华文名：蒙福小学

History

Montfort started as a single class of students in rural Serangoon in 1916.

The class, which was taught in English, operated on the upper floor of a two-storey building next to a church in Upper Serangoon. It became Holy Innocents’ English School, Montfort School’s predecessor. The school building had been the brainchild of Father Laurent, the parish priest of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. His successor, Father Henry Duvelle, finished building the school and started the first English class.

The school expanded steadily and had nine classrooms by 1922. In 1936, the school was placed under the management of the Brothers of St Gabriel and it continued to grow rapidly. At the end of 1941, the school held its Senior Cambridge Examination, just before the Singapore fell to the Japanese during the Second World War. All the candidates passed, though they had to wait until 1946 – after the Japanese Occupation – to find out.

The postwar years were a period of tremendous growth for the school. In 1948, more Brothers arrived, and that year also saw the addition of a second floor to the five-classroom block along Upper Serangoon Road. The extension was opened by Sultan Ibrahim of Johor, great-grandfather of the present sultan, who had donated generously to the school-building fund.

In 1951, the school published its first school annual, which archived the history of the school. In 1959, Holy Innocents’ English School was renamed Montfort School in honour of its founder, St Louis Marie De Montfort, whose efforts to educate the young, were carried on by the Brothers of St Gabriel.

The school opened its doors to female students in 1961. The girls were admitted to the pre-university classes, which catered to both science and arts students. The last batch of pre-university students graduated from the school in 1975, when junior colleges were set up in Singapore.

Montfort School split into Montfort Junior School and Montfort Secondary School in 1974. In 1987, the school was given a new site at Hougang Avenue 8, and the building was completed in 1991. The following year, the school moved to new premises and it was officially declared open on 24 July 1993.

The school was rebuilt under PRIME upgrading in 2003, and an indoor hall was added in 2008. In 2016, Montfort celebrated its 100th Founder’s Day with activities throughout the year. The school underwent PERI upgrading, which was completed in 2018.