Issue No 1 | 2023 LEVEL & SCHOOL PROGRAMMES & CELEBRATIONS! MFSS Publicity Team Presents Sec 1 Orientation Zest for Life Parent Engagement CNY Celebrations! In This Issue: TEACHING & LEARNING Teacher PLTs Geographical Investigation Science e-Pedagogy Art & Literature: LRRHs!
DEVELOPMENT & CO-CURRICULUM
Leadership
SLs Dialogue
& Orators Club InfoComm Club 1
MAYFLOWER
STUDENT
Peer
GRAIN:
Literary
THE MAYFLOWER PROMISE
STARTING THE YEAR RIGHT!
We welcomed the Secondary 1s to our Mayflower Family with a Space-themed Orientation Programme.
Understanding that the transition from Primary to Secondary school can be daunting, the space theme was selected to encourage our Secondary 1s. They were encouraged to leap into the new experience ahead of them, in a similar way that an astronaut exploring the mysteries of space does in the absence of gravity!
Led by the MF Student and Peer Support Leaders, our Secondary 1s bonded with their new classmates through a series of ice breakers and team building activities. It was a busy but fulfilling orientation, with cohort games like snakes and ladders and introduction sessions to unpack their class names!
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Team-bonding activity: constructing a 50-cm structure with spaghetti and marshmallows
PARENT ENGAGEMENT
We welcomed the parents of the new Secondary 1s to Mayflower Secondary School on 29 January 2023 to foster the beginning of our partnership.
quick by teachers. Subject teachers
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O PSG h h l d l
Thank you to all the parents who turned up for the session!
Parents got to visit their children's learning spaces around Mayflower
Chinese New Year Celebrations!
20 January 2023, Secondary School with the vibrant celebrations of Chinese New The school was with flowers and written on red symbolize good luck sperity for the year of The highlight of the celebrations was the concert included a captivating performance that left the audience spellbound.
Mayflowerians demonstrated their generous spirit by donating food and daily use items to AWWA (Asian Women’s Welfare Association) Rehab and Day Care Centre. This gesture extended the festive cheer beyond the school by giving back to the community.
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LEARNING @ MAYFLOWER
GEOGRAPHY
Our Secondary 4 Geography students split into two different groups to go on a GI fieldtrip to Marina Bay Sands and Kampung Glam this January.
Our students were finally able to see the relevance of different locations in Singapore in attracting both domestic and foreign tourists as they went out to do the various aspects of their field studies.
From pure observations, to taking photographs and doing bipolar surveys of the surroundings, our students gained the first-hand experience of investigating the attractiveness of such places for tourists.
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Instead of a mundane theory or practical lesson, Mr Ng’s students were able to record, document and share their findings with each other concurrently using the laboratory and ICT tools!
Microscopes to view the ‘live’ samples.
Digital cameras to take photographs or videos of their observations.
Chromebooks to annotate their observations.
Padlet as the platform to share their findings with their fellow classmates.
Our teachers learn too! Many thanks to Ms Anna Koh (MT, Biology), Mr Goh Kien Huay (MT, Chemistry), Mr Ong Kia Siang (MT, Physics) for attending the lesson and providing valuable feedback!
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ART & LITERATURE
When we think of the villains in children’s stories, they are always big and bad or cunning and evil. Sometimes, the portrayal may be such, but the interpretation may differ from what is intended. The tension between the creator’s presentation of the characters and the audience’s understanding and opinion of the characters is always an interesting study of conflating ideas and divergent views.
At Mayflower, the Secondary 1s are exposed to this interesting tension through the study of a well-known children’s story of the Little Red Riding Hood (LRRH) and the Big Bad Wolf. In examining the deliberate use of writing techniques, students crafted a detailed impression of her personality and attitude towards the wolf. The students enjoyed the exploration of a different type of LRRH. Many of them liked that she could see through the wolf’s ill-designed disguise and defend herself effectively, instead of having to rely on others to save her.
Many students explored the validity of the original story when LRRH was instructed to take the basket of food to her grandma in the woods alone. The lack of supervision and LRRH’s young age were important factors raised by the students in wondering whether the story was plausible.
The LRRH poem was interesting as the poet changed the last part so well even though the original ending of the wolf dying was still included.
- Leonard, 1F
I think the Little Red Riding Hood poem is interesting as most nursery stories don’t have dark endings. This poem showed LRRH handling the dangerous situation calmly. It is unexpected and interesting because of the plot twist.
- Yi Rou, 1I
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ART & LITERATURE
Art lessons in Mayflower also focus on the art of storytelling through illustrations. The Secondary 1s explore how Art tells stories about the World through scaffolding lessons of going through Molly Bang’s “Red Riding Hood: How Basic Shapes and Design create a Story”. Through the effective use of basic shapes, colours, and size, students learned that visual and artistic changes also affects narrative.
For their Weighted Assessment, the students choose a scene from two Asian folk tales to illustrate using basic shapes and applying the Elements of Art, where the thoughtful manipulation of colours and size of the basic shapes helps them to complete a composition layout for a book cover to the folk tale. Storytelling is a complex but fun process. Through the exploration of its composition in different mediums, students are exposed to enriching learning experiences.
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TEACHERS LEARN TOO!
Professional Learning Teams
As part of the school’s continuous effort in life-long learning and professional development, our teachers share and discuss Professional Learning Teams [PLT]. This helps them refine their teaching practices a keep up with the latest research and best practices, all with the ultimate aim improve student learning outcomes.
With e-pedagogy being the focus, the first in a series workshops planned for staff this year was held on February.
Using the SLS pedagogical scaffolds as a framework, teachers came together to review and refine their design maps and lesson plans with fellow department members after a sharing done by our very own Teacher Leaders. The next couple of sessions will see teachers reviewing the enactment of the lessons designed and refining the lessons which will then be shared across departments.
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Peer Support Leaders
Peer support is a very important aspect for teenagers to build a sense of belonging and guide their transition to secondary school. Through the budding roots of friendship, extending a hand or a listening ear, our Peer Support Leaders take the big brother and big sister roles in making our students feel part of the Mayflower family.
Our peer support leaders sharing on how to reframe perspectives and move out of the comfort zone to the growth zone as well as the secondary ones playing a game of “Who am I” to identify various helplines within the school that they can seek help from.
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Creating genuine relationships based on trust and hope, without judgement and expectation
GRAIN: Revitalising School Collaboration
GRAIN is a student leaders dialogue organised by student leaders from Mayflower Secondary School, Raffles Institution, Raffles Girls’ School, Victoria School, and St. Joseph’s Institution. The objective is to foster collaboration among student leaders from the different schools to create a positive impact in the community. This year, we hosted the second session of GRAIN in our school on 28 January. The theme was ‘Revitalising School Collaboration’ and we saw many student leaders taking the stage to share ways to facilitate greater collaboration in schools.
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Students discussing and sharing ways to bring about greater collaboration between schools
A group shot with Mighty Bee!
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: CCAs
LITERARY & ORATORS CLUB
Our Literary and Orators Club members had an exciting semester with their learning journeys and workshops. During a visit to Headrock, they got to experience the Metaverse & Virtual Reality! They also created illusions at the Trick Eye Museum.
INFOCOMM CLUB
A key event that the Infocomm Club experienced this term was a photography workshop by the exPresident of Infocomm Club, Felix. Felix exhibited great passion in photography and chose to give back to his juniors by sharing his knowledge and skills with his juniors who share similar interests.
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Our L & O students presenting their story boards during an Apple Programme Session
Secondary 1 L & O Recruits learning how to make their very own gifs!
A Closing Note!
The MFSS Publicity team is thrilled to share our very first e-newsletter, designed and published in-house.
We made the shift from an annual yearbook to a termly newsletter to provide you with more frequent updates. We also wanted to better engage you through the type of stories we share and aim to cover a range of events in day to day Mayflowerian life.
While we cover school-wide and level programmes, our team will also be on the ground, curating exciting stories about the engaging programmes and lessons that our teachers work hard to create.
Feel that we missed out an important story? Just approach any one of our friendly Publicity Comm members!
What's Next?
Mayflower’s Applied Mayflower’s Applied Learning Programme Learning Programme
Mother Tongue Mother Tongue
Fortnight Fortnight
Lower Secondary Lower Secondary
Dance Competition Dance Competition
Department Department
Programmes Programmes
National School Games National School Games
SYF Arts Presentations
SYF Arts Presentations & much more! & much more!
@mayflowersec
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