Teacher's Day Celebrations 2008

On Fri 29th Aug, VS has our Teacher's Day Celebrations!

Finally a chance for staff and students to let down their hair after a hectic Term 3.
Let's get a look at some highlights from the Staff and Student soccer match


I received a very touching present from one of my former students, Dominic Chan.
His simple words of humor, gratitude and self-reflection made my day.
Dominic, thank you for remembering and coming back just to say Hi to us.
We are proud and glad to have been a part of you life.
May all of the Camp Instructors- Red Shirts and Black Shirts go on to greater things.


PS: And Dominic, if you call me 'Randell Siow' to my face, I'm still gonna make you squat outside the PE Office and juggle tennis balls until 5pm. Haha...
Once a Victorian, always a Victorian. You guys may have graduated but in our hearts, you've never left and we will always regards you as our students and will still be here as your teachers.
Nil Sine Labore

8th National Schools Sports Quiz

Today, the Serious PE class of 3B took part in the 8th National Schools Sports Quiz organised by Hwa Chong Institution.

Last year's team managed to get into the Top 3 despite having almost no preparation. So this year's team being comprised of the Serious PE fellas offering GCE PE for O-Levels surely can do better, right? Well, other schools offering GCE PE were also taking part and we knew we would face tough competition.

The qualifying round would consist of 40 MCQ. The Top 4 individuals and Top 4 teams would proceed to the finals.
So first off, we would have to qualify--

Team Captain Narren's words "We will do our best to make Victoria proud!" left a smile on my face as I made my way to the canteen to wait for them to come out half-an-hour late.

The half-hour passed quickly and I was confident that they would do well. Afterall, the team and I spend yesterday afternoon going over all the GCE PE syllabus that they covered so far. Our preparation was damn serious man! I give them powerpoint slides to revise, use Flash cards to quiz them. Donch pray pray arh!

Then Captain Narren comes to tell me, "Sir, all the anatomy, fitness and training sessions and hard core PE theory never come out!"

Uh Oh......
Nevermind, being a good sport we proceeded to the auditorium to watch the rest of the teams participate. Suddenly as we were seated, the ushers came to us and said,"Uh 'cuse me ar sir, you know your boys in the Top 20 for Individual Round? Got prize wan..... Oh ya, your team also in Top 4 for finals. Got to draw lots for table, can?"

WOOTS! Of couse can lah! As I always say...... Rock neber die!
So here are the highlights of our ardous climb to glory.
First came the Matrix Speed Round where teams had to choose questions from 12 boxes and give the correct answer:

The first question, on Judo, was answered by typical Victorian talent. Yup, pure, unadulterated guesswork.


Our second question, on Rugby, which the boys probably have never played during their PE lessons in VS was answered again with the belief in our natural Victorian talent. Yup, it was pure luck again. I look at the boys and could see them equally amazed. The audience must be wondering "Eh, liddat orso can ar?"


The we got the next question wrong, and I started to fear whether our first 2 lucky flukes would be the only thing we would take back with us.


But the next round would tell. We moved on to the Buzzer round where the first team to press the buzzer would get a chance to attempt the question. 2 point for correct answer, -1 point for wrong attempt.


But this round showed that we had what it takes to make history after all.
Against all odds, we led the round by a one point margin at the end of the round. Yup, thanks to Jeremy Tan's 'anyhowhantam also better than don't answer', we squeezed in the extra one point to make 11 points and qualify us to match Nanyang Girls in the final round.


In the final phase, students are split into pairs with a Describer and a Guesser. Describer has to describe elements of a sport to the Guesser without using certain forbidden words ala Taboo.
If ever there was a doubt that we would pull it off, this round erased all doubt from my mind that Victorians can indeed think outside the box.


Jeremy and Shaun got 3/5 for their round
Next was Naren and Ernest-
Although abit hesistant at first, the duo showed that they had almost telepathic communciation skills when they got 3/5 as well for this round!

Jeremy and Shaun made history for us after this round!

Despite giving a hilarious answer for the first question, they clinched the round by getting 3/5 again.
It was this consistency in scoring points for each round and earning the bonus points by naming the sports that allowed us to make sporting history.


It was a well-deserved win! All 4 boys won medals for being in the Top 20 Individual scorers amongst the Secondary School category


But winning the Championship was a sweet reward for our first batch of GCE PE students offering PE for O-Level. It has been a very challenging year for Sec 3B and some have expressed doubt about our level of ability, our committment and character.
But I believe that this is the first step towards proving that when it comes to PE, we are SERIOUS.

