Reflections 2022

2022 Reflections

TANGLIN MISSION

Tanglin Trust School in Singapore has a long tradition of providing British-based learning with an international perspective.

At Tanglin we strive to make every individual feel valued, happy and successful. Responsibility, enthusiasm and participation are actively encouraged, and integrity is prized. Working together in a safe, caring yet stimulating environment, we set high expectations whilst offering strong support, resulting in a community of lifelong learners who can contribute with confidence to our world.

TANGLIN VISION STATEMENT

We aspire to be the best school in the world with a dynamic learning community which nurtures and inspires every individual to be the best they can be.

Foreword

Craig Considine, CEO

This edition of Reflections is designed to report on the excellent work taking place at Tanglin Trust through the 2021/22 academic year. This has been shaped by the second year of the COVID pandemic, which impacted the school significantly.

In stating this, I would like to acknowledge and thank the faculty and business staff at Tanglin. My colleagues have been nothing short of amazing in ensuring that students have been supported, nurtured and appropriately challenged. This has been critical in a world where physical, emotional and mental wellbeing have been threatened by the impositions of various restrictions.

ONE SCHOOL, EXCITING FUTURES

The school undertook several initiatives in 2019 in framing the One School, Exciting Futures strategic plan. Significant dialogue and consideration took place to identify key areas for development. Some of our larger strategic goals were achieved, while a number were impacted by restrictions. The plan was due for review at the end of 2021 but given two years of disruption, it felt prudent to expend a little more time addressing some of our goals.

100 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE

We have now had the opportunity to review our plan, and are thrilled to have developed a revised plan entitled 100 Years of Excellence. This strategic framework incorporates the thematic approach to key areas of school life and a number of special school projects. The plan is summarised in the Tanglin Palm on the facing page. The palm represents our values at the root (Respect, Responsibility, Purpose) and our key strategic themes and special projects on the fronds.

The key strategic themes have been:

• Inspired Learners

• Flourishing Individuals

• Personal Best

• Team Tanglin

• Sustainable Future

• Our People.

Significant achievements have occurred in each of these areas. In keeping with the school's focus on being one school, three whole school committees have operated to support our aspirations. The academic, pastoral and co-curricular committees coordinate cross-school approaches to develop Inspired Learners, Flourishing Individuals and Personal Best. Reports on each of our key strategic themes and the whole school committees are part of this document. This clear focus has allowed us to develop each key element of school life.

SPECIAL PROJECTS 2022-25

As 2021/22 progressed, several themes became more apparent and special projects have been developed to ensure that appropriate resources and focus are in place in the years ahead. These Special Projects are being led by members of our teaching and business teams. With the support of the management team, our colleagues ensure coordination across the three schools and our business teams to align the understanding and experience of our students and broader school community.

100 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE

These Special Projects have been written about by my colleagues later in this edition of Reflections. They include:

• Team Tanglin

• Digital First

• Sustainability

• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ)

• The Institute

• 100 Years of Excellence

SCHOOL AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT PLANS

Outstanding progress through the whole school committees occurs in partnership with the Heads of School. The three Tanglin schools have been brilliantly led by Allan Forbes, Clair Harrington-Wilcox and Paula Craigie. In this document, the Heads have provided an overview of the year. These amazing educational leaders have been wholehearted in their leadership of their staff and students. Insight and wisdom have been required in heavy measure through the pandemic and it is comforting to know our schools have been in such safe hands.

School Development Plans are important aspirational tools that allow our talented teachers the opportunity to propose and implement various

programmes for our students. Heads of School have reported key developments and achievements in their reviews. Some examples of these included:

• Development of the Middle School, Upper School and Sixth Form

• Creating focused leadership of pastoral, academic and co-curricular matters

• Expansion of the co-curricular programme in the Junior School

• Emergence of the Forest School in the Infant School, which reinforces how much the environment and joy of play contribute to each child's 'sense-making' of the natural world.

The fourth wheel of the Tanglin vehicle is the leadership of the Tanglin business. Ling Guan Heng is our CFO/COO and he leads a talented team of professionals to manage the financial, technological, and logistical elements of Tanglin. Though this exceptional team acts proactively, the school business also needs to be reactive to Government legislation and guidance, and we appreciate this. Mr Ling has outlined this in the coming pages.

Reflections 2022 reports on key achievements. These will be built upon in years to come and we look forward to reporting our progress on our key strategic themes and projects.

The Centenary Building & Masterplan

Craig Considine, CEO

The Tanglin Centenary Building has been a significant plank in the school strategy. The name of the building is a giveaway—Governors wanted to ensure outstanding facilities that would complement our aspirations for excellence were in place as the school moves toward its Centenary in 2025. Completion of the Centenary Building will occur by the end of 2022 and the official opening will take place in January 2023.

IMPRESSIVE FACILITIES

The roll call of facilities is impressive, but it must be remembered that they are designed to achieve the school's strategic vision of a Tanglin education. They provide possibilities that underpin the holistic education that Tanglin is so well known for. The sub-text around the initial thinking about the Centenary Building was to ensure mind, body and spirit were at the heart of the school ecosystem. Gymnastics and swimming support development of fundamental movement skills and provide opportunities to aspire for excellence; the music school offers engagement in shared music making; the Institute creates a focus on scholarship, inquiry, and partnerships; and the lifeskills, counselling, parent café and co-working spaces support individual wellbeing and community connection. These opportunities combined with the human factor the school is known for, provide an education much greater than the sum of its parts.

The first Centenary Arts Trail installation will occur in January 2023 with Victor Tan’s ‘brain’ sculpture being positioned in the atrium of the Centenary Building. This provides the awe and wonder that great art has the capacity to evoke.

UPPER SCHOOL COMMON ROOM

Young people need the opportunity to engage to create friendships, to manage themselves and their own spaces on the journey towards independence. Feeling part of something, creating connections and a clear sense of purpose is a critical part of their lives. Students in Year 10 and 11 are becoming young adults and need to be inducted into a way of working that allows them to assume greater responsibility for themselves. We want to create a mix of social and work space in a safe environment. The shifting of the music department to the Centenary Building results in available space for the new Upper School Common Room, which is expected to be completed by August 2023. The Head of Upper School, Heads of Year 10 and 11 will all be based in this common space, allowing easy access for students and parents.

A NEW SPACE FOR SENIOR DRAMA

The movement of the gymnastics centre to the Centenary Building brings the benefit of releasing a perfect space in the Nixon Building for a new Senior School drama department. The current Senior School drama students have classes in the Junior School and the studios are tired-looking. The new facilities will include three drama studios, a dance/drama studio, offices for

staff and changing facilities for students. This is much needed to support the very popular drama programme. It will also, because of its relative proximity to the Moot (on Level 5), lead to more productions being undertaken in this space. Drama is undertaken by all students at Year 7 and 8, becomes an option at Year 9 and leads to Theatre Studies at GCSE and A level.

JUNIOR ARTS CENTRE

Senior drama moving to the Nixon Building will allow for expansion and redevelopment of spaces for art, music, drama and dance in the Junior School. This is an exciting opportunity. The arts are flourishing at Tanglin; enhancing these facilities will enrich each student’s classroom and co-curricular experience of this creative engine room.

There are many areas of the school infrastructure that require maintenance and refurbishment on a cyclical basis. The Operations team manage this process with great professionalism. Thank you to Brian Teng, Director of Operations and his very talented team.

The Business Team

Ling Guan Heng, COO/CFO

The Business Team at Tanglin Trust School comprises Finance, Admissions, Human Resources, Operations, Central Procurement, Corporate Legal, Technology, Transport and Food Services. This is to build an efficient and effective business infrastructure to support each section of the school (Infant, Junior and Senior) in delivering a world-class education for our students.

The disruption caused by COVID-19 pandemic continued to pose a great challenge to the Business Team in FY 2021/22. COVID-19 restrictions, manpower shortages, construction delays, inflationary pressure and supply chain disruptions were several difficulties we faced. However, these did not dampen our team spirit and resilience. We continued to do our best and are pleased to report that the business team had a very successful year in FY 2021/22.

FINANCE

• KPMG issued an unmodified audit report for the statutory audit for FY 2020/21 with no audit points.

• Financial performance continued to be strong mainly due to healthy student enrolment and the ability to manage our costs through budgetary controls. We achieved a surplus of $3.9 million against the budget for FY 2021/22.

• Secured Finance and Risk Committee and Board of Governors’ approval for Budget FY 2022/23 which included a detailed 3-year financial analysis of costs structure and fees as well as cash flow projection to Year 2038.

• Completed Internal Audit for Receivables/Billings and Payables/ Procurement conducted by Ernst & Young.

• Strict budgetary control over the construction of the Tanglin Centenary Building is expected to achieve a surplus of $500,000 against the project budget, despite the inflationary pressure in the construction industry during the last three years.

ADMISSIONS

• Achieved a healthy student roll of 2820 for FY 2021/22 despite uncertainties in the external environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Implemented a new admissions policy where new applicants are assessed in the year prior to the academic year of desired entry by the Heads of Schools and Head of Admissions. We no longer admit students based on the wait lists but through our selection process which is designed to identify prospective students who will benefit from our balanced and well-rounded education and will make a positive contribution to the school community.

• Planned launch of Open Apply, an online applications platform at the end of August 2022 to facilitate ease of application for prospective parents and streamline work processes.

