Annual Report 2014-15

Annual Report 2014-15

Annual Report 2014-15

A World Leader in E d u c at i o n C u lt i vat i n g E xc e p t i o n a l Thinkers P r e pa r e d f o r the Future

Contents SECTION 1 A VISION FOR LEARNING

From the Board Chair From the Superintendent Desired Student Learning Outcomes Strategic Programs Integrated Technology

8 10 12 14 16

SECTION 2 AN EXEMPLARY AMERICAN EDUCATION Curriculum Overview Elementary School Middle School High School Assessing the Results College Admissions Support Services SpeakerSeries@SAS Academic Visitors-in-Residence Extracurricular Activities

20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38

SECTION 3 AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE World Language Interim Semester Classroom Without Walls Service Learning

44 46 48 50

SECTION 4 THE SAS FAMILY Admissions Human Resources Parent Teacher Association Booster Club Alumni Relations

54 56 58 60 62

SECTION 5 FACILITIES Comprehensive Stewardship

66

SECTION 6 RESOURCING AN EXCELLENT EDUCATION Financial Review Philanthropy The SAS Foundations Honor Roll of Donors

74 76 80

SECTION 7 THE SAS STORY Telling the SAS Story Senior Signoff

86 88

5

Section 1

A VISION FOR

LEARNING

Annual Report 2014-15

7

From the

SAS Board Chair Catherine Poyen Zemans SAS Board Chair

It is an enormous privilege to join the superintendent and other members of the SAS Board in leading this great school.

committed parents who volunteer their time and financial expertise, oversees all of these investments and reports to the board’s finance committee.

This report details the work of just the past year. It underscores not only our many successes, but also the incredible amount of work by every member of the school to achieve our vision: A world leader in education, cultivating exceptional thinkers, prepared for the future.

Board Governance

We started out several years ago with a question: “The world is changing; how do we prepare our students for the future?” This evolved into action. First, the community worked with the board to define our aspirations and to recruit a strategic and forward-thinking superintendent to lead our school. Dr. Chip Kimball and his team of administrators and faculty conducted global research and developed recommendations for curricular and program changes that have already begun transforming how our students learn and grow.

This report details the school’s accomplishments and plans for continued innovation. We encourage you to read it in detail.

The school board has also evolved considerably as the size and complexity of the school and operating environment requires increasing foresight. In addition to strategic planning, our role includes a fiduciary responsibility for the financial well-being of the school today and in the future.

Reserves and Endowment Several years ago the board began an effort to safeguard our financial future and diversify our sources of revenue.

Operating reserves were established to provide for a rainy day. Recognizing that our extraordinary facilities were provided to us by a prior generation of parents, monies were set aside for upgrades to our campus.

Monies were also set aside in an endowment with the goal of reducing our dependence on tuition in the future. The investment advisory committee, a group of

Annual Report 2014-15

The board is also responsible for setting school policy.

In 2014-15, we concluded a multi-year look at all our policies. With the advice of experts in school governance associated with the National Association of Independent Schools and East Asia Regional Council of Schools, we have adopted new policies that better reflect strategic governance. We have also created a process review committee to oversee an annual internal audit of school processes and procedures and report to the board’s governance committee.

Community and Giving As a member of the board, it is also my privilege to be part of a long tradition of parents giving back to SAS. Our school community today is the result of a long and rich tradition of volunteerism, and a shared understanding that everyone must give what they can to SAS – be it time or financial support – to support the school’s innovative work of today and to leave a legacy for students in the future. Today’s students are the beneficiaries of prior generations of parents and corporations who gave selflessly to the school, and whose generosity and financial contributions continue to benefit students today. In recent years, we have focused increasingly on advancement, also known as fundraising, which we see as integral to achieve our vision and leave a legacy for future students. In this strategic initiative, we are helped by our new chief advancement officer, Sarah Morris, and foundation board members in the US and Singapore who include current parents, alumni, parents of former students, and our past two superintendents.

Fiscal and Operational Oversight The prudent management of the school’s financial resources and the checks and balances offered by the annual audit of processes, policies, and administrative regulations are steps we have taken to further our fiduciary obligations toward the financial well-being

of the school. Parents trust us with their children, their tuition dollars, and their donations. We appreciate the trust you place in the school, and are committed to ensuring that your money is in safe hands.

committee when I thank you all for the privilege of serving SAS. We strongly encourage each member of our community to contribute to the school as they can, to attend school meetings and functions, and to continue building our community together for the benefit of our students today and those who will follow.

I know I speak for my fellow board members and each of the parent volunteers on the foundation boards, the investment advisory committee, and the process review

SAS Board Members 2014-15

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4

9

1

Anita Tan Langlois

2

Ashok Lalwani

3

Brent Smith

4

Catherine Poyen Zemans

5

Crystal Hayling

6

Cynthia Sung

7

Devin Kimble

8

Ilian Mihov

9

Kevin Meehan

10

Maria Warner Wong

11

Paul Bernard

9

From the

Superintendent Dr. Chip Kimball Superintendent

Since our founding in 1956, a full decade before Singapore declared its own independence, Singapore American School has been on the leading edge of preparing students for their future.

Sixty years later, the entire community of SAS faculty, instructional assistants, administrators, and operational staff join together every day for one single purpose: to support our students in their personal learning journey.

Thanks to this extensive commitment, the 2014-15 school year at Singapore American School was a phenomenal year characterized by deep and lasting learning for our students, as well as innovation and leadership for our school.

As we have continued to make progress toward fulfilling our vision, we have come to recognize that to be truly exemplary we need to have an organizational culture that is well defined and deliberate. As such, last year we identified three essential cultural components that we call our strategic anchors: a culture of excellence, a culture of extraordinary care, and a culture of possibilities. These anchors are integral to our vision and are a filter by which we can make every decision and pursue every activity in the best interest of the students we serve.

We understand that when excellence, extraordinary care, and a culture of possibilities all converge, we create the optimal conditions for our students to truly achieve their potential and become world leaders in any field they choose.

This annual report is our opportunity to assess our progress toward becoming a world leader in education, cultivating exceptional thinkers, prepared for the future. It tells the story of an amazing year for our school and helps us as an organization to determine whether we are truly meeting our goals for student learning.

This year’s report reflects the SAS vision for learning, part of which is the continuation of our multi-year research and development process. After completing a research year and a development year, faculty teams from our

Annual Report 2014-15

early childhood center, elementary school, and middle school presented findings and recommendations for the future of SAS. Those recommendations were endorsed by the administration and board and will shape our direction moving forward. All of the recommendations centered on our strategic anchors of excellence, extraordinary care, and possibilities.

High school recommendations, which were endorsed the year before, gave way to a year of capacity building.

There were more than 60 deliverables that the high school team made progress on through 2014-15, one of which was preparation for a new high school advisory program that was launched in August 2015.

In 2014-15, we finished the first year in a two-year process of a comprehensive review for our counseling programs (K-12 and college counseling), health/PE, and science, and implemented recommendations from our support services review. And in each division, our faculty engaged in the professional learning community structure to collaborate on curriculum, share best practices, use assessment data to monitor student growth, and continuously improve their craft.

This year’s annual report also outlines our programs that provide an exemplary American educational experience as well as how we incorporate an international perspective into our curriculum. We focus on the key performance indicators by which we measure success, as well as on the faculty, staff, students, parents, and alumni who make up the SAS community.

Readers will see that students who attend SAS compete successfully with the best students in the world.

Throughout last year we continued to have strong academics with outstanding test scores. Students were challenged and demonstrated deep and high-level learning every day. They pursued studies and activities in their areas of passion. SAS students ranked at the top internationally in debate, Math Counts mathematics, National History Day competitions, robotics, and writing.

They performed well in every athletic season and sport,

A World Leader in Education Cultivating Exceptional Thinkers Prepared for the Future while demonstrating their character and sportsmanship through The Eagle Way. SAS performances in visual and performing arts continued to amaze audiences, with 373 students participating in the student-led and student-directed Nutcracker performance, among others.

Perhaps most important, our students were dedicated, engaged, and articulate, and when asked, they could answer what they were learning, why they were learning it, and why it will make a difference in their future.

Finally, we outline in the 2014-15 annual report how SAS resources an excellent education. A financial review is included, as well as updates on philanthropy and giving through SAS Foundation donations.

