Good Stories
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Letter of Commendation from Parent
We were heartened to receive this letter of commendation for Tan Yi Rui, Clara Babe. We are proud of our student leader who demonstrated the spirit of service by going the extra mile.
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Use of Artificial Intelligence in D&T lessons in Peirce Secondary School
Please click here for the news link.
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Celebration and Reunion
We are thrilled to announce the outstanding achievement of our alumnus, Lee Ming Heng, who has been awarded the Book Prize for the Diploma in Banking and Finance at Singapore Polytechnic's Graduation Ceremony on 3 May 2023. His former teacher, Mr Ashwin Selvarajan, attended the ceremony to honor his success. It was a heartwarming moment of reunion and pride.
Well done, Ming Heng! We wish more successes in your journey ahead.
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Former student clinches NCSS Gold Medal at NYP
Shining Bright at Peirce and Beyond
Former Student Amalia Bte Ariffin recently graduated from Nanyang Polytechnic with the top honour of her course – NCSS Gold MedalThe care and compassion from the teachers at Peirce will always resonate with me. Ever ready to provide a listening ear and sage advice, they connected with sincerity, and it was this sincerity that inspired me to pursue social work.
A student who was all heart, Amalia graduated from Peirce in 2016 with numerous accolades to her name. Having been relentless in her academic pursuits, Amalia clinched the Edusave Scholarship Award for 3 consecutive years from 2013-2015.
With leadership opportunities being aplenty at Peirce, Amalia was not only an active member of the Student Council but thrived in her CCA- St John’s Brigade. She was bestowed the coveted title of Senior Staff Sergeant in 2016, the highest achievement at the secondary school level. With the guidance of her CCA teachers, she was awarded Best Unit Cadet Award as well as the Chief Commissioner’s Award in 2016. Apart from her academic and CCA achievements, the school recognized Amalia for her exemplary character and personal qualities and awarded her the Peirce Secondary Character Award in 2016.
Teachers who were blessed with her presence in class remember her fondly as an all-rounded young lady who displayed the passion to excel and care for others in all aspects of her school life. “Amalia went above and beyond what was required by the syllabus and was always keen to develop the skills for content mastery. She also willingly shared learning resources with her friends and never failed to help her classmates who were weaker”, Ms Khai, the HoD of Humanities, had this to share about Amalia. Mr Dennis Goh, the HoD of Mathematics, also had glowing words for her. “Apart from being a hardworking and exemplary student, Amalia was unrivaled in her ability to cultivate and maintain strong peer relationships.”
Amalia graduated from Peirce Secondary and went on to pursue the Diploma in Social Sciences (Social Work) at Nanyang Polytechnic. There, she was awarded the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) Gold Medal. Amalia is currently majoring in Social Work and minoring in Sociology at the National University of Singapore. Having developed a keen interest in youth advocacy, Amalia contributed a series of articles to non-profit organizations in hopes of reaching out to troubled youth. She also interned at Beyond Social Services and MSF’s Child Protective Service, where she continues to volunteer today.
I intend to become a social worker upon my graduation from university. If there is one thing I’ve taken away from my time at Peirce, it is the kindness and compassion my teachers have showered on me, and I want to be able to touch lives and pay this forward!
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Singapore Junior Chemistry Olympiad 2022: Igniting Passion in our Young Scientists
14 Secondary 4 students took part in 2022 Singapore Junior Chemistry Olympiad. This programme was mentally stimulating for the students, who rose up to the challenge and set the standard for future cohorts. Notably, Penghao not only qualified for Round 2 of the competition, but also garnered a Bronze medal. Congratulations to our fine ladies and gentlemen.
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“Love What You Teach, but Love Who You Teach More”… the rapport between teachers and students is key in nurturing budding learners.
Watch Peirce’s History and Social Studies Teacher and PAT recipient, Ms Khairiah, masquerade as a student using the latest text lingo in a gameshow, highlighting the strong connection teachers and students share nowadays.
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Words to Pack for your Journey
Our staff, Ms Khairiah Bte Hairoman, a recipient of the 2021 President's Award for Teachers, is featured in the video series by MOE, Words to Pack for your Journey.
In the video, Ms Khai encourages students who have been disappointed by their grades and, citing examples she has seen, assures them that life will unveil to them their strengths and talents. She also shares her personal journey in finding purpose in life.
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Staff Learning Day
This is the third year we are organising our bi-annual Staff Learning Day since its inception in 2019.
The theme for 2023 is “Nurturing Future-Ready Learners”
We believe that to nurture our students to be future-ready, we need to enhance their ability to adjust their own cognition and learning and one of the most effective ways to achieve this will be via the use of the feedback loop.
Be it self or peer feedback, feedback is one of the most important strategies of Formative Assessment, which emphasizes on giving students more autonomy to reflect on their learning, evaluate and make adjustment to their own learning. Thus, our Professional Learning Teams (PLTs) embarked on this journey to explore how to make use of self and/or peer assessment to strengthen students’ metacognition.
