Farewell Ceremony 2013

On 11th of October 2013, the SST community said farewell to its very first batch of Secondary 4 students. The Farewell Assembly was held as it was the last school day for the Sec 4s, and also to wish them all the best for their upcoming O-Levels, then only a mere 1 week away.

The event started with a bang, with the beaming Sec 4s walking down the red carpet in the multi-purpose hall, while the other students gave them a warm round of applause. This was then followed by the National Anthem and the National Pledge. After everyone has settled into their seats, a photo montage began to play, highlighting key events of the Sec 4s' journey in SST. There were numerous photos, from Sec 4 students attending prestigious international events to their daily lives in school. At the end, the montage also showcased some of the teachers who have stuck with the Sec 4s through the thick and thin in their 4 years here. The Sec 4s laughed at some pictures, and gave a murmur of approval at others.

Afterwards, the Principal of SST, Mr Chua, started the main part of the ceremony by delivering a short address, emphasizing on how the Sec 4s, the school's pioneer batch, overcame the many obstacles in their way and being the trailblazers of the school. Finally, he also mentioned that he hopes the Sec 4s will make the school proud in their O-Levels.

Then, each Sec 4 class was individually brought up on stage. Their form and co-form teachers first gave a short but touching speech about their classes. Some teachers talked about the class spirit, others talked about their cheerful attitudes, but there was one thing all the teachers said in common - that they would remember their classes for the rest of their lives. After the teachers' speeches, each student was presented with a Graduation Memento by Mr Chua. Some students decided to take it a step further with their silly antics during their photograph with the Principal, which the rest of the student population roared with laughter in response. This segment would definitely be etched in the Sec 4s' minds in many years to come.

 

 Next, the Valedictorian of the cohort, Cheng Zhi Chao of class S405, came up to give his speech. He thanked his family, friends, teachers and fellow schoolmates for supporting him throughout his journey in SST. He also highlighted key moments while here at SST. His inspiring and thought

provoking speech definitely motivated students and teachers alike.

 

 

Next, there was a series of performances by our very own students. There were performances by our school's very own Show Choir, as well as other students such as the Wei Chern and Aisyah, both Sec 4s. Abu, another Sec 4, also led the school in the singing of another song.

Finally, the Ceremony was concluded with the entire school singing our School Song, as well as our School Cheers, which was led by the Student Council and the Peer Support Board.

This touching but euphoric event was sure one to remember for the Sec 4s as well as the rest of the SST community.

Written By: Jiajun

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I&E Bazaar 2013

On 17 of October 2013, SST held its annual I&E Bazaar. The I&E Bazaar is an event whereby the lower secondary level sets up various booths selling items ranging from food and snacks to goods and xbox games to put what they have learnt from the I&E lessons to use. Students learnt how to manage a booth, the finances and decide on their products. Each lower secondary class had a maximum of 2 booths. Booths selling food and drinks were set up in the canteen while gaming booths were placed in the atrium. To advertise their stalls, students hung up colourful and attractive posters and banners all over the school, featuring their very own stalls. On that day, the canteen was bustling with a joyous, free and relaxed atmosphere.

Class S104 had a game stall. The game is such that a player would have to spin a wheel with 5 categories on it. The prizes included candies, stationery sets, origami penguins and a special gift for the graduating batch. A number of people brought their own polaroids and charged around $2 for each picture taken. Students could be seen taking pictures of each other for commemoration. Classes providing polaroid picture taking services made quite a good profit as a result.

Class S202 set up a stall featuring the season's hottest game which attracted a long row of eager participants. Participants would team up in a group of four to play the xbox game. This year, a vast number of our pioneer batch came back to school to participate in this special event, bringing with them their Digital Single Lens Deflect cameras. They were seen taking pictures with their juniors to commemorate their stay in SST. Unlike previous I&E Bazaars, this event had a special touch to it as it would be the last year that the pioneer batch would be with the school. It was more or less the last farewell event. 

The Bazaar ended off at eleven-thirty in the morning. The students finished packing up by twelve in the afternoon. All in all, it was a fantastic experience to every student who participated. Being the last Bazaar with the pioneer batch , this is indeed an unforgettable event.

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SST Open House 2013

On 1^st June 2013, SST held its 5^th Open House. There were various booths, stations and activities set up for both the parents and the students to enjoy and participate actively in. 

