Olympic Gold Medallist Joseph Schooling Visits OFS

Saturday mornings are usually quiet at OFS, but on 30 November 2019, droves of excited OFS parents and students descended on our Auditorium with single-minded purpose: to get valuable face time with Singapore's favourite son, Olympic gold medallist Joseph Schooling. And Schooling did not disappoint. Despite a gruelling training schedule for the SEA Games, Joseph graced our event to celebrate OFS’ new sporting collaboration with his acclaimed swim academy Swim Schooling, and graciously took the time to meet fans and autograph personal items. He even took the time to visit our Olympic-sized swimming pool to test the water temperature! (He declared that the water temp was "perfect", by the way.)

Swim Schooling will be overseeing the development of OFS' swim programs on campus from January 2020 onwards. This new collaboration will offer students at every level of proficiency and interest the opportunity to benefit from Swim Schooling’s experienced coaches and structured programs, whether they are just learning to swim, swimming recreationally, or hoping to compete internationally.

OFS' collaboration with Swim Schooling is part of an overall expansion of high performance coaching offerings soon to be available on campus. Starting with swimming from January 2020 onwards, competitive coaching in other key sports such as gymnastics, football and basketball will be available from August 2020 onwards for students willing to commit to intensive training. These students will be eligible to enter high-level inter-school and national-level competitions.

Over the past three years, OFS has seen a huge rise in student participation in sports. Our open policy of not excluding any student from the After School Sports Program (ASSP) has allowed all interested students to take part and improve their fitness and enjoyment of sports. This semester, for example, 1,746 students from Grades 3 to 12 have participated weekly in one or more ASSP sessions. OFS implemented these new initiatives to support our students at every phase of their physical and social development, from interested beginners to keenly focused competitors.