Orientation Week

"Its the second intake of SST students, so how do their integrate into the SST community?" This report tells you how.

Day 1

The 1st day of School, definitely a start of a new year in SST, especially  for our fellow secondary one students.

As fresh new faces joined inside our SST community, you could see a few enthusiastic secondary ones entering from the main and sides gates, as early as 7.15am, approaching the boards,to find their names for their classes to settle down in the hall as PSLs(Peer Support Leader) help and usher them and get around the SST environment.

Secondary 1s and 2s assembling in the Hall

Secondary 1 students listening to the talk by Mr Chua.

After the Secondary 2s were dismissed,they were told of the SST values and things to note by Mr Chua and Mr Aidil respectively.This was followed by dances and cheers made by the PSLs over the holiday.

The dance were led by Davina and Shamemi to the song "Fireworks" by Katy Perry.

This was followed by the 3 cheers,"SST dynamite","SUPER SOLID" and the original SST cheer led by Jun Hui and Arthur Lee and Jin Qian from 2-06 and the rest of the PSLs as the school's cheer and dance.

Form Teachers welcoming and introducing to the class

The secondary 1s were then led back to their classes where they will get to know their form teacher and friends.There are 4 PSLs in each secondary 1 class and will be helping them during the entire orientation.

Ice breaker games were then played for the students, Form teachers and the PSLs to get to know each other and bond.

Ice Breakers Games with PSLs

Learning the Batch Dance

The students proceeded to the hall for SST sparks where they learnt the 3 SST cheers and SST dance.There were a bit confusion at first but everyone learned some dance moves and cheer by the end of the programme.

After a short break,they were ushered back to class for their mac activities where they will learn how to use their Macbook (Learning Device).This activity is led by the PSLs which will goes through the different activities with them and clarify or answer their doubts regarding the Macbook (Learning Device).

You might think that the secondary ones were really "clueless" about the mac but they aren't. Some of them were using iphoto,preview and even Adobe Photoshop!

Then followed by the reflections for the day led by the form teachers.

Even as they leave the school,you could see some smiles on their faces on their journey back home...

Day 2

Its another day of school,but this time you could see a few energetic and committed secondary 1s walking up to the hall.

Their first activity of the day, the yearly Batch Challenge--Towering above the Rest.

Their task is to make towers out of straws,cups,paperclips,wire and rubber bands but with a time limit of 1 hour.They then have to select a tower to represent their class that is able to hold the weight of 10 marbles and must be taller than 30cm.

There are some trying to make their towers first before planning and others who already have their plan.You could see the secondary ones working together to come up with their ideal tower to represent the class on stage.

There were a few very creative designs,and some can even hold more than 60 marbles!

With their very own towers , the PSLs and teachers helped to test the different towers and measured their height to help the class decide which tower to represent their class.


Back at the hall, after the towers have been set up. Marbles began to drop one by one as the competition gets heated up. After marbles dropping on the floor, towers dropping, slightly disappointed faces showing,S1-08 Wins with around 80 marbles and still standing! 

Next up,was MAC attack 2. They learnt about using keynote to present about their batch challenge during the batch ceremony where they will be presenting their ideas to their parents.


The PSLs showed them the different functions of keynote like animations,transitions,theme,bullets for example.Where they will be stating the description of their tower and what they contributed to make the tower perfect and strong.

You could see some of them adding different colors as the PSLs seek help to them when they face any problem.

So they went home to finish their end of day reflections and their "digital"homework.

Day 3(First Day of Orientation Camp)

Secondary Ones arriving at the camp at Shines Outdoors

The Orientation Camp was a chance for the secondary ones to get to know their classmates,and bond with them.


Its the PSLs job to actually closer up the gap between classmates,helping them make friends and break an unbreakable bond with their friends.

That day, heavy bags are dragged into the buses as everyone, including the PSLs, have to squeeze into 6 buses to head to the campsite --Shines Outdoor


There were a few secondary ones who have forgotten to bring either their thermometers or utensils and its all thanks to the PSLs who borrowed utensils from the chinese stalls and malay stalls so that they can eat at the camp with these utensils.

After the secondary 2s were dismissed,the classes were told of which buses they would be taking to the camp.

