Issue 1 / Jul 2020
THE BROOKSIAN TIMES Latest news from Northbrooks Secondary
PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE By Mr Nick Chan
Dear parents and the Northbrooks community, 'Every Brooksian a Champion, Impacting the Community'. This was Northbrooks’ vision when we welcomed our inaugural Secondary 1 batch in 2000. In the blink of an eye, 20 years have passed and the school celebrates two decades of providing a student-centric, values driven and holistic education for all our students. Indeed, Northbrooks has much to celebrate. Our Class of 2019 graduates have done well and are pursuing their next phase of life confidently. Our teachers have also earned recognition for the quality work they have put in. Last year, Mr Ramasamy Venugopal (SH Design & Technology) was a winner of
the Outstanding STEM Teacher Award and Physical Education teacher Mr Sanjay Radakrishna was a recipient of the Singapore Coach Medallion. We are also proud of Mr Alex Ang (SH Student Leadership & Outdoor Education), who is a finalist of this year’s Outstanding Youth in Education Award.
school premises clean and safe. With many school activities suspended or cancelled, the schooling experience for our Brooksians has been altered to some extent. Nevertheless, our teachers have leveraged opportunities for teachable moments arising from Covid19. Our students have also shown their appreciation towards frontline, essential and migrant workers throughout this period of time too. You can read more about the school’s efforts in handling Covid-19 and full home-based learning on pages 3 and 4.
The school has also witnessed growth in several ways. In terms of student enrolment, we have added another Secondary 1 class this year compared to 2019. After a year-long wait, the school can now use our newly-constructed Indoor Sports Hall. You can read more about the ISH on page 2. We are also Finally, as we approach Singapore’s grateful that *Dr T. Chandroo has agreed birthday next month, let us draw to be of our school’s first patron. inspiration from one of our Secondary 3 students, Cindy Lim (below). She was Amid our school's 20th anniversary once a stateless individual and had to celebration, 2020 has also proven to be overcome many hardships before challenging due to the Covid-19 obtaining her much-treasured pandemic. Nevertheless, it has been Singapore citizenship three years ago. heartening to see Team Northbrooks coming together to overcome these As the nation pushes on in its fight unprecedented times. I am encouraged against Covid-19, here’s wishing you a by the professionalism among staff in Happy National Day in advance. Let us carrying out instructions and continue to persevere and emerge precautionary measures effectively. Our stronger and more resilient as a result. EAS team and cleaners have also been working tirelessly to keep the Thank you. Soaring Yet Rooted!
FACES OF NORTHBROOKS Bringing you closer to
Cindy Lim By Chloe Angela Sanchez Jaucian (3G)
Growing up, Cindy Lim's (3E) childhood was unlike many of her Singaporean peers. While they worried mainly about their studies, Cindy and her parents worried about how they would pay her school fees. Cindy’s situation was due to the fact that she was stateless. Though she was born here, she was not recognised as a citizen of Singapore at birth. Cindy’s mother is an Indonesian on a long-term pass while her father was stateless himself because he had renounced his Malaysian citizenship. He was also not a Singaporean as he did not enlist for national service. “I had feelings of anger, sadness and confusion. I was angry at the fact that I
Please treasure your citizenship as it does not come easy for some people. was born and raised in Singapore my whole life yet I wasn’t a Singaporean.” These feelings became even more prominent when she realised how different things were for her in
comparison to her peers. While their red passports meant they could enter or leave the country easily, Cindy’s green ‘passport’ only certified her identity. She would usually have to spend at least an hour at the immigration office before she could travel overseas. Cindy and her family’s biggest worries were, however, related to their finances. Her parents had to pay more for her Continued on page 4.