Every educator in our school community holds a genuine commitment to creating a culture of excellence, a culture of extraordinary care, and a culture of possibilities. And when a school of this caliber continues to aggressively pursue true excellence, extraordinary care, and possibilities over the decades as we have, it means that we go places that few other schools can.

As we head into Singapore American School’s 60th anniversary year, I am honored and humbled by all that the school has achieved and I am inspired by all the possibilities that lie before our students. In publishing this year’s annual report, we are proud to articulate our unity of purpose to positively change our students’ lives and to lead in best practices of what education can be.

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Desired student

Learning outcomes

Jennifer Sparrow Executive Director of Teaching and Learning Singapore American School is proud of the results that it achieves in academics, but recognizes that academic achievement alone is not sufficient to classify itself as a great school. To prepare students for academic, professional, and interpersonal success, a great school needs to go beyond traditional academics to expand its understanding of what is required of a 21st century education and monitor the growth and achievement in these areas.

Through the process of developing the vision and desired student learning outcomes, SAS identified seven critical 21st century skills: character, collaboration, communication, content knowledge, creativity, critical thinking, and cultural competence.

SAS is committed to ensuring that all students attain these critical skills and this has been a focus of our multi-year research and development efforts. Character, collaboration, and cultural competence will be nurtured through the deepening of relationships, between students and their peers as well as students and teachers.

Communication and content knowledge will be targeted through the personalization of learning progressions and the implementation of a guaranteed curriculum, while critical thinking and creativity will be addressed through practices like inquiry, project-based learning, and Catalyst projects.

By keeping our focus on these 21st century skills throughout the implementation of our research and development deliverables, we will cultivate exceptional thinkers prepared for whatever their futures bring.

CONTENT KNOWLEDGE

Content knowledge provides students with the fundamental knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in college, career, and life. This builds a strong foundation from which graduates can learn, organize, evaluate, apply, and create new information.

CULTURAL COMPETENCE

Cultural competence requires the ability to interact effectively with people of different cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds. Students gain an awareness of their own cultural worldview, cross cultural skills, and a positive attitude toward cultural differences.

Annual Report 2014-15

CHARACTER

Character engages both the heart and mind. It focuses students on how they experience and express themselves with others and ultimately helps them improve the world around them. SAS focuses on developing grit, zest, respect, compassion, and integrity.

COLLABORATION

Collaboration encourages students to work effectively and respectfully with diverse teams, assume shared responsibility for collaborative work, and exercise flexibility and willingness to be helpful in making necessary compromises to accomplish a common goal.

COMMUNICATION

Communication requires students to use effective interpersonal skills during conversations to build positive relationships and promote collaborative learning. It also requires students to deliver effective oral, written, and media presentations to diverse audiences.

CRITICAL THINKING

Critical thinking requires students to collect, assess, and analyze relevant information, reason effectively, use systems thinking, make sound judgments and decisions, identify, define, and solve authentic problems and essential questions, and reflect critically.

CREATIVITY

Creativity and innovation frees students to explore idea generation, design, and refinement. It encourages students to find fresh solutions to common problems. It asks students to meet unexpected problems with unexpected responses.

13

STRATEGIC

PROGRAMS

Dr. Tim Stuart Executive Director of Research and Development and Strategic Programs

Research and Development As a world leader in education, cultivating exceptional thinkers, prepared for the future, we continue to pursue a comprehensive research and development (R&D) process. A four-year, four-stage process was developed to thoughtfully manage the transformation and to ensure the maximum success and sustainability of new programs.

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The development phase gave divisional teams the opportunity to devise a school reform proposal based on their research and school visits.

The capacity building phase allows each division to build capacity within their team to implement their plan at the highest level. This includes professional development, schedule changes, and new course development.

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The research phase was designed to give each division time to dive deep into educational literature about 21st century learning, and to learn from schools that are on the cutting edge of teaching and learning.

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Annual Report 2014-15

Once capacity is built, divisions enter the implementation phase, which is a one-to-five year process.

To date, the R&D process has involved over 75 teachers and administrators who have studied best practices at schools around the globe. In addition to speaking with over 100 college admissions officers on campus, the superintendent and executive director of R&D and strategic programs met with admissions officers from universities such as Stanford, Duke, MIT, Berkeley, Northwestern University, University of British Columbia, Columbia University, and others, to update them on changes happening at SAS and to learn how such change might impact student admission to these universities.

By the end of 2014-15, the early childhood center, elementary, middle school, and high school had all completed and submitted R&D proposals. These proposals were approved by the cabinet and endorsed by the school board.

The high school spent the 2014-15 year building capacity for the new advisory program to be launched in the 2015-16 school year. Additionally, the high school piloted the Advanced Placement Capstone Diploma program, continued to increase capacity for the Senior Catalyst Project required for all students beginning with the Class of 2017, offered an interdisciplinary World Studies course as an alternative to English 9 and World History, and started the challenging work of creating exciting new advanced topic courses as an alternative to AP. The middle school’s R&D recommendations centered around relationship building through a redesigned and repurposed home base program, creating an articulated service learning plan and interdisciplinary mini-mesters, redesigning learning spaces, and making time and space for students to pursue their interests and passions through activities such as Tri-Time and a gateway project.

The elementary school development team identified four main areas of recommendations based on findings around well-being, personalized learning and inquiry, language immersion, and structural changes to support these innovative opportunities.

The ECC development team recommended that the early childhood center become a Reggio Emilia-inspired

learning environment. This recommendation was based on the team’s research findings, their commitment to a personalized inquiry approach to learning, and their dedication to continue enhancing extraordinary care for every learner.

Summer Semester Singapore American School opened a new learning frontier for SAS and non-SAS students by introducing a Summer Semester in June 2015. Summer Semester created preschool to grade 12 programs that focused on the whole child and offered project-based and interdisciplinary learning opportunities in three distinct categories: intellectual curiosity, creative expression, and sports and wellness. In elementary school, these categories were seamlessly integrated as part of the child’s day as they pursued their interests through individual projects. Middle school students were required to select one course in each of these areas, while high

school students were given the opportunity to dive deep and focus on one area of interest for the session.

We partnered with leaders in a variety of fields to offer programs not available elsewhere in Singapore. These strategic partners designed programs for the SAS Summer Semester student. Summer Semester partners included: Columbia University Business School, Stanford University Pre-Collegiate Studies in association with V-Campus, DigiPen Institute of Technology, and Real Madrid Football Club.

World Leading Partners Singapore American School partners with world leaders in a variety of fields to offer pioneering learning opportunities. Partners who designed programs for SAS students in 2014-15 include School Year Abroad, Rustic Pathways, and Solution Tree.

Integrated

Technology

Jason Cone Executive Director Of Technology We assess all of our programming by asking how technology can enhance learning at SAS. As a result, our student learning has become more customized, collaborative, and expansive.

We partner with strategic technological partners to deliver the most innovative practices for integrating technology into the classroom and student experiences beyond our campus walls.

With 1:1 device programs, Apple TVs in every classroom, and a school-wide wireless internet connection, we seamlessly streamline these efforts.

In each division, educational technology coaches guide teachers, work with students, run digital citizenship boot camps, host parent information coffees, and team up with counselors to lead the way in creative technological approaches to teaching and learning.

Technology Strategic Objective

Apple Distinguished School Singapore American School was named an Apple Distinguished School, one of only eight in Southeast Asia. The Apple Distinguished School honor is reserved for programs that meet criteria for innovation, leadership, and educational excellence, and demonstrate a clear vision of an exemplary learning environment.

19 Annual Report 2014-15

Conferences/Workshops Hosted, Presented, and Led Members of the SAS educational technology team presented or led sessions at conferences around the region and the world. This provides exposure for SAS as an innovative institution and demonstrates that we value technology and contribute to the learning of others in this field.

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Apple Distinguished Educators SAS has one of the largest number of Apple Distinguished Educators for a single school in the world.

Google Certified Teachers SAS has one of the largest number of Google Certified Teachers for a single school in the world.

Technology Strategic Objective

Infrastructure Student Devices

1,412 1,909 iPads

Laptops

Google Apps for Education Accounts

Apple TV

376

Desktops

SAS has a 1:1 computing program from grades one to 12 with iPads and laptops.

