Just when you thought tests and exams were scary enough, here’s the bad news: school ghosts do exist. While school is a common place for students in the day, there are also many tales of allegedly haunted schools in Singapore, making them a hotspot for these beings to roam at night.
It’s probably true to say then that camping and sleeping overnight in school changes a person. But for a certain bunch of individuals, it wasn’t in a good way. Here are the spookiest orientation and school camp ghost stories to fulfil your Hungry Ghost Festival thrill. Proceed with caution.
Image credit: Charlston via Foursquare
Back when I was in Ngee Ann Poly, I was a “scarer” for one of our freshmen “horror night” walks. Think USS’ Halloween Horror Night, but the budget version.
Still, it was pretty spooky. My role was to lie flat down in the middle of a pathway, and then sit up and scream at the unsuspecting freshmen who approached. There were 3 of us planted on one of the levels at Block 50 that was notorious for being the most paranormal part of our school.
How a NP horror night looks like, with lights on.
Image credit: Constance N via Foursquare
As camp seniors, we had to follow certain protocols. For instance, cordoning off areas outside “scare zones” with trash bags, and adding an “-oii” behind our names (e.g. Faith-oii) – just like how the real ghosts would.
Halfway through the night, as I was lying there, I heard a voice coming from the wall in front of me, going “oi, oi, OI”. It went on for 5 minutes, getting nearer each time. I swear, the voice fell right next to my ear at one point.
However, like the dedicated actress I was, I ignored it thinking my friends were just playing tricks on me. Later on though, I went to confront them about it in the toilet, to which they adamantly denied calling out to me at all.
The XXX represents the wall of trash bags.
Image credit: Steph Leong
Confused and now extremely on edge, I slowly returned to my spot when suddenly, there were some major rustling noises coming from behind the trash bag wall. It sounded as if a few people were hitting the wall repeatedly, and I knew it couldn’t have been the wind because it was hot AF.
Also, there couldn’t possibly have been campers on the other side. So, as scared as I was, I plucked up all my courage and shouted, “stop it ah!” And just like that, the ominous rustling came to an abrupt ending.
I guess at the end of the day, I was the better scarer.
Story by: Steph
Age: 33
Image credit: Kelly Sikkema via Unsplash
Many moons ago, I had a P5 camp in the middle of what seemed like a jungle. Maybe I was too young to remember the location of the site, or maybe my trauma has blocked it from my memory.
All I remember was that our sleeping quarters were pretty much just a row of wooden sheds, and the toilets, for some egregious reason, were far, far away. We were told to relieve ourselves before bedtime, but I just had to wait till 3am when my bladder was filled with regret, to shuffle to the godforsaken toilet.
There were absolutely no lights on the road, and after a while I felt like I was being followed. Panicked, I ran down the road until I finally reached the toilet. But just as I was about to step in, I heard a loud, piercing scream coming from inside.
All the cubicles were open, and I could clearly see that there was no one inside. At this point, my brain was telling me “pee or live”, so I bolted from the toilet and thankfully, found some facilitators with torchlights down the road.
Still, the most mysterious thing from that night is how I didn’t end up peeing myself.
Story by: Brendan
Age: 24
Image credit: Photos_frompasttofuture via Unsplash
One time during my SMU orientation, my faculty held a 10pm-4am “horror night” for freshies along Sentosa’s Imbiah trail. Throughout the night, there were various accounts of a mysterious white figure hovering around the route.
One of the seniors stationed at a scare point saw the white figure darting past them, and another saw it trailing behind a facilitator. Yet another one of the “scarers”, who had to cradle a baby doll the entire evening, also claimed to have felt an unnerving presence watching her. Then, on the bus ride back to school, everyone was shivering from the cold, even though the air conditioning was spoiled.
In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the wisest of ideas to host “horror night” in the lunar 7th month, since we conducted all kinds of fake occult activities without apologising to the residents in the area.
Or perhaps, like any Singaporean neighbour, the white figure was simply tired from all the late-night ruckus and just wanted us gone ASAP.
Story by: Andrew
Age: 32
Image credit: Hakkan Nural via Unsplash
Back when I was a Sec 3 student at Bowen Secondary, we had an overnight camp. I had left the camp early, but when I returned to class a few days later, there was a noticeable shift in atmosphere among my classmates.
One of them in particular, let’s call her A, was acting rather strangely. She looked pale and tired, and during recess, kept staring blankly at the soccer field and muttering what sounded like Japanese. Then back in class, she kept scowling at another student and tapping her nails on her desk.
At this point, people in her radius were starting to move away from her. However, I figured it was just “shark week” mood swings and even went up to ask if she was alright after class. She started laughing maniacally, and being oblivious, I laughed along with her – until she began heaving, as if gasping for air.
