My Reflections
NIE-I / MUIS Spec Dip in T&L (Cohort 5)
LEARNING JOURNEY TO RULANG PRIMARY SCHOOL
6 Jurong West, St 52, Singapore 649295
Wed 21 Aug 2013, 2.30 - 5.00pm
Done by: DEL RASOULI A. RASHID
Madrasah Al-Arabiah Al-Islamiah
Qn 1. Rulang Primary School – How has the school visit to Rulang Primary School benefited you? How could you apply some of its practices to your current Madrasah?
The main activities that our school hosts conducted for us :
1. a PowerPoint presentation on the School History, Culture, Strategic Thrusts and Focus Programs, &
2. a Walking Gallery Tour of the school’s standing exhibits and Robotics Centre
Some of my takeaways from this visit :
1. Planning on a Systematic Large Scale
I am impressed with the way that the school is able to do their planning 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.
They also plan for the implementation and monitoring of the school-level Integrated Robotics Curriculum and the Character Development Curriculum. The detailed schemes of work and self-made student workbooks for every level (Pri 1 to Pri 6) shows a lot of work done to synergise the learning for all students. In the cognitive domain, the school uses Robotics to capture their students’ attention and infuse robotics into appropriate elements in the academic subjects (English Language, Mathematics, Science), starting from Primary 1. In the affective domain, the school uses the CELL framework (Citizenship, Entrepreneurship, Leadership Learning) to progressively develop their students’ character as they move from Pri 1 to Pri 6.
In our madrasah, the school management has taken a similar approach to planning, which helps to structure the school’s progress in our students’ academic and affective domains. We have in place an Socio-Emotional Learning (SEL) Framework, which we dedicate one period a week in the timetable. During SEL Lessons, the students do activities to explore the main themes of SEL, namely:
SEL enables students to develop the skills to succeed in life.
The 5 core SE competencies are as follow:
Key SEL Competencies
2. Systems Thinking
During the PowerPoint presentation, we saw evidence of Systems Thinking in action. No initiative is done in isolation, and collaboration is the key. I remember how the HOD explained the teacher-collaboration process, where they use Vertical Teams (Pri 1-Pri2…-Pri 6 teachers) to plan/implement programmes within a class level, and they also use Horizontal Teams (English-Mother Tongue-Mathematics-Science departments, etc) to run programmes across the class levels. School projects may also be undertaken by hybrid teams, with members strategically taken from these Vertical and Horizontal Teams, wherever possible.
Their school timetable also shows Systems Thinking approach. For example, the school’s academic lessons (morning session) run from 7.30am – 1.00pm, after which the students go for their respective afternoon CCA on Mondays. Interestingly, the school made it a policy for teachers not to issue homework to students on Mondays, for students to get enough rest after Monday’s CCA. From Tuesday to Friday afternoons, the students atttend the scheduled remediation or enrichment lessons meant to help them in the subjects they need help with.
In our madrasah, the teachers are also placed in academic departments, .e.g. Mathematics & Science, Language & Humanities, Character Development & Islamic Religious Knowledge. Depending on the school programme, we may use team members from these departments, and sometimes even combine members across departments for synergy. As for the timetable, our challenge is having to meet the academic requirements from the many subjects that our students have to study within a full school day. By the time the school day ends at 3.30pm, there is only about 1.5 hours left for the students to engage in CCA/remedial/enrichment activities.
3. Visible Thinking : “A Gallery of Scholars, A Vibrant Community of Wholesome Individuals”
This is Rulang’s school motto, which defines the key outcome that the school wishes to see in all of its graduates. In order to make this outcome a reality, the school has put in much effort to put up beautiful yet meaningful standing displays along its corridors, and no wall is left as a blank space.
If the learning wall is meant as a Gallery of Scholars, then the wall would have captivating photographs or profiles of the scholar or important person in Singapore’s history, accompanied with the relevant information that highlights their different backgrounds and history of good upbringing.
If the learning wall is meant as a Platform of Studentwork, then the wall would be very colourful and an authentic avenue for the students to express their creativity and teamwork, towards displaying artwork that is closely aligned with the school’s values.
In our madrasah, we also use the notice-boards all around the school in a gallery concept, to display relevant and important information/news for our students, and also as a showcase of students’ work.
4. Pupil Management
As far as possible, Rulang makes it their business to develop every single pupil who studies there. All teachers would work together to manage the student to be the best that he/she can be. If there is a symptom of a learning disability, the student would be referred to the full-time School Counsellour for guidance. If there is a need to escalate the case for higher-level management, then the student could be referred to MOE’s educational psychologists for a clinical diagnosis of his learning disability. With this diagnosis, the school could make some internal arrangements to facilitate his learning disability, or ultimately refer the student to be transferred to the neighbouring “Grace Orchard School”, which takes in students with special needs.
In our madrasah, we only have a part-time school counsellour now, who tries her best to provide guidance to the students referred to her. We are considered a private educational institution, as such we do not have access to MOE’s educational psychologists. Thus, when we ask parents to refer their child to a qualified psychologist for a clinical diagnosis, sometimes there is a resistance from these parents, citing the high costs involved or the perception that we may ask them to transfer their child out of school into an educational no-man’s land. And here lies our madrasah’s challenge: The lack of funding to subsidise the diagnosis fees involved, and the lack of a partner-in-education who will carry on the task of educating our students with special needs.
In Conclusion…
I feel privileged to have been able to go on this learning journey to Rulang Primary, 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.
(1227 words)