21S11

On SL Day we got the chance to show our care for SAJC cleaning staff. In the morning, we interviewed 2 of them and through that, we were able to know more about them and their experience working in the school.

After that, we continued with the cleaning activity on level 2 of the college. We worked together in pairs to clean our respective areas such as toilets, classroom corridors, study lounge and outside staff room benches, learning more about the difficulty of keeping the school clean.

Through this activity we could understand more about the struggles that the staff may face while doing their job, such that we become more empathetic to them. To end the day, we gave personalised goodie bags to 3 of the cleaning staff. As a class, we brainstormed on the type of goodies that the cleaning staff may want and prepared the card together, with everyone contributing an encouragement note.

1. Thao

I find that sometimes even though we make a conscious effort to appreciate the cleaners’ effort we still fail and take them for granted, and only when we truly experience it do we know (and even then we might not). Doing it once will certainly not reflect the whole truth, because what I felt was a sense of accomplishment and I was happy seeing how the uncles were happy watching us, but truly to do such tasks everyday is painstaking, it’s incredibly banal and tiring yet takes great commitment. They deserve all the appreciation we can give, and I realized even the smallest efforts to keep our surroundings clean and tidy while carrying out our daily tasks will relieve them from a lot of unnecessary stress while cleaning.

2. Joycelin

Getting to know how the cleaners felt about our school was very meaningful as I never really got the chance to see them around so I did not know how they felt about the school and it was really heartwarming to find out how much they truly care about us and the school. When they told us what were some of the things we did that made their jobs harder, I felt very guilty because I did not know that such events occurred and I hope the school community, including me, can learn from our actions and help each other out to make the school a clean environment. As we started cleaning, we were all very confused and lost initially but we tried our best to clean the school. Cleaning the school was tiring and I now appreciate our cleaners so much more and that they deserve so much more recognition for the hard work they do. I was glad that we could help them in this small way. :D

3. Jerilyn

Sometimes we really take for granted the things that we have. The school might not be as clean as we want it, but we have to always take into consideration who is working for us. Having experienced the cleaning myself, it is really not easy, moreover, the cleaners are of old age, and thus we really should not take their efforts for granted. If we can do our part to help, by simply picking up the litter we see and disposing of our rubbish properly after eating etc, it will not only help the cleaners but definitely also bring about a benefit to the school, even more so if everyone cooperates.

4. Clara

While doing the chores for a mere 1-2 hours that the cleaners have to do daily for more than half of the day, I realised that the workload was a lot more than I thought. To clean up after others is a tough job to do, especially for a whole school of noisy teenagers and I really appreciate them for doing so. Having to wake up early at 4-5 am is definitely a difficult task. Through SLead i could feel, even if just a small part of, the burden they have gone through all these times. I am grateful and I will try my best to lift the weight off their shoulders by helping them when I see them. :D

5. Zi Yang

Through the experience of cleaning up the school, I was truly put in the shoes of our school cleaners and was able to have a better understanding of the rigour and the unglamorous yet necessary nature of their work. It was tough enough to clean the whole level as a class so I really appreciate the few cleaners for being able to keep the school clean everyday.