Guest of Honour

• Mr. Yap Meen Sheng
( Assistant Director/ Character Development & Uniformed Group Co-Curricular Activities Branch Ministry of Education )

• Mr. Masari Bin Minhad
( Member of the School Advisor Committee )

• Mrs. Choy Chee Chee Meh
( Former Principal of Marsiling Secondary School )

• Dr Maszenan Abdul Majid
( Vice-Chairman/Marsiling Citizen Consultative Committee )

• Dr. Gupta
( Lecturer/ School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering S’pore Polytechnic )

• Dr Tan Lay Pheng
( Manager (Extramural)/School of Applied Science Republic Polytechnic )

Distinguished Guests, Colleagues, Ladies & Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, Thank you for joining us on our Achievement Day! 2006 was another fruitful year for Marsiling Secondary School.

Academic Achievements

For the first time in 7 years, we were awarded Academic Value-added (Bronze) Award for the 2005 Sec 5 cohort. For the 2006 cohort, 195 students sat for the GCE N Level examinations.

For the N(A) stream, 72% of the students were promoted to Secondary 5 and 92% of the students passed 5 or more subjects. The top N(A) student is Zubaidah Bte Abdul Karim, who scored two Grade 1s, two Grade 2s and three Grade 3s.

In the N(T) stream, 99% of the students passed 3 or more subjects, while 68% passed 5 or more subjects. The top N(T) student is Wu Zhong Hua, who scored three Grade 1s and two Grade 2s.

For ‘O’ level, 154 Sec 4 Express and 63 Sec 5 Normal students sat for the examinations. Among the Sec 4 Express students, 77% passed 5 or more subjects. 64% were eligible for Pre-U courses and 90% were eligible for polytechnic courses.

Among the Sec 5 Normal students, 44% passed 5 or more subjects and 87% were eligible for polytechnic courses. The top Sec 4 Express student is Ker Anna who scored 7 distinctions. And the top Sec 5 Normal student is Huang Zhiming who scored 4 distinctions.

CCA Achievements

Another major achievement is the Sustained Achievement Award for Uniformed Groups. This is an award given to schools that achieved silver consistently in at least 2 Uniformed Groups for the past 3 years.
I am pleased to announce that our UGs continued to maintain these standards in 2006.

The other CCAs have also fared well in 2006/2007.
• Our B division soccer boys came in 3rd again this year.

The C division boys are still playing in the group matches and they have not lost a single match so far.
• SYF Central Judging Competitions (Visual Art) – 1 Silver and 2 Bronzes
• 2006 National Youth Scrabble Championship – 1st and 2nd in the Cup category.

We have also staged our first public concert – Mia Musica – in July last year. It allowed our students to showcase their talents and it was a great success.

Other Achievements

In addition, we were awarded the Green Audit (Lotus) Award for our efforts in environment education and conservation. This is the highest award in a 4-level structure.

We were also selected last year to be one of the 29 TLLM prototyping schools. Our prototype, called the Environment Education Module, attempts to investigate how an integrated curriculum can be customised to help students see the inter-connectedness between science and geography, thereby enhancing their learning experience.

MSL Star Award

Our school is committed to providing a holistic education for our students. We give equal importance to academic excellence and character development, and this is why we see the MSL Star Award as the highest level amongst all awards. Introduced last year, it is an award given to students who have achieved excellence in the areas of academic, service and leadership. For 2006, the recipients of the MSL Star Award are Tai Wei Li, Willy, Saw Wei Li and Azmi Bin Abdul Rahman.


New Strategic Thrusts and Values

Since the school started in 2000, we have worked relentlessly towards becoming an institution that excelled in nurturing world-ready citizens. The core values that we hold close to us, and the strategic thrusts that we have taken all these years, have served the staff and students well. However, to better respond to MOE’s direction in creating a diverse educational landscape, there is a need to re-look at these strategic thrusts.

For the next 5 years, we will be aligning our school programmes to 4 key thrusts, namely Enriching Curriculum, Character Development, Quality Relationship and Conducive Learning Environment.

In addition, we have also added two more core values – Care and Respect – to the existing five.

Our Focus for 2007

Last year’s focus was on curriculum innovation, which is about curriculum customisation, pedagogy and alternative assessment. The Environment Education Module and Current Affairs are some examples. This year, we will continue to improve on school-based innovations. We will also be setting up an Environment Education Centre to support our environment education curriculum. The centre will not only serve our students, but also those studying in schools in Woodlands/Marsiling area. We aim to be a Cluster Centre of Excellence in environment education by 2008.

Apart from curriculum innovation, our second focus this year is on character development, as we believe this is really what education is all about. Led by Mrs. Anshad, the HOD/Pupil Welfare, we will be implementing 4 school-wide approaches and 8 classroom practices in our Character Development framework.

Our People

Our school continues to be blessed by very good people. Without them, we will not be able to achieve the desired outcomes.

Staff
Our staff are committed to serving the students to their best ability. They motivate the students, help them set high standards and expectations, instill sound values and, very importantly, show care and concern for the students. It is very important for me to give recognition to my teachers and non-teaching staff for their commitment and dedication. Today, I will be presenting the 5-year service award to 12 staff. I would also like to congratulate 20 staff who were promoted in 2006.

Parents
The second group of people who are important to us are the parents in the parent support group. They contributed invaluable time, helping us raise funds for the needy students, and taking students out for Learning Journeys. Some of these parents stayed on even after their children have graduated from the school.
I would like to thank Mdm Namali for leading the PIE for the past 2 years, and Mdm Hajirah for taking over the role of chairperson.

VAL
I am also very grateful to our adult volunteers in the CCA groups. Many of them have served us for many years. During this prime time in their lives, they find meaning in contributing to moulding our future generation and I am glad that they have chosen to be of service to our school.
Today, we will be presenting tokens of appreciation to 34 parent volunteers and Voluntary Adult Leaders.

SAC
Last, and certainly not the least, are members of the School Advisory Committee. They continue to serve in the committee despite being very busy with their own work commitments. Mr. Lim Hock Chee, who is not able to join us today, will be receiving the Service to Education Award this year.

Conclusion

Concluding my speech, I would like to thank our GOH, Mr. Yap Meen Sheng, for gracing the occasion, I would also like to thank the SAC for sponsoring the prizes for Achievement Day.

Last but not least, I must thank all distinguished guests, parents and students for being with us, and all staff and students for making this event possible.

Finally, congratulations to all prize winners. You have made your mark! Thank you.