HUMAN RESOURCES

• Implemented strategic recruitment plan through targeted recruitment using Times Educational Services and LinkedIn to attract and recruit teachers from diverse backgrounds. The objective is to attract the best possible candidates through

effective employer branding and candidate relationship management. Key appointments recruited during the year include Head of Senior School, Director of Pastoral Care, Deputy and Assistant Heads for Junior and Senior schools, Director of People and Director of Technology.

• Reviewed manpower requirements to support the whole school strategic plan in FY 2022/23, taking into account the opening of the Tanglin Centenary Building and school activities reverting to normalcy following the pandemic.

• Embedded new Faculty Staff Remuneration structure to ensure Tanglin remains competitive in the market.

• Other notable projects undertaken included:

» Renewal of Medical Insurance

» Onboarding of 51 new faculty staff in August 2022

» Additional housing allowance for faculty in response to escalating rental rates in Singapore.

OPERATIONS

• The development of the Tanglin Centenary Building has been severely disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic over the last two years but good progress has been made on the construction since the lifting of the COVID-19 restrictions. We are confident that the building will be completed by the end of December 2022.

• During the year, the school invested a sizable c. $2 million in new and upgrading existing facilities. Notable projects completed during the year included:

» Vinyl flooring for the whole of Infant School, Level 1 to 4

» Infant School Library

» The extension of Design & Technology workshop at Senior School

» Painting works for the entire campus to prepare for BSO inspection in November 2022.

TECHNOLOGY

• Investment in technology continues to be a core focus in building a digital ecosystem for Tanglin. During the year, we committed c. $1 million in equipping staff and students across the entire school with Macbooks, iPads, Chromebooks, Microsoft tablets and desktops as well as student iPads for Year 6 to facilitate connectivity and learning in classrooms.

• Strengthened cybersecurity infrastructure to keep everyone safe in cyberspace through the implementation of 2-factor authentication, improvement in Microsoft 365 security profile and quarterly cybersecurity reviews with consultants.

• Launched the “Going Home Arrangement” page for Infant and Junior schools to enhance child safeguarding.

CORPORATE LEGAL

• Managed the data breach incident of February 2022 and obtained a "No further action" from Personal Data Protection Commission. We have tightened controls and implemented training programmes to enhance the data security environment across the school.

• Completed due diligence review for a possible Year 9 residential programme.

• Provided legal review and advisory support for the whole school. Key areas include data protection, workplace safety & health, and child safeguarding.

CENTRAL PROCUREMENT

• Cost management is achieved through strict adherence to our procurement policy and tender process. During the year, a total of c.1,300 purchase orders valued at $15 million were processed. We achieved cost savings of $860,000.

• Major tenders included:

» Bus Transport Services

» Renewal of Campus Security contract

» Appointment of new broker & renewal of general Insurance policies

• Completed Internal Audit for Procurement and Payables.

• Delivered bulk orders for the start of the new school year FY 2022/23 for Infant and Junior schools.

TRANSPORT

• Completed the bus tender, which resulted in the contractor obtaining a 3+2 contract to provide students and staff with transport services commencing August 2022.

• Launched KAL’s bus application to improve the passenger tracking system

FOOD SERVICES

• Facilitated the smooth exit of the incumbent caterer and guided the new caterer through a challenging period with significant changes to their remit.

• Implemented the refurbishment plan for the Senior Canteen (Level 2 and Level 3, Nixon Building), Junior Canteen and M Café in line with curriculum and school ethos.

With Singapore transitioning from the pandemic to the endemic phase, the Business Team is optimistic of another good year and has already embarked on our business plan for 2023/24. The key highlights include the grand opening of the Tanglin Centenary Building and continued emphasis on steering business practices towards sustainability.

Team Tanglin

Shakila Samuel, Head of Community Relations

Tanglin has always been a community school. It was established by Ms Griffith Jones to serve the expatriate community of Singapore and was initially based out of the Tanglin Club. This created a tremendous network of people who were living away from home but wanted to educate their children in Singapore. Times have changed and the demographic of the Tanglin Trust community has modified and now more closely reflects that of Singapore.

Though the community was fragmented between 2019 and 2021, we are now driving to re-establish the richness of personal interaction that defines all communities. When schools were able to reopen in Singapore in March 2022, a significant effort was made to bridge the gap between the barren event landscape and what one would normally expect in a dynamic and vibrant institution such as Tanglin. Student performances, music ensembles, House and year group sporting activities, parent events and a cocktail event for Friends of Tanglin at the British Club all engaged our families and students.

HOUSE SYSTEM

A tangible expression of our desire to be a united Team was the development of our cross-school House system. The eight Houses represent elements and eras of Tanglin history and the students have enjoyed creating their connections to House and family histories. This cross-school connection is another way we are bringing our community together. The pandemic limited what we could do as a whole school community, but we look forward

to the establishment of routines built on the past but looking forward enthusiastically to the future and the emergence of a stronger, fit for purpose Team Tanglin.

STAFF AND PARENT CONTRIBUTION

Staff contribution was brilliant, and thanks should be extended to all members of the faculty and business staff who gave so much of their time in the last term. Thanks to Cecilia Handel, Director of Development, who with her team, managed parent engagement through the Friends of Tanglin. Warm heartfelt thanks also go to parents who volunteered as class representatives throughout the year, many of whom found creative solutions to engage with parents and children in their classes by hosting in small “bubbles” or online parties! Special recognition go to volunteers who supported Friends of Tanglin in delivering some of our key community traditions, despite COVID restrictions, namely the Christmas $10 Shoppe in Term 1, and the second-hand Book and Toy Stall and Tea Shoppe in Term 3. These events simply could not have happened without their support.

RECONNECTING WITH OUR COMMUNITY

We all make our own decisions about how we engage with school at various points through our children's journey. In 2022/23, we want to reconnect to rebuild our community and we hope parents can participate in as many school events as possible. This can only make the bonds that make us Team Tanglin stronger. Just as our physical muscles thrive on regular use and exercise, so do our interpersonal interactions. We know all members of the community will welcome those new to the school. Collectively, we can create fertile ground to grow our Team Tanglin with strong, deep roots that allow us to be steadfast in the face of any future adversity.

Peng Lee, Director of Technology

The emergence of digital solutions for many elements of our lives has created new opportunities within education. Even before COVID, our lives were driven by digital requirements at work, socially and at school. Trying to develop and create an ecosystem that utilises technology to engage our community is a key strategic priority.

DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM

Tanglin utilises a range of software systems to manage day-today activities. Key to this is our School Information Management System (iSAMS), which gathers our data to provide information for appropriate users to communicate internally and within the school community, store student data pertaining to progress and create reports that keep parents aware of each student’s progress. SOCS has more recently also become prominent in acting as our central tool in administering our co-curricular programme and the school calendar. Like many schools however, Tanglin has been grappling with various legacy systems. We are currently consolidating these and migrating various systems to the Cloud.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Digital Transformation across industries has resulted in a new environment that brings challenges. Tanglin considers parent expectations when assessing how elements of our programme should develop. We are redefining the way we store and optimise data, how we manage increased digital and cyber risks, ensure good data governance, and how we ensure our teachers and business executives are trained for their future. This also requires compliance with various legislative requirements. By way of example, all staff are undertaking PDPA training to ensure we understand how to manage personal data appropriately.

EDUCATION POST COVID

The COVID pandemic created a new way of working for teachers. This was very challenging in the early days. Our capacity to teach online has been considered and enhanced with a focus on pedagogical principles associated with online and hybrid learning.

Our preference is for classes to take place face to face. Teaching is a people business; but there are ‘COVID keepers’, such as virtual parent-teacher meetings that can be retained. This is not always true for everyone, nor every child, but it is an option that can create engagement while recognising that people lead extremely busy lives.

More than anything, understanding how technology can augment decision making is critical. Dashboards provide our teachers with real time data that allow evidence-based decisions to be made about students. This ensures that adults working with students are aware of their progress in different domains of learning and development.

COMMUNITY

In the early part of 2022/23, we will be developing a robust strategy around the use of digital tools to understand our community better.

Technology for Learning Roadmap

Gathering data from stakeholders will help us to be responsive to parent needs, ensure sustainable data implementation and help our planning around how we can provide an even better education for all of our students.

CYBERSECURITY

Cybersecurity has been a key priority at Tanglin. We are working with consultants, Control Risks, to understand the threats we are facing today and in the future. Business email compromise, ransomware and advanced persistent threats require understanding and planning. Staff receive training to equip and familiarise them with the knowledge to defend against cyber threats and protect our school.

SOCIAL MEDIA

We monitor digital engagement across social media platforms. This helps us communicate elements of school life and measure how well they are amplified on various platforms.

Chin

Sustainability

John Ridley, Director of Learning

There has been tremendous support for the Sustainability strategic project from all areas of the school. The project kicked off in February 2022 with a working group of 30 staff members, representing school faculty as well as business departments, including Operations, Procurement and the Corporate Secretariat. We were able to hold our second meeting in May in-person and welcomed a newly elected member from the Sixth Form student Head Team to the group, to represent the student body.

Tanglin has much to be proud of in the way that it has promoted environmental responsibility and sustainable practices in the past - a big part of which was devoted to ‘greenifying’ our campus through various initiatives implemented in our infrastructure, facilities and housekeeping. Some examples included:

• Solar panel installation: The solar panels installed at the West Wing Building harvested enough solar energy to provide about 15% reduction in the electricity consumption on good sunny days.

