November

North Star Sparkle 2021

STUDENT-INITIATED LEARNING - NORTH STARS SPARKLE PROGRAMME

As a MOE new initiative, our school started Blended Learning (BL) in 2021 Semester 2 and Student-Initiated Learning (SIL) is a key feature in the regular Home-Based Learning (HBL) days.  The SIL aims to ignite the joy of learning in students and develop them into lifelong learners who are self-directed and passionate in their learning.  We have named our SIL “North Stars Sparkle Programme” in which SPARKLE stands for ‘Seek PAssion, Refresh Knowledge, Learn and Explore’

An hour was set aside during the HBL days for students to carry out their SIL activity. Students were encouraged to decide what they wish to learn and plan for their choices of activities. Our North Stars certainly have many varied interests which include foreign languages, culinary arts, performing arts, sports and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) such as drone flying and coding. For students who were undecided on their choices, they had the option of choosing from a wide variety of school-curated modules designed by the school.

The programme culminated in the North Stars Sparkle Showcase on the last day of school to celebrate students learning. 125 North Stars across Secondary 1 to 3 classes presented their learning and artefacts with great aplomb. The presenters delighted their peers with dance and musical performances, mini demonstrations and interesting anecdotes highlighting the sweet spots and challenges they faced in their SIL journey.

Seek Passion -  The learning of foreign languages is a popular choice among our students. They were interested to learn languages such as Korean and Japanese. In their showcase, some students even conducted practical sessions to teach their peers how to speak simple words in the language that they have learnt. Coding is another popular choice among the students. Jovan Wee ventured into coding and shared about his sense of accomplishment whenever his code worked, his frustrations when his code failed, and how he finally rectified an error by researching for solutions online over a long time through sheer grit and determination.

Refresh Knowledge - Many of our students are also interested in playing musical instruments such as the violin, guitar and piano. Ethan James Poh has always been interested in playing the guitar but lost the drive to learn the instrument over time. The SIL sessions allowed him to set aside time to rekindle his interest and stay motivated.

Learn and Explore - As a food lover, Ooi Jun Jia pursued his interest in cooking. The dining restrictions due to COVID-19 safe management measures had led to fewer opportunities for him and his family to dine out. As such, he used the SIL sessions as opportunities to hone his culinary skills.

The showcase revealed the many talents of our North Stars as well as their grit in pursuing their passion and persevering despite many challenges faced.  The North Star Sparkle programme for the year concluded with the presentation of specially designed tokens of appreciation to the presenters. The students had learnt much from the programme and expressed that they look forward to another year of self-exploration and learning in 2022.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1redJZ3WxuNwFpURNcPCg93A19Tjo_dNL/view ↗ (opens in new tab)

Elementz and Youth Science Fortnight 2021

Singapore Youth Science Fair 2021 and 19th Elementz Science Competition 2021

Our school has again done well in the annual Singapore Youth Science Fair 2021 co-organized by Science Teachers’ Association of Singapore and the Science Centre Board. Held in August 2021, the fair aims to promote science education in Singapore.

There were a total of 58 projects submitted for the lower secondary category. Our students did a research project in which they carried out literature research and a series of experiments. They then presented their findings and analyses through a virtual poster that was submitted to the organisers for judging.

Despite the many restrictions due to Covid-19, our teams did their best and managed to clinch an Accomplishment and Commendation award!

Our two teams also submitted their research projects and virtual posters for the annual 19th Elementz Science Competition organized by Anderson Secondary School earlier in July 2021. This competition aims to generate interest in scientific study through participation in investigative-type projects.

A total of 35 projects were submitted in the lower secondary category.  Our teams achieved a Gold and a Silver award! In addition, our Gold award team was the only team in the lower secondary category that was invited to share about their project via a pre-recorded presentation.

SchoolARTS@SKCH 2019-2021

SchoolARTS @ Sengkang Community Hospital

Our school has partnered Sengkang Community Hospital on various Values-in-Action (VIA) projects since its official opening in 2019. These include Upper Secondary Service Learning Projects, Community Youth Leaders Club’s Regular Service Projects, #SYFStrongerTogether project and most recently, the SchoolARTS @ SKCH.

