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Welcome to our MS Construction Club blog. The MS Construction Club is a group of enthusiastic students who are keen to be involved with the 'once-in-a-lifetime' opportunity of building the school they will learn in. We will be sharing our engagement, our discoveries, and our learning with the wider SAS community here. Enjoy!

See You Next School Year!

Tuesday 12th May, 2026

There have been three cohorts of MS students this academic year. As we close out this school year, this is what our last group have to say . . .

What we have enjoyed the most this season:
[Adam] I really like reviewing the playground plans
[Ken] I liked visiting the site and wearing all the PPE, because it made me feel special
[Simon] I enjoyed checking out the progress each week and learning about how things work
[Elaine & Melody] We really enjoyed visiting the ES playground and trying out the different pieces of equipment
[Inky] Drinking warm water from the construction site water fountain. Yum!
[Natsu] Sadly I missed a few weeks and didn't get to visit the playground
[Aileen] Testing out the playground equipment, especially riding the flying fox.

What we hope to see in August, when we get back after the Summer:
[Adam] I want to see (and feel) air conditioning!
[Simon] I want to see all the piles done and the building starting to grow
[Ken] I want to see all the dirt piles gone and the old metal from the ES building
[Melody] I'd love to see the playground emerging
[Natsu] I'd like to see 1 or 2 floors completed
[Inky] I want to see the basement dug - where the kitchen goes.
[Elaine] I want to see the structure of the building emerging out of the mud
[Aileen] I want to see the revised playground plans, with all our suggestions built in.

Rising Out of the Ground

Tuesday 14th April 2026

It has begun! While the piling and foundation work continues for the main 7-story building, the 2-story dining pavilion has started to emerge and reach skyward. On our club site visit, students learned about the process of creating the supporting columns--of which there will be 100s in the final building. Fun facts:

The reo bar loops that hold the vertical reo bar in place are spaced 200mm apart, except in the middle of the column, which has the greatest flex forces to combat. Here, those rebar rings are 100mm apart.
Before they pour the concrete, they have to insert the cable tubing (conduit) and boxes for the power sockets, lighting, and speaker connections.
The formwork tube is like a big circular clamp. They use adjustable props to make sure the column is perfectly straight.
The concrete is poured in from the top from a big bucket with a rubber chute/hose that goes into the center of the column.
Once poured, a special vibrating rod is used to make sure there are not spaces or air pockets in the concrete.
The newly poured column needs 24 hours to set before the formwork can be removed.
Setting concrete gives off quite a lot of heat!
A special compound is painted onto the new concrete to stop it from getting small cracks as it dries out.

It's Not All Child's Play

Tuesday 24th March & Tuesday 7th April, 2026

Sometimes research is sooo much fun! Over two weeks, the MS Construction Club members have been assisting the building and landscape architects with the designs for the new playspaces.

Firstly, club members pored over the site plans and landscape proposals submitted early in the project's timeline, and wrote suggestions for inclusions and edits to the plans. Let's face it--the best playground must surely come from the minds of those who are going to play on them.

Secondly, club members went on a guided tour of the play spaces in the new Elementary building and stress-tested the ES equipment for suitability for MS students.

Fun, fun, fun!

MS Dining Pavilion Gets Its First Customers

Tuesday, 31st March 2026

Our season three cohort of students had their first visit on site. Kudos to Ken, who has been with the MS Construction Club for all three seasons this year, and is now our resident student expert!

Students got to see (and stand within) the new MS dining pavilion, which now has its concrete pad and the two-story columns emerging skyward. Sadly, food and beverage services have not started yet. 😢

Students managed to spy a new site supervisor hanging out on a site office post, keeping a watchful eye on proceedings!

Behind the Scenes at the Middle School Groundbreaking Ceremony

Tuesday, February 3, 2026

Members of our MS Construction Club were front and center at this week's MS Groundbreaking Ceremony. After a quick check on our new cafeteria and rainwater detention tanks -- both of which are making steady progress with rebar and concrete taking shape -- our club was then ushered to the groundbreaking ceremony, where about 50 other community members were waiting eagerly for our arrival. Fiona and Teddy, two of our club members, had the honor of speaking about what we have learned so far and what we are most excited about. They also shared special thank yous to members of our facilities and construction teams who guide the MS Construction Club through the site each week. After more speeches from Superintendent Tom Boasberg and Board Chair Ehab Abou-Oaf, we all headed toward the rainforest where special tents were set up and shovels were at the ready. Our club counted down with "3, 2, 1... Excavator, raise the banner!" as an excavator lifted an SAS MS Reimagined banner into the air. Next, the MS Construction Club, Mr. Boasberg, Mr. Abou-Oaf, CFO Tricia Lee, and our principal, Mr. Beingessner, took shovels in hand and dug the first symbolic scoops of dirt under the watchful eyes of Indiana Bones, our robot dog! New middle school, here we come!

Where on Earth Does the Rainwater Go?

Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Did you know that in 2025, 2,984.9mm of rainwater fell in Singapore? That's 18% above the long-term average! So where does all that rain go? On construction sites across Singapore, the government requires builders to install rainwater detention tanks to collect all the rainwater that falls on a property. In the new middle school, our new detention tank is currently under construction -- and holds 80 cubic meters of water! That's bigger than our 50M pool! But guess what? You will never SEE the detention tank because it will be UNDER the road at the entrance to school! The MS Construction Club had the privilege last week of seeing the rebar put in place for the detention tank, and this week, we got a glimpse of the concrete that will form the foundation of this tank. It's incredible just how much rainwater will collect right under our feet... and we won't see it!

