Dear Colleagues,

We have finally come to the final week of the Semester and our well-deserved June holidays is upon us. There's quite a lot of information in this week's bulletin so do take some time to read through.

What has been on my mind in recent times is also the staff culture that we desire and I thought I'd leave this short story for you to ponder.

The Guru meditating in his Himalayan cave opened his eyes to discover an unexpected visitor sitting there before him - the abbot of a well-known monastery.

"What is it you seek?" asked the Guru.

The abbot recounted a tale of woe. At one time his monastery had been famous throughout the western world. Its cells were filled with young aspirants and its church resounded to the chant of its monks. But hard times had come on the monastery. People no longer flocked there to nourish their spirits, the stream of young aspirants had dried up, the church was silent. There was only a handful of monks left and these went about their duties with heavy hearts.

Now this is what the abbot wanted to know: "is it because of some sin of ours that the monastery has been reduced to this state?"

"Yes," said the Guru, "a sin of ignorance."

"And what sin might that be?"

"One of your number is the Messiah in disguise and you are ignorant of this." Having said that the Guru closed his eyes and returned to his meditation.

Throughout the arduous journey back to his monastery the abbot's heart beat fast at the thought that the Messiah - the Messiah himself - had returned to earth and was right there in the monastery. How was it he had failed to recognize him? And who could it be? Brother Cook? Brother Sacristan? Brother Treasurer? Brother Prior? No, not he; he had too many defects, alas. But then, the Guru had said he was in disguise. Could those defects be one of his disguises? Come to think of it, everyone in the monastery had defects. And one of them had to be the Messiah!

Back in the monastery he assembled the monks and told them what he had discovered. They looked at one another in disbelief. The Messiah? Here? Incredible! But he was supposed to be here is disguise. So, maybe. What if it were so-and-so? Or the other one over there? Or . . .

One thing was certain. If the Messiah was there in disguise, it was not likely that they would recognize him. So they took to treating everyone with respect and consideration. "You never know," they said to themselves when they dealt with one another, "maybe this is the one."

The result of this was that the atmosphere in the monastery became vibrant with joy. Soon dozens of aspirants were seeking admission to the Order - and once again the church echoed with the holy and joyful chant of monks who were aglow with the spirit of love.

Keep Believing and Serving,

Timothy Goh

By: CCE - VIA

Relevant Levels: P1 to P6

Date of Event/Programme/Item: 27 May 2022 and 27 June 2022

Information Details:

Dear teachers, as shared earlier, we will be having our Use Your Hands Campaign on the last day of Term 2 and first day of Term 3.

Please remind your pupils to bring rags/wet wipes and their love for their school to clean up the classrooms.

You may use the slides to guide your pupils through the objectives (slides 1 to 11) and the last 10 to 15 minutes to reflect on the activity (Slide 12).

As we will be painting the classrooms during the June holidays, please also remember to take down all items that have been put up on the walls and doors and the areas that will need to be painted over. Let's do our best here otherwise our OSO colleagues will have to take it down for us.

S:\@DEPT_CHARACTER AND CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION (CCE)\Subcommittees\Values-in-Actions\School-Wide Programmes\UYHC\2022

By: CCE - VIA

Relevant Levels: P1 to P6

Date of Event/Programme/Item: Nil

Information Details: Dear colleagues, We have completed the last PDs for We Love Our School last Wednesday. 18 May.

To recap, we have covered the Lasallian Reflection Framework of See and Experience, Analyse and Reflection, Commitment and Action over 3 sessions of PD sessions in Term 2.

Through your sharing, we have come to recognise the areas that we need to improve on in our classrooms, including making it a routine to clean up after every lesson. We have also set clear goals and many of you expressed your confidence during our check-in at the start of Session 2. We explored deeper - Analysing and Reflecting concrete examples of Grade “A” classrooms.

“KISS Structure – Keep & Improve”, we take your suggestions and introduced the “Instruction sheet” that will be rolled out in Term 3 as part of the reflection process of Commitment-and Action.

Please refer to the slides attached to look through Session 3 PD content again. Rules have consequences, routines have reminders. Let's cultivate good habits through routines. The first step to starting something may not always be easy but let’s do this right and together!

https://www.canva.com/design/DAFA6J6R9dU/tmb3ffL4q-Quuvh10tfO_g/view?utm_content=DAFA6J6R9dU&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=publishsharelink

By: CCE - VIA

Relevant Levels: P1 to P6

Date of Event/Programme/Item: 23 to 30 May 2022

Information Details: Dear Colleagues,

We will be celebrating SBS Transit Kindness Month this month of May.

Taking Public transport to school or work has been part and parcel of our life. However, many a times, we do not know the hardships and long hours of a Bus Captain. This May, we would like to encourage all Stephenians (staff and pupils) in joining to express our gratitude to our Bus Captains and Station Staff.

Please use the time during FTGP to share the SLS assignment with your pupils. The assignment will be published from 23 May – 30 May.

The SLS assignment includes a video and Padlet link to pen down e-notes of appreciation. These notes convey our thanks to the “Public Transport Heros’” and they will be sent to the SBS Transit Management to be shared with their staff.

Please use this opportunity to educate our pupils, beyond the school community to be “Men for Others”. A kind word of “thank you” or “good morning” as we board the bus brightens the days of others.

By: Murni Masuath

Relevant Levels: Teaching Staff

Date of Event/Programme/Item:

Information Details:

Just to give you heads up on the upcoming Seat Refresh of SSOE2 computers during the last week of the school holidays.

About 83 staff involved in this Seat Refresh. The ICT team (NCS and Micro2000) will be in our school on the following dates :

17 June (Fri): Unboxing of new EUCDs + Provisioning of new User EUCDs

20 June (Mon): Unboxing of new EUCDs + Provisioning of new User EUCDs

21 June (Tue): Unboxing of new EUCDs + Provisioning of new User EUCDs

22 June (Wed): Handover of new EUCDs of User Devices

23 June(Thurs): Handover of new EUCDs of User Devices

24 June(Fri): Handover of new EUCDs of User Devices) + Documentation

List of teachers involved and the handover schedule will be emailed out next week.

Teachers will loan out their new computers and return their current computers from 22 June to 24 June.

Excited to find out the modal of new computer you will loan out ? Look out for my email next week ....