• New light fittings: Conversion of old light fittings in locations such as the Sixth Form College Senior Library and West Wing Level 4 Exam Hall helped us achieve average energy savings of 61.76%.

• Motion Detectors: These were installed in all accessible toilets in Infant School, Junior School, Senior School, Sixth Form College, Nixon Building as well as staircases in the Nixon Building and Junior School. When lights are not left on, it helps us save 50% of energy used.

• Power and Water Consumption Metering and Monitoring: Power and water consumption are taken on a monthly basis for each building so we can monitor the usage to detect unusual energy leakage or consumption, if necessary.

• Intelligent Touch Manager: We also put in a central control system that automatically turns off the air conditioning at scheduled times. This helped us achieve 5% in energy savings.

• Centralised Waste Bin and Recycling Bin in Offices: Individual refuse bins at each workstation have been replaced with a centralised waste bin; resulting in an immediate reduction in the use of plastic bin liners and waste bins. Staff are also encouraged to recycle more with the convenience of a central recycling bin next to the central waste bin.

However, the climate emergency that faces our planet leaves no room for complacency. We are committed to being a role model organisation, both in terms of our education programme and our business processes. Our students must be sustainability literate and we must consider the environment in all our business decisions. Inspired by the approach of the Ministry of Education in Singapore, the working group has adopted a ‘4-C’s’ model to frame our Sustainability action plan:

• Culture – Promoting daily habits, routines and policies that support sustainability

• Curriculum – Enhancing the teaching and learning of sustainability

• Campus – Enhancing the sustainable features of the campus; the campus as a living laboratory for sustainability education

• Community – Maintaining and extending outreach and service opportunities; connecting with innovative businesses and institutions

A draft action plan has been drawn up under these headings and will be further developed and driven by sub-committees focusing on each area. Immediate priorities for 2022-23 include:

• Co-ordinated campaigns to encourage a culture of responsibility on campus, particularly around aircon use, food choices and printing

• A curriculum audit to map coverage of sustainability issues, with new units developed in Science and Humanities within Tanglin’s 3-14 Curriculum

• Restricting the range of temperature settings on air conditioning controls and ensuring that event owners consider the cost of cooling spaces for events

• Establishing baseline measurements of consumption, including for electricity, water and paper

• Continuing to participate in the Singapore Schools Green Awards and enrolling in the WWF Eco Schools programme.

Through The Institute as well as engaging with expertise in the parent and One North communities, we aim to learn more about sustainability issues and innovative solutions. We are very excited that Sustainability has been identified as a whole school priority in the new Strategic Plan. In the first meeting of the working group, it was very clear that our overriding aim is to establish a shared understanding and a shared sense of purpose, as the whole Tanglin Community works towards creating a sustainable future.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ)

Josephine Allen, Head of English Faculty

2021-22 saw a renewed focus on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) at Tanglin Trust School. 17 staff from across the Infant, Junior, Senior schools and Business team completed a 7-month long DEIJ training course with the consultant Angie Browne. This explored DEIJ through the lens of the protected characteristics including race, disability, sex and religion. We looked at current research and best practices around providing for these characteristics in schools, and began to explore actions that Tanglin might take to make our school more inclusive for all. These include training for staff, curriculum changes and ensuring the physical environment is accessible.

Alongside this training, a wide range of initiatives supporting DEIJ have taken place across the schools and business team. DEIJ is being audited across the curriculum in the entire school and continues to be a focus. The Junior School decided to focus on raising awareness about race and racism. They held whole staff training on the protected characteristics of race and delivered a very successful Respecting Race Week in May with assemblies and lessons for all students.

The Infant school has been reviewing its physical environment and replenishing its teaching resources to include a wide range of cultures and experiences, including dolls of different races and colouring pens that cover a range of skin tones. Senior School had a whole school focus on neurodiversity last year and have held a number of student focus groups to bring the voices of our young people into the conversation. Finally, the business team has been focusing on women’s health. Dr June Tan Sheren, from Osler Health, visited Tanglin to give a talk on menopause and HRT. Staff and parents were invited to the discussion.

Towards the end of the year, we conducted a whole staff survey in partnership with the provider Edurio to find out more about the experiences and perspectives of staff around DEIJ. We will be using this feedback to plan further training and actions. We will also continue to seek student voice across the school and have a member of the Year 13 Head Team working alongside the DEIJ committee in order to develop student leadership in this area.

We hope that 2022-23 will see exciting developments for DEIJ at Tanglin Trust School. We kicked off this year with a whole staff INSET session and shared our school statement on DEIJ during Term 1. The audit of the curriculum across the schools will help ensure that a wide range of experiences and identities are covered in the students’ learning. This will include a review of how we celebrate a range of religious festivals observed in our school community and how we deliver religious education. As the year continues, we look forward to presenting our progress through parent workshops and hope to see lots of interested members of our community there.

DEIJ committee

The Institute

Sohini Brandon-King, Director of Scholarship, Inquiry and Partnerships

The Institute at Tanglin has started well. In Term 3 the Institute Working Committee was formed, comprising Tanglin faculty and staff. We have also formed an Institute Advisory Group, made up of Tanglin parents with a wealth of experience in various business, corporate and professional settings who have provided critical guidance on vision, strategy, and possible directions.

Based on consultations with these groups and other stakeholders, we have agreed a vision for the Institute – a forum that inspires, challenges and prepares the next generation of leaders in our community, by promoting excellence, providing thought leadership, and encouraging discourse. We have outlined below our current direction and how we plan to deliver this vision:

SCHOLARSHIP

Creating more opportunities for faculty and student research projects, providing a platform to present and discuss research with experts from academia and industry, nurturing greater in-depth study.

INQUIRY

Providing opportunities outside the classroom to develop skills, capabilities, and interdisciplinary thinking through greater hands-on learning with external experts/practitioners e.g., entrepreneurship projects, mentorship, workshops, and collaborations. The goal is to challenge and develop students’ experience, allowing them to build their own networks, pursue their interests and enhance their preparation for future challenges in university while broadening their perspective on possible career paths.

PARTNERSHIPS

External collaborations with corporate, government and educational entities in the delivery of Institute programmes. Other than benefits to our students, these collaborations will aim to engage the wider Tanglin and Singapore community and position Tanglin as a centre for discourse and thought leadership on topics and issues that will impact the future of jobs and education.

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP AND EXCELLENCE

Engaging inspiring individuals and organisations across a range of expertise to challenge and expand our thinking across our strategic themes and inspire discourse and learning in and outside of the classroom across a range of subjects and interests.

WORK IN PROGRESS

In 2022/23 we have a number of plans. In Term 1:

Institute Speaker David Faulkner, MBE: Leadership and Excellence

David is an Olympic Gold Medallist in Hockey (Seoul 1988) and an expert in leadership and management in high performance organisations. He will deliver a series of talks and discussions on managing high performance teams/individuals in schools, how we address the cultural challenges around diversity and inclusion and wellbeing, and on nurturing potential and excellence from the perspective of parents, students, and educators.

Faculty research forum

Titled ‘Research into Practice,’ the Faculty research forum plans to engage a keynote speaker from R&D in the consumer goods industry to inspire our thinking on what ‘R&D’ means for education, followed by faculty research presentations. The audience will include Tanglin and other international schools' faculties, providing a forum for sharing best practices and networking.

Student research and entrepreneurship projects

The Institute Working group is planning a student ‘research night,’ during which students would present and discuss the top student projects across curricular and other external competitions with expert practitioners on the topics presented. We are also exploring student programmes focused on entrepreneurial skills in collaboration with corporates specialising in venture capital and design thinking.

100 Years Of Excellence

Cecilia Handel, Director of Development

Tanglin’s story began in 1925 when five students stepped onto the grounds of a new school on the site of the Tanglin Club in Singapore. It was founded by Anne Griffiths-Jones OBE with the aim of providing a quality education for the children of expatriate families. Although it was closed during World War II due to the Japanese occupation of Singapore, “Miss Griff” - who was herself interned by occupying forces - ensured that its name endured.

To celebrate its legacy and heritage, a passionate team of Tanglin staff and students came together in 2021/22 to begin planning for Tanglin’s Centenary celebrations in the 2024/25 academic year. There are three key areas to the T100 project:

CELEBRATING THE LEGACY OF THE PAST 100 YEARS

Some of its key historic highlights included:

• 1925: Tanglin school founded by Anne Griffiths-Jones OBE.

• 1954: Raeburn Park (Singapore Harbour Board School) opened.

• 1960-61: Tanglin School moved to Matheran at Tanglin Road and was renamed the Tanglin Preparatory School.

• 1971: A third school (Weyhill Preparatory School) opened at Portsdown Road.

• 1976: Winchester School (a Nursery unit) was opened at Alexandra Park.

• 1981: Tanglin Preparatory, Raeburn Park and Weyhill amalgamated to form Tanglin Infant School and Tanglin Junior School at Portsdown Road.

• 1994: The school formally named Tanglin Trust School, and its first CEO, Ronald Stones, was appointed.

• 1996: Tanglin Senior School opened.

• 2009: Sixth Form introduced the International Baccalaureate Diploma, alongside A-Levels, creating a dual pathway for students.

• 2015: School celebrated its 90th Anniversary (T90)

CELEBRATING EVENTS DURING THE CENTENARY YEAR

The team will coordinate the curation of Tanglin’s history so that it can be shared and celebrated during the Centenary Year. The Centenary year will feature several large events that will be an opportunity to showcase student accomplishments and celebrate as a community. Some of these require a long lead in time particularly those that we hope will take place at significant venues around Singapore.

CREATING A LEGACY FOR THE NEXT 100 YEARS THROUGH THE CENTENNIAL ARTS PROJECT

An Arts Advisory Group that was formed during the academic year is also steering the Centennial Arts Project, which will focus on

creating a long-lasting arts legacy for the years to come. This project was launched in 2021/22 with the commission of "The Brain", an artwork by Singaporean artist Victor Tan.

The Brain is the first of a series of commissions of visual and performance artworks to take place over the next decade. The theme will be focused around Respect, Responsibility, and Purpose - Tanglin’s core values that are relevant for both future and past generations. Awarded artists like Victor, who are selected for the Centennial Arts Project, will commit to including students in the artistic process of creating a significant work that’s aligned with the theme, context, location.

Victor’s artwork will be installed shortly after the Centenary Building opens - a new building that will include several new world-class facilities such as a 50m swimming pool, Gymnastics Centre, and The Institute.

The Brain by Victor Tan

2015: 90th Anniversary

Infant School

Paula Craigie, Head of Infant School

YEAR OF REFLECTION

As we are finally coming out of the pandemic, this year has been a year of reflection for me. A time to celebrate our successes, our resilience, and our commitment to continue being innovative and focused despite the challenges faced. It is also a time to look forward and consider some ‘covid keepers’ – believe it or not!

One of the biggest successes that was accelerated due to the pandemic was the launch of our Forest School programme. We looked inwards at training key colleagues to enhance our outdoor education programme as we were unable to leave the school gates. Vanessa McCormack worked tirelessly to achieve her Level 3 qualification as did Peter Ayompe who supported our application for TTS Foundation funds to develop our onsite Forest School area. Our Nursery children have been captivated by this new exploratory approach to learning. We also fully launched our new 3-14 curriculum, bringing the three schools even closer together as our Milestones firmly linked learning between the Infant, Junior and Senior Schools. The curriculum has never been more relevant, aspirational or appropriate to our context, community, values and mission. It is firmly based upon contemporary educational research and cognitive science, mapped carefully to ensure that every individual child continues to flourish both at school and in life, whilst retaining the magic that is a Tanglin education hallmark, with its joyful wonder and exceptional experiences. Alongside the curriculum, we have listened to parents and reviewed our reporting and parent teacher conference schedule to ensure that they are more closely connected and more frequent, with an added conference in Term 3. The reports are also now of a consistent design and linked to our new whole school assessment terminology from 3-14, to match the new curriculum, making them more easily understood by parents as they move between the three schools.

Parent Teacher Conferences (PTCs) is another aspect we had to do differently during the pandemic. A ‘covid keeper’ for us is that parents will continue to sign up for their own appointments with the option to stay online or come in to meet teachers, depending on parent preferences. We have introduced the mid-year report for Reception (Year 1 and 2 have had this report for a number of years) and we are introducing a third PTC for all year groups in Term 3.

As part of the pandemic restrictions (bubbles of 2 and very limited interactions), we really had to look at our approaches to learning and

every aspect of our pedagogy differently. This included play spaces and another of our ‘covid keepers’ is the introduction of a quieter space at break times. Children can spend time in the foyer near the Curran Hall exploring technology with BeeBots, building models with construction toys or choosing from a selection of books. They can get creative with small world toys or practise their hand-eye coordination by attempting to get the ball on a string into the cup or solve mini puzzles. Many children have also enjoyed writing or drawing on the whiteboards, paper or interactive TV available in this comfortable space. Another development was for Reception who will be keeping the 4 classes accessing the EYFS playground and all it has to offer, rather than returning to all 8 classes playing together.

Carpets are finally back in Infant classrooms, goodness how we missed these for cosy story sessions or whole class inputs and circle times! Children can also now learn collaboratively in small groups, and these can be mixed up throughout the course of the day, allowing children to develop wider friendships. We are slowly returning to the pedagogy we are so proud of.

We are also finally welcoming parents back on site. At the time of writing, we have had Year 2 parents in to celebrate the end of Term 1 with class assemblies, and Year 1 parents in to watch The Snail and the Whale. In Term 3, we have had Reception concerts ‘Giraffes Can’t Dance’, Sports Days for Nursery, and Year 1 and Year 2 Graduation. Parents can also drop off in person once more; it has been so wonderful seeing familiar faces around and about as this is what it means to be part of our community. Parent volunteers to support with library, reading, special days and events, have also been back in the diary.

Transitioning to the next year group is an important element of Term 3. This year we have returned to our pre-Covid approach and children have spent time visiting their new classes and spending time getting to explore the year group units. The Year 2 transition has been particularly detailed and involved assemblies with the Head of Year 3 and Head of Juniors. Visits to the library and the opportunity to eat in the Junior canteen were also eagerly anticipated.

As we look forward, we also reflect on the colleagues who left us at the end of the year. A huge thank you to their contributions and long service.

Class Teachers: Jane Andrews, Carla Carter, Margaret Conlon, Jackie Davey, Sinead Dunleavy, Vinny Fernandes, Cathy Fuggle, Sarah Godfrey, Cannelle Leroy, Lisa Tait, Pauline Van Eyk, Beccy Wright

TLAs: Alyssa Lim, Junitha Sha, Nivedita Tanwar, Ginny Wood

STLAs: Jessia Geng, KayLeen Teo

Supply Teachers: Laura Candy, Amy Gibson

CWS: Jo Bush, Sarah Le Grice

We hope they will return to see our new Infant Library (unveiling in Term 1) and the Centenary Building (Level 3 will be the highlight for our Infant School!).

Junior School

Clair Harrington-Wilcox, Head of Junior School

What a way to finally end the year with an array of events. The best part is that parents were finally able to join us back on campus to celebrate these momentous occasions with their children and their teachers. We are finally returning to what a quality education at Tanglin truly is and we could not be more proud of Team Tanglin. Meeting the Year 2 children and parents in person was a particular highlight along with the resumption of offsite trips. Of course a special memory was seeing our Year 6 cohort of 2022 graduating in person and enjoying their special moment live!

Our reviewed and revised priorities of the Junior School Development plan in line with the whole school Strategic Plan in 2021 – 2022 have included the following themes:

INSPIRED LEARNERS

A key focus for academics this year has been the introduction of the new 3-14 curriculum. This revision to our curriculum further enhances our provision, ensures a seamless transition between the schools, and enables students to achieve their best both personally and academically.

Our end of year standards remain high, with both internal and external standardised assessments showing that a significant proportion of our children are working above age related expectations. End of Year 6 standardised assessments show that 61% of children are working at greater depth in English, with 43% working at greater depth in maths and 39% in science. In addition, our English Speaking Board assessment results were outstanding with a significant number of children achieving a distinction and more importantly an increased confidence in their own performance.

With the easing of restrictions, academic competitions and events have started to fill the calendar once more. For the first time this year, over 550 children participated in the National Readers Cup competition, competing against children across Singapore. One of our Junior Teams, ‘Dino Bros!’, won the overall prize in the younger category.

Year 5 and 6 children competed in the FOBISIA Primary Maths competition, and the Primary Maths Challenge with 10 children sitting in the Bonus Round for the top 2% of entries. Children were also invited to participate in the Poetry by Heart competition. Over 50 children took part in the auditions and 3 finalists were entered from across the Junior School into the National Finals in the UK.

- Maths

We have implemented a digital system to strengthen our pastoral and safeguarding bandwidth. This ensures all incidents and subsequent actions are logged and available so that no student or set of circumstances go unnoticed.

Introduction of weekly wellbeing check-ins to capture trends and issues early helps the pastoral team follow up swiftly on individual students or themes. These may then be addressed through our assemblies and LifeSkills lessons.

PERSONAL BEST

The co-curriculum has gone from strength to strength in the Junior School. We continue to curate an extensive and rich after-school activities programme that embraces the holistic development of our students and inspires our learners to discover, develop and excel at their passions. From robotics to yoga, singing in the choir to developing entrepreneurial skills in enterprise, we truly believe there is something for everyone! We have been thrilled with the uptake of this provision. Over 90% of our students have taken advantage of these opportunities of which there have been well over 100 to choose from each week. We are looking forward to developing this further the following year.

It has been wonderful to welcome parents back onsite for a wide range of events, from Open Mornings to live performances of Bard Brain, Groovy Greeks, Royal Rabbits of London and Junior Arts Night. The children performed exceptionally well and you would never believe that, for many, these were their first performance opportunities in the Junior School.

FLOURISHING INDIVIDUALS

It is amazing how far we have come from being on remote learning last October. Supporting the children through these restrictions and providing them with the social tools as restrictions ease so that they could successfully integrate with larger groups has been a key pastoral focus over this past year.

Developing the roles of student leadership and student voice has been a key area of development. There have been many successful projects, including the redesign of the creative playground with the Student Council and Friendship Captains. The final design celebrates our status as Gold Rights Respecting School and we are looking forward to seeing the children enjoy their new playspace.

We continue to grow a pastoral language that focuses on the language of safety and helping all members of our community feel valued. Through the use of character strengths, the children are able to reflect on what makes them special and how they can use these strengths to improve their wellbeing and others’.

In Term 3 last year, we were delighted to see the return of sporting fixtures. It was wonderful to visit other international schools here in Singapore, as well as welcome their sports teams to our campus. Our children, across all year groups, took part in football, rugby, cricket and netball competitions, and the festival approach of many of these allowed all to participate, creating an ethos of sport for all. The easing of restrictions also allowed us to recommence school trips with each year group enjoying an exciting offsite excursion last year; we are excited about stepping this up further next academic year. Watch this space!

TEAM TANGLIN

Our new House system is well and truly established throughout the school but the easing of restrictions in Term 3 truly allowed us to fully celebrate the joy that this brings. The Giving Day in June not only raised a staggering amount thanks to the generosity of the Tanglin community, but also gave the opportunity for our children to mix into their Houses and enjoy a collaborative challenge-filled day. The day saw us gather for our first whole school assembly in years; this was a very moving moment and the feeling of Tanglin togetherness was tangible. We look forward to more of these fantastic opportunities next year!

OUR PEOPLE

There has been a wealth of training to ensure that we invest into quality teaching and learning experiences. From the leadership pathways, to Chartered Teaching qualifications - the focus remains on quality outcomes and experiences for our children.

I am sure that 2022 is going to bring many new experiences that we look forward to sharing with our community.

Senior School

Allan Forbes, Head of Senior School

Tanglin students have enjoyed another outstanding set of academic results achieved in the 2022 examination session at (I)GCSE, IB and A level. We can also celebrate that disruption due to the pandemic has been largely minimised in Singapore with committed and dedicated teaching and learning from staff and students alike resulting in these impressive headlines:

The reviewed and revised priorities of the Senior School Development plan in line with the whole school Strategic Plan in 2021 – 2022 have included the following themes:

ACADEMIC

• Recruitment of outstanding teachers, support staff and those in positions of responsibility: We have experienced a larger turnover of staff than normal (around 20%) but I am confident we have recruited many outstanding new teachers and support staff for August 2022.

• Focus on Teaching and Learning, consistency, development and support: These measures and checks are so important because they ensure that the learning experience of every student helps them to achieve their personal best.

8, 9)

A* to B

• 3-14 vertical articulation, reaching ‘milestones’ and the impact on assessments and reports: An exciting development for Tanglin in terms of students, parents and teachers understanding the whole learning journey for each child; where they have been, where they are and what’s coming next, as well as how to get there.

• Better understanding of CEM data to ensure greater use by teachers: This data can expand the understanding of the individual and the outcomes they should be achieving at key points in their academic journey, as well as providing a measure for the ‘value added’ in the process.

• Introduction of Progress Tests in Maths, English and Science: A clear measure of progress as students make their way through these core subjects and develop essential knowledge, new skills and applications.

Tanglin staff remain focused on supporting our students pastorally and developing their learning and skills with experiences beyond the classroom through sport, the Arts, academic enrichment, House events, service projects, outdoor education opportunities and links with our local community and further afield. The central aim of the Senior School is to ‘Prepare Students for Life Beyond Tanglin’ and the Tanglin educational journey reaches destinations way beyond the single-minded desire, drive and achievement of these amazing academic outcomes.

The Class of 2022 have now settled into a variety of diverse opportunities with 17 students embarking on National Service, 20 taking a gap year and 140 graduates studying in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia as well as several other countries across Asia and Europe. Our students received offers from 157 different institutions and from 10 different countries, showing the diversity and range of options available to them. There were 14 different academic scholarships awarded, including a very generous all expenses paid award, which is testament to the continued academic excellence of our students. Competition for placements has intensified but with 99% of our students securing the first or second choices we are confident they will continue to thrive as they pursue their higher education courses.

• Exploration of diversity and inclusion through the lens of the learner (Neurodiversity): Helping teachers to understand why not all students learn in the same way and that support can be offered outside of the Learning Support structures and staffing.

• Ensure the examination session in 2022 runs smoothly: Challenges of COVID have not completely disappeared but we are expecting every student to achieve an outcome in every subject at GCSE, A level and IB by sitting examinations rather than through teacher based evidence and assessment.

• Design and Technology (DT) introduced in Years 7 and 8, and keeping the impact on Art in view: From August 2022, DT will be taught to all students in the Middle School before the subject can be selected as an option for GCSE and/or A level.

PASTORAL

• Implementation of CPOMs training to strengthen our pastoral and safeguarding bandwidth: Ensuring all incidents and follow up are logged and available to ensure no student or set of circumstances go unnoticed.

• Introduction of a weekly wellbeing survey to capture trends and issues early: Helping the pastoral team to spot trends and follow up swiftly on individual students or themes that need to be addressed through our assemblies and LifeSkills lessons or by educating parents about the dangers beyond the campus.

85% of (I)GCSE grades were A*, A or equivalent (7,

87% of A level grades were in the range of

Our IB average stands at a highest ever 41.4 (compared to a global average of 31.9)

• Development of the role of the form tutor through the House System: From August 2021, all students from Year 7 to Year 11 have been allocated to a tutor group associated with their House.

CO-CURRICULAR

• Launch of the new House System: Eight Houses were introduced across the schools in August 2021, with each House name linked to the heritage of Tanglin within Singapore.

• Developed a greater range of CCAs around Academic Enrichment, Sports, Service, OE and the Arts with greater numbers involved in the DofE Award at all levels: Impressive data on increased participation in a wide range of activities as well as representing Tanglin in competitive sport, competitions and arts events

• Centennial Building and Master Plan implications: Drama/ Dance, Music, Counselling, DT studio, Social Spaces (Upper School Hub): Exciting opportunities await following the completion of the eleven-storey building as well as the impact on existing spaces as these become available.

• Restructuring plans and discussions around the school day for August 2023: Following student, parent and staff surveys and input, plans are in place to consider reshaping the school day to build greater capacity to include CCAs within the school day with additional activities remaining available beyond the scheduled finish time.

• Exploration of the concept of an extended Year 9 residential: An opportunity to take students out of their normal routines and locations to develop new skills and cover exciting curriculum content away from the classroom, lab, studio or library. This is a pioneering project in the region that could result in students spending weeks outside of their normal environment.

Tanglin Senior School remains an impressive and outstanding school based on building trust with its stakeholders, maintaining balance and order and showing genuine affection and appreciation for the incredible energy, enthusiasm and enduring commitment of the staff, students and parent body, as well as benefiting from the guidance and support of the Governors.

Despite a notable (compared to previous years) ‘changing of the guard’ with several senior staff moving on from Tanglin, the Senior School remains in good hands with Chris Seal taking the helm from August 2022 alongside a team of existing and new Senior and Middle Leaders. (From existing and ‘tried and tested’ current expertise, internal and ‘home grown’ promotions and new appointments from schools within Asia, from the Middle East and the UK.)

As the Senior School enters its 27th academic year following its opening in 1996, it has a clear and exciting trajectory in terms of what it wants to be and where it wants to go from here. I wish the Senior School, and everyone involved, every success from here as I step back after seven years of leading a truly outstanding 11 – 18 school.

Careers & University Guidance 2022

by Zoe Williams, Head of

Careers & University Guidance

The landscape of university admissions constantly evolves and we have been excited to commence travel post pandemic, and speak directly with international admissions teams. This summer we were fortunate to be able to attend the International Association for College Admission Counselling, representing Tanglin in New Mexico and meeting with universities and other High School Counsellors from around the globe. The overriding takeaway is how the spike in student application numbers has forced entry requirements, selectivity and therefore competition up.

IMPORTANCE OF CHECKING ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

During a recent coffee morning with Year 13 parents, we highlighted the importance of checking entry requirements every Autumn as the shift towards elevated entry requirements doesn’t seem to be slowing, especially in the UK in fields such as Computer Science, Medicine and Economics. Equally, UCLA reported record figures of 149,700 freshman applicants1 as continued ‘Test optional’ SAT and ACT requirements drove up applications, while MIT, Harvard and Columbia saw a less than 4% acceptance rate2. As a team we have worked hard to instil a sense of balance in our student’s college lists. It is crucial they have the skills to research and to be reflective on what will make the best ‘fit’ for their individual needs.

MAKING SHREWD FINANCIAL DECISIONS

This year students are encouraged to be shrewd as the cost of tuition has drastically increased. As with inflation in many countries, some are left asking, “what is the value of my degree?” Private colleges typically cost more than public/state universities and resources are being stretched in terms of need-based scholarships. We saw 14 different institutional and private merit scholarships awarded this year to the Class of 2022, which reflects the academic edge our students possess.

There is varying discussion on why post-secondary educational costs have been driven up when there is clearly no shortage of applicants. From increased housing prices and demand to provide more robust student support services, it is estimated that in the USA from 1980 to 2020 the cost of an undergraduate degree has risen by 169%3. As the ongoing repercussions of Brexit and inflation affect our students, we are urging them to have discussions about their university budgets early on with their families and to reflect on how this may impact their plans moving forward.

UNIVERSITY ACCEPTANCES

Without a doubt, this was another fantastic year for Tanglin with our students receiving offers from 157 different institutions, across 10 different countries. Seven students were admitted to Oxford and Cambridge in the UK. In the USA our students accepted places at Yale, Stanford, Brown, and NYU, to name a few. This impressive list continues to grow, and is testament to our students’ academic and extracurricular achievements, along with their preparation and well considered application lists. The outstanding A-level and IB Diploma results ensured a tremendous 99% of students received their first or second choices. A full list of university acceptances for the Class of 2022 can be found on page 24.

