Community Engagement

As the first truly international school in Singapore, Tanglin Trust School has been part of the Singapore educational landscape since 1925.

Partnering with Schools

Tanglin has a long tradition of engagement with the local educational community, whether collaborating with schools such as Chen Su Lan, Raffles, Hwa Chong and many international schools on joint philanthropic projects and sports activities or hosting curriculum enrichment activities.

These examples include, professional development for teachers from other local and international schools, Model United Nations, Infant School partnering with Chen Su Lan Children's Home, Singapore Boys Town, Child at Street 11, hosting the International Schools Computing Games and the Across Asia Youth Film Festival (AAYFF).

Action in the Community

In Tanglin, charity activities are not about the amount fundraised; it is about connecting with organisations to raise awareness and have committed, engaged and compassionate students.

Part of every student's journey through Tanglin includes meaningful engagement with the community. This might be through the Junior Award Scheme for Schools (JASS) in Years 5 and 6, the Learner Profile in Middle School (Years 7, 8 and 9) or the International Duke of Edinburgh (DOE) and Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) projects in Upper and Sixth Form (Years 10-13). The Tanglin Trust School Foundation supports service projects through the Deirdre Lew Service Award.

In addition, all students take an active role in philanthropy, particularly in developing strong relationships with local Singaporean charities such Love, NILS, Food from the Heart and Conservation International among others. These include non-uniform days, class charities and whole school fundraising events. In all cases we aim to build lasting relationships.

The Junior School also has curriculum-aligned charity activities, Middle and Upper Schools have charity weeks during the academic year. On average, we have about forty-one charity activities a year.

Engaging with Local Businesses

One-north is known as a global talent hub and an international centre of excellence for scientific research, technology and media. It is already home to international organisations such as Disney, A*Star, Apple, Siemens and Proctor & Gamble as well as a hive of activity for innovative start-up enterprises.

With this in mind, Tanglin is actively engaging with our new local neighbours while developing lasting links with the wider Singapore community. This will provide limitless possibilities for our students for learning beyond the classroom and also the chance to engage and offer our commitment to local community projects and activities.

We also link with local employers to expose our students to the world of work regularly hosting careers fairs, talks and enterprise projects. Students also take part in a work experience programme where they spend valuable time in various different industries. Connections with the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) and business communities are great ways for our students to learn about the world of work

Embracing Singapore

Awareness of the diversity of cultures in Singapore is woven into our values.

We actively celebrate the many cultural days, including Deepavali and Chinese New Year, inviting performers and artists into school to share their love and expertise of these vibrant cultural festivals. Our Arts Faculty has a strong link with the local arts community and our music students are often lucky enough to perform in public spaces across Singapore including Ngee Ann City, Sentosa, Timbre+, National University Hospital (NUH) and community centres.

Our long history affords us a deep connection to Singapore and we seek to ensure that our students genuinely feel part of this exciting island city.

Friends of Tanglin

Tanglin works collaboratively with its parents via the Friends of Tanglin community group which aims to connect, support and provide a nurturing community for both current families and families who are new to Tanglin and Singapore. It's more than just an informal platform for parents to connect and engage; it's a community for the entire family at Tanglin. Friends of Tanglin gives families the opportunity to engage with others and make friends around their children through appealing events. Parents can volunteer as much or as little as they'd like since such roles are flexible and adaptable to one's schedule.

Parents who connect through Friends of Tanglin activities often form strong friendships, some of whom have continued to keep in touch even after they left Tanglin.

The go between parents and teachers
Aside from participating in social activities or volunteering, parents who want to play a more active role can also volunteer to become class representatives. These are a group of parents who support the class teacher by acting as a liaison between the teacher and parents of children in the class in the following ways:

Acting as a point of contact for class parents with the teacher
Contacting and supporting families who are new to the school through casual interactions and showing them around
Attending termly catch ups with the Head of Year and school leadership team
Organising volunteer rotas
Helping to organise class parties for children for occasions like Christmas or end of the school year
Coordinating Class Memory Books
Organising social gatherings for the class and their parents

What a year!
The 2022-23 Academic Year will go down in the history books as the year that Team Tanglin pulled together to reconnect with our community. It was the first full year coming out of the pandemic – no masks, no bubbles, no restrictions. Everyone at Tanglin fully embraced this opportunity and our Friends of Tanglin objective was to re-engage in-person with our community.