This year, parents and students had to go around the different booths and stations to collect stamps to redeem certain prizes such as USB Hubs, thumb-drives and water bottles while stock last. There are three different tiers of activities that they can redeem their stamps from. The three different tiers are SEE, SEEK and TRANSFORM where the first letters of each word forms ‘SST’. The different activities in the Open House are catergorised under these three tiers for the visitors to redeem the stamps. There was also a Popcorn and Cotton Candy booth for parents and students to enjoy. 

In the Atrium were where most of the CCA booths were located at. Some CCAs such as Drama had their booth in the canteen. CCA booths were one of the ways to earn a stamp for prize redemption. Different CCA booths had different activities that they would want the student to do to earn a stamp under the “SEE” category. Also under the “SEE” category, there were the PforSST booth, student projects where students can have a better insight on what SST students have researched on as well as subjects booths. For the ‘SEEK’ tier, visitors can participate in activities like the Handson Session in the Science Laboratories, Principal and Vice-Principal’s talk, Student Panel and the completion of the Feedback form. Last but not least, the ‘TRANSFORM’ tier stamp can be redeemed at the DSA booth when the students register for an account for DSA. The redemption booth and the general enquiry booth were also at the Atrium.

Outside the ICT area, a booth was set up for students to redeem a goodie bag, which contains the redemption form and for them to register. Student Tour Guides were also carrying iPads to enable mobile registration to make things move a lot smoother. The Student Tour Guides will bring the visitors on to a tour around the school, for them to better how the facilities of SST 

Every subject had their very own booth to explain to the future students of SST what they learn in school, what they do in the curriculum and some of the Student’s work.

Also, there Handson Sessions in the Science laboratories that allows students and parents to be engaged and experience the unique teaching and learning style that SST adopts. The three different fields of science are Physics, Biology and Chemistry. Each of these science disciplines have designed a few activities to get the students interested and understand how SST instill learning in SST students.Applied subjects such as Biotechnology and Fundamentals of Electronics also set up booths in the Science laboratories for the students to have a insight on what will a applied subject in SST offer with activities like the DNA double helix model making. 

In the Info Hub, there was a total of 3 Student Panel sessions and on the 5^th level of the Info Hub was the DSA Booth, where students would register themselves to take the DSA test. The Student Panel serves as a platform where visitors can sit in the session and personally hear the students summarise their experience here in SST and also ask questions. The visitors can hear and better understand the school from the students’ own perspective of the SST apart from the coperate image. 

The visitors can head towards the auditorium for the PVP talk (Principal and Vice-Principal’s talk) where the visitors can interact with the P and VP and learn more about SST. The visitors can visit the DSA booth where they can enquire more about the application process to SST. At the DSA booth, there are several student helpers to answer the parents and students’ questions and explain to them the whole DSA process. The P6 students can register for a SST DSA account at the booth, under the guidance of the student helpers. Visitors visiting the DSA booths are entitled to a ‘TRANSFORM’ stamp on the redemption form. 

Written by: Mavis and Genevieve 

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4th Annual Track and Field Meet.

On the 23^rd of May 2013, SST held its 4^th Annual Track and Field Meet at Clementi Stadium. It was  a day for students to participate in the remaining races to boost their house points, get the medals they have previously won and to cheer on their house members as they participate in the races. 

At the start of the day, students started to flow into the stadium to get ready for their races that they were going to run or to help with the setting up of the banner and the house flags. Teachers also started to stream in slowly, all dressed in their house colours. Once all the teachers and students have entered and attendance has been taken, we started Morning Assembly. Once Morning Assembly was over, students were asked to move over to the respective areas for their house to sit at, house by house to try and minimize chaos. Once everyone was sitting with their houses, the torch baring started. 

House Captains carried their very own house torches while the House Vice-Captains carried the house flags towards the main Cauldron, where Mr Chua lighted once all the Captians and Vice-Captains were there. A Party Popper was shot to officially open the Track and Field Meet. Of course, before the races and prize presentations started, everyone stood up and recited the Athlete’s Oath, led by Chio JiaLe. 

After that, the first of the races started and participants were warming up at the start of the track. Meanwhile, in the spectator area, house members were preparing themselves to cheer their fellow house mates on as the races all started. Nearing the end, the cheers got louder as each house cheered their loudest to encourage the runner or runners to do their best. Not only that, they all tried to cheer louder than other houses to earn some points for their house. For example, Green House members set up blinking lights to cheer the Green House members

Before the relays started, the Cheerleading competition was held. The houses went accordingly to alphabetical order to perform their cheerleading moves. Loud applause followed each and every performance, showing not only the house but also the school’s support for the people who put in hard work and effort to come up with the routine.  

