20 November 2015 (Friday) -- Our Last Day

Beloved children,

We received the good news yesterday that Genevieve, Huda and Ranjiv have cleared the Councillors interviews and will be Councillors on probation starting from January next year. They will only join Avery and Lai Ye as confirmed Councillors after they have been observed closely for a month by the teachers-in-charge and found to be suitable for duty.

Yesterday also marked the last day of service for the faithful and responsible leaders of P3/5 TRUTH. They have served the class well for the past 3 months and truly deserved the certificates of recognition given to them.

Shaan was awarded a "trophy" and a ten-dollar NTUC Fairprice voucher for being the Grand Winner of the Group of the Month Challenge. He was the only one to have won the Level 6 prize from me.

We also gave out some snacks to 10 children who were among the 13 with the best overall results for English, Maths and Science (3 children among the top 10 -- Kaedee, Ranjiv and Christian --- were absent). These were the children who received the snacks, in no particular order:

Shaan
Matthew
Isaac
Avery
Theophilus
Sujith
Ethan
Marc
Jing Min
Lai Ye

Congratulations to all the above children! :)

I had a fruitful time today speaking with many of your parents who came for the Parent-Teacher Meeting.

[Dropbox Link to Parent-Teacher Meeting slides: 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xu2qc8qb8astnlh/MTP_%2020%20Nov%202015.pptx?dl=0 ]

[Dropbox Link to HiSTAR slides: 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/oh5qbuxw8sg6vye/HiStar%20Info%20for%20Parents.pdf?dl=0 ]

I was also glad to meet those of you who came with your parents, possibly for the last time before all of you move on to P4/5 TRUTH next year.

The Prize Giving Ceremony was held in the hall later in the morning and Jing Min, Chloe Chiang and Olivia received their prizes on stage. Unfortunately, Kaedee and Ranjiv are overseas and were not able to join the ceremony. Here are some photographs of our prize winners with their parents:

Jing Min receiving the Outstanding 

Academic Performance award with 

her father

Ranjiv's mother, Aunty Lija, receiving 

the Outstanding Academic Performance 

award on behalf of Ranjiv

Chloe Chiang receiving the Best In
Progress award with her father

Olivia receiving the Excellent 

Conduct award with her father

Our three girls with their awards

Notice the Bible verse at the top left corner of this photograph? :)

All together now!

Do congratulate the five prize winners when you next see them! :)

Do you still remember the first lesson you learnt as we climbed up to our fifth-floor classroom together on our first day?

"There is no elevator to success; you have to take the stairs."

Over the course of this year, you have taken the stairs. You have climbed more flights of stairs than many others in the school. You have put in a lot of effort in your learning.

As a result, your brain has grown.

Do you remember this diagram that we discussed in January?

Your brain has grown and you -- everyone of you -- have become smarter, whether or not you realised it.

I have been very blessed to witness your brains growing, but what I treasured even more was the privilege to witness your hearts growing too.

Many of you have become kinder. You have become more forgiving. You have learnt to care for your friends. You have learnt to resolve many of your friendship issues on your own -- sometimes even without Mr Wong intervening. You have learnt to choose your words and think before you speak.

I thank God for all these, and for the opportunity to sail through this year with you and your parents.

We have had wonderful memories together, and some of them are captured in this blog. This blog is for you. You can come back to it many years later, and it will still be yours.

I pray that as you sail on in your life, you will remember our class theme: 

With Christ in the vessel, you can smile at the storm.

Sail on, knowing well that God is with you even in your difficulties and troubles.

I leave you with two Christian songs you would have come across in school -- one to keep you humble when you achieve something in life, and one to keep you encouraged whenever you are feeling down. 

"In every victory, let it be said of me, my source of strength, 

my source of hope, is Christ alone."

"Lord, you catch me when I'm falling, 

and you told me who I am."

Love,
Mr Wong
________________________________________________________________________
"I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow." (1Corinthians 3:6)

16 November 2015 (Monday)

Dear children,

Thanks to some of your parents who put in the time, effort and money to organise a final class party for us, we got to celebrate the birthdays of the November and December babies today. I am sure you enjoyed the food, drinks and the games prepared for you. I hope you appreciate all the love shown to you by the parents who made this party possible.

Here are some photographs and videos taken:

We also gave out certificates to the Top Improvers of our class today. I made a mistake in my calculation for the Top Improvers list last Thursday as I was looking at a wrong set of numbers when checking your English and Science SA1 scores. Sorry for the mistake. This is the corrected list, with some names taken out and some added in:

Top 5 Improvers for Maths

Genevieve (+20.5)

Hoi Yung (+9)

Lai Ye (+9)

Christian (+8)

Sujith (+8)

Top 6 Improvers for English

Matthew (+15)

Samir (+13)

Marc (+11)

Chloe Chiang (+8.5)

Alden and Yuqi (+8)

Top 6 Improvers for Science

Hayley (+13.5)

Marc (+12.5)

Huda (+10.5)

Matthew (+10)

Samir and Shaan (+8)


Here are two reminders:

1) If you have not submitted your Memory Card, don't forget to hand it in tomorrow.

2) Prize Winners (Kaedee, Jing Min, Ranjiv, Olivia and Chloe Chiang), please remember to pass the letter of invitation to your parents for this Friday's Prize Giving Ceremony. I will need the Reply Slip back latest by Wednesday. Your rehearsal in the hall will be held on Wednesday at 11.15 a.m.


