The challenges of the past couple of years have been well-documented in various media and the life that we once knew has changed quite drastically. While we were faced with plenty of obstacles as we tried to provide some semblance of normalcy for our Springfielders, the going proved to be tough at times.

However, it is also precisely through such tough times that Learning for Life Programme - Community Youth Leadership (LLP-CYL) in the school shone through and came alive. We cannot always build a future for our students, but we can build our students for the future. That is what Springfield’s LLP-CYL have always set out to do. And our students certainly never let us down; the growing never stopped and in fact, they have continued to amaze us.

Our Springfielders understood that while a whole village has come together to nurture them during the onset of the Covid-19 days, they are equally capable of looking after the village in their own ways. True to the Asian belief of remembering our roots, our students rallied in various ways to serve the community, to give back to society as the useful citizens we hope they will become.

Our Student Leaders recognized the hardships the school cleaners go through to sanitize the classrooms on a regular basis, and thus did up a video to create awareness for the work our cleaners do behind the scenes, in the hope that our Springfielders will be more appreciative of these unsung heroes and will learn to have more empathy.

The village is not limited to the school too. A collective effort was also made as the whole school embarked on a week-long mission to walk or run as many kilometres as they could, with total distance converted into bowls of rice donated to needy families in the Southeast CDC. We set a lofty target of 30,000 bowls of rice donated, which would require 9000km clocked. It seemed impossible at first, but with a shared vision, Springfield made it happen and broke the set target by some distance.

It is also through this ‘village’ where Springfield’s culture of care was clearly prominent. Spearheaded by the Springfield Peer Supporters, the weekly words of encouragement and motivation shared over public address system has become a norm for the school. And while the impact of measures to boost mental health is not always tangible or measurable, through the regular sharing, the Springfielders at least know that they are not alone in the school stressors that they face, be it academic or co-curricular. Most importantly, Springfielders are aware that whenever they need someone to speak to regarding any matters of concern, the door is always open for them.

We have certainly come a long way since the initial days of the Learning for Life Programme and we are seeing the fruits of our labour in the students who walk through our gates. Springfielders have understood what it means to be a community, that alone we can do so little, but together we can do so much. And if everyone moves forward together, then success will take care of itself.

Just like the 2022 National Day theme, Springfield is also “Stronger Together, Majulah!”