After the performances, the relay races started. Cheers were louder than before as every house’s runners ran across the their portion of the track and eventually win the race for the team and for their house. 

Once that was over, the Parent-Student novelty race and the Parent-Staff relay started. The objective of the Parent-Student novelty race was the 3-legged race to the other end to pick up a puzzle piece and piece all the puzzle pieces together. For the Parent-Staff relay, staffs and parents are to run in a 4x100m relay to help the house win some points. 

Finally, the final prizes were given away and there was suspense hanging in the air as the students and teachers waited to find out the ranking. At last, the emcee announced the positions of the houses, starting with 5^th position.

Positions of the Houses [3^rd to 5^th]:

5^th- Yellow House 

4^th- Green House

3^rd- Blue House

Finally, we were left with the top 2 positions. Everyone was looking nervous, especially the black house members and the red house members. Of course, not before long, the emcee finally revealed the Second Place winner, resulting in extremely loud cheers coming from the Red House area as they were announced the Champions of the Track and Field meet once again. With that, the Track and Field Meet ended.

Positions [2nd and 1st]:

2nd- Black House

1st- Red House

Written by: Genevieve

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Student Congress 2013

On 22 May 2013, SST held it’s very first Student Congress. This event is to allow studentsto share their positive experiences and memories with their class, with the help of the Student Council (SC), Peer Support Board (PSB), Class Chairpersons, Junior Student Council (JSC) and Junior Peer Support Board (JPSB), who helped in planning this entire event and were also the facilitators to each class in the school. Each class was assigned 2 or 3 facilitators.

During morning assembly, students were shown a video of SST’s milestones so far, before heading back to their classrooms to start off the discussion for the Student Congress. In the classes, the Student Facilitators started off by introducing themselves, followed by giving a task to the students which require them to reflect back on the video, that was played during the morning assembly, and  what did they think about it and how it helped them to actually move forward towards the future.

After the class shared their reflections on the video, Student Facilitators started to introduce the next activity, which started off with an introduction on what they were going to do. The first stage of the Student Congress was “Discover”, in which students are to discover what are the strengths of the school through sharing their own personal positive moments in SST with the class. Students were split into groups of 4 or 5 and they had to write down their positive moments in SST on the post-its and stick them onto a piece of butcher paper. Students were then asked to categorize their stories into their own self-created categories within their groups before they chose one student from their group to share his or her experiences, students facilitators would pick out the main points in the shared stories and write them down on a piece of butcher paper.

After going through all the groups, the facilitators started to discuss the main points that have been picked out from the stories shared. Students were asked to come up with themes for the strengths listed out by the student facilitators and share them with the class so that they were able to categorize the points. Once the themes were settled, facilitators went through theme by theme, asking students to mark out some words to describe that certain theme.

Once that was done, the groups were asked to choose one theme to work with before they headed off for their recess. After their break, the facilitators went on to talk about the next stage “Dream”, which was the last stage that they touched on. Students got back into their groups and from the chosen theme, they were asked to write down on a new piece of butcher paper what they expect to see of SST about 5 years down the road. They were allowed to use drawings or any form of representation of their dreams for SST. Once they were done, students were asked to present the points that they have written down as their dreams for SST.

After that, students headed down to the Indoor Sports Hall (ISH) for the Closing Ceremony for the  Student Congress. To close it off, level representatives were asked to stage to discuss what they have learned and their thoughts and views on the Student Congress. After that, we watched a video where Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam made a short speech about the future of SST before Mr Lim Boon Tat came up to stage and talked a little and showed us another video. He mentioned that SST is our only Secondary School, and we should protect it. After that, we did the school cheer which ended off SST’s very first Student Congress.



Done By: Genevieve Foo
Vetted By: Chew Yun Hui

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SST's Official Opening Ceremony

On the 13^th of April, SST held its Official Opening. This day marked an important milestone in SST’s history. On this day, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam attended the ceremony along side a few other distinguished guests such as Prof Su Guaning, SST's Chairman and President Emeritus at the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

Presentation of token of appreciation to Mr Tharman by Dr Su

Following his arrival at the foyer, there was a lion dance performance in which Mr Tharman used a laser to wake the lions up. After that, SST’s Show Choir came out and performed the song “Celebrations”, with a short and simple guitar performance by Tan Keming and Jee Hoon. 

After enjoying the two performances at the Foyer, the group of distinguished guests had a tour around the school campus. Their first stop was the exhibition centre, where students were stationed and ready to give talks to the group of distinguished guests. An interesting one was the one-minute pitch made by the student CEOs of 3 actual companies from SST’s ICT Talent Development Program in which the distinguished guests get to choose their favourite idea out of the 3 ideas and the idea with the most votes will receive $1000 to make their product real and come true. 

