Our recent school visit

 

I got a kick out of saying, “Tomorrow, I will be going back to school,” simply because this time, I was not going to school for school.

 

View of the school facade from the car park

Instead, the Book Team and I were on a mission to meet the principals of the Primary and Secondary schools, with the aim to garner more information about the school’s history and achievements, and to search for old but valuable photographs.

 

While others in the Book Team were not able to join us, Sunita Sothi, Lucy Leong and myself, were ready to walk through that familiar old building to gain further insight into our alma mater – a 100-year-old educational institution – the only Convent School in Johor Bahru.

 

The marble sculpture carefully
preserved within a glass case

To commemorate the school’s centenary celebration this year, an Anniversary souvenir book will be published for sale to raise funds for the school that will go toward repairs and the building maintenance.

 

The contents of this ‘Limited Edition’ book will not only document the school’s proud heritage but will also include sections that feature Luminaries of the school, alumni reflections in Voices of Convent Johor Bahru as well as Global Footprints that highlight alumni based worldwide, who have made Johor, Malaysia and their families proud.

 

Since the invitation for contributions of Memories and Photos had gone out, we have been receiving very interesting and meaningful contributions from alumni, both near and far.

 

Lucy [Left] and Sunita [Right]
with Primary school staff at the
entrance to the Convent Gallery

Thanks to social media and modern technology, more and more alumni are being connected again, ready to contribute their personal experiences about school life and to pay tribute to their teachers and mentors.

 

At the 100th-year anniversary of our alma mater, it is timely to publish such a souvenir book filled with personal anecdotes and experiences as a good documentation of how the school had impacted lives.

 

Supported by old photos, this book will make such good reading – a pride to own and present as a gift to fellow alumni – a precious collector’s item, to be treasured for generations.

 

With these objectives in mind, Sunita, Lucy and I headed to the front porch of the original building, used as the Primary school, to visit the Gallery Convent.

 

I guess this upright piano was once
used in the Primary school hall

The façade of the main school building remains unchanged with the iconic marble sculpture of the Virgin Mary at the top of the front steps to the porch that leads into the Primary school.

 

Since leaving school after Form Five, I have been back to cover school stories that were published in the Southern section of The New Straits Times dubbed, Johor Streets.

 

I had the privilege to see the Convent Gallery in the Primary school that had a collection of precious artefacts since the days of the Sisters, and published it in a cover-and-centerspread feature in Johor Streets, in January 2011.

 

I told the Book Team about this exciting experience and wanted them to visit this place for their own experience and to get some interesting info and photos that should go into the Anniversary souvenir book.

 

My centerspread feature was still postered 
on the Notice Board since January 2011

So it was pure nostalgia to spot my published feature on a Notice Board next to the entrance to the Gallery, yellowed and faded, yet still postered here since January 2011.

 

Time had certainly passed – 14 years to be exact – since my first visit to the Gallery and sadly, much had changed inside. Undeterred by the changes, we opened cupboards and checked shelves in search of any suitable material to borrow and add to the contents in our manuscript.

 

A relic from a bygone era

It was good to come across old photo albums where there was a collection of Black & White photographs from which we could pick a few valuable shots for our use.

 

As the Secondary School has a tradition for excellence and stayed among the top ten schools in the nation for scoring highly in SPM results since 2010, the status of the school was raised from a Cluster School to a High-Performance School in 2012.

 

While I was looking through books and magazines on a shelf, I pulled out a plastic laminated sheet that was slipped in between the books. When I turned it over, I was pleasantly surprised to see that someone had tried to preserve my published article dated April 2015 with a report on the success of SPM top-scorers.

 

The Secondary school hall is
named Nicholas Barre Hall

Looking back at my published pieces on school events, I was often back in the school to report on various events, not just fun and proud events but also on a pressing issue concerning the Convent Primary school in 2012.

