Haze, School reopen and Crucial term

Dear all,

It's coming to the end of the holidays and we are finally back to school. Hope your holidays have been well. A few issues I will be addressing before school reopens.

Haze

The PSI has been in the moderate range these past few days as compared to the highs of 300s - 400s. We cannot take for granted that the conditions will remain as it is used and being your crucial term, do take good care of yourselves. Those who have sensitive nose and asthma, do drink more water and take good care of yourselves.

School will reopen as usual and there will be daily temperature taking for term 3 so do bring your thermometers EVERYDAY. Exercise self-responsibility and discipline and do not take your health for granted. :) If the PSI forecast for the next school day is over 300 and in the hazardous range, MOE will make the announcements by 6pm that day on school closures so do remain alert for the news. Outdoor activities will be suspended for the mean time with more activities to take place indoors.

Revision 

I hope you have finished your S.E.E booklets as we will be spending the first week in going through the piles of work being done in the first 2 weeks of the extra June lessons. Come prepared to go through your papers and correct your mistakes made. You should have started revising on your Science past year topics/concepts. Same goes for the rest of the other subjects. English files will be given back by the end of term 1 so that you can go back to look through your papers and notes.

PSLE booklets should also be done as I will be going through the PSLE booklets every now and then. Do bring your PSLE booklets everyday. Supplementary lessons and remedial lessons will resume from week 1 as per normal. There will be no changes. Nearer to the PSLE examinations, I will organize Saturday lessons in the morning as extra lessons. This will be updated again.

100% Effort 

Week 3 - start of Prelims Oral Exams

Week 5 - Start of Prelims written papers exams

Week 7 - Start of PSLE Oral exams

End of September: PSLE Begins!

Thus, 100% effort and concentration is essential in class. I cannot teach you how much effort you give in class. I can only motivate you to give your 100% effort. The rest is up to you and I really urge you to put away all distractions this term and give your all. The target still stands: 100% passes for English and Science and I want to extend this out to Maths and Chinese too. Many of you have made the improvements for maths and chinese and it is a waste to give up now. You may not have done well but now is the time for you to turn it around. We start from scratch again and it is your time to correct whatever mistakes in the past and do well right now. NEVER EVER GIVE UP. :)

We are all behind you!

Motivation and encouragement

This term, the focus is on motivation and encouragement. Last 2 terms, I focused alot on discipline and coming down hard on you for every small mistakes made so that you learn and you eradicate mistakes you make. This term, it is all about motivating you and encouraging you to take the step forward each day. No more looking back. It is all about going forward now. Parents, encouragement is essential for a child's growth. It is easy to pinpoint mistakes and come down hard on our kids but to praise them is something that we need to do too. You know your kid well and you know the approaches to deal with them in the best way possible but do take time to encourage and build up their self-esteem. This is key to giving them the mental aspect to do well.

To do well, a child's mental, physical and academic aspects are important.
Mental - their motivational level, their desire to take up their own discipline to strive for their targets they set themselves.
Physical - their physical well-being, exercising and health. It affects how they concentrate and work in class.
Academic - their ability to retain knowledge and internalise concepts to apply to their academics and daily lives.

We need to work hand in hand to help them for all these 3 aspects :)

As we embark on term 3, this is one BIG term that we all need to work together. I look forward to guiding you and walking with you on this last journey of your primary school life. Have a great time back at school again and endure the stress that may come your way and embrace it.

Thank you,
Sincerely,
Mr Nelson Ong