2018 Secondary One Orientation

by Matthias Grant Sec 1C 2018

The Secondary One Orientation Programme officially started on the second day of school. When the programme started, we were greeted by an amicable trainer. He is passionate at what he does and inspired us to pursue the things we want to do. His upbeat character is what I admire most about him as he is able to engage us very well.

When we formed our respective groups as instructed, I could not recognise a single person around me. It was as if I was an alien and no one knew me and I did not know them. Each of us had to call out our names and the people who called their names before them. Since I was not born in Singapore, pronouncing Chinese names was difficult.

After getting to know the people in my group better, it was time to start the games. I was skeptical at first because I had never heard of them but I later on found the games to be engaging.

Our first game was to match the names and the pictures taken of the school. Since it was our first week in school, playing the game was complete mayhem. I could not seem to match any of the pictures. The pictures were peculiar and whatever I saw did not register in my mind. Everyone was screaming and running around to find the corresponding piece, playing Russian roulette with their answers.

Our second game was to form alphabets by standing in a certain formation. This game was the true definition of frustration. Figuring out where to stand was easy, but who should stand where was difficult, especially if you only had recently for to know your group members. They were a lot of people shouting at each other to stand at different places but we managed to finish the game.

I could see the dedication in my group members as they strived to do their best in the games.

Until that day, I thought nothing could beat me trying to set a high score in my usual video game. I got to learn interesting things about my group members and had the opportunity to experience the value of teamwork. As my mother would say, teamwork makes the dream work. I could foresee exciting days ahead in school with my classmates.

 

Applied Learning Programme – Critical Thinking and Effective Communication through Media Literacy

By Ang Wei Qian (Sec 2D 2016)

West Spring’s Applied Learning Programme encourages students to think critically and to communicate effectively using various media skills. Through workshops and lessons conducted, Secondary One and Two students are equipped with photography and videography skills. The students apply these in a project task where they created various media products showcasing the school values. Through this process, students are guided to make values-based choices about the information they create and share and learn how to convey a message through the creation of media products.

I learnt many things from my ALP enrichment courses in Secondary One and Two. In Secondary One, I went through a photography course where I learned the basics of photography and the keys to taking better photos. For the first few lessons, I learnt about how cameras work and to make sense of what that means in terms of choosing a camera to buy and how it affects your photographs. It was fascinating for me to see the different ways in which photographs can be composed. I discovered that a well-composed photograph is really a matter of opinion, but a good photograph can have a powerful impact, especially when there is message or idea you intend to convey. In Secondary Two, the videography course helped me to develop my ideas as we learned how to use storyboards to expand our ideas. It can be great fun to plan an entire shoot from start to finish. It teaches essential elements of video production like teamwork, thinking ahead, and good camera skills. Creating videos is a matter of resilience as well. Sometimes having thirty versions of a scene is more difficult than only having three as you’ll be digging through footage trying to piece things together.

 

An Extraordinary Aesthetics Experience

By Lim Wei (Sec 1B 2016)

The journey of putting up the performance for Aesthetics Week 2016 is quite memorable. It all started during the month of May; I volunteered myself to be one of the guitarists for the performance. I started to learn to play the guitar as fast as I could by memorising all the different chords. On 12^th July 2016, everyone had a gleam of hope in their eyes that all our hard work would pay off. Fortunately, everything went very well which ensured everyone in school could have the best possible performance from us! Hopefully, everyone enjoyed the performance put up by my peers and me. Other than the music performances put up by the various levels, there were also art fringe activities happening around school in that same week. Our class had the chance to view the art pieces done by our seniors that were on display at the general office. I felt that this opportunity to be part of a performance was a very pleasant one and if another opportunity like this one appears again the future, I would definitely participate.