When they reached the camp,the juniors hastily took their bags and alight the bus while the PSLs check whether they have left anything else on the bus.The camp site is like on old school,there is a bus stop nearby and traffic lights.

Playing Ice Breaker Games with their Facilitator

After that,they were asked to assemble at the hall first where they were asked to put their bags on the side to make space for the students to play ice-breakers with their facilitator such that the facilitator can get to know them better while the PSLs do their final briefing before they join in with their class.

After Ice-Breakers, the students have lunch and then given a break.Followed by our trainer which introduce the PSLs and students the "Comfort Zone Theory".

Its is about the outer most square being the "Panic Zone"where you will get stressed out,panic,anxious,scared,afraid like when you are holding a real life snake,you will feel scared and afraid.

Followed by "Learning Zone",where the students will learn like where you will be when you are swimming when you are learning how to swim and lastly the "Comfort Zone"where you will feel easy,comfortable with things like where you will be about how you bond with your classmates,learning,comfortable or panic.

After that, there were some small team activities like "helium stick",where students would have to hold up a stick using only their index fingers.The stick will start from ground to eye level of the shortest player in the team and the stick cannot be slanted.

Groanings and arguings occur as they played the games.

After Dinner,the students and the PSLs played a mass game related to trains.
Everyone was scurrying around as the hall turned into a traffic jam where everyone was moving about.

Then the facilitators and the PSLs got the students to write their end of day reflections on a booklet.


Tired students quickly went to bathe and sleep, on the floor.

Secondary 1 students washing their plates after lunch

Day 4(Second Day of Orientation Camp)

The secondary ones woke up at about 7a.m. and then showered,brushed their teeth and prepared themselves before they assemble. The students did

area cleaning before they had their breakfast.

Facilitators Showing Students the safety procedures during high ropes.

After breakfast,they had a briefing on the safety procedures before our first high rope session where the PSLs would be doing their briefing with the students who were attempting the high ropes course and then debriefing after that.


There were a few challenge rope courses for the secondary 1s.The students were a lot "hyper" and enthusiastic this time round when we are doing the ropes course than yesterday team activities.

During lunch, they started brainstorming about their cheer and skit they would have to do during campfire later that night.Then they attempted the ropes course again but this time its another different course.There would be a total of 3 challenges for the ropes course.

The students can blindfold themselves,walk from backwards or walk as a pair or not holding the belaying rope depending on what type of challenge they wanted to challenge themselves.

Secondary Ones Belaying and Supporting their friends

One of the Secondary 1 students attempting the high ropes

Secondary Ones Trying out Rock Climbing

Camp Fire!

After that they were given time to prepare for their performance.

During Campfire,we sang songs and dane and cheer as we drum rolls and watch other class performances as everyone gets HIGH and shout for their class while some secondary ones show off their talents like beat-boxing,singing and dancing.We even have songs like Campfire burning down,good job cheer,macho clap,sexy clap.

Everyone was so ENTHUSIASTIC and attentive,everyone joins in even when our favorite songs were played loudly not eh speakers.We clap and sing.It was a good experience.

Before everyone had to sleep, there was the shifting of positions to allow everyone to sleep properly that night.

Day 5(Last Day of Orientation Camp)

Team activities, like Whacko and MRT game were played the first thing after they woke up.We played different games like Wacko and the MRT game.

Then we have breakfast before we proceed to area cleaning.After area cleaning,the secondary 1s proceed to play small team games before assembling at the hall for closure and end of day reflections.

The PSL debriefed the secondary ones about what they think was most memorable for them and why,and how would they apply to real life and how would they action or strive to reach their goal.

After debriefing ,each class was given a piece of A2 paper where they would draw a square inside the paper and then write and decorate the square with their class together and then on the rest of the space,they were told to write down what they wish to achieve by the end of the year.

Lastly,the students were given time to acknowledge the person they wish to thank and shook hands with the teachers,PSLs,students,classmates and facilitators.


As we close off the orientation camp by the school dance and cheer as everyone carried their bags heavily and tiredly as they walked home with a sense of joy and we know that they have enjoyed the camp very much…….