Following that, the guests made their way to the area outside the ICT helpdesk, where they were students presenting about the Rooftop Project SST has held and what their winning idea was. After that, they made their way to the Science Laboratories where there was a simple presentation by the students of Robotics Club. 

After the presentation by Robotics Club, they made their way into one of the Biotechnology Labs where they were smaller and simple presentations at each workbench. The presentations varied from Fermented Food to Microbial Technology to Animal Cell Culture and even more. 

The group of distinguished guests then made their way to the canteen, where there was a flash mob by the Secondary 2 students, who danced to the song “Beauty and A Beat” by Justin Bieber ft. Nicki Minaj. Once the performance has ended, they made their way to the field where a presentation-cum-performance on P.E.T Water Rockets, which were one of the Science Projects that the students had came up with themselves. 

Meanwhile, in the Multi-Purpose Hall, guests such as Parents and the Secondary 4 students started to arrive and register themselves outside the Indoor Sports Hall (ISH), where Student Councilors had asked them to sign in a booklet to congratulate SST on its Official Opening Ceremony.  

They then made their way up to the MPH. Once most of the guests have arrived and settled down, the pre-ceremony concert started, with the emcee introducing the live stream of the GOH and the distinguished guests arriving at the foyer and watched the two performances at the foyer through the live stream. 

After that, we had a music-mixing performance by a student, Hakeem, who had just started learning how to mix music as a hobby 2 years ago. It was a splendid performance and it received large round of applauses from the audience. 

Next up, we had a performance by SST’s show choir, who performed a 4-part song accompanied by piano, which also received a loud applause from the audience. The emcee then introduced SST’s Dance Crew, where they had cool costumes that had LED lights attached to it, so when they danced at certain times, it lit up and gave the entire dance a cool effect. Another performance well done! Following that, we had SST’s very own Acapella group “Infinigrad”,who performed a medley of songs and took turns to get “Centre stage”. 

Once that was over, we have the CEOs of 3 actual companies from SST’s ICT Talent Development Program to give the audience a one-minute elevator pitch to convince them that their idea was the best. After all 3 elevator pitches, the audience was asked to take out their phones and go to a specific website where they would vote for their favourite and most convincing idea. Of course, the winning idea, which would be decided by the GOh and distinguished guests in the Exhibition Centre, would receive $1000 to make their idea come true. 

Once the voting had finished, the audience patiently waited for the arrival of the GOH and distinguished guests and started to have some little conversations among themselves. 

On the other hand, once the GOH and distinguished guests were done looking at all the exhibitions, presentations and performances, they started to make their way to the MPH for the ceremony. Upon their arrival, the other guests who were already present in the MPH stood up and put their hands together to welcome the Guest-of-Honour and the rest of the distinguished guests. 

Once the crowd and the distinguished guests have settled down, a video on SST’s Journey was played. At the end of the video, the emcees for the ceremony invited Mr Chua, Principal of SST, onto stage to give a speech, followed by Dr Su and lastly Mr Tharman. After his speech, Mr Chua, Mr Tharman and 2 other distinguished guests went up to stage, where there was a button for them to press. Once they pressed the button, the backdrop behind them lit up. The School of Science and Technology is officially open. 

After the opening of the school, the four went back to their seats. Not only was the 13^th of April the Official Opening of the school, it was also the day SST launched it’s school song. SST’s Show Choir was invited out onto stage, and the guests were asked to stand up for the launch of the school song. The school song started playing through the speakers and the Show Choir sang along. 

Once the school song ended, the GOH and distinguished guests were invited to the ISH for the reception, where there were some performances such as a performance by the Guitar Ensemble, a few Piano performance and more, for the guests to enjoy. During the reception, Mr Tharman took his time to engage in conversations with the student leaders that were around in the ISH and some of the guests such as parents, PForSST and the teachers. 

Article written by: Genevieve Foo (S302) 

Photos by: - 

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Celebrations @ SST 2013

 On the 15^th of March 2013, SST held its third Celebrations @ SST. This day marks an important day to SST students as it is a time where they get awards for their academic achievements, holistic achievements and so on. On this day, SST comes together as a school community to celebrate the growth and success of the students. 

Before the official event started, parents of the award winners, the award winners and the teachers were invited to the Indoor Sports Hall (ISH) where they had a lovely buffet reception before making their own up to the Multi-Purpose Hall (MPH)

When the event officially began, Mr Chua, our principal, gave a speech to the parents about what SST is all about, what facilities they have and what programs SST offers to students. 

After that, the award ceremony started and students, ranging from Secondary 1 to Secondary 4 began to go on stage to receive their awards respectively. The awards were given by Mrs Chew and Mr Chua. The awards given out that day were the MOE Edusave Awards for Achievement, Good Leadership and Service (EAGLES), SST Character Award, MOE Good Progress Award, MOE Edusave Entrance Scholarship for Independent Schools (EESIS), MOE Edusave Yearly Awards, SST Entrance Scholarship (Secondary 1),   SST Top Student Award and the SST Book Prizes for the various levels and the SST Colours Award. The SST Colours Award is awarded to students who have shown outstanding performance representing SST in competitions and the EAGLES award is for students who excel in their Co-Curricular Activity and being active in community service. 

Once the awards were awarded to the recipients, there was a video shown, made by SST Media Club, to commemorate Friendship. Next up, there was a performance by 7 students, who used iPads and the software, “Garageband”. They received loud applause from the audience. They played the song “It’s my Life” by Bon Jovi. They used instruments such as the electric guitar, drums and the piano. 

After that, SST’s very own Dance Crew gave a performance where they danced like robots. That marked the end of the entire ceremony and parents filed out of the MPH and went to find their child.

Article by: Johanna Lim, S109
Pictures taken by: Sandy Khoo, Genevieve Foo, Isaac Lim, Douglas Ong and some teachers. (: 

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Chinese New Year Celebrations 2013

On the 8th of February, 2013, students from all four levels reported to school in their usual outfits, but with a totally different mood about them. It was to be the first time that the school celebrated the occasion with all pupils from Secondary 1 to Secondary 4. Everyone was excited about the performance later in the day and were chatting merrily about it in anticipation. The students had lessons in class as usual, until 11 am, where everyone reported to the hall for a concert.

The concert was kicked off by our very own Wushu team. A display of menacing looking weapons and sheer grit and determination by our performers, kept the audience jaws dropped in awe.

Following the wushu display, there was a Chinese Opera/Drama - two performers entertained the students with unbelievable jumps, flips and stunts, along with a massive and intense sword fight, signifying a combat between the two parties.

The concert was concluded by a song and dance item and performed by students from SST show choir - Lai Ziying and Carol Chen (s4-09). 

The song was titled "彩云之南”（pinyin: cai yun zi nan) ,  which describes Yun Nan Province's beautiful lanscapes and the minority tribes that lived there. 

This year's Chinese New Year concert was yet another magnificent performance planned by the staff and students of SST.  Organisers and performers alike had put in their best effort to perform for the school community. We ought to show our appreciation to them and let us all look forward to another great performance in 2014! Happy Chinese New Year! 恭喜发财！

Written By: Teo Ji Hao

Vetted By: Abu Ubaidah 

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The SST Heartbeat

The second of January 2013 marked a significant milestone in SST’s history. We were
finally a full school consisting of four different batches. To start off the year with a bang,
SST invited an external percussion company, InRhythm, to our spanking new campus. 800
students waited in the Indoor Sports Hall, feeling a mixture of excitement and uneasiness.
After a brief introduction by InRhythm, the teachers and students were handed percussive
instruments such as drums and Boomwhackers (Tuned percussion tubes). A huge
cacophony of sound resonated throughout the Indoor Sports Hall instantly. The sound was
discordant, yet somewhat energetic and consuming. The mood immediately lightened and
everyone started having immense fun.

Then, the InRhythm facilitators led us on an uplifting musical journey, dividing us into
smaller groups that each played a simple yet upbeat rhythm. The facilitators used hand
gestures to give each group a cue to start playing. With a common pulse, the rhythms of
the different sub-groups were connected and in-sync. The powerful rhythms started to
gather momentum. Full of vim and vigor, we were completely engaged and excited. We
were now a spirited team, an enthusiastic community, a united family, connected and
flourishing. Then, the teachers and students got the final signal to end. With a loud
‘BOOM!’ the room fell silent, followed by thunderous applause.

With the guidance of the talented InRhythm facilitators, we also played the famous song
‘Ode to joy’ with the percussive instruments. In retrospect, it was amazing how we had
learnt a legendary song in less than fifteen minutes. It was only made possible because of
our teamwork. The short percussion session left us feeling united, inspired, energised and
ready to take on the new schooling year with zest. It was indeed a remarkable and
dynamic way to start off 2013.

Meredith Teo Shuyi
S2-07

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