Type Nonconforming Founder Marist Brother Principal Pn. Low Lai Khun Founded 1956 | Established 1956 Chairman Dato Seri Lim Hock San Phone +60 3-7956 5484 Number of students 3,100 | |
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Grades 100% pass rate for STPM Motto Loyalties, Sincerity, Diligence, Moderation Similar Kuen Cheng High Sch, Confucian Private Secondar, Tsun Jin High School, Chong Hwa Independ | ||
Catholic High School Petaling Jaya (CHSPJ), more commonly known as SMJK Katholik, is a coeducational government school in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, recognised as a Cluster School of Excellence by the Malaysian Ministry of Education. Founded in 1956 by Rev. Bro. Philippe Wu of the Marist Brothers, it has over 3100 students. It has an area of 8.4 acres (34,000 m2) with six blocks of classrooms (Blocks A, B, C, D, E and F), three blocks of science laboratories, an air conditioned school hall, a sports complex, 2 canteens, a library and a school field. CHS has 14 uniformed bodies, 36 societies, 5 sports houses and 14 sports and games clubs. The students of CHS are known as 'CHS-ians'. Due to having the status as an chinese conforming school, students applying for CHS are required to have taken Chinese paper for UPSR. Mandarin Chinese paper is compulsory for all students and enrollment examinations such as PT3 and SPM.
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History
Established by Brother Philippe Wu, a Marist Brother from the Marist Congregation based in Singapore, it was first called Marist High School. The Marist High School shared classrooms with the Maxwell Secondary School as there were no school buildings available. A School-Building Planning Committee was formed to design a new building to house the school. The government approved and allocated a piece of land in Cheras but the committee decided that it was unwise to build the school on the piece of land allocated due to its poor location and expensive building costs.
Later in 1956, the committee purchased a piece of land in Petaling Jaya that spanned 10 acres (40,000 m2) with the money collected from a fund-raising project. A new two story building with 20 classrooms was constructed. The foundation stone was laid by the Rt Rev. Msgr Tan Sri Dominic Aloysius Vendargon, the first local Roman Catholic Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur. In the same year, Rev. Bro. Dominic Liu was appointed the Brother Provincial of the Marist Brothers and the leadership of the school was passed to Rev. Bro. Dominic Liu.
In 1959, the first batch of students sat for the LCE Examination. The principal at the time, Rev. Bro. Dominic Liu expanded the school by building a block of science laboratories and a library. In 1961, the first batch of Form 5 students sat for S.C/F.M.C Examination and thus the pioneer batch of CHSians graduated.
In 1962, the school's principalship was handed over to Rev. Bro. Lawrence Tung. During his tenure as principal, the school purchased two buses for co-curricular use and improvements were made to the school field. In accordance with the Education Act of 1961, Catholic High School became a conforming school and changed its name to SM Katholik. However, the name Catholic High School still remains in use and the school is still commonly referred to as such.
From 1963 to 2005, the school saw an expansion in facilities and an increase in student population. Several blocks of class rooms were erected, and a hall, canteen, sports facilities and laboratories were built.
In 1984, the school became a co-educational school. The following year, the Form Six Classes opened its doors to female students.
In 1989, the appointment of Mr. Cheok Cheo Foh marked the end of the era whereby Marist Brothers were no longer the principals of the school. To this day, the Marist Brothers do have a signifiant say as to the leadership and the direction of the school.
In 2001, Madam Tan Lin became the first female principal of Catholic High School, succeeding Mr. Lee Kim Tian. During her tenure as principal, the security of the school was tightened by installing closed-circuit television, an automatic pole gate at the entrance and introducing new rules and measures to ensure the safety of the 3350 students. The school hall was upgraded and an air conditioning system was installed. Madam Tan Lin retired on 5 September 2007. Her successor is Madam Lee Kim Lai (sister of Mr Lee Kim Tian)who took office on 22 October 2007.
In September 2011, Madam Lee Kim Lai retired as the principal of Catholic High School and Mr Ong Boon Puah was installed as the new, and current principal of Catholic High School.
Academic
Catholic High School offers classes for students from Form 1 to Form 6.
For Form 1 until Form 3, students are placed in either classes 1A1 to 1A7 or 1B1 to 1B7. In Form 4 and Form 5, classes offered are pure science (9 classes), sub-arts (3 classes) and pure arts (2 classes). Form 6 students have a choice for applying the pure science, sub-science or the arts class.
As regulated by the board of SMJK Schools, mathematics and science subjects are taught in English only and Mandarin Chinese classes as well as examination is compulsory for all students from Form 1 to Form 5.
Sports
In July 2007, the school's all-boys' cheer leading team, Calyx All-boys, made their début in the national inter-school cheerleading competition, Cheer 2007, and managed secured the title as "Best Newcomer".
CHS has made appearances in the arena of Ultimate Frisbee. In the year 2006, CHS competed in the UM Open, sending three teams (one Open, one Men Novice, one Women Novice). In the next year, CHS sent a few representatives to join All Star at the Valley Ultimate's Hard-Core Ultimate Frisbee and also sent five teams to make a clean sweep at the Subang Jaya Community Youth Under-18 Ultimate Open. In the year 2008, CHS competed in competitions such as the UiTM Open where the team received the title of Most Promising Team, Taylor's Ultimate Mini and sent representatives for the Malaysia Ultimate Open held at international level.
