FORWARD LOOKING SINCE 1852
St. Joseph’ s Institution( SJI) is a Catholic school founded in 1852 by the Brothers of the Christian Schools or the De La Salle Brothers. SJI was the first missionary establishment of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in the Far East. The school owes its establishment to Reverend Father Jean-Marie Beurel, a French priest who was working in Singapore in the 1840s.
On 22 July 1852, SJI( previously named St. John’ s School) started as a free school for boys along Bras Basah Road which depended on the support of the public. As the enrolment for the school had increased significantly, the cornerstone of the expansion was laid on 19 March 1855( Feast of St Joseph). With the laying of the cornerstone, the name of the school was changed to St. Joseph’ s Institution.
SJI offers its secondary school boys a dual track education comprising the Secondary Education Certificate( SEC) Programme and an Integrated Programme( IP). The SEC track is a 4-year programme that leads to the Singapore-Cambridge Secondary Education Certificate( SEC) at the end of Year 4. The IP track is a 6-year programme leading to the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme( IBDP) in Years 5 & 6. The 2-year pre-university IBDP admits boys and girls( co-education).
As an institution of learning, SJI aims to develop the whole person. An SJI education focuses on nurturing our students to learn how to learn and to learn how to live, so that they can be empowered to grow into Men of Integrity and Men for Others. Our education is based on the values of Faith as our foundation, Service as our way, and Community as our support.
Hence, our broad-based academic curriculum integrated with a comprehensive student development curriculum focuses on providing our secondary school boys with a balanced and holistic education which has a strong emphasis on character formation and leadership development.
We develop each boy according to his talent and interest, so as to prepare him for the real world beyond school. We not only want our students to acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and dispositions that will prepare them well for postsecondary education and the future but also the disposition and capacity to be able to live a meaningful life driven by passion in the service for others.
3