5 January 2012 Dear Parents/Guardians, We welcome your sons/wards back to school. We especially welcome our Secondary 1 boys to our SJI Community. As you probably already know, SJI will be starting both the Integrated Programme (IP) for Secondary 1 and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) for JC 1 (or Year 5) next year in 2013. SJI will also be starting the IP for Secondary 3 in 2014. We’ll be arranging separate briefings on the latter programmes for parents who are interested to know more. We would like to update you on three significant changes that the school had made – teacher deployment, class grouping and talent development programmes. Teacher Deployment As far as our resources permit, teachers will now be teaching only one level instead of teaching 2 levels as in the past. This change in teacher deployment is to better support your sons/wards in their learning especially for the Secondary 2 students who are preparing to select their upper secondary subject combinations and Secondary 4 students who are preparing for their O-level examinations. As our teachers will not need to straddle between 2 levels, they can be more focused in their preparation for their lessons and will be better able to teach and attend to the learning needs of the individual students. Also, teachers at each level will be able to meet regularly to discuss the learning issues encountered and to collaborate with each other to find pedagogical solutions to these learning issues. Under the current system where they teach 2 levels, it is often not possible for them to meet easily. Often, the meetings held are generally a trade-off of 1 level against another level as the teachers could not be at two meetings concurrently. In making the changes in teacher deployment, please be assured that the education of your son/ward will not be compromised in any way. Grouping of Classes In order to enhance the learning experiences of our students and to ensure that the students get off to a good start in the New Year, Secondary 1 and Secondary 3 classes are no longer banded. Secondary 1 students are now grouped into 2 broad categories. The first category (2 classes) comprises students with PSLE T-scores of at least 250 and students who are in receipt of Gifted Education Programme funding from MOE. This category will have the opportunity to participate in the soft launched IP track curriculum. The second group (10 classes) comprises students with PSLE T-scores below 250. Classes in both categories are not banded but are mixed ability classes. Hence, there is no “first” or "last" class. However, please note that admission into the IP track at Secondary 3 in 2014 will be based on the merit of the school-based examinations and other criteria which will be announced at the Secondary 1 orientation briefing. As explained previously, students in the Secondary 3 classes will now be grouped according to subject combinations rather than by banding based on their Secondary 2 academic examination results. As we want your sons/wards do their best, this approach to grouping the students should encourage them to choose the subject combination according to their interests and post-secondary considerations rather than by prestige or perceived advantage of being in the best possible class academically. As popular subject combinations would have limited places, selection into these subject combinations would still be based on the merit of their Secondary 2 academic examination results. Talent Development Talent development for Secondary 1 and 3 students will be further enhanced with a new structure to provide for

greater flexibility and accessibility for students. With the implementation of mixed ability classes, talent development for these students will be carried out through in-class differentiated learning where appropriate, pullout talent classes, and special programmes such as ArtScience, Business Design Thinking and attachments at Research Institutes. Instead of the past practice of grouping secondary 1 and 3 students by particular talents in a class, students selected for talent development will pursue them in pull-out classes during one of two blocks of curriculum time set aside for students to pursue talent development, enrichment, or academic clinics. With this new structure, students from any of the classes talented in a specific area will have access to the programme. Secondary 1 students interested in talent development for Mathematics, English Language, Science, Computer Science, Arts will undergo a selection process in Term 1, and commence their pull-out talent classes in Term 2. Students selected for the Chinese Language talent programme will have an enriched curriculum during their Higher Chinese Language banded groups. Secondary 3 students who had undergone a selection process at the end of last year will be informed of the outcome in Week 2. The pull-out talent classes, which will be in Mathematics, Science and English Language, will commence in Week 3. For both Secondary 1 and 3 students not in the talent classes, there will be options for enrichment modules. Some students may also be selected to attend academic clinics later in the year in specific subjects for which they need more support. Further details of these programmes will be provided subsequently. Master Communication Calendar We have attached the master communication calendar for your level as a reference. This calendar provides the schedule for the communication between you and the school during the course of the year. In the event that you do not receive the scheduled communication, please do let the respective teacher know. As teachers are generally not at their desk because of teaching and CCA work, if you wish to contact any teacher, we prefer that you email the respective teacher instead of calling by telephone. The Form Teacher’s note to you would have provided the email addresses of all teachers teaching your son/ward. Also, you can find the email addresses of teachers on our website at http://www.sji.edu.sg. If it is an urgent matter, please call the General Office at 62500022 for assistance. As part of work-life balance for our teachers, please note that our school policy does not expect our teachers to give out their handphone numbers to parents or to communicate with parents on matters relating to your sons/wards during the weekends or after office hours. If you wish to give feedback directly to me, please email to [email protected] and not to my MOE email account or my NIE email account. We look forward to partnering you this year in the learning journey of your son/ward. Thank you.

Dr Koh Thiam Seng Principal

Communication Schedule for Secondary 1 Parents/Guardians for 2012 Type

Description

From

Class Updates

Electronic note providing information on developments in the class

Class Tutor

Level Updates

Electronic note providing school-based information on curriculum and level matters:

Head of Level

Letter for Sec 1 Oral Communication Programme (OCP)

Term 1 Week 3

CCA Schedule (for June)

Term 2 Week 5

Letter for Term 2 Parent-Teacher Meeting (PTM) – Tentatively scheduled on Friday, 25 May 12 (1230 – 1630 hrs)

Term 2 Week 8

Travel Declaration (for June break)

Term 2 Week 9

End-of-Year Adventure, Camp & Expedition (ACE) – Tentatively scheduled from Monday, 5 November 12 – Friday, 9 November 12

Term 3 Week 2

Schedule for Sec 1 End of Year Exams

Term 3 Week 5

CCA Schedule (for Nov/Dec)

Term 4 Week 3

Invitation to Donate / Advertise

Term 4 Week 6

Travel Declaration (for Nov / Dec break) in Josephian Annual

Term 4 Week 7

Booklist for Secondary 2

Term 4 Week 8

Letter on Edusave Awards for Independent Schools. General Updates General Updates

Expected Schedule Term 1 Week 3 Term 2 Week 2 Term 3 Week 2 Term 4 Week 1

Lumen - Bi-annual magazine featuring people and programmes at SJI SJI News - Electronic newsletter on events and key developments at SJI

Term 4 Week 8 SJI Corp Comms SJI Corp Comms

Term 3 Week 2 Term 4 Week 2 Monthly (except for June and December)

Notes: 1.

For updated information, please visit our SJI website at http://www.sji.edu.sg.

2.

As SJI aims to be a Green school, all the communication will be in the electronic form via email. For this year, SJI will continue to provide hardcopies of all communication through your sons/wards. From next year onwards, hardcopies of communication will be made available only upon request. Hence, it is important that you update any change in your email with the Head of Level so that you will be able to continue to receive communication from the school as scheduled.

3.

In the event if you do not receive the communication as scheduled above, please inform the respective source person so that you can be put back on the mailing list for the communication.