St Hilda’s Secondary started as Bethel English School in 1929 on Ceylon Road in Katong. In 1934, Archdeacon Graham White acquired the school and affiliated it to the Anglican Diocese. In 1938, the school was renamed St Hilda’s School after the school’s patron saint, Princess Hilda of Whitby. The essence of the school’s aims and inspirations was captured in the Mosaic command, ‘Go forward’ (Ewdis 14:15), which has since become the school motto.