 

In January 2016, I was invited to join the school when they bade farewell to Secondary school principal, Ms Ng Lee Wan. The event also included the official opening of a multi-purpose hall that was built in the rear field with an adjacent carpark and covered walkway that linked this hall to the school building.

 

Then in 2017, I was back in the school again to meet with five students in the Research & Development Team of the Science & Mathematics Society who had done nation and Johor proud for their invention of the Infinity Spoon. This eco-friendly pinespoon was their invention inspired by the Johor pineapple.

 

Sunita and Lucy with the piles of books
and magazines in the Resource center

As we walked through familiar corridors, we observed that renovations were done to link the two schools with covered paths both on the ground level as well as the upper floor. Almost every available space was turned into classrooms while a corner unit in the Primary school that was once a dental clinic, is now used as a gardener’s shed.

 

So vivid were our memories of the school premises that we could not help but discussed which were our classrooms for Standard One and Two onwards till Standard Six.

 

It was an amusing revelation when Lucy shared about how she and her friends enjoyed rolling on the grassy slopes in the front field and the way they quickly choped (Read: laid claim on) a court to play during recess time!

 

The Caritas Hall on the rear field

The Primary school hall had virtually disappeared and the space walled up into a meeting room lined with wall cabinets that stored trophies and souvenirs awarded to the school.

 

After rummaging through old photo albums and dusty documents, we left the Primary school in search of taps to wash our hands before heading to the Secondary school.

 

While Sunita and Lucy paused to chat with the canteen operators, I looked closer at the wrapped food and snacks displayed for sale, labelled at RM2 each. 

A co-op shop in the school

A pay-phone attached to the wall caught my eye. Once a useful instrument for students to make calls but now outdated and relegated to the rank of relic from a bygone era as its usefulness has been replaced by handy smart-phones.

 

We walked towards the Secondary school reception (that used to be our bookshop) and passed the school hall which now has a name, the Nicholas Barre Hall.

 

This hall was so named to honour Catholic priest, Nicholas Barre (1621 – 1686) who founded the Sisters of the Infant Jesus.

 

A walk up a flight of familiar stairs brought us to the first floor where we were ushered into the Secondary school’s Resource center. Inside, we were greeted by piles of old books and magazines on the table, prepared for us to discover any useful information.

 

Someone said, “Time flies when you are having fun,” because we totally lost track of time in that room. Suddenly it was almost 1.30pm when we were ready to leave but not without going to look at the rear field and the multi-purpose hall there.

 

We walked along that first-floor corridor to the opposite end which opened to the rooms that used to be Science labs and Home Science rooms. Along the way, I peeked into the toilets and was pleased to see that they were new, clean and brightly lit.

 

Lucy and I on our recent school visit
 

The rear playing fields – we once knew – were halved because the multi-purpose hall occupied half that field. It was named Caritas Hall, with the word, caritas which means, Christian love of humankind and charity.

 

Then I spotted something new nearby: A co-op shop. Unable to resist checking it out, Sunita and I headed into the shop to discover that it stocked school essentials like stationery items, school T-shirts and other knick-knacks.

 

In our time, the ice-cream stall was manned by husband-and-wife team, Joseph and Mary, but now students can get their ice-cream from the co-op shop.

 

The covered walkway that links the Secondary
school building to the gates at Jalan Yahya Awal

On our way out, we saw that a covered walkway was built along the side fence from the Secondary school building that led to the sheltered waiting area close to the front gates that bordered Jalan Yahya Awal.

 

By using this covered path, students can make their way to and from their transport on rainy days as vehicles are no longer allowed to drive to the covered front porch of the Primary school for pick-up or drop-off.

 

As for us, we took one last look at the school’s familiar façade, got into our cars and drove slowly through the front porch to our exit from the school compound.

 

Note: Work on the manuscript for the Anniversary souvenir book is in rapid progress. Details on the purchase of this ‘Limited Edition’ book, filled with contents that alumni can easily identify with, will be available on the Convent Johor Bahru 100^th Year Celebration Facebook page. Thank you.