Mr Tsu's letter to Parents...

To : Fellow Shuqunites & Parents / Guardians
Celebrate Change & Looking Ahead
We have had a successful and exciting academic year 2008. Graduates of Shuqun now have the Seh Chuan-Shuqun Alumni Association (SCSQAA) to continue their friendships and meet their teachers who have made an impact in their young lives. We have achieved the National Education Development Award (NEDA) for our efforts to nurture “Connected Global Citizens, Knowledgeable Rooted Singaporeans”. We attained ‘Orchid’ for the National Green Audit Award – an improvement from ‘Hibiscus’ last year. Our sports talents won enough matches to put us on track to attain the Sustained Achievement Award in Sports or SAA (Sports). [One of graduates, Pravin, was actually featured in a national newspaper as an inspirational talent in soccer.] Meanwhile our internal academic results have been improving gradually across the board. Clearly the groundwork and tireless efforts by teachers are beginning to bear fruit.

Just on 30 Oct, we received the report card for our second School Excellence Model external validation (EV) which shows we have upped one band from our first EV in 2003. The EV team noted our key programmes that have been well-received by students, parents and teachers:
• STAGE or Star Talent And Gifted Enrichment (particularly APEX which stands for Advanced Programme for Excellence in Arts, Science & Technology)
• Student Ambassador Programme (Sap) & Friends for LIFE (Learning through International Friendship Exchange) – with two prestigious partner schools in Hong Kong, one in Wuxi China and one in Australia.
• Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) for staff – working on various research projects and pilot studies in teaching and learning.
• Efforts to live our Strategic Thrust 3 ‘Community for Us, we for the Community’ – including our Project Green, our conservation efforts and our service learning projects to nurture love and care for the community we are living in.

Over the past 10 weeks, we have been engaging students, parents, teachers and stakeholders to discuss our strategic directions for the next three years using the theme ‘Transforming Lives’. In the past months, we have also reorganised our professional staff to two specialised groups to meet the challenge of curriculum developed for academic and holistic education – ADG and NEG. The Academic Development Group (ADG) will be focused on producing school-based curriculum that will help our students succeed in their BASICS. They will also be organising more school competitions that will challenge our students to master fundamentals in English, Math, Science & Mother Tongue.

The NextGen Group (NEG) will be developing authentic learning instructional materials like outdoor lessons, heritage trails and project work. These materials aim at developing our students to be Global Student Leaders with character. In line our national efforts to prepare for the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in 2010 – Mr Teo Ser Luck , the Guest-of-honour for Speech Day 2008, will be launching the “SAYeh 2010!” learning centres and Shuqun’s YOG Education Curriculum. ‘SAYeh’ stands for ‘Shuqun Arena for YOG in Every Heart’. This will be the main mission for our student ambassadors.

As we move towards 2009, we look forward to your involvement in another exciting year with lots of learning. Have a blessed Christmas and a Merry New Year!

Mr Gary Tsu, Principal