Written By:Bing Jue

Photos by:Hardy

Read More

CCA Fair

On 12 Jan 2011, SST had our first CCA fair. Although there was not much buzz pior to the fair, there was still much excitement when it was finally time for the fair.The fair took place between 2:30 to 4:30 pm this very afternoon. In this fair, seniors promoted their CCA to their juniors, in an attempt to make them take it up as their CCA. 


The 11 CCAs are : Guitar Ensemble , Badminton , Cross Country, Media Club , Soccer, Basketball, Drama Club , Robotics Club, Wushu , Floorball and Cricket. The 3 newly added CCAs,Taekwondo, fencing and Singapore Youth Flying Club(SYFC), also opened their booths and joined the fair.

Things started and ended on a high note. Even before it was 2.30pm, students had already started filling in to the different venues of the various CCAs.Since each CCA was located in a different place from the other CCAs, there was action in all corners of the school.

The guitar Ensemble put up a performance for their juniors.

The Drama club members and juniors getting ready for a rehearsal session.

While the members of Guitar Ensemble put up little performances at 3pm and 3.30pm to attract new recruits, the Drama Club allowed the juniors to participate in an actual rehearsal just to let them have a feel of things. 

For the sports CCAs, such as soccer,badminton, Cricket, Floorball ,Basketball and Wushu, the members actually played against the juniors or strut their moves in front of them to ‘win their hearts’. Cross Country gave out pamphlets , briefly explaining their CCA , as well as little snacks as welcome gifts to the juniors. As for the Media Club, they treated the juniors with a gallery of their best works , explaining clearly to them the production process that happened while making the product.

The Robotics Club Chairman briefing the students.

The Robotics Club also had its fair share of fun as the student got their hands and minds moving as they tried to make different robot models with the parts they were given while following a guide, which they were also provided with. Because there was no existing members for the three new CCAs, external venders set up their booths and promoted the CCAs.

To end off, the seniors did their very best trying to promote their CCAs. I am sure some of them has already lost their voice from all the shouting . As they say , ‘All for one, and one for all’ . One must definitely sacrifice for the sake of the team , or in this case , for the sake of the CCA.

For more photos , go to : http://picasaweb.google.com/reuvenlim/SelectedPics?authkey=Gv1sRgCPSNydGxkbCidg#5561262403737083602

Written by: Emily Wu

Photos taken by: Reuven Lim

Read More

Secondary 1 registration day

26 November 2010 must definitely be a memorable day for the Primary 6s who have a confirmed offer to SST. They get to see the new textbooks, the uniform, their learning device (Macbook) and of course, who are their pioneers. Their parents were eagerly anxious to see how their child can prepare for their child’s first day of school.

Unlike the previous major events, the PSLs (Peer Support Leader) were the only students helping out in this event. Some of them were helping to welcome the parents & students, others were answering common queries of the parents, the rest were registering the P6s or doing some logistics work.

Registration at the Cafeteria

From 7.30am onwards, the crowd started streaming in and more and more people filled the once quiet SST campus. Everybody had the smile on their faces as they greeted the parents & students. Once they had registered, they received a folder with important information on payments ad what they needed to buy. There was a few talks by the Principal and a few of the teachers in the hall.

Principal Talk by Mr Chua Chor Huat

CCA Talk by Mr Lam Hin Chew

After the talks, there were booths set up to let the parents know different things about SST. Such as PforSST (Parents for SST), Q&A booths on financial matters, Mother Tongue Languages and CCAs. They were also booths that sell books, uniforms and the learning devices, which had long queues.

P for SST booth

Purchase of learning device

Though it was incredibly busy day for all the helpers, it was a rewarding one too. They got to see how their juniors were like and set the atmosphere when the P6s students come back again next year, as Secondary 1s. The next time we see them again, will be on the first day of school.

Photos and edited by Ms Seah Yen Sin

Read More

Hanoi Write-up

Day 1

I was exhilarated when we finally landed in Hanoi.
We first visited Hanoi Amsterdam High School, the best school in Hanoi. We saw the grand-looking school and were amazed by the various facilities it provides. We then interacted with the students and found out that we had many common interests.
Next, we had yummy dinner in the hotel.