3 cheers for the team and Narren, you DID make VS proud!
Sec 3B Serious PE
is here to stay!

Stand By Bed- Hostel Room Check

Yesterday, I conducted another round of room checks for our boarders.
I'm proud to say that your rooms are quite well maintained.

Here are pictures of the top 3 cleanest rooms:

H1-04-04 (Aaron, Jinjie, Junyeang and Agilan)

H1-04-06 (Tank, Rock & Kai)

H1-04-15 (Harri, Pochi, Nic & Billy)

Keep up the good work guys.
Will try to do a supper sessions soon to reward all of you

Penang Free School Visit to VS

Today, several teachers from Penang Free School visited VS as part of twinning and networking exchange.

It was a most pleasant and welcome surprise when we found out that one of their teachers, Mr Ong, was an active member in the Penang Chin Woo Pugilistic Association.

Mr Ong is a veteran martial artist and was skilled in the traditional Changquan style of Tan Tui.
It was indeed a pleasure and honor to be visited by someone who is my senior both in the teaching profession and in the martial arts community.

To top off the fantastic experience, Mr Ong kindly offered to teach our boys some of the traditional elements of Tan Tui 弹腿.


You can see fromt the movements that the combative aspect to his form is still present- more compact, crisp and precise. Much of the modern Changquan that we do has the same movements but our expression of it tends to be flowy rather than crisp, extravagant rather than compact, acrobatic rather than precise.

There's still so much more to learn boys! Let us journey together unceasingly in the quest for excellence.

GCE PE Sharing for Learning Journey and PE Induction

Today VS played host to MOE PE Unit's Induction program for Beginning PE Teachers.
Staff from MOE PE Unit were on hand to facilitate the event and had a interesting day for our new beginning teachers.
VS PE Department had an opportunity to introduce our GCE PE program to these teachers and show how the educational landscape has changed in this past decade.


After the initial session to the PE inductees, VS PE Dept held a focus group sharing to give an in-depth look at offering and implement GCE PE from our starting conception to our current status.

We would like to thank all participating schools in the sharing for their warmth and interest in our program as well as their enthusiastic show of support.
I am sure that together we will be able to enrich our students' experience of stufy and play through the GCE PE program.

GCE PE CourseWork (Soccer/Hockey- Week 8)

This is Week 8 of GCE Coursework for Soccer and Hockey.

From the technical aspects of play, we are now developing the tactical aspects of play with the boys. From practicing set plays, now we see Mr Sng explaing the various principles of offensive and defensive play in action:



The Hockey boys were not to be outdone today.
Today, we saw Miss Sheikha giving them the finer points of how to take a penalty corner.
Of course, before all this practice can happen, we need to get geared up.
Here's Dilip, looking absolutely like a Sesame Street character :)


So on to the Penalty Corner! Usually it's the attackers who intimidate the defenders during the penalty corner. Here, it seems it's the other way around!

From the above clip, I suggest Khairul to take up Golf to represent Singapore in YOG.

We had the sides switch over. Must commend Dilip for his fearless ability to stop the ball using all parts of his body-- Only problem for him is once he falls down, he cannot stand up again on his own.

"Learn to Say No"- What Victoria means to us

This term has flown by so fast, I have hardly seen many of the Sec 4 boys that used to train with me, or chatted with me after school.

It's been a mad flurry of mock exams, pre-lims and tests- all to ensure that you guys are well prepared for the final challenge ahead---- the O-levels.
It's been hard going for all of you and for us as well.
There is a lot at stake this year since the 2007 cohort gave us the best results for VS in the past 10 years. But bear in mind that each test set for you, requires the same amount of work from us teachers (if not more)

And while you may grumble at us and we may nag at you, know that we are with you in all that you do- in work or at play.
So for all those of you who enjoyed the clip I showed this week, here it is again.
I hope it inspires all of you and affirms that your time here in Victoria is well-spent.



Learn to say no :)

GCE PE CourseWork (Soccer/Hockey- Week 7)

Here we are during Week 7 of our Coursework for Soccer/Hockey

During this lesson we see the Soccer boys moving on to set plays and work on their crossing:


The Hockey boys are working on their hits and long passes: