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A New Breed Of Student Leaders!
Few will dispute that TLLM has turned education around. As the teaching fraternity reexamines how teaching and learning can be even more efficient, integration in curriculum is often lauded as a remedy of sorts to free up more time in order to teach students values and life skills.
Just as subjects are integrated through common themes, North Spring Primary School aspires to create and define a radically new coterie of student leaders – we call them our Care Champions.
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Care Champions explaining My River Cube game set to Dr Yaacob Ibrahim at the School Carnival.
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Our Care Champions are responsible for heading pastoral care and environmental conservation in the school. These pupils are nurtured by both the Pastoral Care and Community Involvement Program Committees. We have four Senior Care Champions in Primary 5, who in turn lead 66 other Care Champions from Primary 2 to 5. These Seniors were first trained in environmental conservation from the National Environment Agency (NEA); they then imparted their knowledge to fellow Care Champions.
All Care Champions were also introduced to various leadership skills like counselling (for Primary 2 Champions), peer mediation (for Primary 3 Champions), service learning (for Primary 4 Champions) and partnership coaching (for Primary 5 Champions) in the school’s new leadership development programme.
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Care Champions making Merlion magnets for teachers
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Pastoral Care
The Primary 4 Care Champions were crucial in the appeal for the donation of used textbooks to needy students. Meanwhile, Primary 5 Care Champions spent their afternoons making Merlion refrigerator magnets for all teachers to show their appreciation for the care they have received.
Environmental Conservation
The Senior Care Champions facilitated a digital art competition for budding artists for Primary 3 and 4 students to promote environmental awareness of Punggol Park.
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Senior Care Champions sharing on their Merlion project with
Dr Yaccob Ibrahim, Minister of Environment and Water Resources, at their exhibition booth at Suntec City.
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Under the adopt-a-school scheme organised by the NEA, they embarked on a project to document the legendary 1977-1987 Singapore River cleanup. In their own learning journey, Senior Care Champions took photographs of the river and researched the massive 10-year cleanup process. Recognising the emblematic significance of the Merlion along the River, they committed weeks to making a metre-high Merlion sculpture from recycled newspapers and drink cans. They then represented the school in the Schools Carnival during the Clean-and-Green Week from 15 to 16 November, where they shared what they had learnt with Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, and other visitors.
The Senior Care Champions are presently involved in a NEA weather study in order to understand how different climatic conditions affect students’ attitudes, learning rates and behaviour.
Future directions
We foresee the Champions continuing to play an active role in the school’s care programmes in various domains. As the school continues to test uncharted waters in its I&E journey, these young leaders will similarly partake in a learning journey to find, try and evaluate new ways of promoting a culture of care in the school. |
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