Parents Seminar 2011

On a tranquil Saturday morning, Who’d ever expect SST to be reaching out to its next cohort on such a beautiful day? Well, It was on two Saturday mornings, 9 April and 16 April 2011 when SST held its Parents Seminar to showcase our amazing school to the parents of the future students of SST. So “How did such a day start like?”; you may ask, so read on to find out more interesting facts on the success of the Parents Seminar, Information about SST to keep us reminded on what SST is still all about and some Parents opinions.

Well, For this event to be such a success, It would have taken a great amount of planning, So there were Ushers from all levels to guide the parents into the hall, where the Parents Seminar would be held. They arrived at 7:30 just for the sake of this event, so I presume without them, Many of the parents would be lost or would have found the event not as serious, so a big thank you is due to them.

Interested parents registering for the event

The day started for the parents with a few snapshots of SST, mainly the events that had been conducted by the Secondary 1s and the Secondary 2s that signified SST’s unique teaching process and our uniqueness as a school. Shortly after, Mrs Chew gave a very insightful speech to the parents on how SST is different and why their child should give SST a shot. So here are some interesting details on SST that you probably knew already.


1) SST is the 4th Specialised Independent School in Singapore together with the Singapore Sports School (SSS) School of the Arts (SOTA) and NUS High (NUSH).
2) SST is the 6th future school in Singapore.
3) SST students learn with Information and Communication Technologies(ICT) and are not passive learners.
4) SST students are Interactive learners
5) SST uses Applied Learning as their main teaching process. Applied Learning is learning by doing as the students here in SST are mostly kinesthetic learners and tend to work well while by doing something (i.e Conducting an experiment, Writing down understood concepts, being taught through real world concepts, etcetera.)
6) SST students like being challenged, like figuring things out and they ask “why?”.
7) SST students are University Bound.
8) All SST students are given opportunities to go for the Global Citizenship Program (GCP)
9) SST has unique subjects such as Art, Design, Media and Technology (ADMT), Innovation and Enterprise(I&E) to train us to creatively solve problems and programs to suit the students for their caliber such as the Talent Development Program.
10) SST has partners that have helped us a lot in our journey so far such as NTU, NP and Apple.
11) SST has small class sizes.
12) SST has handpicked teachers and students, through 100% DSA.


“Whoa”, you might go after reading these facts about SST; I, who have been here for 1 year and 4 months approximately was astounded as the words Mrs Chew said reminded me of how all these have been incorporated to my daily school life that I almost take it for granted. Well, After Mrs Chew’s speech to the parents, there was a great round of applause for her amazing speech and there were student volunteers who answered a bunch of questions from the parents. They were unscripted and were natural speakers on the stage.


To conclude from what the parents said about SST,

"Yeah, definitely, because he’s dreaming about this school since he was in Primary 5.", said Mrs Sunithadin in response to letting her child choose SST.

"I hope that my son can get in, just like you.", said Mr Leong.

"The course which is provided, especially the applied science, but actually at the moment I do not fully understand the whole thing, but I feel that it is quite suitable for my kids. ", said Mrs Chow on the one thing about SST that impresses her the most.

They also liked that there were a lot of new friends and they mentioned that SST imparted in them life-skills such as confidence and good relationships with their peers. Some even defined SST as “dreams come true”


Our principal Mr Chua concluded the sessions on stage with a short message, that was to show how SST is progressing and the most significant differences between SST’s curriculum compared to other schools. SST is a 4 year O level course, we all know and must remember that we can choose up to 2 Applied Subjects.


I talked to a few parents afterwards. They really liked and complimented the volunteers who went on stage for their bravery and confidence enough to speak onstage.


On the experience of helping out in this parents seminar,

"I think the experience is very eye-opening because I have always wanted to be an usher for events such as this. Also, I get to represent the school as how I behave will actually be the first impression on the perspective parents who come to the parent’s seminar. So, I think it was a really great honor for me to be here.", said Eunice, a student usher.

"... It lets me have a sense of responsibility that I am in-charge of helping to let the parents know where they are supposed to sit ...", said Jonan, a student usher.

Kudos to all those who helped make this event successful, all the teachers, students and staff involved in planning and rehearsals as well. To finish off this report, I must say; My, aren’t we amazing planners?


Do visit this page to find out more about SST!
http://www.sst.edu.sg/template02.dwt.php?page=18


Written by: Abu Ubadiah
Additional reporting by: Clarabelle and Jie Min