Chief Executive Officer

I would like to acknowledge and thank the faculty and business staff at Tanglin. My colleagues have been nothing short of amazing in ensuring that students have been supported, nurtured and appropriately challenged. This has been critical in a world where physical, emotional and mental wellbeing have been threatened by the impositions of various restrictions. The school undertook several initiatives in 2019 in framing the One School, Exciting Futures strategic plan. Significant dialogue and consideration took place to identify key areas for development. Some of our larger strategic goals were achieved, while a number were impacted by restrictions. The plan was due for review at the end of 2021 but given two years of disruption, it felt prudent to expend a little more time addressing some of our goals.

We are thrilled to have developed a revised plan entitled 100 Years of Excellence. This strategic framework incorporates the thematic focus to key areas of school life, namely: Inspired Learners, Flourishing Individuals, Personal Best, Team Tanglin, Sustainable Future and Our People. Significant achievements have occurred in each of these areas. In keeping with the school’s focus on being one school, three whole school committees have operated to support our aspirations. The academic, pastoral and co-curricular committees coordinate cross-school approaches to develop Inspired Learners, Flourishing Individuals and students achieving their Personal Best. This clear focus has allowed us to develop each key element of school life.

Craig Considine Chief Executive Officer

Our community became fragmented between 2019 and 2021 due to the pandemic. Team Tanglin is central to our strategic focus as we drive to re-establish the richness of personal interaction that defines all communities. When schools were able to reopen fully in Singapore in March 2022, a significant effort was made to bridge the gap between the barren event landscape and what one would normally expect in a dynamic and vibrant institution such as Tanglin. Student performances, music ensembles, House and year group sporting activities, parent events and a cocktail event for Friends of Tanglin at the British Club all engaged our families and students. This will continue into the new year.

As 2021/22 progressed, key areas became more apparent, and special projects have been developed to ensure that appropriate resources and focus are in place in the years ahead. These Special Projects are being led by members of our teaching and business teams. With the support of the management team, our colleagues ensure coordination across the three schools and our business teams to align the experiences of our students and broader school community. Our special projects include:

Digital First: Tanglin utilises a range of software systems to manage day-to-day activities. Like many schools, however, Tanglin has been grappling with various legacy systems. We are currently consolidating and migrating various systems to the Cloud. We are also redefining the way we store and optimise data, how we manage increased digital and cyber risks, ensure good data governance, and how we ensure our teachers and business executives are trained for their future. For example, all staff undertake PDPA training to ensure we understand how to manage personal data appropriately.

Sustainability: There has been tremendous support for the Sustainability strategic project from all areas of the school. The project kicked off in February 2022 with a working group of 30 staff members, representing school faculty as well as business departments, including Operations, Procurement and the Corporate Secretariat. Tanglin has much to be proud of in the way that it has promoted environmental responsibility and sustainable practices in the past - a big part of which was devoted to ‘greenifying’ our campus through various initiatives implemented in our infrastructure, facilities and housekeeping.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ): 2021-22 saw a renewed focus on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) at Tanglin Trust School. 17 staff from across the Infant, Junior, Senior schools and Business team completed a 7-month long DEIJ training course with the consultant Angie Browne. This explored DEIJ through the lens of the protected characteristics including race, disability, sex and religion. We looked at current research and best practices around providing for these characteristics in schools, and began to explore actions that Tanglin might take to make our school more inclusive for all. These include training for staff, curriculum changes and ensuring the physical environment is accessible.

The Institute: The Institute at Tanglin has started well. In Term 3 the Institute Working Committee was formed, comprising Tanglin faculty and staff. We have also formed an Institute Advisory Group, made up of Tanglin parents with a wealth of experience in various business, corporate and professional settings who have provided critical guidance on vision, strategy, and possible directions. Based on consultations with these groups and other stakeholders, we have agreed on a vision for the Institute – a forum that inspires, challenges and prepares the next generation of leaders in our community, by promoting excellence, providing thought leadership, and encouraging discourse.