Have a restful evening. See you tomorrow! :)

12 November 2015 (Thursday)

Dear children,

Since the beginning of the year, effort and hard work have always been emphasised in the class. No matter where our starting points are, effort can push us towards excellence. Hard work is not always pleasant, but when the results finally come, we can sing with joy. I would like to dedicate this post to those who have worked exceptionally hard to improve themselves from Semester 1's SA1 to Semester 2's SA2.

I am extremely proud of these children! :) They will receive certificates from me on Monday.

Top 5 Improvers for Maths
Genevieve (+20.5)
Hoi Yung (+9)
Lai Ye (+9)
Christian (+8)
Sujith (+8)

Top 5 Improvers for English
Yuqi (+9.3)
Alden (+9)
Enrui (+6.8)
Chloe Lee (+5.8)
Matthew (+5.8)

Top 5 Improvers for Science [in my opinion, the hardest subject to improve in score]
Marc (+3.8)
Matthew (+3.3)
Yuqi (+2.5)
Huda (+1.2)
Joshua (+0.8)

Top 6 Improvers for English

Matthew (+15)

Samir (+13)

Marc (+11)

Chloe Chiang (+8.5)

Alden and Yuqi (+8)

Top 6 Improvers for Science

Hayley (+13.5)

Marc (+12.5)

Huda (+10.5)

Matthew (+10)

Samir and Shaan (+8)

To those who have also worked very hard but don't yet see the results: Don't give up! One day, you will. :)


Here are two reminders and an announcement:

1) Please be reminded that there will be no school for you tomorrow as it is the School Administration Day and Primary One Orientation Day. Your parents would already have been informed about this through the November Administrative Information letter sent out to them via SNAC.

2) If your Register Number is highlighted in yellow in the table below, please do the necessary and submit what you owe on Monday.

(Click to zoom in.)

3) Next week will be my last week with you. I will not be teaching you next year as I have decided to join a team of teachers starting a new school in Punggol. I hope to have a pleasant final week with you. On Monday, we will continue with our P4 English lesson on the topic of "Sports Day". The MOE officers will be coming to observe you, just as they did yesterday and today. 

Have an enjoyable long weekend with your family. See you tomorrow! :)

_________________________________________________________
"Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy." (Psalm 126:5)

9 November 2015 (Monday)

Dear children,

Since the examinations are over, we had time today to give out prizes to the Group of October -- Winners! Richelle, Sarah, Shaan and Theophilus have worked very hard in their studies and their behaviour in the past month and truly deserve to win the award. Well done, Winners! :)

Sarah and Theophilus have moved up to become Level 2 winners, each earning some coloured pens, wax crayons and a pair of scissors as their prizes. Richelle, now a Level 3 winner, earned some seeds, a blue erasable pen and a Laptop Access Pass. Shaan will receive his Level 6 prize and certificate when he returns to school. 

Winners earned many of their ice-cream sticks from doing well for the Practice Examination Papers. Some of you from the other groups earned ice-cream sticks from excelling in those papers too:

*Maths Practice Examination*

9 sticks [90 marks and above]: 

Yu Zhi from Crystal

Sujith from Bugatti

Isaac from Friendship

Marc from Pros

Shaan from Winners

Lai Ye from Interact

8 sticks [85 to 89.5 marks]:

Jing Min from Eagle

Jonathan from Crystal

Ranjiv from Bugatti

Joshua from Pros

Matthew from Masterchef

Theophilus from Winners

Hoi Yung from Interact

*Science Practice Examination*

9 sticks [90 marks and above]: 

Matthew from Masterchef

8 sticks [85 to 89.5 marks]: 

Chloe Pek from Elementine

Jing Min and Yuqi from Eagle 

Jonathan from Crystal

Sujith from Bugatti

Avery from Pros

Theophilus from Winners

Well done! :)

Which group do you think would be the Group of November and win the final prizes from me? Would it be your group? We will find out in ten days' time. ;)

Here's the song we listened to today during the Assembly period. For those of you who like it and found it meaningful, I am sharing it here so that you can listen to it again:

["Five Loaves and Two Fishes" -- Song based on the

story of "Jesus Feeds The Five Thousand"]

Here are a few announcements:

1) There will be no school tomorrow as it is Deepavali (Diwali) -- the Festival of Lights. Have a good time of celebration with your families, Ranjiv, Sujith and Thaneeisha! :)

2) The Bible teaches us that it is more blessed to give than to receive. This month, teachers and officers from our school's Boys' Brigade Company will be delivering donated items to some less fortunate citizens living in the Kampong Glam area. This is a chance for us to care for the poor in Singapore. If you and your family would like to show care for the poor in this way, simply bring one or more of the following items when you return to school on Wednesday and pass it/them to me:

-Cup noodles

-Instant noodles

-Packs of beverage sachets (e.g. cereals, tea, coffee, milo, etc.)

-Small boxes of detergent

-Canned lettuce or peanuts

-Japanese plaster (e.g. Salonpas)

-Small tins of sardines

-Bath soap

-Biscuits (No cream crackers, please)

-Face towels

You don't have to give a lot. Every little contribution helps to bless the less fortunate. However, if you are intending to donate a lot of items and they might be too heavy for you to bring on your own, please ask your parents to contact me. We can work out a plan for them to drop off those items in school.

3) If you have not submitted any of your SA2 papers to me, submit them on Wednesday. Check this table below:

(Click on the table to zoom in.)

Have an enjoyable holiday with your family. See you on Wednesday! :)