In 2012, the cheerleading team, Calyx All-girls was the champion of the category of All-Girl School Division, and Calyx Junior also was the champion of the category of Junior Division in Charm Cheerleading Championship 2012 which was held in 1 Utama. Besides that, Calyx All-girls got second place in the National Youth Day cheerleading competition and the winner of Best Make-Up Award for Cheer 2012.
In the competition Cheer 2015, Calyx secured the first runner up in the All-Girls category while in the Co-ed category they obtained the second runner up. Calyx Junior was the 2nd runner up. Cheer 2016 ended with Calyx crowned champion in the Co-ed category and the girls received 1st runner up in the All-Girls category. In the same year, Calyx swept C3 when the all-girls, co-ed and juniors won all 3 champions in their respective categories.
In 2013 and 2014, 2 of the school's swimmers (Yap Siew Hui and Yeap Zheng Yang) took part in numerous international swimming competitions and came back with abs and tons of medals.
Music
Catholic High School Band was established in 1982 under Brother Paul Sung, a former principal of the school, by starting off as a marching band with 30 members under Xavier Anthony as the first band tutor; and subsequently under Mr. Eric Lee, also a former band member of the school, till date. Catholic High School Band performed at the Music Festival held in Spain 2001, but their greatest achievement was winning the 2000 and 2005 National High School Marching Band Competition - and six years as Selangor State Marching Competition Champion. Since, Mr. Eric has led the gradual transformation of the band from marching-oriented into orchestration-oriented; as a result, the band has successfully won 2 gold medals from the Winter Band Festivals held in Hong Kong in 2011 and 2015.
The school has an Oriental/Chinese Orchestra, and a Harmonica and Guitar Band.
For the 50th Anniversary Jubilee Concert, Tan Lin introduced the Catholic High School Symphony Orchestra, which was formed ad hoc, comprising members from the brass band, Oriental Music Orchestra and other string instrument players selected from the student body. In 2009, several students entered into a partnership with the marching band to found the Catholic High School Sinfonietta. The sinfonietta provides a platform for string musicians to play in an orchestra, as well as students to inexpensively learn string instruments. The first CHS Sinfonietta performance was as a String Quintet during the Teachers' Day celebration in 2010 and their second performance was during the retirement ceremony of Ms. Yong Moi Moi and Mdm. Tan Tiu Hang. On 25 December 2010, the CHS Sinfonietta performed in the One Utama shopping mall as one of its Christmas guest performers. With the CHS Sinfonietta up and running and gaining traction, CHS is one of the few schools in Malaysia with a fully fledged school orchestra, a marching band and a classical Chinese orchestra.
In 2010, the CHS Choir participated in the World Choir Games held in Shaoxing, China. The choir won a silver award.
60th Anniversary Celebration
Catholic High School celebrated its 60th anniversary on Friday, June 24 with a celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the school hall. The event saw the attendance of the Marist Brothers who are the founders, former principals, teachers and students of the school. Also present were the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (FMM) Sisters affiliated with SMK Assunta and Assunta Hospital in Petaling Jaya, teachers, students and their families. Almost the entire non-Muslim student population of Forms 3, 4 and 5, numbering more than 1,500 boys and girls were present. Archbishop Julian Leow was the main celebrant, with Fr Andrew Wong, Fr Lawrence Andrew, Fr Alberto Irenus and Fr Stephen Ng concelebrating.
Besides the Diamond Jubilee Mass, Catholic High School has held other exciting events throughout its 60th year, which included the Diamond Jubilee Road Run in February and the Diamond Jubilee Musical Extravaganza as well as the Diamond Jubilee Carnival in June and July respectively.
In the month of June of the same year, Catholic High School has accredited a record in the Malaysia Book of Records for the second time, with the title "Biggest Logo using Recycled Pens“. Through the help and effort by 102 Form 6 students they assembled a the school's 60th anniversary logo using 152,3677 pens. The dimension of the logo was 40ft by 27.1ft.
On 10th of September in the year 2002, Catholic High School was listed in the Malaysia Book of Records used 321,7617 10 cent coins to assemble a map of Malaysia measuring at 45ft x 18ft.
Facilities
Gan Teck Loon Library located in Block A contains approximately 60,000 reading materials, ranging from genres such as fictions, arts, science, literature and philosophy. They also have a Multimedia Room that allows the students to browse the internet for E-learning purposes. Newspapers in 4 languages (Malay, Chinese, English and Tamil) are provided, along with self learning areas and discussion rooms. In 2015, the Selangor State Education Department awarded the library with Champion in library management.
The sports complex consists of the squash court, ping pong court and the basketball court. Equipped with 2 industrial ceiling fans, the covered basketball court is used primarily for basketball and cheerleading practices. The squash court and ping pong court are housed under a building, with the choir room located in the second floor. The ping pong court is able to fit 6 ping pong tables at once, and there are 6 squash courts available.
CHS also has an Audio Visual Room, being in charged by the board of librarians and a auditorium, managed by the monitorial board. The AV room is mostly used for teaching purposes while the auditorium is usually used for seminars and opened for use to clubs and societies through application.