The school was then made up of 3 branches (Kay Wah Main, Kay Wah Branch I and Kay Wah Branch II) at different locations to cater to the needs of the villagers. The name Kay Wah (Qihua in Hokkien) means the opening of minds to receive education. The school was officially declared open in 1939.

It was closed during the Japanese Occupation and re-opened after World War II with an enrolment of 2000 pupils in its 3 branches. By 1966, the schools had to be run by 3 Principals – Mr Ong Hang Tin (Kay Wah Main), Mr Choo Phie Ching (Kay Wah Branch I) and Mr Tan Chek Sen (Kay Wah Branch II). However, these 3 branches remained under a common SMC.

In 1980, major transformation took place as Kay Wah Branch I adopted English as its first language.

In 1983, there was a fall in enrolment due to large scale resettlement of farmers, as the area was set aside for military training purposes. Kay Wah Main and Kay Wah Branch II were closed in 1986 and 1987 respectively. Kay Wah Branch I was relocated to Woodlands New Town in 1988 as a government school under the leadership of Mr Choo Phie Ching. The school was renamed Qihua Primary School which is the hanyu pinyin of its Chinese name. In 1989, the responsibility of headship was handed over to Mr Seah Chong Kiat who ran the school until 1997. Mrs Bilveer Singh headed the school from 1998 to 2005 and led the school through PRIME in 1999. Mrs Koh Sau Peng, the current Principal, took over the running of the school in 2006.

Today the school has an enrolment of about 2086 pupils, comprising 54.20% Chinese, 38.80% Malay, 5.1% Indians and 1.9% other races.

In the cognitive domain, the school is guided by its teaching and learning framework to engage, enrich and enable the different groups of pupils for meaningful acquisition of skills and knowledge. There are special programmes to cater to the different abilities (HAMALA) of our children. Examples of Apex programmes for HA pupils are Scientist-at-work’ a Science experiential programme, Science level lesson plans, Olympic training programme for Maths, ‘Cognitive Accelerated Maths Programme’ (CAMP), Literature for English, creative writing for Chinese and others.  Besides enrichment programmes, Mass Lectures, school-based subject-based banding for EL & CL are introduced to provide additional academic support for MA and LA pupils.

The school adopts blended learning as a school-wide pedagogical approach to classroom delivery that will require teachers to plan lessons blending the 3 aspects: cognitive, constructivist and e-tools for effective teaching and learning. The school has made provisions to support the staff and pupils in adopting this pupil-centric approach in the classroom.

P4-P6 pupils will undergo a thinking programme – Analytical Thinking Programme to build 21st century skills.

II          Independent Learning Programme
To inculcate the value of responsibility for one’s own learning, the school created a study space manned by teachers. Pupils who need guidance or clarification of any problems encountered during their own revision are able to approach teachers on duty for help.

III         Learner-centred Environment
The basis for the concerted effort to create a learner-centred environment is based on the Theory of social constructivism that says young children develop their thinking abilities by interacting not only with other children and adults but with the physical environment around them. This led the school to provide incidental learning experiences for all. There are learning (subject) corners, ecological gardens, art appreciation, wall and floor murals, e-learning corners, e-xcite (cyber café) room and others. The school’s latest portable mobile stations, and ultra mobile personal computers (UMPC) have certainly enriched the learning environment of our pupils, not to mention our broadcast room dedicated to developing pupils’ oral presentation skils. A new dimension of learning will be added to our ecological gardens. Active processes to help pupils discover principles, concepts and facts for themselves, and to reinforce intuitive thinking are built into the garden for learning.

IV         Modular Arts Programme
The mission for a holistic and joyful education led the school to introduce a modular arts programme for our pupils. P1 and P2 pupils are taught caricatures for self expression and P3 pupils are taught batik painting. For the Upper primary classes, pupils are taught brush strokes, use of colours and craft art to promote creativity and to develop in pupils a basic sense of proportion and colours. Pupils identified for Music and Drama are trained in voice projection, singing and body expression. Theatre Dance is introduced to all P2 pupils. The school has successfully choreographed in-house musicals since 2006 to give vent to creative expressions and to lay the foundation for future creative pursuits. 