The SchoolARTS programme is a concerted effort across 34 North Zone schools that aims to bring about positivity amongst the patients at all 3 SingHealth Community Hospitals (Bright Vision Hospital, Sengkang Community Hospital and Outram Community Hospital) through artworks and performances. In 2019, our school band, choir and dance put together a lunchtime concert at SKCH and brought cheer to the patients, staff and visitors. In the same year, our Secondary 1 NCC (Air) cadets painted a serene and calming wall mural at one of the wards, which creates a livelier hospital environment. With the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, the physical activities of SchoolARTS programme has been suspended since 2020. In spite of the limitations, our school has continued to serve the patients at the hospital remotely via Zoom, in events such as National Day Celebrations. SingHealth Community Hospitals has featured quotes and photographs of our students and their contributions in the SchoolARTS programme in their recent publication, ‘Bridges” - Issue 2/2021’.

Sec 3 Service Learning Projects 2021

As part of our Learning for Life Programme (LLP) on Community & Youth Leadership, all Sec 3 students embarked on various service learning projects over six months with the objectives to inculcate good character values and develop life skills while nurturing a greater empathy for communities-in-need. This year, the LLP also focused on giving our students a greater voice and platforms to exercise social innovation and sustain partnerships with our school’s four long-standing community partners - SunLove Home, Bright Hill Evergreen Home, Bethesda C.A.R.E Senior Activity Centre and Sengkang Community Hospital.

Empowering our students with greater Youth Voice

At the start of their projects, students were tasked as a class to prepare a quick pitch. Students pitched two beneficiaries of their choice to work with, instead of being assigned with one. In addition, one of their proposed beneficiaries could be a new one which our school has not worked with before. Through this, the Sec 3 students took greater ownership of their projects and the school also started a new partnership with Chen Su Lan Methodist Children’s Home.

Providing students an opportunity to exercise Social Innovation

With the suspension of face-to-face activities due to safe-management measures, students were constantly challenged to plan and adapt their plans to serve the needs of the beneficiary through either live virtual engagement or asynchronous use of pre-recorded resources. Under the guidance and support of their Form Teachers and mentors from TOUCH Leadership & Mentoring, students implemented their projects as part of the school’s STAR 2 programme at the end of Term 2.  Some examples of projects completed include 3E1 students facilitating virtual games for the elderly from Bethesda CARE SAC, 3N3 students redesigning the Jenga game with gamification element to promote interaction between the seniors, and 3E2 students encouraging healthy living for seniors at the Sengkang Community Hospital with recorded Zumba-exercise grooved to their favourite songs.

Sustained Partnerships with Community Partners

To ensure that our service learning projects meet the long term needs of the beneficiaries, our student leaders had an informative, in-depth discussion with representatives from the various beneficiaries instead of the usual on-site recce in the past.

The service learning projects culminated in a celebration and reflection session through a SLS package administered during one of the school’s regular home-based learning days. In that session, students reviewed their service learning journey, affirmed and appreciated their classmates, brainstormed ideas to further their projects next year and gained a greater awareness of other service learning opportunities beyond what the school offers. The experience has certainly taught all our students a valuable life lesson to work around the various Covid-19 restrictions and yet still be able to contribute meaningfully and make a difference to the communities-in-need.

National Day Celebrations with Our Community 2021

The theme for this year’s National Day Celebrations was ‘Together, Our Singapore Spirit’. Besides evoking our common Singaporean identity, our students came together and drew new strength from the Singapore “can-do” spirit amidst the challenging circumstances.  Due to Covid-19, our celebrations with the Sengkang community and beyond took a different slant this year. Instead of the usual involvement of our uniformed groups at Sengkang Community Centre, students were involved in simpler yet equally meaningful activities.

National Day Gratitude Card Project

In support of the ‘SG Together’ movement, our school came on board the “Big at Heart – National Day Gratitude Card Project” during our national day celebrations on 8 August. Students worked individually or in pairs to design and create cards to express appreciation and support to the frontline staff who have been fighting at the forefront against COVID-19 to keep us safe for the last 18 months. In total, more than 500 beautifully designed cards were submitted to the organiser for distribution to healthcare workers, cleaners and workers at hawker centres.

