My Reflections
NIE-I / MUIS Spec Dip in T&L (Cohort 5)
LEARNING JOURNEY TO JURONGVILLE SEC SCH
202 Jurong East Avenue 1 S(609790)
Tue 27 Aug 2013, 9.30am - 1.00pm
Done by: DEL RASOULI A. RASHID
Madrasah Al-Arabiah Al-Islamiah
Qn 2. Jurongville Secondary School – What kind of experience have you gained from the school visit to Jurongville Secondary School? Is it beneficial in your learning journey? Why?
The main activities that our school hosts conducted for us :
1. a PowerPoint presentation on the School History, Culture, Strategic Thrusts and Focus Programs
(by principal, Mr Syawal), &
2. a Walking Tour of the school’s Learning Rooms
Some of my takeaways from this visit :
1. Purposeful Synergy on a Systematic Large Scale
I am impressed with the way that the school is able to do their synergy work on such a large scale, starting with the School Mission, School Vision & Strategic Thrusts which involves the buy-in and ownership from all teachers. I remember the big idea being represented in the picture of a Tree, with 3 stems growing out through the middle part, namely :
i. Academic
ii. Character
iii. Leadership
Mr Syawal is a big believer in developing the Academic, Character and Leadership abilities of all his students. Especially with regards to Character, he believes that if a school focuses more on the development on a young person’s character, then the other 2 abilities (i.e. Academic & Leadership) will naturally follow. For example, if a student has the character to to be responsible, then naturally he will be self-directed to be responsible for his academic studies, and his leadership at school & at home.
With regards to synergy, the school has been “thick-skinned” enough to engage various partners-in-education which are unconventional by the standards of other neighbourhood schools. For example, they are working with Outward Bound School to have a long-term partnership in Character Development Programmes done overseas, for example in Malaysia and Australia. Another example is their partnership with the Blue Cross Home, where JVSS students organise and conduct long-term meaningful interaction activities with the special-needs residents there.
In our madrasah, I think that over the past 5 years, we had been focusing too much on raising the academic standards of the school, for the sake of meeting the so-called “PSLE Benchmark for Private Educational Institutions under Compulsory Education Act”. This was done somewhat at the expense of our students’ character development, where we sacrificed curriculum time devoted to the study of Islamic Religious-based subjects (which infused many noble values of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, to be followed by all good Muslims). In a way, it is my personal opinion that the modern National Schools are going the way of the traditional Madrasah in developing good character, whilst the modern Madrasah are going the way of the olden National Schools in chasing after good academic results… This is irony, at its best.
I think that if we still hold firm to infuse the teaching of Character in our madrasah, which has always been our strongest point, then this should bode well towards the improvement in our academic performance (i.e. PSLE & GCE O-Level). Perhaps the coming roll-out of the Enhanced IRK Programme under the auspices of the Joint Madrasah System (JMS) will be a good step forward, towards raising not just our students’ character but also their academic results as well, insha’Allah.
2. The Whole School is an Inclusive School
Mr Syawal never hides the fact that Jurongville is a Resource Centre for Autism and other special-needs students. The school’s efforts towards being inclusive is admirable, given the challenges of providing the logistical support that these students need, and also managing the misperceptions of some parents who are concerned that these special-needs students will affect the academic performance of their own children. Truly, being an educator in this type of school would require a higher level of patience and understanding.
In our madrasah, we are challenged in managing our students with mild cases of learning disability. We do not have the funds that national schools have, in order to implement critical staffing and logistics measures to support such special-needs students. However, we as a staff recognise the need to be inclusive as such, and try our best to be more understanding and supportive.
3. “Keep It Simple, Only Aim for Academic Value-Added”
For Jurongville, it is quite ironic that the principal Mr Syawal tells his teachers that the school’s one direction should just be towards helping all its students, by adding value to their lives. As such, the single indicator of school performance he looks at every year is the Academic Value-Added aspect of the annual schools monitoring exercise. While this has been achieved, and yet, JVSS has managed to also achieve Sustained Achievement Awards (SAA) for all 3 domains – Aesthetics, Uniformed Groups, & Sports, which is a rare accomplishment in neighbourhood schools. Mr Syawal’s rationale for saying so is simple, as he wants to see all his students being able to move on somewhere academically at the end of 4 or 5 years in JVSS.
In our madrasah,we are closely monitoring the indicators for our academic performance in each subject.We also urge our students to always strive for One Grade Better in each successive examination, so as to achieve a better L1B5 score that will open more post-secondary doors for them.
4. “We Try Our Best, but We Learn from Our Failures”
Mr Syawal shared with us his anecdote where the school spent a lot of money to link-up with the national sailing association for his school’s Sailing CCA. Apparently, one of the school’s boats had a collision, which resulted in significant hull damage costing a lot of money to repair. Nevertheless, the school took the incident as an opportunity for the students to learn from their mistakes.
In our madrasah, we have always been financially challenged to engage our students in more meaningful yet expensive CCAs, and as such do not have such luxury for our students to make costly mistakes like JVSS. However, in light of the recent announcement by PM Lee Hsien Loong that the Edusave Pupil Fund will be finally released to the madrasah students in second half 2014, our madrasah may now finally be able to implement more ambitious CCAs for our students.
5. Close Monitoring is Important
I could see that close monitoring of learning programmes is always an essential part of what JVSS does. For example, in the computer lab, they installed 2 convex circular mirrors at strategic corners of the room ceiling, so that the subject teacher can easily monitor at the critical “blind spots” what the students use the computers for. Another example would be, in the library, there are free access Internet stations where the students can come in anytime to plug in their laptops and surf away. However, these Internet stations are located strategically in front of the duty librarian’s station, where she can help closely monitor students’ Internet activity.
In our madrasah, we are quite challenged with funding and staffing needs in order for us to similarly implement such measures in close monitoring. However, we do recognise that yes, close monitoring is important in whatever we do, even in small things. This will help us to achieve the maximum level of effectiveness for such programmes.
In Conclusion…
I feel privileged to have been able to go on this learning journey to Jurongville Secondary, which is surely part of the “Every School is a Good School” movement, as espoused by the Education Minister Mr Heng Swee Keat. Even though the national schools out there might have access to more government funding and can do more things, we as a madrasah can still adopt/adapt the best practices and show the world one day on how to do more with less, insha’Allah.
(1306 words)