In 2007, it also started the Bi-Cultural Chinese Elective Programme (BiCEP) to develop effective bilingualism in its students.

To provide better infrastructure to support the teaching and learning of its students, Tao Nan School underwent the PERI Upgrading from 2014 to 2015 and operated at the holding site in Bedok South Road.

The entire crest signifies the acquisition of abundant knowledge and the training of the strong and healthy body.

It was one of the six modern Chinese schools in Singapore with a curriculum influenced by the educational reforms in China at the end of the 19th century.

[2] The school was initially named Tao Nan Study Hall (道南學堂, Taonan hsüeht'ang).

Benefactors include Tan Boon Liat, Lee Cheng Yan, Low Kim Pong, Tan Kah Kee, and Oei Tiong Ham, Majoor der Chinezen, the sugar magnate from Semarang, Central Java, whose donation largely financed the purchase of land on Armenian Street.

Tao Nan became the first Chinese school to change the medium of instruction from the Hokkien dialect to Mandarin.

It was named a SAP (Special Assistance Plan) school in 1990 and a Gifted Education Programme Centre in 1996.

For days with PE lessons, students wear a white shirt with dark blue shorts to school.

The previous shirt had the image of the mascot of the house (Dolphin, Killer Whale, Marlin or Shark) that the student belonged to on the back.

It is white with a blue high collar, with the word prefect on the left side of the T-shirt and on the back.