To our Victorian warriors who kept our school pride flying high, here is the coverage from today's game as promised.
Today, was our eagerly awaited soccer rematch against our esteemed opponents from the Singapore Sports School. Last year we met them as well in the finals and lost 4-0to them. It was an agonising 30 year wait to be in the finals again last year and to suffer defeat left a bitter taste in our mouths.
But this year, our boys pushed through and forged their way through the national competition in the hopes of having a chance to face our esteemed rivals from Sports School on the field of competition again.
And indeed, the Victorian spirit prevailed and we fought our way through to finally meet up with Singapore Sports Schools in the finals today. Unfortunately, two of our key players Dilip Thapa and Bijaya were down with flu and unable to play today. But the boys never backed down, never looked back and stood strong to face the challenge presented by our wortht opponents from the Singapore Sports School.
By the time I made it down to the pitch, VS was down 2-1 and I felt disappointed that I was unable to be there earlier to cheer them on. Yet in a few moments, my spirits were buoyed up when Santosh Magar scored an amazing equalising goal to bring the score to 2-2. See it here!
Yup, in Term 3 the PE Dep embarks on our series of NAPFA testing for the various levels.
So during PE, the boys will either head out to East Coast to do their 2.4km Run or stay in school and move from station to station, completing their rest of the items in the NAPFA test.
Usually, I handle the Standing Broad Jump. Every year, you get to see a whole range of abilities: from lower Sec boys frantically swinging their hands, too upper Sec boys who jump far but can't balance when they land.
This year, I finally caught on film the ultimate record breaking Standing Broad Jump feat I have ever witnessed in VS. Check this out:
MOE is re-drafting the Teaching Vision. Today, I received an invitation from one of our Senior Teachers, Mdm Kwok to share on my experiences in teaching:
So here goes... 1. How many years of teaching experience do you have? I first started teaching while waiting to do my M.A. I did relief teaching for about 2 terms in St Teresa's Convent. Later on, during my NIE days I did my practicum attachment at Singapore Chinese Girls School. After graduating from NIE, I was posted to Victoria School and have been teaching there since for 6 years.
2. What has kept you going in your passion for teaching? When I realise that I can make a positive impact on my student and help him become something more. The 3 magic words for me are "Thank you, sir." Be it at the end of class, end of CCA training session, helping a student with an assigned task, or even signing a consent form- those simple words of appreciation give me a great sense of fulfilment.
The act of teaching in itself rejuvenates me no matter how tired or drained I feel during the week. Especially in Wushu, I may be drained by the day's events and work, but after training with the boys I often find that being involved with them helps me to recharge and rejuvenate as we share our common passion for martial arts and push ourselves as a team.
3. Relate an incident, an event or a response from a student, parent, colleague that is a defining moment, that makes teaching meaningful for you? When I first started teaching in VS, I was attached as AFT to Mdm Nabilah's class. Together, we mentored a student called Ho CP (I'm sure many of the older teachers will remember him :) Despite our best efforts from teachers and Mr Low (who was our VP then), Chong Poh eventually dropped out of school. It was a discouraging fact at that time. One day, the PE Department received a request from ITE regarding whether we could allow one of their students to do his attachment studies with us for their Sports Management Industrial Attachment. Guess who was the candidate? Yup, our ex-Victorian Ho CP.
It seems our efforts did sink it after all- they just took abit longer. CP had matured since we teachers last saw him and we were more than willing to help him in his endeavours in his new course. He performed admirably during his attachment and scored a distinction. He subsequently managed to qualify for a place in Republic Poly. When we spoke about his progress together, Mr Low mentioned that on a visit to Republic Poly, CP saw him and immediately move out to give Mr Low a big hug.
That simple hug sums up what being a teacher in VS is all about: Victoria School, we leave no one behind.
After close to 9 months of construction, our much awaited Indoor Sports Hall is finally up. Currently, only supervised activities are allowed in the hall as there is still some construction going on but PE lessons have started to use the hall already.
The structure of the hall has left us with a covered open-space where the old basketball court used to be and a multi-purpose playing area on the second level.
THe ground level open-space is currently line with synthetic flooring (courtesy of Mr Amir!) and boys are already making good use of it for futsal as well as other sports. We will be installing hoops and backboards soon, so basketballers please be patient and you'll soon be able to play there!. Here we see 4J having futsal during their PE lessons:
