High 5 – 21th August 2015 by Mr Tan Kian Beng

Good morning, Mdm Tan, Mr Lee and Mr Tan, colleagues and all Gessians.

Hi-5 celebrates the good that has taken place within the Gessian family.

Today, I would like to commend the following groups of people:

a) First, I would like to commend the Gessians who submitted their online reflections on the use of technology, which was shared by Mrs See Toh during this Wednesday’s R.E.A.D @ Aroozoo. As of Thursday, a total of 466 online reflections were received. 69% of these submission were from the Lower Sec and 31% were from the upper sec. These Gessians have shown themselves to be self-directed and responsible individuals who know the good, desire the good, and do the good. To these students, well done. You have reflected on what you have learned during R.E.A.D.S @ Aroozoo and have taken responsibility for your learning. To students who have not submitted your reflections, I hope you will be more proactive in your learning in other areas.

b) Second, I would like to commend the Sec 4 D&T students who prioritized their time and followed the timelines they set for themselves. These students include Mark, Bobby, Sein and Bunaiya. They worked through their coursework with ample time left for checking and refinement before the deadline of 31 Aug 2015, 6 pm. Well done! For students who offer coursework subjects whose deadlines are coming – what will you do from now till the deadline? And for the rest of the Gessians, how about you? Do you hand in your homework on time and do you try to give of your best? It is good to submit your homework on time so that the teacher has time to give timely feedback on your learning.

c) Next, I would like to commend the 8 teachers at GESS who formed a group for the ActiveSG 1000km run challenge since 11 May 2015. This GESS teacher group completed the 1000km run on 19 Aug 2015, 9 days before the deadline. The reason why the teacher group has succeeded is that they take the 1000KM goal seriously: regularly kept track of the mileage that the team had to complete, and motivated one another so that every teacher could contribute to the 1000KM goal.

I believe several groups of Gessians also signed up for the challenge. But so far, no student teams have completed it. These students will know that this is not an easy task to complete. Participators will need discipline and resilience to reach the milestone of 1000KM. To all Gessians:

‘What will you do to meet the targets you have set for yourself?’

‘How can you develop your resilience through the challenge?’

d) Finally, I would like to commend our Sec 4 Express and Sec 5 students who received their Mother Tongue Language exam results yesterday. For those of you who worked hard and obtained your desired grades, well done for your good effort! For those of you who did not obtain your desired grades, do not lose heart as you can still sit for your MTL exam at the end of the year. Remember, life is a marathon; in a few years’ time, you may not even remember the grade you obtained in the middle of the year. For those who taking national exam, the race is not over until the whistle is blown when time is up. Everyone do run the race well with our teachers to the best of your ability. And not to lose heart or hope for there is still time and prepared well for coming national exam.

I would like to encourage all Gessians to take responsibility for your own learning, to be disciplined and to be resilient for your coming assessments. Do justice to your talent and hard work from Day 1. I would also like to extend my best wishes to our 4NT and 4NA students, who are taking the N level Prelim Exam now, and 4Exp and 5NA, who will take your Prelim 2 Exam in 10 days’ time. Thank you. ONWARD GESSIANS!