361

9,000+

Devices

GAFE Accounts

All classrooms and learning spaces are equipped with wireless projection with Apple TVs.

SAS uses Google Apps for Education to support innovation, collaboration,communication, productivity, and creativity.

Technology Strategic Objective

COMMUNITIES

8

Parent Engagement Events

International Research Collaborative

SAS is committed to building a strong partnership with our parent community. SAS educational technology team members and administrators plan regular opportunities to educate and collaborate with parents at all divisions.

SAS is a founding member of an international research project gathering data from over 10,000 students on the impact of technology on learning.

• Speaker Series “Tech Talks” • Robyn Treyvaud: Digital Citizenship Student Panel • Tech-Focused Parent Coffees • ES 1:1 iPad Roll Outs • MS Parent Coffee on Laptop Agreements for Home • MS 1:1 Parent Handoff Afternoons • MS Laptop BootCamp Survey • Grade 5 BootCamp

Microsoft Coding and Game Design

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Students participated in an SAS-hosted AmCham Community Connections event where they learned coding and game design principles.

2000

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Student Blogs Starting in elementary school, students create personalized blogs to showcase and reflect on learning throughout their academic career at SAS.

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Section 2

AN EXEMPLARY AMERICAN EDUCATION

Annual Report 2014-15

19

Curriculum

overview

Treena Casey Director of Curriculum Singapore American School provides a comprehensive and sequential documented curriculum for preschool through grade twelve. Curriculum is developed on a renewal cycle and schoolwide mapping system.

and have been making a difference for students. The key ingredient for improving vocabulary and grammar is to read and write daily in a rich literate environment, the core of our middle school literacy program.

All curriculum is standards-based, aligned to the most current recommendations of professional associations in the United States, and collaboratively developed with faculty to ensure rigor.

Faculty established common design terms across the school to provide a common, non-linear, design language that vertically aligns terminology and approaches at school. This design language can also drive student and teacher thinking in inquiry pedagogy and project-based learning contexts.

In professional learning communities (PLCs), teachers ensure that all students are appropriately challenged and that interventions are in place for students who need them.

Part of the work of each schoolwide PLC in 201415 was to establish agreement on essential learning targets and common assessments, examine student work, define expectations, and analyze learning data.

Teams developed interventions for struggling students and extensions for students who excel. By sharing instructional strategies that have proven effective, student learning improved.

An example of an enhanced instructional approach was in the reading progress data in grade one. Data was analyzed, targeted for areas of concern, appropriate interventions were researched, and strategies to support students were developed and applied. Other examples include elementary school Chinese language teachers developing a culture of reflection. This involved peer observations in English-speaking classrooms, English for speakers of other languages classrooms, and other Chinese language classrooms. The focus was student engagement, grouping strategies, differentiation, and technology integration. Many teachers made significant changes in their learning environment, teaching structures, and strategies as a result of these experiences.

Middle school reading language arts introduced two key resources that have greatly enhanced instruction in vocabulary acquisition and grammar based on PLC feedback. These resources are part of the next generation of interactive responsive online programs,

Annual Report 2014-15

SAS was host to a number of expert consultants in 2014-15, including mathematics expert Dr. Steve Leinwand, who spent time with all elementary grade levels developing and refining rigorous assessment tasks aligned to Common Core expectations. All classrooms focused on math practices with particular attention on: • Making sense of problems and persevering to solve them; • Reasoning abstractly and quantitatively; • Constructing viable arguments and critiquing the reasoning of others; and • Modeling with mathematics.

With a focus on standards-based assessment, feedback on formative assessments, and the move to standardsbased grading, students have become increasingly well-versed in expectations and performance criteria.

Rubrics that define performance levels are used across each division. In addition to clear guidelines regarding assessment and grading, PLCs use common rubrics and scoring guides to ensure grading consistency by teachers of the same subject at the same grade level.

Each year SAS examines at least one subject area to focus on best practices and appropriate desired student learning outcome integration. This research also helps determine the best programs and resources for implementing the curriculum.

On cycle for renewal during the 2014-15 year was science

and physical education and health. Our renewal cycle noted that SAS science faculty have an engaging science learning environment rich in resources such as the solar array, rainforest garden, and maker space equipment.

Our students also consistently outperform their US counterparts on all Advanced Placement science exams.

As part of the science renewal, time was dedicated to determine how we might best make connections among science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to provide a more integrated curriculum. We also worked to align the SAS curriculum, assessments, technology, resources, and pedagogy with Next Generation Science Standards, to encourage progression of learning and smooth transitions between divisions, further integrate desired student learning outcomes into the program, explore inquiry and project-based learning and interdisciplinary education, and coordinate rainforest, maker space, and nursery resources.

The physical education and health program renewal cycle commendations included student understanding of what they need to do to be successful in the program, teachers giving students effective instruction and feedback in an appropriately challenging, safe environment which encourages risk taking and multiple entry points, and positive communication and relationships with faculty within world-class facilities. Moving forward, we will work toward vertical curriculum alignment informed by US SHAPE National Standards, improved communication to parents and students about student learning, differentiated instruction methods, structured PLCs, technological integration, a health curriculum review, and more physical learning opportunities.

Elementary

school

David Hoss Elementary School Principal Elementary school had a number of significant accomplishments in 2014-15, as a result of the efforts of our dedicated faculty and staff.

One Elementary Division The elementary school successfully transitioned from two distinct divisions (primary and intermediate) into a single elementary division encompassing kindergarten through grade five. A structure was established with the principal, deputy principals, counselors, coaches, and our teachers, ensuring tight alignment within and throughout grade levels.

Research and Development The elementary and early childhood center research and development teams’ recommendations are not only wellaligned with SAS’s strategic direction, but also come from one year of research into best practices worldwide.

Our development teams’ recommendations are based on well-being, personalized learning and inquiry, language immersion, and structural changes that provide each student with innovative opportunities. They will also provide a more personalized, caring environment where each student is known and where the joy of learning is fostered. The early childhood development team also completed their year of research, and their primary recommendation was to embrace a Reggio Emilia philosophy moving forward.

Annual Report 2014-15

Math We reviewed the scope and sequence of the Common Core math curriculum and tightened its alignment to the present enVision math materials. This ensured that we are using the best informational research and resources to support the identified learning outcomes for each grade level. We also reviewed our math MAP scores, which showed that our students’ achievement in math continues to be strong.

For students on both ends of the spectrum needing additional support or enrichment, we introduced an acceleration block-scheduling component. Students participating in the acceleration block experienced high levels of growth based on their MAP scores.

Professional Growth We continued to support our staff within their classrooms. We fully implemented a new evaluation system for all elementary school teachers and visited classrooms regularly to offer faculty feedback, support, and encouragement based on their teaching styles, relationships, and classroom environments.

We are excited about our accomplishments and believe we are positioned to continue offering a challenging, exciting, and cutting-edge educational opportunity for our youngest learners.

Top Ten Elementary School Highlights

MODEL PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY 1 The elementary school was recognized by Solution Tree as a model PLC.

2 SUCCESSFUL ELEMENTARY TRANSITION 3 RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT APPROVAL 4 PROFESSIONAL GROWTH AND EXCELLENCE 5 COMMON CORE MATH 6 ACCELERATED LEARNING 7 STRONG MAP TEST RESULTS 8 PERSONALIZED LEARNING EXTRACURRICULAR EXCELLENCE 9 ATTENTION TO DETAIL 10

The elementary school successfully completed the transition from primary and intermediate divisions to one elementary division.

The elementary school received overwhelming approval of its R&D recommendations from the cabinet and endorsement from the board.

We successfully implemented an evaluation system that helps SAS staff grow and develop as professionals.

Our math teams successfully reviewed the Common Core math curriculum and finalized unit structures that reflect how we will present each math unit.

The incorporation of a new acceleration block within the grade levels produced outstanding progress for some of our learners who need it most.

MAP results demonstrated that our students continue to outperform their US and EARCOS peers.

Pilot work was done across the grade levels to introduce personalized and project-based learning.

We offered fantastic specialist opportunities for our students in the areas of art, music, world language, science, ESOL, and PE/swimming in which our students excelled in many ways.

The elementary school focused on the needs of each learner in classrooms and saw students progress and grow.