V          Qian Ju Wen Programme
Qian Ju Wen, an experimental Chinese Language programme in our 3rd year of implementation, is a specially tailored programme for the HA group of pupils. P1 to P3 pupils who have shown a greater interest in the learning of CL undergo a specific pedagogy based on the theoretical concept that effective language acquisition in the early years should focus more on identification and recognition of words. The ‘Read first and write later’ pedagogy focuses on oral communication to build pupils’ vocabulary. The objective of this programme is to raise the standard of Chinese learning to first language status for some pupils.

VI         IPW Programme
To fully utilize the white space created, the school has since 2007 adopted Interdisciplinary Project Work for P3 to P5 pupils. Pupils are expected to work individually and as teams on topics related to Science.  As the delivery of the project requires some rigour, pupils undergo structured workshops to acquire analytical / enquiry-based skills, Science and English skills for effective transference of learning, and IT skills for the presentation and analysis. Each team project is assessed for oral as well as written presentations by a team of teachers and the scores constitute a part of a pupil’s CA. In 2009, to help pupils better master the requisite skills, P3 to P5 pupils attend a 20 hour Analytical Thinking Programme, an inquiry-based course to undergird the transference of learning.

VII        PE Programme
To build sports skills, the school has a structured modular PE programme since 2006, wherein pupils at different levels pick up skills in Gymnastics, Sepak Takraw, Basketball, Table Tennis and Swimming. This programme identifies and develops sports talents as soon as they join P1. The school is also using sports as a means to inculcate in pupils a life-long healthy life-style orientation as well as character traits like team-work, sportsmanship, espirit de corps, values of perseverance and resiliency. The school has since leveraged on the Olympic education initiative to integrate sports values into the school curriculum.  The school is currently collaborating with PERSES (Perseketuan Sepak Takraw Singapura), to help it achieve its objective of teaching the school’s niche sport to the whole school cohort.  ‘Sporty Friday’ another new initiative mooted by the staff is a mass aerobics workout for all staff and pupils.  This is a collaborative effort by the NE & PE departments to raise awareness of work-life harmony. 

I           National Education
The school’s new NE direction focuses on raising pupils’ awareness of Singapore’s existence vis-à-vis her neighbours and the world at large. Every week, through an NE infused curriculum, pupils learn the nation’s history, be updated on current affairs, social and economic issues that confront the nation and her neighbours. Activities are planned to help pupils be more aware of the school’s history, build their sense of pride and belonging to the school, community and nation.

The NE Gallery provides a treasure trove of memorabilia of past and current events with visual images and authentic materials to enable our children to look back at the nation’s past with pride as they embrace the future with confidence. It is also used as a resource library for Social Studies lessons.    

II          Character Building 
The Qihua toolkit, a SEL lesson package developed by our teachers for P1 –P6 pupils, consists of lesson plans like ‘Jolting the Mind’ to be used by teachers during relief periods, ‘Awakening the Mind’ which are value-based stories and SEL lesson plans to be taught as an integrated subject with Social Studies for P3 –P6 pupils. For the P1-P2 pupils this is integrated with EL. The SEL lessons are to P1-P2 and P4-P6 pupils once a week while the P3 pupils will have 4 SEL lessons per term. ‘Character Climb’ is a set of rubrics drawn up to provide a holistic assessment of pupils with feedback from the teacher, parent, peer and self.

III         Internationalization Programmes
This programme has certainly enriched the learning of some of our pupils and was warmly embraced by our key stakeholders. It has positively impacted our pupils in many ways. Currently the school runs 3 internationalization programmes: the immersion programme with Singapore International School, Medan (Indonesia), the cultural exchange programme with pupils at Sengkurong Sekolah Rendah in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei and the twinning programme with Anzhen Experimental School in Wuxi, China.