Middle School Cafeteria Springs Up!

Tuesday, January 20, 2026

At last we can see one of our new middle school structures emerging from the dirt: our new cafeteria! This week, the Middle School Construction Club learned about how construction crews use a grid line system across a building site to determine the precise placement of each element of a new structure. Following a carefully constructed digital model and the grid line markings, the construction crew has now begun to pour the foundation of the cafeteria, including drainage systems and first floor columns. The new middle school is on it's way!

Dreaming of Play Spaces

Tuesday, January 13, 2026

Trampolines, gaga ball, hammocks, pickleball, treehouses, parkour, basketball, a haunted house, and a pillow fight arena! These were some of the ideas our MS Construction Club students generated when we shared the plans for our new middle school play spaces and asked students what they hoped for. What a great starting point for our design team! On our new MS campus, we will have a Squishy Court larger than we have now, an exciting Adventure Course, a Secret Garden, a softball field, a soccer pitch, and more! What would you imagine in your dream middle school play space?

Meet Our Robot Dogs!

Tuesday, 9th December, 2025

Ever wonder how the lasers on our robot dogs, Indiana Bones and Betty the Beagle, work? Simon Thomas, our SAS Head of Facilities, led the MS Construction Club through a laser simulation this week, explaining to the club how our robot dogs gather data on our construction site and upload it to a point cloud that generates an accurate image of reality, which can then be matched to the digital model. Their measurements help our builders make sure that every part of the building is in exactly the right place!

The Mystery of the Hat Colors

Tuesday, 2nd December 2025

Who knew? Those different colored hats that you see on building sites are not just random or an individual fashion choice. White hats, yellow hats, blue, red, and green -- all have a specific role in identifying the job role of the wearer:
Yellow - General workers
Red - Crane & machinery spotters
Blue - Health & safety
Green - Specialist workers, cleaners
White - Supervisors, professionals (and visitors like us!)

This week, our season 2 Construction Clubbers had their first visit to the site and were introduced to some important personnel, were issued their personal protection, and got to see the loading of a new 12m pile into the 600 tonne piler. Awesome!

Role play!

Tuesday, 25th November 2025

Our new cohort of MS Construction clubbers had their first field trip, a visit to the SAS Facilities office to learn about what goes on there to make the SAS campus run smoothly.

While there, we were introduced to the roles of the architect (Mr. Williams) and project manager (Mr. Charbel), and what their current work is on the new MS building.

Mr. Williams demonstrated the 3D model of the MS building and explained how digital models are used to put all the pieces of a building together and identify conflicts. These can then be fixed BEFORE the cost of building it.

Students got to create their own Gantt charts of their morning routines to explore one of the chief tools of the project manager to keep a multi-million dollar project on track.

Digging into the Digital Model

Tuesday, November 4, 2025

Mr. Charbel Ganhem, our MS Reimagined Project Manager, met with us to share the digital model of the new middle school. We learned that the digital model is part of the BIM system, or the Building Information Management system, and that every building in Singapore is designed digitally first before it is built physically. This allows the team to see exactly where the structure's electrical, water, sewage, and ventilation systems impact the building design.

The digital model also lets us explore the building virtually so that we can get a feel for how it will flow!

Piles of Fun!

Tuesday, 14th & 28th October 2025

Either side of the Fall Break we had our second and third visits to the Site Office, after first getting fitted for safety hats 👷🏽 , hi-viz vests 🦺, and steel-capped boots 🥾. Safety first!

Once on site, Mr. Thomas explained the piling process and how the foundations of the new seven-storey MS building will be constructed.

We watched the 600-tonne piling machine push in the piles for one of the tower cranes -- these piles go 22m into the ground 🤯.

Other Fun Piling Facts

Number of piles: 382
Length of pile: 12m (if it needs to go deeper, they weld another 12m pile)
Diameter of piles: 400mm
How the piles are piled: they are pushed into the ground by a massive piling machine -- no hammering, no noise.

Danger, Danger, Demolition!

Tuesday, 7th October 2025

We enjoyed our first visit to the building site today.

First, we had to go to the SAS Facilities office to collect hi-viz vests 🦺 and have a safety talk from Mr. Thomas, the head of SAS Facilities.

On site, we got to see the final stages of the demolition of the old elementary school building.

Interesting things we saw:

The misting cannons were spraying fine clouds of water over the area to keep the dust down. From a distance it looked like clouds of dust, but it was actually water.
The crane with the electromagnet was sweeping the piles of rubble, collecting all the iron pieces out of the piles and putting them in big skips for recycling.

Meet the Architect

Tuesday, 30th September 2025

Exploring the floor plans of the new MS building is fascinating. It is going to be an amazing building!

We had a chance to create our own floor plans for our dream bedroom or house -- using what we had learned from the MS plans and watching an online tutorial.

It was great to have SAS's resident architect, Mr. Isaac Williams, come and talk to us about the life and work of an architect, and we got to ask him lots of questions. We were very lucky to then have 1:1 consultations with Mr. Williams about the floor plans we had made.

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