Virtual Celebrations with Community Partners

Our Community Youth Leaders held a virtual celebration with the seniors at a Senior Activity Centre and their homes on 27 August. The event included a trivia quiz about National Day and leading a healthy lifestyle in their golden years. In the ‘Dance of the Nation’ segment, Dance CCA students led the seniors to carry out dance steps to this year’s NDP song, ‘The Road Ahead’. The session concluded with a sing-a-long session on the classic National Day songs. The SAC staff and seniors were thrilled by the interactions and the time together.

Keep Your Red Alive! National Day Video Performance and Tote Bag Design Contest

To bring warmth, cheer and the National Day spirit to Sengkang residents, including those from nursing homes and boys’ hostel, Sengkang Central Youth Network (SKCYN) organised the annual People's Association Youth Movement (PAYM) Loves Red National Day event entitled, ‘Keep Your Red Alive!’  Our Choir and NCC (Air) Free Style Drill team took part in the Video Performance Contest where our Choir entry came in 4th place in the group category and was live-streamed on SKCYN’s Facebook among other top entries..  Our Community Youth Leaders and Art students participated in theTote Bag Design Contest and one of our 23 entries by Damien Du (3E2) came in 7th place in the 15 years old and above category.  His design was printed on tote bags distributed to the contest participants and Sengkang Central residents.

CVSS GREEN COMPASS PROGRAMME 2021

The annual Green Compass Programme for all lower secondary students is a key component of our environment education and part of our Learning for Life Programme in Community & Youth Leadership. The programme aims to nurture interest and commitment in students to protect our environment, practice sustainable living and advocate green values and practices to others.

Students are given opportunities to exercise ‘Youth Voice’ by co-designing the green activities, explore ‘Social Innovation’ and sustain partnerships with environmental agencies and communities.

Secondary 1 Green Compass Programme

At the start of the year, all Sec 1 students attended a talk on ‘Waste Minimisation in Singapore’ by staff from National Environment Agency (NEA), and gained a better understanding of the gravity of the waste problem in Singapore and around the world. They also learnt how Singapore is taking steps to work towards becoming a ‘Zero Waste’ nation and how they too could play their part to collectively achieve this target. The students went on to embark on tasks in their weekly project work lessons on sustainable living through waste minimisation.

In term 3, the class VIA Champions delivered a lesson on ‘Recycling Practices’ to their classmates which they had co-created. A food donation drive was launched during the lesson where students were encouraged to contribute dried or canned food items for the needy families. Classes rallied together to set up a donation drive corner in their classrooms and brought food items generously over a course of 4 weeks. These food items were sorted, packed and handed over to the staff from Food Bank Singapore in September, which were then added to their inventory and distributed to the beneficiaries under their care.

In the “Advocacy Challenge”, students were tasked to create a poster or video to advocate the message of ‘Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle’. 10 winning entries were selected based on the content, aesthetics and creativity and shared with all students. To wrap up the Green Compass Programme for the year, all students were challenged to make a commitment to take actionable steps for sustainable living in 2022, as a class both in school and at home.

Sec 2 Green Compass Programme 2021

As climate change becomes a central issue in the world today, all sec 2 students embarked on an upcycling workshop to bring new life to waste materials. They were introduced to as many ways as possible to reduce the consumption of new products by making use of everyday things that are discarded and tossed away. To enhance youth voice and ownership, students as a class were given a choice for their preferred workshop such as making coin pouches from juice cartons, wallets from banners and pencil cases from snack bags. Over the next two months, students intentionally saved some of these waste materials, cleaned and kept them in preparation for the workshop.

The fascination with upcycling saw the creation of many new products from used and old materials. With guidance from teachers and VIA Champions, students completed the various upcycling activities and acquired upcycling skills that would help in reducing waste in the environment. They also gain valuable insight into the intensity of environmental pollution and how their small actions can impact climate change in a big way.

To wrap up the Green Compass Programme for the year, all students reflected on what they had learnt from the programme, and how they could continue to make an impact on others in the community.