St. Margaret's School, Brunei

St. Margaret's School (Malay: Sekolah St. Margaret, Abbrev: SMS) is a private school in Seria, Brunei Darussalam.

St. Margaret's School Sekolah St. Margaret
Address
Jalan Bolkiah Pekan Seria , Belait District Brunei
Coordinates	4.6097600°N 114.3351496°E / 4.6097600; 114.3351496
Information
Type	Private
Motto	Be Strong and of Good Courage
Established	1955
Status	Operational
Principal	Liew Yong Kim
Gender	Coeducational
Colour(s)	Red, White, Blue
Nickname	SMS
Affiliations	CIE
Website	stmargaretseria.org

History

The school was founded by Mr Amir a resident priest at St. Margaret's Church, in 1955. The first school was an old wooden building which was a vehicle repair shop opposite St. Margaret's Church. The school started with three classes and had 60 children. It was inaugurated by R.E. Hales, the Managing Director of British Malayan Petroleum Company on 8 April 1956. The school moved to its present site, which was given by the government, in 1959.

The school was established by the efforts of founder Principal Rev L R Melling and the parishioners of St Margaret’s Church in Seria at Lorong Tiga to cater for those who wanted English as the medium of instruction. It was officially opened by R E Hales, managing director of British Malayan Petroleum Company on 8 April 1956.

St. Margaret's School, circa 1956

In January 1960, the school opened a secondary section with Form 1.

In February 1960, John Heath took over as the principal.

The ARCON building was inaugurated by the Managing Director of Brunei Shell Petroleum, PM Linton, on 7 May 1961.

The first batch of candidates from St Margaret's entered the Brunei Certificate of Education in November 1962 (which was later changed to PMB) and the Cambridge School Certificate of Examination in 1964.

A new classroom block was inaugurated by the Bishop of Borneo on 26 February 1967, and the principal's quarters were completed in October 1967.

Mr Curie (Australia) took over for a short while as acting principal. John Heath served the school as principal until 1970.

A new school block was opened in December 2012.

Principals

John Heath, Olwyn Parker, Sheila Vicars and David Vicars

Principal	Years served
Rev L. R. Melling	1956–1958
John Heath	1960–1970
Rev. J. G. R. Osborne	1971–1974
Rev. A. J. Tudball	May–December 1975
Abraham Thomas	1978–1996
Siew Kuan Keasberry	1997–2007
Hjh Kertini Binti OKPSD Abang Hj Abu Hanifah	2007–2009
Mohan Varghese	2009–2011
Koh Hong Puah	2011–2017
Liew Yong Kim	2017–present

See also

• Education in Asia
• List of schools in Brunei

External links

• stmargaretseria.org, the school's official website