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Middle

School

Devin Pratt Middle School Principal In 2014-15, we continued to support students’ academic, social, and emotional growth through a variety of programs that developed interests, extended academic challenge, and facilitated service and sports opportunities that connected students to the school.

Students from all grade levels planned, participated in, and took ownership in a positive student-focused culture.

Study SAS students competed in the regional MathCounts competition, and one of our students became an international team representative at the US national competition. Junior Model United Nations students practiced diplomacy, learned about current events, wrote, persuaded, and collaborated in a professional setting.

Middle school students did well in a regional National History Day competition, and a number went on to the Washington, DC finals where we had teams place first and second for their authentic work as historians.

Service Every sixth grade student incorporated their learning about water and the environment into an opportunity to support individual projects that rasied money for awareness in this crucial area of environmental concern.

Seventh graders used their persuasive speaking and writing skills to seek micro-loans for small businesses in developing countries. Independent eighth

Annual Report 2014-15

graders served communities in many ways including house-building, community service, and independent service-based projects. While all students experienced service learning in the regular curriculum, they also developed an interest in service through extra-curricular activities. Students supported a fundraising effort to turn our campus rainforest into a living lab, visited and built relationships with a local children’s organization, participated in a campaign to raise funds for Nepal earthquake victims, and participated in our first studentorganized cancer awareness run. Service is an important component of a strong middle school program, offering students a chance to think outside themselves toward a wider community.

SPORT Our newly developed intramural program structure now includes basketball and volleyball and offered students not on representative school teams the opportunity to develop skills, play on a team, and build friendships.

The adult-supervised program had high school student coaches, uniforms, a draft, and tournaments. High school students served as strong role models, and our middle school students enjoyed the camaraderie.

Our participation in the development of the Athletic Conference of Singapore International Schools (ACSIS) allowed students strong competition without leaving Singapore.

Top Ten Middle School Highlights

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 1

Building on extensive research completed the year before, the middle school development team developed a comprehensive multi-year plan for future student learning experiences.

CLASSROOM WITHOUT WALLS 2

Teacher leaders ran a one-week Classroom Without Walls program, continuing to offer relationship development and provide a sense of belonging for students.

STANDARDS-BASED GRADING 3

The implementation of standards-based grading with a parent education component moved the school to best practices in assessment and reporting.

MATH COMMON CORE 4

The completion of the implementation of the math Common Core standards in sixth through eighth grades ensured a deeper conceptual understanding of math.

LAPTOP BOOT CAMP 5

Teachers and administrators designed a two-day student orientation and sixth grade laptop boot camp to support all students.

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES 6

Teacher collaboration in professional learning communities resulted in program consistency, common assessments, and faculty professional development.

LEADERSHIP TRANSITION 7

We successfully transitioned middle school leadership at the end of 2014-15 from Devin Pratt to Lauren Mehrbach for the 2015-16 year.

PARENT-TEACHER RELATIONSHIPS 8 Parent-teacher conferences cemented parent-teacher relationships.

9 KID CHATS 10 LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY

Interdisciplinary grade level teams met in regularly scheduled “kid chat� meetings, sharing opportunities to support students with their affective and academic needs.

Chinese, Spanish, and French programs implemented a new proficiency-based language program, which ensured that students use their language skills to communicate more authentically.

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High

school

Dr. Darin Fahrney High School Principal 2014-15 was a breakout year for the Singapore American School high school division. The school underwent significant renewal to support our collective efforts to ensure all students reach high levels of learning academically, socially, and emotionally. Great steps were taken to ensure that our students are indeed “future ready” for the ever-changing world they will encounter. Though it was a time of great change, we are pleased to say some things stayed very much the same: our students’ world class performance in academic measures, extraordinary extracurricular accolades earned, exceptional college acceptances, and our students’ relentless service to others.

A Culture of Excellence Our students shined academically during the 201415 school year. Students were able to benefit from mentors from around Singapore and internationally to support their unique learning needs and interests.

The combination of access to experts in the field and our inspired students resulted in unparalleled student work. A curricular review showed that nearly every senior student took at least one college level course during their SAS career with some taking as many as 15. SAS high school students continued our longstanding competitive extracurricular excellence as well, with multiple Interscholastic Association of Southeast Asian Schools (IASAS) gold medals in athletics, drama, debate, and the fine arts.

Annual Report 2014-15

A Culture of Possibilities Our high school faculty and students demonstrated their continued commitment to our culture of possibilities this year by laying the groundwork for a host of innovative programs. Global Online Academy, School Year Abroad, APEx, and the Senior Catalyst Project are just a few of the new offerings available to help our students reach new levels.

A Culture of Extraordinary Care Our high school culture of extraordinary care grew even stronger as a yearlong process involving student input, professional learning, program development, and prototyping for the full implementation of a divisionwide advisory program.

We are excited to watch as our students reap the fruits of our collective labors well into the future. The continued development of our culture of excellence, culture of possibilities, and culture of extraordinary care have positioned the high school well to realize our schoolwide vision of becoming a world leader in education, cultivating exceptional thinkers, prepared for the future.

Top Ten High School Highlights

1 COLLEGE BOARD EXAMS 2 A PERFECT SCORE 3 CARE FOR KATHMANDU 4 GLOBAL ONLINE ACADEMY 5 SCHOOL YEAR ABROAD

The 2014-15 year marked the most Advanced Placement exams taken in SAS history, with 628 students completing 1,593 College Board examinations.

Our culture of excellence produced another year of 100 percent of our students being accepted to college.

Student-led Executive Service Council rallied to the aid of Nepal after the tragic earthquake. Our students led a communitywide fundraising effort resulting in over $70,000 of contributions in only 30 days.

Global Online Academy launched, allowing our students to have access to a vast array of meaningful, rigorous courses not currently offered at SAS.

We were awarded acceptance into the prestigious School Year Abroad consortium. School Year Abroad allows our students the opportunity to study internationally for a year with their peers from other high performing schools in Spain, France, Italy, and China.

6 ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE AND EXERCISE CENTER 7 ADVISORY PREPARATION

(APEx) A combined faculty and student development team worked tirelessly in the 2014-15 year to lay the groundwork for the 2015-16 launch of phase one of our APEx fitness program.

We undertook a yearlong process of student input, professional learning, program development, and prototyping in preparation for the full implementation of a divisionwide advisory program. Advisory will ensure that each student feels known, cared for, and connected to the school.

8 TEDXYOUTH@SAS 9 ONE DEGREE NORTH 10 ARTS

A student-led team oversaw the first annual TEDxYouth event that included student, faculty, and guest speakers.

Our robotics team qualified for a third consecutive year for the world For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) robotics competition held in St. Johns, Newfoundland.

The Nutcracker, Return to the Forbidden Planet, and Carmina Burana were just a few of the amazing shows performed by our talented student musicians, actors, and dancers.

27

Assessing

The results

Jennifer Sparrow Executive Director of Teaching and Learning

Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) assessments in reading, math, and language use are administered to students in grades three through nine. MAP assessments are criterion-referenced, meaning they generate a score based on a level of knowledge and skill, not dependent on grade level.

001 1

2

AP

1

Our average scores in each grade level and subject are higher than the average scores of the US and East Asia Regional Council of Schools (EARCOS) comparison groups. This puts SAS at the 99th percentile as a school for all grade levels in all sections. This means that our average score in each grade was as good as or better than the average scores of 99 percent of all other schools worldwide that administered the same MAP assessments.

Number of exams completed

ading Re

Grade 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

SAS 209 219 224 229 233 237 237

EARCOS 201 208 215 218 223 226 228

NWEA 199 206 212 216 218 220 222

1,350

Number of students taking exams

580

Exams with a 4

u a ng ag

e

L

hemati at

cs

M

32%

Annual Report 2014-15

Grade 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

SAS 216 232 239 240 246 254 254

EARCOS 208 220 230 232 241 247 250

NWEA 203 214 221 225 229 231 233

Grade 3 4 5 6 7 8

SAS 210 217 222 228 232 234

EARCOS 204 210 216 220 224 226

NWEA 200 207 212 215 218 219

Exams with a 5

42%

SAS AP students with at least one AP score of 3, 4, or 5

96%

SAS exams receiving a 3,4, or 5

96%

Global exams receiving a 3, 4, or 5

60%

SAS continues to have one of the largest AP programs outside the US, with 30 AP courses and 628 students taking AP exams. AP participation at SAS rose

2

2

AP

401 1

AP

5

AP

301 1

4

2

AP

201 1

3

101 1

Globally, approximately 61 percent of AP exams generally receive scores of three, four, or five, but at SAS, more than 90 percent of students’ AP exams score a three or higher.