TANGLIN’S CAREERS AND UNIVERSITY COUNSELLING MICROSITE

Last academic year, in support of providing as much information to our students as possible, we launched the Careers and University Counselling microsite4. We continue to build the resources on this platform, and are excited to offer a one-stop shop for all our families in terms of previous

presentations, resources, advice on NS (National Service) and Gap Years, country-specific guides and more.

This complements the university advising platform Cialfo, which registers Year 10 to Year 13 students and provides them with a vast array of online webinars, virtual fairs and talks throughout the year.

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2022/23

This year we are thrilled to be able to host university admissions representatives in person on our campus. During the pandemic, Zoom and Teams fatigue set in around copious online events. In September, we took part in the Lion City Fair, welcoming over 100 universities to our school and playing host to four additional international schools. This enabled our Sixth Form to experience a networking fair for the first time in three years. We are excited to be able to host individual visits again and we anticipate a busy schedule of events throughout the autumn term and beyond. Students gain so much from meeting admissions representatives, as they relay anecdotes from their campuses and bring a wealth of information regarding tips for applying, course content and insights into life on and off campus, including DEIJ initiatives. It enables our team to form strong connections with the universities and to support our international alumni networks. Furthermore we have a rich support network of our alumni working as Tanglin interns across the school during September.

With the reintegration of travel plans to our schedules, we will be attending conferences and fly-in programmes in Bangkok, Houston, Madrid, Barcelona, London, and Florida. Spending time on campuses and exploring the universities enables us to offer insights and perspectives to our student body that can be crucial as they navigate a multitude of choices available.

STAFF MOVEMENT

As with many international schools in Singapore this summer, we experienced some staff movement and we were sad to see Dr Alban Ferrieu and his family return to their home in France.

This year we are joined by a tremendously experienced counsellor, Ms Malissa Takacs who has moved back to Singapore from Switzerland. One of her first tasks will be to travel to the NACAC Conference in Houston to collect the prestigious ‘Rising Star Award’. This recognised her work in creating and chairing an international mentorship programme with college counselling colleagues around the world. In addition to Ms Takacs, we welcome two University of Oxford interns, Haneen Zeglam and Halima Doski; this is Haneen’s second internship with our faculty and we are pleased to be able to offer her an internship in person after last year’s virtual experience.

1https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/increase-in-top-california-applicants-for-fall-2022#:~:text=UCLA%20 has%20received%20more%20applications,students%20from%20California%20high%20schools 2 https://www.ivywise.com/ivywise-knowledgebase/admission-statistics/ 3 https://www.forbes.com/advisor/student-loans/college-tuition-inflation/ 4 https://sites.google.com/tts.edu.sg/universitycounselling/home

Subject

English A: Lang and Lit HL 12 5 7

English A: Lang and Lit SL 26 11 15

English A: Literature HL 5 3 2

English A: Literature SL 8 5 3

Chinese A: Lit Self Taught SL 1 1

Hindi A: Lit Self Taught SL 1 1

Chinese B HL 2 1 1

Chinese B SL 7 6 1

French Ab Initio SL 3 1 2

French B SL 14 8 6

Latin HL 2 2 Latin SL 3 3

Spanish Ab Initio SL 15 6 5 4

Spanish B SL 2 1 1

Spanish B HL 1 1

Business Management HL 6 5 1

Business Management SL 5 4 1

Economics HL 16 10 6

Economics SL 2 1 1

Geography HL 5 2 3

Geography SL 2 2 Global Politics HL 1 1

Global Politics SL 5 3 2

History HL 5 3 2

History SL 1 1

Philosophy HL 1 1 Philosophy SL 2 2 Psychology HL 10 8 2

Psychology SL 3 3 Biology HL 15 9 6 Biology SL 5 3 2 Chemistry HL 15 13 1 1 Chemistry SL 1 1

Computer Science HL 7 6 1

Environment and Society SL 5 4 1 Physics HL 12 5 6 1 Physics SL 5 4 1

Mathematics AA HL 23 9 11 3 Mathematics AA SL 19 10 4 5 Mathematics AI SL 10 2 4 4 Film HL 5 4 1 Film SL 1 1 Music HL 2 1 1 Theatre HL 8 6 2 Theatre SL 5 5 Visual Arts HL 3 1 2 Visual Arts SL 1 1

2022 University Acceptances

Asia

Duke Kunshan University (China) LaSalle University (Singapore) NUS, National University of Singapore

Australia

Bond University The University of Sydney The University of Western Australia University of New South Wales Canada

University of Toronto Huron University

McGill University University of British Columbia (UBC) Western University York University Hungary Semmelweis University

Ireland Trinity College Dublin UCC, University College Cork UCD, University College Dublin National University of Ireland, Galway Spain IE University IED Barcelona Switzerland EHL, École Hôtelière de Lausanne

UK

Bournemouth University University of Liverpool Arts University Bournemouth Aston University, Birmingham Bath Spa University

BIMM Institute (British & Irish Modern Music Institute)

Birmingham City University Buckinghamshire New University Canterbury Christ Church University Cardiff Metropolitan University Cardiff University City, University of London Coventry University

Durham University Edge Hill University Edinburgh Napier University Goldsmiths, University of London Guildhall School of Music & Drama Hartpury University

Heriot-Watt University

Imperial College London Institute of Contemporary Music Performance

King’s College London, University of London Kingston University Lancaster University

Leeds Beckett University

Leeds Trinity University London Metropolitan University London South Bank University Loughborough University

LSE, University of London Manchester Metropolitan University Newcastle University

Northumbria University, Newcastle Nottingham Trent University

Oxford Brookes University

Queen Mary, University of London Queen’s University Belfast Royal Academy of Music

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

Royal Holloway, University of London Royal Northern College of Music Royal Veterinary College, University of London Sheffield Hallam University

SOAS, University of London Solent University

St George’s University of London St Mary’s University Twickenham

Swansea University

The University of Law Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance UCL, University of London University for the Creative Arts University of Aberdeen University of Bath University of Bedfordshire University of Birmingham University of Brighton University of Bristol University of Buckingham University of Cambridge University of Dundee University of East Anglia University of Edinburgh University of Essex University of Exeter University of Glasgow University of Hull University of Kent University of Leeds University of Leicester University of Manchester University of Nottingham University of Oxford University of Plymouth University of Portsmouth University of Reading University of Roehampton University of Sheffield University of Southampton University of St Andrews University of Stirling

University of Suffolk University of Surrey University of Sussex University of the Arts London University of Warwick UWE, University of West England, Bristol University of West London University of Westminster, London University of Winchester University of York York St John University

USA

Penn State University Park University of Colorado, Boulder University of Michigan Arizona State University

Boston University Brown University

Carnegie Mellon University Duke University

Elon University Florida Institute of Technology Fordham University

Indiana University, Bloomington New York University

North Carolina State University, Raleigh Northeastern University Pomona College

Purdue University

RIT, Rochester Institute of Technology Santa Clara University Stanford University Syracuse University The New School

The Ohio State University The University of Chicago The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

University of California, Berkeley University of California, Davis University of California, Irvine University of California, Los Angeles University of California, Merced University of California, Riverside University of California, San Diego University of California, Santa Barbara University of California, Santa Cruz University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign University of Maryland

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities University of San Diego University of Southern California University of Washington University of Wisconsin-Madison Yale University

This list is complete as of August 31, 2022 and is subject to alterations and amendments. Southern Hemisphere acceptances are pending.

Head Girl (Maia Salti) and Head Boy (Matthew Wong) on their Graduation Parade during their Graduation Day

Academic Committee Inspired Learners

John Ridley, Director of Learning

The Academic Committee oversees Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment across the school. The 2021-22 academic year began with many students and some staff stranded in other countries due to travel restrictions and Covid infections, resulting in a mix of remote learning and face to face provision. However, through the year we saw a gradual relaxation of restrictions resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, allowing a shift back to more usual classroom practices, including some lesson observations and collaborative professional development activities. The year also saw the launch of our new Tanglin 3-14 Curriculum in the Infant and Junior Schools. This in turn has led to the development of a new assessment and reporting system that will now be used across the Infant, Junior and Middle School age ranges.

CURRICULUM

Goal: Tanglin's academic provision underpins the values of the School and equips students with the knowledge and skills that they need for the next stage of their life's journey; the provision is broad, balanced, relevant and challenging; clear pathways ensure that progression is planned and that the needs of our diverse learners are met.

Tanglin’s 3-14 Curriculum Framework was published at the start of the 2021-22 academic year, following two years of development. This replaces the English National Curriculum as our reference framework and has been designed to ensure that our curriculum from Nursery to Year 9 is relevant to our students, progresses coherently across the Infant, Junior and Middle Schools and provides the best possible foundation for the external examination courses in the Upper School and Sixth Form.

Teaching and learning in line with the new framework began this year across the Infant and Junior Schools and in four pilot subjects in the Senior School. 2022-23 will see the full rollout in the Middle School (Year 7 to 9). The cross-phase subject leaders have continued to collaborate as the more detailed subject unit plans are created and delivered, focusing on what we are calling the ‘sticky knowledge’ – the semantic and procedural knowledge that we want to be firmly embedded in the students’ long-term memories so that they can draw on it when needed.