100 Years of Excellence: To celebrate its legacy and heritage, a passionate team of Tanglin staff and students came together in 2021/22 to begin planning for Tanglin’s Centenary celebrations in the 2024/25 academic year. There are three key areas to the T100 project, namely: celebrating the legacy of the past 100 years, celebrating events during the centenary year and creating a legacy for the next 100 years through the Centennial Arts Project. The Brain is the first of a series of commissions of visual and performance artworks to take place over the next decade. The theme will be focused around Respect, Responsibility, and Purpose - Tanglin’s core values that are relevant for both future and past generations. Awarded artists like Singaporean artist Victor Tan, who are selected for the Centennial Arts Project, will commit to including students in the artistic process of creating a significant work that’s aligned with the theme, context, location.

The fourth wheel of the Tanglin vehicle is the leadership of the Tanglin business. Ling Guan Heng is our CFO/COO and he leads a talented team of professionals to manage the financial, technological, and logistical elements of Tanglin. Though this exceptional team acts proactively, the school business also needs to be reactive to Government legislation and guidance, and we appreciate this.

Outstanding progress through the whole school committees occurs in partnership with the Heads of School. The three Tanglin schools have been brilliantly led by Allan Forbes, Clair Harrington-Wilcox and Paula Craigie. These amazing educational leaders have been wholehearted in their leadership of their staff and students. Insight and wisdom have been required in heavy measure through the pandemic and it is comforting to know our schools have been in such safe hands.

School Development

Plans are important aspirational tools that allow our talented teachers the opportunity to propose and implement various and achievements in their reviews. Some examples of these included the development of Middle School, Upper School and Sixth Form, creation of focused leadership in pastoral, academic and co-curricular matters, expansion of the co-curricular programme in Junior School, as well as the emergence of the Forest School in Infant School where it reinforces how much the environment and joy of play contribute to each child’s ‘sense-making’ of the natural world.

Significant challenges have befallen many industries in recent years, so it’s not surprising to note the difficulties associated with recruitment and retention of staff. The emergence of large numbers of British and other International Schools have impacted the availability of staff with experience of the UK system and IB. Despite this, we are pleased to appoint many outstanding teachers in this challenging environment and this has been reflected in the grade outcomes. Tanglin Trust School is the only Singapore international school to offer the IB and UK A level pathway. In 2022, the IB Diploma students averaged 41.4 points (the highest ever in Tanglin history) and 93% of the cohort scored 38 points and above. An exceptional 40% of all A level grades were A* and 69% were A*/A. In (I)GCSE, 68% of grades were A* or equivalent while 85% of grades were A* to A and 98% of grades were A* to C or equivalent.

Without a doubt, this was another fantastic year at Tanglin. Our students received offers from 157 different institutions, across 10 different countries. Seven students were admitted to Oxford and Cambridge in the UK. In the USA our students accepted places at Yale, Stanford, Brown, and NYU, to name a few. This impressive list continues to grow, and is testament to our students’ academic and extracurricular achievements, along with their preparation and well considered application lists. The outstanding A-level and IB Diploma results ensured a tremendous 99% of students received their first or second choices.

We are also pleased to share that Tanglin Trust School was listed as one of Singapore’s Best Employers 2022, a ranking of the top 200 companies and institutions with at least 200 employees. At the time of the independent study released on 18 April 2022 by The Straits Times and global data firm Statista, Tanglin had 300 foreign staff – a little over half of all employees, and the average tenure for all staff is 8.6 years.

While great schools are the product of great people, sadly we must bid farewell to those who have given so much. I want to give my heartfelt thanks to Allan Forbes, Sophie Harle and Cecilia Handel for their stellar contributions to Tanglin. Although they oversaw different aspects of the Tanglin experience, these three people are responsible for our flourishing community - from students to parents and our business staff. We shall miss them and wish them well in their future endeavours.

Schools are regulated by several different authorities. In Singapore, our regulator is the Committee for Private Education (CPE). We also undertake regular inspections with several global bodies. As a British School Overseas, Tanglin is inspected against Department for Education standards. Given the alignment of the school, we chose to undertake future inspection as one school, rather than as three individual schools and our most recent inspection was successfully carried out in November 2022.

As we slowly recover from the devastating effects of COVID-19, we are pleased to see so many of our special projects progress positively and well. These will be built upon in years to come and we look forward to reporting our progress on our key strategic themes and projects.

Roll on, 2022/23.