Finally, we went to watch the Water Puppet Show. We admired the spectacular performance of the water puppets, which were depicting the daily lives of the vietnamese with some humour injected. There was also a few vietnamese either playing musical instruments or voicing the characters.

We were very tired and retired to our hotel rooms.

Day 2

We first went to Nguyen Du Secondary School. We were warmly greeted by the students and were guided to the hall. The principal of Nguyen Du Secondary School and Mr Soh, our vice-principal gave a speech to welcome the other party’s school.
Then, SST students played a video about what SST was about, for the Nguyen Du Secondary School students to understand. Next, SST students gave a presentation about what we SST students do on a daily basis.
The Nguyen Du Secondary School students also gave a presentation in English about the history of their school and an introduction about Vietnam.
We were called to exchange gifts with the Nguyen Du Secondary School students and we thanked them for hosting us.
After that, the Vietnamese students had several performances like singing and dancing. Many of us joined in the performance and we had lots of fun.
The Nguyen Du Secondary School students guided us around the school and we got to know them better at the same time. We then helped our Vietnamese buddies to create Blogger accounts and let them post on the GCP Friendship Blog.
Soon after, we left reluctantly as we could not bear to part with our new friends.
We ate delicious pho (Vietnamese noodles) for lunch.
Next, we visited the Hoan Kiem Lake. The name means “return sword” lake as the Vietnamese president once received a sword from the heavens to fight during WWII. After it was over, the golden turtle asked the president to return it the sword.
We went to the Ho Chi Minh Museum. There were many different artefacts about his life. He was very noble. He fought for Vietnam against France.

Day 3

We were on a bus ride for 4 hours until we finally reached Ha Long Bay.
The scenery was beautiful and magnificent. We got onto a boat and had prawns, spring rolls, “crabs” and other seafood.
After a while, we got off at a cave, which was founded by a fisherman and his son accidentally.
We saw the rocks naturally shaped in strange ways and one of them even looked like the Merlion!
After that, we got back onto the boat and onto the bus for another 4-hour-long ride.

Conclusion

I noticed that there are many motorcyclists on motorcycles on the streets of Vietnam. This is probably because motorcycles are cheaper than cars and there is not much public transport. I also noticed that many people live in small and rundown houses. This is probably because many Vietnamese are poor.
I learned that I take some time to recall what I did and feel earlier in the day, for reflections.
I realised that many students from our Hanoi GCP like to sing aloud together to songs that we are familiar to.

Done by: Sun Jie Min 1-07

Read More

GCP Hà Nội 2010 Pictures

Here are some pictures of the GCP Hanoi trip I had taken, from 9-12 December. Many other members of the contingent have recorded or photographed something to bring home, many of them are on Facebook or storage devices.

Read More

Humanities Mobile Learning (Botanical Gardens)

Today, our school organised Mobile Learning field trips for every class in school. As my class, 104, and 106, had already gone for a previous Mobile Learning trip, we were going to the Botanical Gardens, while the other classes were going to locations we had visited before.



















After a short briefing at the hall about some software that was not applicable to my group, we assembled at the porch and boarded the bus to our respective locations.



















104 and 106 were split up to go to different stations first. We were guided by guides from the Botanical Gardens. 104 first went to see a few plants and learn about them and the park.



















We were slightly delayed for the second, more fun rainforest walk as the 106 was behind time and the station was not prepared yet.
























We were guided by a different guide for the rainforest walk, who showed us many plants we may find in a native rainforest and explained to us some of the workings of a rainforest. It was quite fun, and though we were behind time we managed to finish the trail and go back to school, where many of us had our Learning Support briefing afterwards. All in all, it was a tiring but fun day.

Read More

Service-Learning Workshop (Nov)

On 9 & 10 November, the groups that went to Beijing and Shunde in May 2010 finally have a chance to experience something what the rest of their peers experienced while they were overseas--the Service Learning Workshop! However, it is not exactly what their peers have experienced, it is something totally different.

The workshop title is called CLASS, which stands for Compassionate Leaders Always Serving Society and it is conducted by Touch Youth, particularly the Leadership & Mentoring Sector.

On the first day, the workshop kick-started off with an ice-breaker, called Body Google, where they have to send a representative and compare parts of their body, such as their eyebrows and ears.

