Brief History
The Methodist Girls' Secondary School was founded by Miss Emma Farris Shellabear
with the aim of educating young girls and spreading Christianity. It was
founded on June 1st, 1904. Miss Emma Farris Shellabear was also the first
headmistress of this school.
The first building of this school was situated in Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock.
At first, there were very few students but in 1906, the number of students
increased to 60 people. Because of this, the school had to rent a house
in Jalan Tengkera and turned it into a hostel for the students.
In 1910, this school moved to a new site in Jalan Kubu and was known as
the Methodist English School. From 1910 to 1927, the first floor of the
building was the hostel, whilst the ground floor was the school. For the
first time, 12 students sat for the Standard Four Examination and passed.
At the same time, there were candidates who sat for the Standard 7 Examination
and the school became an institution by the government.
In 1920, the number of students increased to 200 and to accommodate the
increase in enrollment, a new building was built in Bikley Park, Tengkera
(now the MGPS 1 school building). In 1927, the Shellabear Hall (hostel)
was opened and in 1931, a hall was built (now the primary school hall).
Until 1941, this school had only one stream with Junior and Senior Cambridge
Classes. There were 348 students and 12 teachers.
During the Japanese Occupation (1941 - 1945), this school was used by the
Japanese army and later became the Teachers' Training Centre. This school
was re - established and in 1945, a new building was built consisting of
a science laboratory, library and 8 classrooms.
In 1957, a vocational building housing a cookery room, sewing room, geography
room, art room, handicraft room, dental clinic and 4 classrooms was built.
The 3 - storey building ready in 1996, we still cannot accommodate the
increasing number of students.
