Singapore Trip 2025
Under the amazing but seemingly effortless leadership of Mr Wood, nine students and Mr Amrein ventured to Singapore during the Term 1 holidays. The trip allowed a fantastic cultural experience for everyone, with the amazing Raffles Institution – the oldest school in Singapore – hosting us.
Our students had the opportunity to visit Pulau Ubin, an island with a rich natural ecosystem untouched from the masses of urban skyscrapers that dominate Singapore’s tiniest area (an entire area of just 735km2, only a little larger than the area of Lake Taupo 616km2). The area is heavily patrolled to stop the inflow of people and goods, however the island is stepping back 70 years and gives a glimpse of what this area looked like before the concrete jungles appeared. A van took us to the easternmost part of the island where we climbed a 33m tower above the treetops, walked a 2km boardwalk through the mangroves and seashore, bicycled 30 minutes west and climbed a ‘little hill’ (oh it is just up there) looking out over their neighbourhood.
Students also learned the art of navigating through the central city, during the Amazing Race Singapore, in a very safe environment, where taxi drivers actually return cellphones!
They enjoyed some flash technology classes allowing our students to produce a short video on sustainability, and a great trip to the Singapore Climate Research Centre, with one of the lead meteorologists being an old girl from Carmel College. A visit to the Urban Redevelopment Authority (Smart Nation) shows that Singapore is leading the way in many areas of city development and sustainability.
We also watched Raffles students play water polo at the impressive Tampines complex – an integrated service complex with sport, cultural, entertainment, social support, governance, health and education services all sited in one building. The covered swimming pool is located on the roof, 6 floors up. Other attractions we visited include the aquarium, shopping malls, Marina Sands, and a monorail ride to Sentosa Island where the heat was very intense and so was the lightning and thunder that followed. The boys managed to get quite a few rides in before the outside rides got shut down and the whole population were running for cover!
Mr Jo (Mathematics) says hello to everyone at Rosmini – he is enjoying his time in Singapore so far. We wish to wholeheartedly thank Mr Wood for all the work he did to plan and lead this wonderful experience, as well as thank Raffles Institution and the teachers that supported us and went well beyond expectation, from McFlurries to keeping us hydrated and making sure we got home quickly after a very long and tiring Amazing Race.