Among all students taking AP exams at SAS, 96 to 97 percent consistently receive at least one score in the three to five range.

2

Advanced Placement (AP) exams are standardized, criterion-referenced summative assessments. AP scores range from one to five, with scores of three or higher considered passing and eligible for waiving the equivalent college course at most US universities.

dramatically over the last three years, from 539 students completing 1,333 exams in 2012-13 to 628 students completing 1,593 exams in 2014-15.

2

Advanced Placement

Number of exams completed

Number of exams completed

Number of exams completed

Number of exams completed

Number of students taking exams

Number of students taking exams

Number of students taking exams

Number of students taking exams

Exams with a 4

Exams with a 4

Exams with a 4

Exams with a 4

Exams with a 5

Exams with a 5

Exams with a 5

Exams with a 5

SAS AP students with at least one AP score of 3, 4, or 5

SAS AP students with at least one AP score of 3, 4, or 5

SAS AP students with at least one AP score of 3, 4, or 5

SAS AP students with at least one AP score of 3, 4, or 5

SAS exams receiving a 3,4, or 5

SAS exams receiving a 3,4, or 5

SAS exams receiving a 3,4, or 5

SAS exams receiving a 3,4, or 5

Global exams receiving a 3, 4, or 5

Global exams receiving a 3, 4, or 5

Global exams receiving a 3, 4, or 5

Global exams receiving a 3, 4, or 5

1,345 550

32% 45% 96% 96% 62%

1,333 539

30% 48% 97% 97%

61%

1,422 593

31% 47% 97% 97% 61%

1,607 638

32% 41%

96% 96% 61%

29

College

Admissions College Admissions Ninety percent of 2015 SAS graduates will pursue higher education upon graduation, 8 percent will enter Singapore’s National Service, and the remainder will take a gap year or enter the workforce before college. SAS reports university matriculation for the last four graduating classes to account for the many students who are applying to universities using a different admission cycle, and to include students completing National Service who will begin university later.

20%

Non-US college, Singapore National Service, or gap year

80%

of the members of each graduating class will matriculate to US colleges and universities

Annual Report 2014-15

for Classes Ivy League Plus

Brown University Columbia University Cornell University Dartmouth College Harvard University Massachusetts Institute of Technology Princeton University Stanford University University of Pennsylvania Yale University

4 6 18 1 4 1 4 2 9 1

Other Selective Private Colleges Boston College Boston University Carnegie Mellon University Claremont McKenna College Colgate University Duke University Elon University Emory University Georgetown University George Washington University Johns Hopkins University Loyola Marymount University Northeastern University Northwestern University New York University Rice University Rutgers University Scripps College Tufts University University of Chicago University of Miami University of Southern California Washington University in St. Louis

9 19 17 7 3 8 11 5 5 11 3 10 31 18 37 8 2 2 4 9 6 11 9

s of 2012-15 Outside of the US

Australian National University University of British Columbia University of Cambridge University of Edinburgh University of Hong Kong Imperial College, London King’s College, London University College London McGill University University of Sydney University of Toronto Yale-NUS College, Singapore Yonsei University

2 30 2 3 2 3 3 2 17 4 5 1 12

US Public Universities

Admitting 5 or More Seniors Colorado State University Georgia Institute of Technology Indiana University Pennsylvania State University, University Park Purdue University Texas A&M University University of California, Los Angeles University of California, Berkeley University of California, San Diego University of Colorado University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign University of Michigan University of Oregon University of Texas, Austin University of Virginia University of Washington, Seattle

15 10 5 15 14 12 20 5 6 12 24 6 7 6 5 13

31

Support

Services

Laura Mohl Support Service Coordinator At Singapore American School we believe that all students can learn at high levels when given time and support and that it is our responsibility to empower students to achieve their highest potential. We recognize that we are forever striving to this standard of achievement and that it is our collective responsibility, as a school community, to meet the needs of our diverse student population. Support services personnel adhere to a growth mindset that goes along with education expert John Hattie’s assertion that a teacher’s role “is that of a change agent - that all students can learn and progress, that achievement for all is changeable and not fixed.”

Common Language & Practices With our 2013-14 action plans as the guiding compass of our work, support services experienced tremendous growth in all areas during the 2014-15 school year.

Streamlining our support services terminology and practices to ensure consistency across all divisions emerged as a priority, providing the future framework for support services. Efforts across all divisions established a common spoken and written language; for instance, using the term “learning support” rather than “resource” when referring to our formalized program to support identified students. To ensure that all stakeholders know and understand our common language, a support services Google site was created and linked to each division and the Office of Learning webpages.

At the elementary school, monthly K-5 support services meetings served as a venue to explore, collaborate, and align our vocabulary and practices. In all divisions, Response to Intervention (RTI) pyramids of intervention and, in some cases, acceleration, were created, which has allowed for consistency in our presentation and framework for services. Similarly, a support services IESP Helper Google site was introduced for the generation of Individual Education Support Plans (IESP) from preschool through grade 12. All IESPs are now housed and managed through a centralized support services account.

Professional Development SAS’s 2014-15 school-wide professional development

Annual Report 2014-15

focused on two main questions in relation to student learning: What do we do when a student does not get it?

What do we do when a student already knows it?

Our two-day September professional development sessions welcomed expert Austin Buffum who worked with Office of Learning members to target and differentiate professional development sessions to meet the individual needs of each division. In line with this work, faculty also attended three 75-minute Teachers Teaching Teachers sessions offered by their SAS peers who are experts in various areas of this work. Support services faculty shared their expertise as they facilitated sessions focusing on differentiation, intervention and extension strategies, and social emotional well-being.

Follow-up professional development days with experts in various fields, such as mathematics education researcher Steven Leinwand, provided coaches, teachers, professional learning communities, and divisional leaders time to collaborate, identify essential standards, and plan how to meet the needs of all students. Additionally, SAS works with Global Professional Development, a Solution Tree video and coaching resource, to help further our work with professional learning communities and Response to Intervention. Furthermore, various support services faculty attended conferences regarding English language learning, differentiation, inclusive international education, social thinking, gifted and talented education, and mindfulness training.

Response to Intervention In September 2014, each division set aside time to draft dynamic Pyramids of Intervention. Using the Solution Tree (Mattos) model, divisions developed pyramids, which describe the systems and structures in place to meet the needs of all students. In the 2015-16 school year, there will be a part-time behavioral interventionist on staff in the elementary division. The high school has also drafted a behavior pyramid of intervention, which was introduced to faculty at the start of the 2015-16 school year.

Flexible Scheduling Spurred by a strong foundation of best current practice, flexible scheduling has been prioritized school-wide.

The elementary and middle school divisions, steeped in the development phase of R&D, looked for creative ways to allow flexibility within the school day schedule for acceleration and passion time. In line with this work, grades three through five learning support teachers advocated for and implemented an accelerated block, 30 minutes for targeted interventions for identified students in skill areas of reading, such as comprehension, decoding, and fluency. Learning support teachers

collect data continually to monitor student growth during intervention time. Given its success this year, the accelerated block will be expanded in the 2015-16 school year. In the high school, advanced topic courses have been planned and two 30-minute blocks per week have been prioritized for the newly developed advisory program.

Looking Ahead In July 2015, SAS welcomed executive director of support services, Dr. Cindy Watters. We look forward to Dr. Watters’ leadership in all things support services-related.

Speakerseries@SAS Ali Cuozzo and Maureen Murray Volunteer Coordinators

SpeakerSeries@SAS hosts experts who address important and timely topics on parenting, child development, and family life. Funded by the SAS Foundation, SpeakerSeries is a volunteer, parent-run organization.

During the 2014-15 school year the series brought in several speakers who addressed a wide range of subjects that emerged from conversations with parents in the SAS community.

Robyn Treyvaud is an internationally recognized expert in online safety, digital citizenship, and the founder of Cyber Safe Kids. Ms. Treyvaud led a series of workshops focused on providing parents tips for managing screen time, online relationships and reputation, and the effect of sexually explicit material on teens. Together with school counselors, Ms. Treyvaud engaged parents in an open forum where parents explored complex safety

Annual Report 2014-15

issues their children might face online. She also engaged parents in discussions about the effects that pornography has on children and teens. Ms. Treyvaud used a variety of current studies to show how pornography damages the understanding and expectations that young people have of themselves and others within intimate relationships.

The SpeakerSeries@SAS also welcomed Dr. Michael Thompson, a clinical psychologist, school consultant, and international speaker on the subjects of children, schools, and parenting. He has authored nine books on child development, including the renowned Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys. Dr. Thompson addressed the issue of girls and overachievement, and how that impacts the relative underachievement of boys.

He also ran a workshop discussing different parenting styles used to help provide children with an internal foundation for ethical behavior.

35

Academic Visitors-

in-residence

Jennifer Sparrow Executive Director of Teaching and Learning Singapore American School is fortunate to have the Parent Teacher Association provide sponsorship for a comprehensive academic visitors-in-residence program. The program brings reowned authors, illustrators, artists, actors, and dance professionals to campus to work with students, allowing students to deeply understand the craft and work of professional artists and develop a lifelong appreciation for the arts.

Students are able to develop 21st century learning skills in relation to creativity and different modes of communication. As a bonus, teachers are able to develop new approaches for engaging their students in the arts. These visits result in a greater sense of community that connects the head and the heart.

Elementary School Music The elementary music artist-in-residence program provides the opportunity for hundreds of elementary students to experience the learning of world music with professional musicians who specialize in how to engage students through listening, singing, playing, creating, and moving to music. The intent of this residence program is to develop specific music skills, familiarize students with musicians who are engaged in their own musical careers, and to develop a lifelong appreciation and passion for music.

In 2014-15, Doug Goodkin was the music artistin-residence. His focus was on Orff Schulwerk, a dynamic approach to music education developed by Carl Orff. Mr. Goodkin is a master of introducing children to movement, body percussion, instruments, improvisation, how to experience music, and the music process while also providing our teachers with useful lesson plans and assessments.

Dance ECC Author/Illustrator Last year, author Todd Parr worked directly with students in the early childhood center over six days. He got them excited about books and reading and involved them in a shared writing and illustrating project. Parr modeled his thinking with students and showed them the tools he uses to inspire them to create their own stories.

Elementary School Author/Illustrator Candace Fleming worked with kindergarten and grade one students focusing on story elements using her younger level picture books. She was embedded in classrooms from grades two through five during writer’s workshop, saw each student twice, and guided students through writing strategies for creating fairy tales, poetry, persuasive writing, and fantasy writing. Eric Rohmann provided mini-lessons to all students from kindergarten through grade five in the art classrooms. His learning objective was to get students to create illustrations that told an accurate story.

Annual Report 2014-15

The dance artists-in-residence program helps students become familiar in specialized areas within the craft (e.g., styles of dance and choreography). In addition to further familiarization and development within specialized areas, students gain greater awareness and appreciation for the knowledge and skills required of professionals in dance.

Last year, we had the privilege of hosting two artists from Frantic Assembly, a United Kingdom physical theater company, to work with our classes on contact work, devising methods, and safe partner and group lifting techniques. These artists worked with our dance and drama classes, the IASAS Dance and Drama groups, and they were guest artists for IASAS Cultural Convention. Some of the other artists who worked with our students focused on specific dance styles, exposing students to Broadway dance, breakdance, and hip hop.

Visual Art

Theater

The visual artists-in-residence program provides an opportunity for Singapore American School to engage its students and staff to work with professional artists in sophisticated areas of medium and design. These experiences frequently culminate in a project in which students become more deeply familiar with the craft, as well as the knowledge and skills required of professional artists.

The middle school had three professional actors come to work with drama students throughout the year. Our first artist was Megan Campisi, an actor and director from New York City who focused on object theater, devising a Commedia D’el Arte.

In December, Matt Godfrey, an actor from Los Angeles, spent a few days at SAS in conjunction with the International School Theater Association festival hosted in Telunas. He ran various clowning workshops and worked on characterization and monologue work. In May, we hosted Louise Clark, an actress from the United Kingdom, who worked with the middle school in devising physical theater and puppetry. Each artist was able to work with all of the drama classes and also offer master workshops after school to students interested in working in depth.

Last year, we had the privilege of inviting Arturo Correa to Singapore American School to work with the middle school and high school art students. His focus was predominantly painting and mixed media.

Mr. Correa worked with Advanced Placement Art students to develop their portfolios. Juxtaposition was a focus for many of his sessions with students from middle school and high school. He was our guest artist for Cultural Convention, working with student delegates from all six IASAS schools.

Middle School Author The opportunity for students to interact with award-winning authors in a deep and meaningful way through a visiting author’s extended residency helps them understand and appreciate the value of exemplary writing. Each year, middle school reading language arts teachers determine a genre of writing they would like to deeply develop in their students, and then select an author who has demonstrated expertise within that genre. In addition to developing student skills in writing, the author-in-residence program provides a rich source of professional development for teachers in their collaborations with professional authors.

The middle school was fortunate to host Susan Campbell Bartoletti, award-winning author of both fiction and nonfiction books. Known for crafting rich, complex, and thoroughly-researched works that tackle dark eras and complicated characters, Bartoletti worked with students and teachers to craft accurate, authentic, and emotional narrative nonfiction. Her years as a grade eight teacher shined through as she led workshops and conferred with students.

The year was particularly significant at the high school because we hosted IASAS Drama and Dance. Thanks to the PTA visiting artist program, members of Frantic Assembly, recognised as one of the top three physical theater companies in the world, helped our drama and dance ensemble put the finishing touches on the combined IASAS production, Eurydice. They also gave workshops at IASAS and participated in the critique process.

In addition, Joachim Matschoss from Australia, conducted workshops and critiques for both SAS and IASAS theater students. Mr. Matschoss has been commissioned to write our IASAS play for the 2015-16 school year. He will visit three times during the year to work with classes and the IASAS cast.

Finally, we used PTA funds to extend our relationship with Daniel Jenkins and the Singapore Reperetory Theatre Young Company. Mr. Jenkins is a very established actor/director/teacher in Singapore, and is the director of the Young Co. He and his students conducted workshops with SAS actors and he also worked as one of our theater specialists during IASAS.

37

Extracurricular

activities Elementary school

326 students successfully completed marathon club running combined the equivalent of the distance from Singapore to Los Angeles, California.

SAS kindergarten student Sohum L. won the sixth annual National Kindergarten Chess Championship.

Annual Report 2014-15

Middle school Two Singapore American School middle school teams were awarded first and second place honors at the 41st annual National History Day contest at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD.

Rohan J., a grade eight student at SAS, earned one of four spots on this year’s international US Department of State MathCounts team.

High school A student-led team organized and ran the first TEDxYouth@SAS event, Breaking Barriers. The event featured student, faculty, and guest speakers who presented talks aimed at encouraging listeners to break their own barriers.

The SAS robotics team, One Degree North, qualified for the third consecutive year for the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology world robotics championship in Newfoundland.

Care for Kathmandu, a student-driven fundraising effort, raised over $70,000 in four weeks to aid in the Nepali relief efforts after a devastating earthquake shook the country.

The SAS debate team brought home the gold from the IASAS Cultural Convention speech and debate competition.

39

Elementary School Extracurricular Activities

MIDDLE School

Extracurricular Activities

HIGH School

Extracurricular Activities

Annual Report 2014-15

15+

activities offered during lunch

3

16

competitive sports offered

315

large murals completed by 26 national junior art honor society students

student submissions to the middle school literary magazine The Quill

13

373

Independent Performing Artist Union music performances

students in The Nutcracker dance production

14

science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) classes offered after school

35+ tryout teams

100+

clubs and activities

900

90

after school activities offered

students registered for after school activities

20+

20+

intramural activities

50

service clubs

after school clubs

18

IASAS activities and sports offered

cross country soccer volleyball basketball rugby/touch swimming tennis badminton softball golf track and field art dance debate drama forensics music model united nations

41

Annual Report 2014-15

Section 3

AN INTERNATIONAL

PERSPECTIVE

43

World

Language

Dr. Susan Zhang Director of World Language

In the United States, when an employer or government agency needs to assess the language fluency of a job candidate, the company will request an American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI). It is the gold standard of language rating and acquisition.

The goal of our language programs is simple: fluent communication.

Singapore American School world language programs diligently train teachers in OPI testing to consistently assess student learning and report proficiency levels in a way that is understood among teachers, students, and parents. We currently have 12 Chinese language teachers certified and by spring 2016, nine more Chinese language teachers and six Spanish language teachers will be certified. We have also used the ACTFL Assessment of Performance towards Proficiency in Languages (AAPPL) test in interpersonal listening and speaking to evaluate the proficiency levels of all language learners from grade

Elementary Chinese Years Below in daily N1 0.5 1 1 2 3 1 Total 2

Middle School Chinese Years at SAS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Total

three through grade 12. This complementary exam offers another evaluation tool. We tested the viability of the AAPPL against the OPI and the results have helped build our confidence in our evaluation practices.

The daily elementary world language program started at SAS in 2012-13. After three years of the program, results are promising. The world language program will have more data to report in the 2015-16 year, with every student taking AAPPL before the end of the school year.

We have so much to be grateful for and to celebrate in the world language program at SAS. According to research published in 1982, Spanish is a category I language which takes a relatively shorter time to reach a certain level of proficiency comparing to Chinese as category IV language.

The AAPPL Form A covers levels from N1 to I4 while Form B covers levels from N4 to A (Advanced Low).

Note: We used the number of years in the daily program to correspond with the criteria for Spanish data. The first half-year interval was included only because there was a large number of students that joined our program in the middle of the school year. Students in the Chinese program all took Form A except for a small number of students in Near Native classes who took Form B.

N1

N2

N3

N4

I1

I2

I3

I4

I5

A

6 2

25 13 3 31 72

34 35 7 63 139

10 23 5 122 160

15 23 7 109 154

2 5 3 36 46

3 6

5 2 1 39 47

1 3

2

8 12

2 4

8 16

32 41

Total 102 114 26 451 693

Note: The number of years at SAS does not always equal the number of years in one language program because students can take one or two years off in the middle or switch from one language to another. All students took Form A except for a small number of students in Near Native classes who took Form B.

Below N1

Annual Report 2014-15

N1

N2

N3

N4

I1

I2

I3

I4

I5

5

14 6 1 1 2

28 18 10 5 6 5 4 5 5 1 2 89

18 33 15 6 13 7 6 7 4 2 1 112

9 20 5 9 10 10 16 8 7 6

6 8 10 8 4 2 6 4 6 1 1 56

6 4 2 2 5 7 2 2 4 3

6 9 6 5 4 10 13 5 3 2

2 5 1

2 1 1 1

37

63

14

1 1 1

5

27

100

1

A 4 1 2 1 1 2 3 1

15

Total 94 107 51 38 46 42 52 36 32 16 4 518

HIGH SCHOOL Chinese Years at SAS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Total

Note: The number of years at SAS does not always equal the number of years in one language program because students can take one or two years off in the middle or switch from one language to another. All students took Form A. This data does not include students in AP Chinese Language and Culture, Post AP, or Near Native classes.

Below N1

N3

N4

I1

I2

I3

I4

I5

A

Total

2 1 1 2 1

9 17 6 2 4

4 8 4 5 4 2 5 3 1 3 2 1

7 9 11 7 7 6 7 4 7 7 3 4 1 1 82

6 5 6 4 7 4 4 3 6 4

4 6 7 5 4 5 4 5 9 8

8 8 7 5 10 14 5 4 10 12 6 4 1 1 95

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

44 59 45 34 43 34 28 23 36 41 13 11 6 2 421

2 2 3 7

4

7

52

42

3 53

2 1 61

Note: This data includes a few Near Native students. All students took Form A except for year 3 students and a few Near Native Spanish speakers who took Form B.

Years Below in daily N1 1 2 3 Total

MIDDLE SCHOOL SPANISH Below N1

N1

N2

N3

N4

I1

I2

I3

I4

I5

1

9 1

12 1

17 11

1 11

4 15

10

13

28

12

19

3 41 17 61

2 1 3

1

A

Total 47 82 18 147

Note: 75% students took Form A and 25% higher level students took Form B including a few near native students.

N1

N2

N3

N4

I1

I2

I3

I4

I5

A

Total

2 1

3 2 1

10 3

3 1

5 4 3

6 3 2

5 3 2

2 2 2 2

11 17 6 5 7 7 1 7 5 1 1

3

1

14

43 32 12 12 13 15 9 8 10 2 2 1 159

1 1

1 1 2

1 1

1

HIGH SCHOOL SPANISH Years at SAS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Total

N2

3

1

Elementary Spanish

Years at SAS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Total

N1

4

8

3 1 1 26

12

19

68

2 3 1 1

7

Note: 67% students took Form A and 33% higher level students took Form B including a few near native students.

Below N1

N1 1 1

N2

N3

N4

I1

I2

I3

I4

I5

A

Total

1

2 2

12 4 2 1 3 4 1 1 4 1 1

9 6 7 4 3 2 1 3 2

6 3 4 1

6 7 1

2 2 1

2 1

3

1

1

1

1

15 14 7 6 4 7 1 4 4 3 3 4 2 1 75

54 41 23 12 13 20 4 12 15 6 7 6 4 3 220

1 1 1 1 1

1

2 1 2 1 1 2

1 1

2

1

8

35

1 1 40

17

23

1 3 1

1 13

5

45

Interim

semester

Dan Skimin Interim Semester Coordinator The Interim Semester program was established at Singapore American School in 1973 to enhance the standard curriculum by providing high school students with opportunities for cultural enrichment, experiences in the arts, adventure activities, and service to others outside the school environment. These expeditionary learning opportunities are integral to the high school curriculum.

The Interim Semester program is designed to help students: • Deepen their understanding of the world around them; • Be inspired to contribute to the global community; • Challenge themselves; and • Build a sense of community between students and teachers.

In February 2015, 1,192 high school students and 110 faculty ventured off campus to participate in a variety of cultural, service, and adventure

Annual Report 2014-15

activities that make up our Interim Semester program.

SAS offered 59 courses that took students to 25 different countries, where they participated in a diverse set of learning activities, including: • Trekking the Nakasendo highway and exploring one of Japan’s ancient thoroughfares; • Experiencing the Moroccan culture, snake charmers, and vendors, and navigating the maze of colorful souqs, raids, and mosques in Marrakesh; • Appreciating the vibrant performing arts scene in London by experiencing a variety of theater performances to better understand the history and culture of UK performing arts; • Partnering with READ Bhutan to help build libraries and distribute books in rural Bhutan; and • Working with the Stairway Foundation in the Philippines, which uses performing arts to help street children tell their stories and deepen our students’ understanding of the hardships these children face.

Eco-Adventure

Global Studies

Service

Eco-adventure courses are designed around the belief that the outdoors provides the greatest environment for humans to grow socially, emotionally, and academically. As such, ecoadventure courses provide students with opportunities to learn and develop physically and intellectually while being fully immersed in the natural environment.

Students return from these excursions with an improved self-perception, increased academic skill-set, and a robust sense of the environmental dynamics of the region visited.

The global studies category involves active participation and awareness of our interconnectedness with people and cultures worldwide. Students deepen their understanding of the world through themes which may cross any academic discipline and focus on development (resource management, environmental care, poverty), peace and conflict, cultural expression, and political conditions.

Language study, which facilitates all cultural understanding, is also a valued focus area.

Service has the capacity to touch on each of the desired student learning outcomes of the school’s strategic focus. By using the model that knowledge leads to compassion, and compassion leads to action, service-learning projects give students the opportunity to make a positive impact on the local community where they work. Service provides a framework in which students learn and develop through active contribution in thoughtfully prepared service that meets communities’ needs.

47

Classroom

without walls

Chris Raymaakers Grade 7 Math Teacher

The middle school Classroom Without Walls program extends middle school student learning beyond experiences they can gain at school. The primary goal is for students to build positive relationships, trust, and cooperation with their peers and teachers by facing unique challenges and experiences outside of the classroom. Through these challenges and experiences, students are given opportunities to grow as individuals and to build their self-esteem.

