School Focus for P3 Students

Gau Poh Teck

23 January 2015

HAPPY NEW YEAR

新年快乐

Flow of Events

Programme Remarks

P3 Chinese Language Workshop for parents Principal’s Sharing • School Theme 2015 • Important roles parents play in CCE • Transition in P3 Primary 3 Swimsafer Programme

Classroom Session with P3 Teachers Not a one-to-one session

School Theme 2015

School Theme for 2015

“Strengthening Bonds, Unleashing Potentials”

强化联系，激发潜能

See Principal’s 2015 message on the school website:

http://www.meetoh.moe.edu.sg/cos/o.x?c=/wbn/pagetree&func=view&rid=24614

Recapitulation of 2014 Sharing

Shifts in Singapore’s Education System

Recapitulation of 2014 Sharing

The shift towards a more holistic education

A Holistic Education aspires to give a broad-based experience to the children through schooling so that each child can tap on the broad range of baseline exposures to discover and pursue his/her strengths, interests or talents

A need to emphasize process (of learning) and not just results (or outcomes) or for personal convenience

A holistic education develops a whole person.

Transforming Learning •School History Curriculum

– Creation of School History Curriculum

– 6-year development programmes from P1 to P6

– Greater awareness of school history

– School Pride and Sense of Belonging to the school

– Inculcate the vitrue of“饮水思源”(remembering the source from

which you drink the water)

•Library Reading Programme – Redesign of School Library to support Language Programmes

– Strengthen bilingualism in pupils

•Authentic Science Learning and Environmental Awareness – Creation of Eco-garden to support experiential Science Learning

– Stepping up environment awareness programmes

Enhancing Holistic Education (Mee Toh School’s efforts)

9

N4 Cluster CoL for Chinese

Language and Culture

• Innovative pedagogies for Chinese

Language learning in tandem with

curricular changes (Dances with

Books, Drama in Education,

Qianjuwen)

• Values and cultural learning through

CCE

10

Enhancing Holistic Education (Mee Toh School’s efforts)

External Validation 2012

(significant improvements)

2012 - 2015

Re-Validated 2012 - 2015

2013

Improving PSLE Results 2012 - 2014

School Holistic Education Benchmarks

Enhancing Holistic Education

Character & Citizenship

Education (CCE)

The world awaiting our

children……

VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity)

“To deal with the demands of a VUCA environment, good grades in

school are not enough. In fact they might not even be relevant. Instead,

individuals need to be adaptable and willing to learn. They need to

have the confidence to deal with problems that have no clear-cut

solutions. And they need to be able to work effectively with others,

across races and nationalities, and to communicate clearly.”

Mr Leo Yip, Chairman EDB quoted by

Mr Heng Swee Keat, Minister for Education

MOE Work Plan Seminar 2013

Singapore’s Character & Citizenship Education

(CCE) Framework

Swiss Roll Diagram

Character, Values & Social Emotional Competencies

• The three terms are closely related

• Values

– guide and provide the purpose for one’s behaviours.

– Values refer to the national values and school values that are being explicitly taught in the formal and informal curriculum.

– Actions without grounding in values would lead to inconsistency in purpose and actions.

– Character is values manifested in life

National Values: R3ICH Values

Respect

Responsibility

Resilience

Integrity

Care

Harmony

R3ICH nurture a person of good character and a good citizen

MTS FUNDAMENTALS

School Motto School Values

Compassion 慈 Care (仁心关爱 )

Teamwork (群策群力)

Conscience 良 Resilience (坚韧不拔)

Excellence (精益求精)

Purity 清 Confidence (满怀信心)

Integrity (正直清廉)

Righteousness直 Respect (互敬互重)

Service (奉献精神)

Parents, as part of the Mee Toh School Community to adopt

the school values too!

Social Emotional Competencies

• Social & Emotional Learning (SEL) An umbrella term that refers to students' acquisition of

skills to

–recognise and manage emotions,

–develop care and concern for others,

–make responsible decisions,

–establish positive relationships, and

–handle challenging situations effectively

What does research say about SEL?

Multiple research and studies have

consistently concluded that pupils’ school

achievement (in a holistic sense) and later

success in life are closely related to pupils’

social emotional competencies

Importance of Social Emotional Competencies

“Children who have positive self-belief tend to get

better results, do difficult schoolwork confidently,

feel optimistic, try hard and enjoy school.” The Straits Times, 1 January 2014

“Praise child for his efforts, not grades”

“Strengthening Bonds, Unleashing Potentials”

Students are more likely to be emotionally

and intellectually invested in classes where

they have positive relationships with their

peers and teachers

An important outcome of CCE

Students must understand that they can be part

of the solution when situations arise and that

they are capable of creating positive outcomes

they hope to have!