Aside from the 3-14 Curriculum project, the Academic Committee conducted a thorough review of our Languages policy. This affirmed our commitment to our core languages of Chinese (whole school), French and Spanish (Senior School) and to including Latin in the Middle School core curriculum. The review also looked at our support for students who have a mother tongue other than English, and this has resulted in the option of small group tuition during curriculum time for native speakers of Chinese in Years 5 and 6. These Mother Tongue Chinese classes will feed into the Senior School Mother Tongue programme which allows students to prepare for first language external examinations in their native language.

Whilst most of the work to date on the 3-14 Curriculum has been subject based, we have begun to audit the curriculum to ensure coherent coverage of important cross curricular themes. Diversity has been the first theme to be explored, in line with the whole school's strategic focus on DEIJ. This work will be continued in 2022-23, along with an audit for the theme of Sustainability.

PEDAGOGY

Goal: Tanglin is at the forefront of educational best practice. Students are at the centre of teaching and learning, which is informed by relevant research; individual needs of learners are recognised and responded to at each stage of the learning journey; the learning environment is both inspiring and supportive.

The Covid-19 pandemic continued to have an impact on teaching and learning through 2021-22 with group work being limited and the wearing of masks being the default for most classroom activities. The majority of professional development activity has been virtual although an increasing number of face-to-face sessions were possible in the later part of the year. Pedagogy training has focused on using formative assessment well to meet the needs of all learners, with the Senior School also having a series of sessions on neurodiversity. Classroom observations were able to resume during the year; Infant and Junior School curriculum leaders carried out a series of ‘deep dive’ observations to assess the provision for core subjects across the schools.

Tanglin’s 3 14 Curriculum Framework

ASSESSMENT

Goal: Responsive teaching is informed by continuous formative assessment, giving teachers timely and actionable information about all learners in their classes. Formal judgements on student attainment are based on multiple sources of evidence, allowing students, parents and school leaders to reliably track and review progress.

The new 3-14 Curriculum has given us the opportunity to redesign our formal assessment model so that our school reports have a consistent look and feel across the Infant, Junior and Middle schools. This has been informed by our research and training on effective formative assessment techniques. It is important that summative assessment judgements are not too frequent as we want students to focus on what they need to do to improve rather than on what ‘grade’ they have been given. We were also keen to avoid reducing all the attainment in a subject down to a single summary grade. Our solution is to formally report attainment in each of the 3 or 4 key concept areas of each subject, once a year.

These attainment judgements relate to the ‘Milestone Statements’ in the 3-14 Curriculum Framework and are based on a range of evidence gathered over time. Routine classroom assessment and feedback focuses on the particular objective(s) for that assignment. The formal judgements for each concept area indicate the level of fluency in applying the knowledge taught, using the words: Beginning; Developing; Advancing; Mastering. The first school reports using the new assessment model were published in Term 3, 2022 across the Infant and Junior schools. From 2022-23 the new model will be used across the full 3-14 age range. In parallel with the development of our new assessment model, the Academic Committee has worked with the Applications Team to develop smart ‘data dashboards’ using Microsoft Power BI software. These will give teachers and school leaders meaningful visualisations of student attainment data, combined with some relevant pastoral data such as attendance, by form, teaching group or year group. The first versions of these will be trialled in Term 1 2022-23 and refined during the year.

Pastoral Committee Flourishing Individuals

Richard Sellers, Director of Pastoral Care

The last twelve months have proved to be an exciting time for Pastoral Care at Tanglin Trust School. Significant changes to the structure and staffing have led to an array of new initiatives that have built upon the already excellent pastoral care within the school and ensure that we continue to foster and develop flourishing individuals.

NEW STRUCTURE

To further embed pastoral care as the core of the school's offering and to ensure its permanence, we established a new Safeguarding and Pastoral Care subcommittee of the school's governing board. This subcommittee helps to ensure that our pastoral programmes will continue to be enhanced in the future, whatever staff changes may occur. The school recognises that nurturing the wellbeing of children and young people and protecting them from harm requires a whole school community commitment.

NEW TEAM

Three new Pastoral Deputy Heads were appointed in each of the three schools, bringing experience, dynamism, enthusiasm, and an array of new ideas and initiatives. It has enabled the pastoral teams to analyse and review existing programmes and decide what needs to be maintained and changed and what requirements must be introduced to support our students and young people further.

NEW ROLES

New whole school positions have been created. Our Educational Psychologist, Clare Lancaster, was appointed as a Whole School Designated Safeguarding Lead, a role that creates consistency, promotes best practice and ensures compliance with relevant Singapore child protection legislation across the school.

Andy Martin became our first Sport specific Designated Safeguarding Lead, working directly with our external coaches to ensure that our safeguarding standards are met and has worked with our Health Centre, PE and Sports Departments on our concussion protocol.

Wendy Ang, a professional social worker, became our first Family Support Liaison (FSL). Wendy works with the significant people in

children's and young people's lives (caregivers, school staff, and other professionals) to improve students' and their families’ social and emotional wellbeing. The FSL works across the Infant, Junior and Senior schools and works as part of the pastoral support team in each of the schools.

SAFEGUARDING

The global pandemic created new challenges for the whole of our community but also placed an unprecedented spotlight on the importance of safeguarding. Our experienced team of Designated Safeguarding Leads continued to raise the profile of safeguarding by providing expertise, advice and an array of resources and training to better support our staff on safeguarding matters.

CPOMS, a new online safeguarding platform that allows staff to quickly and easily note any safeguarding concerns they may have, is now embedded across the whole school. The digital platform consolidates safeguarding information allowing the Designated Safeguarding Leads and Pastoral Team to monitor, track and implement interventions efficiently.

STUDENT INTERVENTIONS

To support our students effectively, it is essential to provide them with the skills to deal with issues, to give them a voice to share concerns and to provide effective interventions when they need help.

Throughout the school, we started to review our behaviour policy, looking at how we can introduce conscious discipline and restorative justice to provide students with the skills to regulate emotions and resolve problems. In Infant School, we saw the introduction of 'Griff's Great Choices', a conflict resolution tool that promotes respect,

PASTORAL DEPUTY HEADS

Jon Pavey Pastoral Deputy Head (Infants)

Pete O’Brien Pastoral Deputy Head (Juniors)

Richard Sellers

Pastoral Deputy Head (Seniors) & Director of Pastoral Care (Whole School)

responsibility, and purpose in our youngest learners. These are exciting projects that we will continue to develop this academic year.

Positive relationships between students and staff are our most effective tool in understanding how young people feel. However, we recognise that for various reasons, including the pandemic, some of our pupils find it difficult to speak openly to adults. Consequently, we have devised different ways for students to express their emotions or share the concerns they might have. In Infants, students use 'feeling pots' to select key emotions to show teachers what they are experiencing. In Junior School, students can use QR codes assigned to their desks to let their teachers know if they have any concerns. In Senior School, an online SOS system has been introduced so that students can share matters they might have about themselves or their peers so that teachers can intervene.

WELLBEING DATA

The need for regular student wellbeing data has been a significant discussion point this year. We know that data will enable the school to track and monitor individuals and ensure early intervention takes place for students. Patterns and Trends amongst different cohorts will help inform staff of pertinent issues in specific year groups and help inform the planning of our Lifeskills curriculum. With this in mind, the Senior School piloted several different surveys, the feedback from pastoral teams, staff and students helping to determine which survey we will use.

We look forward to introducing the survey to all students in the Senior School later this academic year and begin a pilot in the Junior School to ensure that we use a survey that will suit the needs of our Junior school-aged children.

COORDINATED WELLBEING SERVICES TEAM

Our Coordinated Wellbeing Services team (Counselling, Educational Psychologist, Health Centre and Family Support Liaison) continue to work directly with our students and young people to ensure that their social, emotional and physical needs are met.

The team worked closely with our Pastoral leaders this year to ensure that appropriate resources and training are provided to our staff so that they have the skills and confidence to work directly with students.

The team secured the services of Dr Pooky Knightsmith, the current vice chair of the Children and Young People's Mental Health Coalition in the UK, to provide training to staff. The author, keynote speaker and internationally respected trainer of child and adolescent mental health shared practical, evidenceinformed approaches to promoting mental health, providing staff with skills, information and the knowledge they need to support our students. Pooky will be delivering sessions to our parent community later this term, focusing on anxiety and self-harm.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Student success goes well beyond test scores and examination results, and at the end of last year, we saw the welcome return to school sports, music concerts, drama performances, house competitions and school trips. These play a part in improving communication, teamwork, leadership, problem-solving and building resilience, all critical factors of emotional intelligence. As we move out of the shadow of COVID-19, we will continue to work together as a community to nurture students' wellbeing by developing programmes and introducing new initiatives to create a foundation for healthy and happy students.

Griff's Great Choices

Co-curricular Committee Personal Best

Holiday, Director of Co-Curriculum

The Co-Curriculum is a means through which we can open more doors to students at Tanglin; offering them opportunities that allow a variety of skills, pursuits, and pleasures to develop and remain parts of their lives beyond school. As you will read here and see from the infographics, 2021/22 was in fact a year with extraordinarily wide and varied offerings across the whole gamut of Co-Curricular opportunities, and the take-up of these activities, across Sport, Music, Drama and the wider Co-Curriculum was the highest it has ever been.