Ice breaking - Longest Breath

Its back to business and we went to their pre-assigned teams to create our Group Norm, the Agreement, Rules and Expectations. This is followed by a ‘Gallery Walk’ presentation of their Group Norms to let others ‘like’ their Norms.

Agreeing to the rules set

Next, they started by learning the topic on the Heart of a Servant Leader, with the main activity called ‘Pass it on’, where they had Cheng Ngee (S1-01) as their elected leader to instruct us how to play this game, which involves passing items quickly and without dropping them. Those who passed too slow will be outcasted in the game, but that was not true as in the end. The outcasts were actually chosen at random by the mentors.

Pass it on

They moved on to the second topic of the day, Effective communication. Using what they learned about effective communication, they have to look at pictures which form a story and find out what is the story out of the pictures. But here’s the catch, they can only see our own 1 or 2 pictures and nothing else. It took a while for the students to try to make sense of the stories, but eventually, some of them managed to figure it out.

Telling a story

After a scrumptious lunch, the workshop proceeded by touching on the topic of Service-Learning, what it means, why there was a hyphen in the topic. The mentors then revealed what our field trip was for the next day--Doing a survey with the Elderly! They gave details of how we were going to do the survey and the students found out an undeniable fact. Majority of the Elderly speak Cantonese and Hokkien and they have to learn these languages in order to do the survey.

Luckily, the students do not to be fluent with the languages as the mentors have helped them translate the survey questions into these languages, along with how they can introduce themselves. All they need to do was to be able to pronounce the words. So, for the next few hours, they were learning how to pronounce the questions in both of the languages. They had difficulty pronouncing in Cantonese, so the mentor had already put up and audio file link to be able to listen how she pronounced the words. But that cannot be said when the students were learning Hokkien. They sailed quickly through the class as it was easy to be able to communicate .

Before the end of the first day, there was a challenge waiting for them. They tied strings around their wrists and the strings were tangled with others. The goal was to free themselves without untying the string, cutting the string and burning the string. It took quite a while to get themselves free until one pair managed to set themselves free and teached the rest on how to free themselves. And with this, it marks the end of the first day.

On the second and last day of the workshop,

it started off with a surprise challenge, where there are stages. Whichever stage the mentor shout out for, we have to do that particular mini-game. Stage one is a thumb wrestling match. Stage two is a finger-poking match. Stage three is a knee-tapping match. The floor was full with moving people as they played this challenge.

This was followed by a re-cap of what they have learned before breaking up into their smaller groups to brush up on their language skills. The buses to the different destinations came and they left for either Toa Payoh or Whampoa to conduct their surveys.

Some of them managed to interview all the three elderlies assigned to them, while some did not even manage to even interview any of the elderlies. But with that experience, they learned about compassion and related it back to the experience earlier on.

Let's go!

Along the corridor

After that, they learned about the last topic, resilience. The main highlight of this topic was going through a journey with their group right in the basketball court under the sweltering sun! Their task was to get to the other side of the court without stepping onto the court itself. They can use the resources to get them through but their have to carry the responsibilities above their heads. Try after try, some of them got tired and frustrated that they do not really want to move on.

Activity at the basketball court

At the end of the activity, it was a time of the closure of the workshop and a time of reflection, reflecting through the topics they learned during the past two days. The session ended off with one last activity, which is to get a piece of paper through your body. Many of the students were thinking for a long time as to how to solve it. But in the end, one of them managed to solve it, by tearing the paper.

That marked the end of the day and the end of the workshop. Though it was not really a long workshop, but still, it taught them many things, from the Heart of a servant leader to Resilience. These were effective to be applied into their daily lives, moulding their character through the experiences and giving them the skills to be a better leader. This workshop has succeeded in giving the students that.

Read More

Digipen Workshop, 30th October 2010

On the 30th October 2010, the students attended the Digipen Workshops. We had an experience on making games. Our facilitators led us on making some simple games too.

The students listening to the lesson

Facilitator preparing lesson projects and demonstrations

Facilitators explaining concepts of developing game applications

Facilitators giving a walkthrough in games development

A student working on his Game Application

Students glued to their screens working

Read More