Dear Colleagues,

I hope you enjoyed the National Day break. With the school gearing up for the PSLE orals, do try to take care of yourselves and do update yourself on the requirements of the various duties, and in our tiredness, do take care, especially those going out as OEs, to be alert and give the best possible oral exams experience to already anxiety-ridden candidates.

By now you would have heard over the news that the Presidential Election dates have been announced. There will not be much change to our calendar except that 11 Sep is a school holiday. If there are further directions from MOE, I will update you again. 

I will be out for a number of days in the coming weeks for SEM CV duty, so if you do need to reach me, please feel free to WhatsApp me. 

As I was reflecting on the words of the NDP song this year, which I did not find easy to sing when I first heard it, I thought it held a deeper challenge for us as teachers to "shine your light upon the world". In a world filled with the darkness of volatility, uncertainty, chaos and ambiguity, the antidote to all that is for us to choose to hope rather despair, forgiveness rather than revenge, faith rather than doubt, joy rather than sadness, and love rather than hatred. My hope is that all of us, at St Stephen's, realise that we have a great opportunity every day in our classroom interactions, on the phone with parents, over coffee with our colleagues, through what we say and how we act, to really shine our light and that's how we can inspire others to do likewise.

All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a candle. 

~ St Francis  of Assissi

Credere et Servire!  

Keep Believing and Serving,

Timothy Goh