In the Junior School, 100% of students took part in weekly Co-Curricular Activities, with more than 90% choosing to take part in a second activity. This is matched in the Senior School with over 90% of the student body taking part in a weekly activity. In addition to the regular pattern of activities, we were also enormously successful and active in debating competitions, in academic and artistic conferences such as the ARTiculation public speaking initiative, the Across Asia Film Festival, MUN and the hybrid World Scholars Cup.

HOUSE SYSTEM

In 2021/22 we implemented a new House system, linking all students, from Nursery to Year 13. This has provided students with a grouping in which they can feel a sense of belonging and pride, which crosses the normal age specific structures that are in place and will remain with them as they grow up at Tanglin. Despite pandemic inspired restrictions, we were still able to have strong and exciting competitions and partisan events as well as activities and House days that fostered cross-age interaction and a sense of our whole community being able to take pleasure and joy in one another’s successes and endeavours. In 2021/22 the winner of the Senior School House Competition and the Junior House Point Trophy was Winchester.

Michael

It could be tempting when reflecting on the past 12 months to view things through a lens of loss - loss of opportunities and activities normally part of the fabric of school life, taken from us by the pandemic and ensuing safe management measures. It may be tempting, but it is nowhere near the full story and not an accurate picture of life at Tanglin through 2021/22.

TANGLIN SPORTS PROGRAMME

The Sports programme this year was the largest to date, with our widest range of sports and clubs offered across the age range. Highlights include the launch of the Year 2 Football Academy, with 90 boys and girls playing in developmentally appropriate sessions, and a record number of 912 Senior students participating in sport across the year. Our proactive approach throughout the most restrictive period meant we could quickly adapt to the ever-changing landscape and optimise opportunities for our students. The campus was designated by SportSG as a hub to host the Team Sport Pilot and later the Team Sports Under VDS, which meant that Tanglin was at the forefront of national initiatives and our students benefited from this ability to host team training and games.

The resilience and sustained motivation of students and staff meant that once restrictions were lifted, we were ready and able to participate in an action-packed Term 3. Across the term we hosted a range of festivals and friendly tournaments that have enabled our students to play, compete and learn in an inclusive, supportive, and developmentally appropriate environment. These multi-game events offer a great chance for parents to support their children, and we have been delighted to see a high number of parents back on campus.

OUTDOOR EDUCATION

Outdoor Education at Tanglin is designed to provide students with transformational experiences and opportunities to develop greater independence and resilience. On the surface, it would seem to be an area of school life most negatively affected by the pandemic border closures. However, a refined and reframed offering ensured that all students at school benefitted from an outdoor experience in Singapore. Highlights include the development of our Forest School Programme in Infant School, Junior School trips to Sungei Bulao and Kranji, and Senior School trips to Sarimbun, Pulau Ubin and Sentosa. Whilst more trips further afield are expected for 2022/23, there was a vast array of wonderful opportunities offered to Tanglin students this year.

A TRIBUTE

Number of day trips and off-site visits

Despite the challenges we faced, last year was an excellent year for the Co-Curricular life of school and augurs well for an excellent 2022/23. I would like to pay tribute to the students, staff and extremely supportive parents who gave up time, effort and energy to these Co-Curricular pursuits. It is hard to fully measure the value of the team skills and physical confidence that can be learned in Sport; the ability to express oneself and the discipline that can be arrived at in Music; the creativity that can be explored in Art; the ability to absorb different perspectives and recast them that can be acquired in debating; the sense of community that can be developed through the House system; or the curiosity in new knowledge fostered through societies which look at new ideas and different cultures. We often label these as ‘soft skills’, but ultimately, they are life skills and the source of much happiness and joy.

CREATIVE ARTS AT TANGLIN

The creative arts were also well served throughout the year with the Year Level Performance from Reception to Year Six being performed for parents and supporters who are delighted to be back on campus to witness live performances. In Music and Drama, students who have committed themselves to their performances showed enormous resilience and fortitude to put on performances they can be hugely proud of. The highlights are too many to list, but the vibrancy of the performing arts community at Tanglin speaks to the impressive culture of both risk-taking as well as throwing oneself into action and participation.

of Fixtures

of students playing in representative sport teams

of music performances

of performers in drama productions

of drama productions

of performers in music

Our People

Ayako Sugaya, Director of People

TOP 10 MOST ATTRACTIVE EMPLOYERS

Our people are at the heart of everyone’s worklife. As such, we are pleased to share that Tanglin Trust School was listed as one of Singapore's Best Employers 2022, a ranking of the top 200 companies and institutions with at least 200 employees. At the time of the independent study released on 18 April 2022 by The Straits Times and global data firm Statista, Tanglin had 300 foreign staff – a little over half of all employees, and the average tenure for all staff is 8.6 years.

In the independent survey, respondents were asked to rate their employers based on various aspects of their job, the work environment and the employer's reputation. Tanglin came in the Top 10 (ranked eighth overall) and also topped the education category nationwide. Across six areas considered, atmosphere at work and potential for development contributed the most to employers' scores. The other five aspects were image, working conditions, workplace, salary or wage, and diversity.

At Tanglin we always have the best interests of our staff at the forefront of our mind when formulating or making changes to staff policies. Staff will perform at their best when they feel valued and supported and we try hard to ensure that this is always the case. We actively seek feedback from our staff on current policies and implement changes where needed. We have support groups set up around certain initiatives – mental health, maternity, diversity and inclusion, menopause, etc – and these are great vehicles for initiating conversations and understanding what works well and what could be improved upon.

There are many elements of diversity amongst our staff. These are represented in the figures on the next page.

Significant challenges have befallen many industries in recent years. It is not surprising therefore to note the difficulties associated with recruitment and retention of staff. The emergence of large numbers of British and other International Schools has also impacted the availability of staff with experience of the UK system and with IB experience. We have been pleased to appoint many outstanding teachers in this challenging environment.

Governance

Mee King Chen, Group Corporate Secretary

Tanglin Trust School Limited (formerly known as Tanglin Trust Limited) was incorporated on 21 August 1961 as a public company limited by guarantee. It was registered under the Charities Act on 29 December 1984.

Unique Entity Number (UEN) 196100114C

Registered Address 95 Portsdown Road, Singapore 139299 Banker Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited Auditor KMPG LLP

Governing Instrument Tanglin Trust School Limited Constitution

Dominic Nixon

Governing Board Members of Tanglin Trust School Limited

Gina Lee-Wan

Governor and Chair of Board of Governors and Chair of Board Building Committee (Member since 19 March 2002)

Chris Riley

Governor (Member since 1 July 2017)

Clare Wijeratne

Governor and Chair of Board Education Policy and Schools Curriculum Committee (Member since 1 March 2017)

Colm McCarthy

Governor (Member since 7 March 2013)

Fang Eu-Lin

Governor and Chair of Board Finance and Risk Committee (Member since 1 May 2016)

Governor (Member since 19 February 2005)

Neil Tottman

Governor and Chair of Board Development and Alumni Committee (Member since 13 September 2007)

Rajan Raju Governor (Member since 2 July 2016)

Richard Routledge

Governor and Chair of Board Talent Committee (Member since 1 September 2020)

Robert Arbuthnott

Governor (Member since 16 February 2012)

Sue McNamara

Sim Preston1

Governor and former Chair of Board Building Committee (Member 1 June 2020 – 27 April 2022)

Governor and Chair of Board Pastoral and Safeguarding Committee (Member since 1 September 2009) ¹Resigned as Chair of Board Building Committee on 1 September 2021 and as Governor on 27 April 2022

Chen Mee King

Group Corporate Secretary and Member of Management Team

Some Governors have served beyond 10 years. The Board, collectively, wishes to retain these Governors as they have the necessary skills, relevant experience and commitment to serve Tanglin Trust School Limited.

Board membership is voluntary and not remunerated. There are no paid staff who are close members of the family of the Chief Executive Officer or Board Members for the period 1 September 2021 to 31 August 2022.

Committees

The Board appoints separate committees in relation to the following areas of responsibility:

• Building

• Education

• Development and Alumni

• Finance and Risk

• Talent

• Pastoral and Safeguarding

Management Team 2021/2022

Chief Executive Officer

Appointed August 1, 2018

Head of Infant School

Appointed August 1, 2014

Chief Operating Officer/ Chief Financial Officer Appointed April 13, 2009

Appointed August 1, 2016

Appointed September 1, 2015

Director of People

Appointed March 21, 2022

Director of Marketing & Communications

Appointed June 17, 2019

Director of Development

Appointed August 23, 2010

Director of Technology

Appointed August 5, 2019

Director of Learning

Appointed September 1, 2011

Director of Co-Curriculum

Appointed January 1, 2020

Director of Operations

Appointed January 22, 2007

Director of Admissions

Appointed April 12, 2021

Group Corporate Secretary

Appointed December 15, 2021

Director of Pastoral Care & Deputy Head (Senior School)

Appointed August 11, 2021

Craig Considine

Ling Guan Heng

Clair Harrington-Wilcox Head of Junior School

Cecilia Handel

Tom Evans

Allan Forbes

Head of Senior School

John Ridley

Keith Rutherford

Paula Craigie

Ayako Sugaya

Brian Teng

Michael Holiday

Leslie Baldwin

Richard Sellers

Mee King Chen

Whistleblowing Policy

Tanglin Trust School has a Whistleblowing Policy. The Policy is posted on the School’s website (tts.edu.sg) and may be used, if needed, by employees, suppliers, business partners and others in the school community.