For 2023 Staff Learning Day, each department has selected one Professional Learning Team to present and share their learning during the two concurrent sessions. We are pleased to share the highlights of the concurrent sessions (see below). To affirm and celebrate the learning and efforts by all teams, all PLT synopses including those of the non-presenting teams, will be housed in our Staff Learning Portal. Indeed, this Staff Learning Day is a testimonial of the rich learning of our staff and their efforts in bringing the learning of students to a new level while leveraging on the use of feedback.
For keynote address, we have invited Dr Farhan Ali, Assistant Professor in the Learning Sciences and Assessment Academic Group, National Institute of Education to share his insights on the topic of Social Emotional Learning (SEL). In his talk, Dr Farhan Ali will highlight emerging research related to the science of social-emotional learning. One of the key highlights presented will be Dr Farhan’s integrated framework which involves emotion experiences, emotion awareness, emotion regulation, and meta-emotion. His presentation will also highlight some applications to the specific educational contexts such as the learning of content-heavy subjects of Mathematics and Science, Character and Citizenship Education, and promotion of self-directed learning.
We look forward to learn from Dr Farhan how to enhance the use of feedback in our teaching through knowledge of cognitive functions and self-directedness.
2023 Staff Learning Day promises to be a rich learning experience for us all!
Highlights of Concurrent Sessions:
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Biology: Using Success Criteria in the Feedback Cycle for Biology Planning Practical Task
Highlight: The Biology teachers designed a Learning Experience (LE) using the extended Feedback model that allow students to consider the relationship between these variables in diverse contexts, before transferring their knowledge to a given scenario in an assessment.
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Craft and Technology: Strategies to Promote Metacognition through Peer Assessment and Self Assessment
Highlight: Data captured in Padlet and Knowledge Forum were used to analyse C&T students’ thinking, how they learnt when they were involved in peer assessment to determine if peer assessment and scaffold had enhanced students’ metacognition.
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English Language: Examining Efficacy of Feedback Style for Summary Writing for Secondary 2 Express
Highlight: The inquiry method employed is a variant of confirmation inquiry which seeks to affirm the value of peer feedback as opposed to self- evaluation on refining the summary writing process. Each class is split into two, with one solely pursuing self-evaluation/feedback while the other engages in peer evaluation/feedback in assessing the style of summary writing. It employs a modified checklist based on a simplified version of the SEAB rubrics.
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History: The Use of Rubrics in the Feedback Cycle for Source-Based Case Study Purpose Skill for Secondary 3 History Students
Highlight: As students need to have clarity of what the SBQ skill entails, the History teachers allowed for peer and teacher feedback to have students to identify their gaps and monitor their understanding of the skill in this project. After which, students will adjust their own learning by using the rubrics and applying the learning from the feedback to check for understanding once more.
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Chinese Language: Enhance Secondary 1 Students’ Writing Skills through Peer Evaluation
Highlight: In groups, students collaboratively wrote draft 1 based on the writing skills required on Google Doc. After completing draft 1, the teacher got students to highlight sentences which demonstrate the required writing skills taught. The teacher then led the class to understand the checklist on using the required writing skills in the appropriate way (tone, suitability of situation and choice of words). Students then looked at another group’s essay to assess them on the use and suitability of writing skills, based on a simplified rubrics and checklist. Students then completed draft 2 based on peer feedback. This is a very guided process of using peer feedback for a group of very weak students which leads to positive outcome.
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Mathematics: Using Flowcharts for Self-Assessment to Build Metacognition
Highlight: The intentional use of flowcharts and self and/or peer assessment in the Feed up – Feedback – Feed forward cycle would encourage students to be actively involved in assessment feedback, thus developing their competence in monitoring, evaluating, and improving their own learning and enhancing their capacities for lifelong learning.
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Pathlight School:Understanding the Learning and Behavioural Needs of Students with ASD Informs Decisions on Classroom Strategies to Improve Their Overall Classroom Engagement
Highlight: The presentation provides actual classroom examples that have been developed with the understanding that Students with ASD have preferences and strengths we can leverage on to improve their engagement in the classroom. It has enabled us to deliver the MOE curriculum in our Mathematics and Science lessons, build our own efficacy to meet the needs of our students and more importantly, improve the students’ self-reflection and self-management. This in turn enables them to achieve their learning and behavioural goals.
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Physical Education: Using ICT in Physical Education (PE)
Highlight: It was observed that students tend to forget the teaching cue and were not able to execute the correct technical skills during practice. The large space in which PE is being taught poses a challenge for PE teachers to provide feedback to all students within a teaching period. By taping on feedback and Kolb’s Cycle of Experiential Learning, students could become more reflective learners who take ownership of improving their own technical skills.
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