Parents

play a key

role in

CCE of

their

children

Parents’ conversation with their

children matters

What do adults teach children?

“We teach the children what we know and who we are.”

Tashi Chhoezom Namgyel Principal, Little Dragon Primary School

FTGP: P3 Lessons

Values-in-Action

Values are caught and

not only taught!

Providing the contexts

for values learning

Transition to P3

• Importance of laying a strong foundation for

learning at P3

• Transition from lower to upper primary in terms

of learning maturity

• Transition from concrete representation to

more pictorial and abstract forms

• From teacher-dependent to more self-directed

and independent

• Formal learning of Science from P3 onwards

• Switch from Modular CCA to Diverse CCA

CCA Programme

• Switch from Modular to Diverse CCA

• CCA are integral to a holistic

education – CCA is about character development

• Compulsory for all pupils to have at

least one diverse CCA from P3

onwards

How are students allocated into P3 classes?

Letter to P2 Parents (4 Nov 2014): As an enhancement to providing a Student-Centric, Values-Driven Education, the school will continue to organise P3 classes in 2015, just like in previous years, according to broad ability banding. However, the numbering of classes does not follow any particular order. The school would like to work with parents in looking at each child individually, recognise his/her strengths and weaknesses to develop his/her potential and at the same time enhance character development.

How are students allocated into P3 classes?

•The system does not retain pupils. All P2 pupils will progress to P3 at the end of the year.

•There is a need to re-organise the P3 classes because of the change in class size from 30 (in P2) to 40 (in P3)

*Classes will be organised into broad ability bands:

General Principles

*Classes in each colour band will have pupils with similar/close

abilities

*Maximum of 40 pupils per class

*Overall performance in E, M, MT will be considered

*Minimal movements from P3 to P4

* P4 class allocation will be informed via MC online on the first

Friday of year-end holidays

Diagram is only for illustration purpose, may not reflect actual situation

How are students allocated into P3 classes?

Can SVE be achieved?

• Not going to be easy but is achievable. Values are intangible, with outcomes not easily measurable like examination results

• Wise Chinese saying:

• Values education needs to be approached differently from the learning of examinable subjects. Emphasis must start from the process

• School and parents must be persistent partners in this whole effort of values education and character development

• Adults need to provide positive role-modelling and engage in conversations to deepen values learning with their children

Important Dates for P3 Parents

Important Dates

Date/Period Event

9/2 13/2

P3 & P4 Math & Science Parent Workshop

14/4 to 15/4

SA1 – Paper 1 & Listening Comprehension

29/4 to 30/4

SA1 – Oral

Important Dates

Date/Period Event

8/5 to 13/5 SA1

29/4 to 30/4 SA1 – Oral

8/5 to 13/5 SA1

28/5 to 29/5 Meet the Parent Session (1 ½ day)

13/8 to 18/8 CA2

Important Dates

Date/Period Event

28/9 to 29/9 SA2 – Paper 1 & Listening Comprehension

1/10 Home-based Learning

Note:

P2, 4 : 2 October 2015

P5 : 5 October 2015

12/10 to 13/10 SA2 Oral

27/10 to 30/10

SA2

Relationship Between School and Parents

• Parents are not

our customers

• Parents are our

partners

in the holistic

education of

the children

• Our common

interest is the

child

school parents

Pupil/child

Partnership between School and Parents

Guiding Philosophy

Quality Relationships A mindset of partnership, collaboration and

mutual support Anchored on Mutual Trust and Mutual

Respect (Guided by the school ethos)

A no-blame culture Clarity of Communication of School Directions and

Standards of Service

1. Always work with your child’s teachers first as they are the ones

who know your child best

• Write your queries in the Student Handbook

• If you prefer to communicate through email, email of the teachers will

be given to you through a letter that will been sent out by the form

teachers in next week

• The teachers will respond to non-emergency queries within 3 working

days

2. If you need to meet up with your child’s teacher, make an

appointment first before coming to school

3. Do be patient with the teachers as they are teaching many children

and have many other commitments too.

Communication with School

• School Notifications will be sent out on

Thursdays

• Replies or collection of payment/documents

will be done on the next Tuesday.

Communication with School

• If Notifications are sent out on a Tuesday,

• Replies or collection of

payment/documents will be done on

Thursday of the same week.

Meeting the P3 Teachers in the Classrooms

• The teachers would like to share:

• Their expectations for their respective classes

• Plans to support your child for holistic learning in P3

• They would also like to get to know the parents of their students for partnership

• Not a One-to-One session with teachers

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Thank you for your kind attention.

Touching Souls Challenging Minds