It was then that a group of Muslim classmates came in and started whispering prayers in her ear. Imagine how perturbed I was, until a friend took me aside and revealed that A had been possessed with a legion of Japanese ghosts during camp. Apparently she had accidentally stepped on their gravesite without apologising.
I decided to deal with my fear later, and joined the group to carry her down to one of our teachers who used to be an Ustaz – an Islamic male teacher. While A was a petite 150cm girl whom I used to piggyback all the time, it took about 7 of us to transport her to that teacher’s office.
Well, maybe the next time the doctor takes my weight, I’ll just blame it on some vengeful ghosts.
Story by: Nabilah
Age: –
Image credit: Jonny Clow via Unsplash
Once during JC camp, my friend and I were walking down the hall. The sun was setting and there was no one around us, but we were too engrossed in our conversation to feel afraid.
Then, as we were walking past the AVA room, we suddenly heard a loud, gruff voice behind us saying “excuse me”. Naturally, we turned around to give way to that person – only to realise that there was nobody there.
A little apprehensive, we peered inside the AVA room for signs of somebody, but it was just dark and empty. This was extremely odd as we both swore someone had spoken to us, almost directly by our ears.
Obviously, this scared the crap out of us and we silently agreed to GTFO of there first. When we had joined the rest of our camp group, and were at a considerably safe distance, our friends reminded us of the school legend that the AVA room was haunted by the ghost of an ex-student.
Till this day, I wonder what her or she was trying to tell us. Maybe … to join the AVA club?
Story by: Jessica
Age: 23
During one of my Sec 1 orientation camps, we were playing tug-of-war, a game that had 2 teams pulling on each end of the rope.
Suddenly, the rope was pulled to one side by a great force and both teams collapsed on the ground. After catching our breath, we realised that one of the girls from the winning team was missing.
The whole camp was immediately mobilised to look for her as it was getting late. However, even after an hour of searching high and low, we still couldn’t find the girl.
Then, out of nowhere, she appeared and asked us what we were doing. I remember feeling shocked and frustrated as we told her we had been tiresomely searching for her. But, she insisted that she was here the whole time.
Afterwards, when we went to shower and wash up for the night, some of the girls could hear nails scraping and tapping on the cubicle door – even though there was nobody outside.
Till this day, my friends and I are still baffled at what really went down. If the missing girl was truly just playing a prank on us, then we might have witnessed an Oscar-worthy performance.
Story by: Angela
Age: 20
Image credits: Mora Mitchell via Unsplash
Back in my 1st year at NUS, we were having a hall orientation camp. During that period, the hall was upgrading itself to welcome its new students, which meant switching the corridor lights to motion sensor ones to save electricity.
On the first night, one of my orientation campmates headed out to shower before coming back with a very pale and disturbed expression. She claimed that as she was walking back from one end of the corridor, she saw the lights slowly flickering on and off toward her, meaning that there was movement in her direction.
However, there was no one else walking along that corridor but her.
Was it a tech malfunction? Or maybe, something more sinister? Suffice to say, we were all super frightened and no one dared to leave the dorm room – even to bathe – till the next morning.
Story by: Sam
Age: 26
Image credits: Mickchievious via Flickr
I was from a Catholic school, so of course, there were lots of ghost stories, rumours, and “forbidden” places in the school we weren’t supposed to step foot in. Most of these tales sounded quite far-fetched, so I didn’t believe any of them.
But it was during a school camp that I learnt differently. We were told specifically not to use the girls’ toilet on the 4th floor during our overnight stay in school. No reason was given, which meant that curiosity got the better of a few of us who ditched the campfire to check out the out-of-bounds toilet.
I finished first, so I waited outside to keep a lookout for any teachers while my friends took their time in the toilet. But all of a sudden, they rushed out of the toilet screaming and motioned for me to run with them.
Once we got to a better-lit area, I asked what happened. My friends claimed that they had been washing their hands when they heard a creaking noise from the cubicle door behind them. They looked up in the mirror and saw the door opening on its own. They figured it must be something otherworldly, since they knew I was waiting for them outside.
Maybe there was someone else looking to use the loo as well. But spirit or not, I’d rather not know.
Story by: Jia Ying
Age: 19
Talk about some real camp spirit. Share these camp tales at your next campfire, or sneak out after dark to experience a school haunting for yourself. After all, there’s nothing like some good ol’ trauma bonding to glue the team together.
Oh, and one last thing, who’s that behind you?
For more spooky stuff, check out:
Cover image adapted from: Mickchievious via Flickr, Hakkan Nural & Mora Mitchell via Unsplash
Originally published by Faith Leong on 20th August 2022. Last updated by Iffah Nabilah Norhisham on 16th September 2023.
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