapore, which gained her independence on the 9th of August 1965.
The old campus of New Town Primary School was then located at the junction of Commonwealth Drive and Commonwealth Avenue in Queenstown. The school building was a 4-storey block with 24 classrooms. Most of the students lived in public housing flats around Queenstown. At that time, New Town Primary School was an Integrated School, offering both English-medium and Chinese-medium classes in two sessions.
In 1984, New Town Primary School became totally English Medium.
In 1992, when Permaisura Primary School closed down, New Town Primary took over its campus which was located beside its old campus on Commonwealth Drive.
On 2nd January 2004, New Town Primary School became single session.
In January 2009, the school merged with Ghim Moh Primary School and was relocated to a new campus where it now stands at 300 Tanglin Halt Road.