Classroom Without Walls is a required off-campus experience where all students in grades six through eight travel to Malaysia, Indonesia, and islands off of Singapore. A number of ingredients are key to the philosophy of the Classroom Without Walls experience. First, students are grouped according to their home base assignment, which assists in developing close relationships between these small groups of peers dedicated in teams or “sides� within each grade level. Classroom Without Walls is critical to making our school division of 945 students feel smaller and more connected.

In addition, students further develop their own environmental awareness and cultural sensitivity through participating in activities specific to each trip. From the moment students arrive at their destination by bus or by boat, they gain new insights about the Southeast Asian region in which they live. Whether they are exploring the local rainforest, taking part in team-building challenges on a sandy beach, engaging in community service at a village school, visiting a traditional kampong house, or hiking to a waterfall, students are surrounded by regional beauty and culture.

As with all of our Classroom Without Walls trips, the relationships formed through this shared experience connect our middle school students to one another and enhanced student learning throughout the rest of the school year.

Annual Report 2014-15

49

Service

learning

Dr. Roopa Dewan Volunteer K-8 Service Learning Coordinator Service learning at Singapore American School values how children learn, interact, and reposition knowledge through authentic learning contexts. It translates the desired student learning outcomes of character, collaboration, communication, creativity, critical thinking, cultural competence, and content knowledge into reallife projects that engage SAS students from kindergarten to grade 12.

Service learning at SAS is: • Curricular, aimed at making learning experiential and authentic. Service and curriculum are equally emphasized. This involves reflection on the application of academic content; • Primarily local and hands-on, providing countless opportunities for brainstorming, problem solving, researching, engaging with the community, and encouraging responsible citizenship; • Sustainable, with frequent and regular interaction rather than a single experience. The key to enhancing learning is by building meaningful partnerships in the community. This provides direct action and sustained, sufficient interaction with recipients; • Organic and responsive to community needs. It is always evolving and dynamic, intrinsically motivated through play, passion, and purpose; and • Student-centered with teacher guidance, while emphasizing student choice and autonomy.

SAS students plan and execute by participating in direct or indirect action, advocacy, or research, and presenting their findings in a public forum. Service learning enhances the curriculum while building partnerships and contributing to the community.

Elementary School Our kindergarten classes went to the Adventist Rehabilitation Center to befriend stroke patients and coax movement through games, clay molding, or waving scarves. Students provided the stimulus for movement and friendship; the elderly stroke patients responded through socialization. We worked on skills of sharing with strangers, befriending people of differing abilities, compassion, and empathy. The class read Tomie De Paolo’s First One Foot Then Another to set the context.

Grade one continued to engage with buddies from Seng Kang Primary and Fu Chun Primary through their social studies curriculum. Students celebrated festivals, played ethnic games, learned about culture, and worked jointly on expressing kindness and thanking support staff.

Grade two used an integrated curriculum model where science, social studies, language arts, mathematics, and art classes provided food to 78 needy families (315 individuals) each month. They also gave local children books and “book letters” to encourage reading, and participated in a walkathon with their local buddies, creating camaraderie. Additionally, grade two organized a Toys for Treats drive and sent dental hygiene kits to Cambodia.

Grade three continued its Kids READ service program through pen pals this year. SAS grade three and four buddies read to Innova Primary School pupils. Service projects included “Read to Feed” and leprosy home visits.

Grade four engaged in an innovative experiential learning project where the RLA, science, and the social studies curriculum unit, Experiential Learning: Getting Immersed and Connected to Nature, was integrated with outdoor experiences. Students continued to read to and mentor Innova Primary School students and led guided tours of the rainforest for their Innova friends.

Grade five students carried out work in elder care. In 2014-15, we more than doubled the number of visits to Christalite Methodist home, from 13 to 39 hours, and focused on teaching arts and crafts.

Annual Report 2014-15

Middle School

High School (Community Service)

Grade six science continued its successful awareness campaign for conservation of freshwater and the eradication of waterborne diseases and dengue fever.

To prepare for the launch of this project, students studied pathogenic microbes. They modeled the spread of infectious diseases, studied epidemiology, and created Public Service Announcements. Students generated ideas such as building portable bio sand filters, and traveled to Cambodia and Bali to spread awareness of infectious diseases. They organized fundraisers and designed and built water filtration systems and water transport devices.

All 45 service clubs in the high school are regulated and guided by the Executive Service Council, a group of six elected service-oriented students. Student-led volunteerism meets the immediate needs of school, local, regional, and global concerns. Service can be indirect (e.g. fundraising), advocacy (creating awareness or promoting action), and direct service (field work and community interactions). Service clubs give students mutually beneficial opportunities to develop skills and experiences that allow initiative, collaboration, planning, and implementation.

Grade seven social studies linked service to the unit Escaping the Poverty Cycle. Students explored questions around poverty and participated in a “Change for Change” campaign. They learned about micro-finance and funded entrepreneurs through Kiva. They also uncovered biodiversity through field investigations, and shared through a nighttime “bio blitz” and virtual tours of the SAS rainforest. Some students transformed their newfound knowledge about environmental sustainability or essential parts of an ecosystem into children’s books or games about the natural world. Students were encouraged to recycle food waste into water using microbes.

SAS and Singapore Botanic Gardens partnered to preserve the SAS rainforest and to create a forest nursery to propagate endangered plant species for all of Southeast Asia. This will serve as a laboratory for conservation, sustainability, and biodiversity research in the years to come.

Singapore Botanic Gardens Partnership

Grade eight has a model of service through home base, with each teacher mentoring 11 to 12 projects.

All 318 eighth graders had a crash course in service learning during our week-long Classroom Without Walls trip to Telunas, Indonesia. Each group spent one full day at a local school in an island community, participating in a common construction project on school property and teaching English lessons to local primary school students. Projects were presented using blogs, Google sites, or other media. Guest speakers Jamie Amelio, Salva Dut, and Geoff Morgan shared their successful service journeys.

51

Annual Report 2014-15

Section 4

THE SAS

FAMILY

53

admissions

Mona Stuart Director of Admissions

SAS Admissions leads positive family transitions at Singapore American School. Together, we understand, showcase, and build an optimal learning community, supporting one well-known, well-served family at a time.

The admissions team found new ways to achieve this purpose over the past year.

Understanding SAS Throughout the year, the admissions team met with specialists from a wide range of departments across SAS for professional development.

Our commitment to deeply understand the educational mission and approach of our school from curricular trends to support services to new initiatives enriched our professional team. It also helped us meet the needs of families who want informed and passionate people serving them: people who “get� kids, families, and education, and can discern students who are the best fit for the SAS learning culture.

Annual Report 2014-15

Positive Family Transition We welcomed a full house in August 2014, with 794 new students, and added an additional 105 students during the school year. We also accepted a record of more than 850 new students for the 2015-16 school year, a bumper crop of exceptional families and students. With 48 nationalities on board, the diversity at SAS is unchallenged. We are especially proud that we make every effort to ensure that diverse learners are admitted to SAS only when we can offer qualified support in areas where they need it most, from enrichment to support services.

To add delight and anticipation to the admissions process, we designed a new student postcard campaign with messages directed to our young applicants, and offered a limited edition acceptance pennant to welcome each new student for August 2015. These keepsakes offered our families touchpoints throughout the year to let them know their positive transition was our first priority. Working with the PTA parent welcome team, we supported a new initiative to match current SAS families with over 100 incoming families who were open to friendship and support upon arrival in Singapore. Admissions also led an initiative to identify orientation week as the official kick-off event for each school year, with open house now the culmination rather than the focus of our annual launch and welcome efforts.

Showcasing SAS

Building an Optimal Learning Community

Admissions enjoyed profiling SAS in our new admissions field guide and hosting over 1,000 tours on campus in 2014-15. Parents told us that the SAS reputation motivates families to visit the school, and that SAS’s reputation rises as families land in Singapore. Our transfer rate from other Singapore international schools increased dramatically in the 2014-15 year.

Using our optimal admissions approach, the team continued to shape each incoming class by balancing the range of needs in each grade level, monitoring the quality of applicants, defining best fit, and assessing our capacity to support students at the highest levels. Again and again, when applicants underwent careful and insightful entry screening by our divisions, parents expressed gratitude for our extraordinary care and concern for the real needs of their children. We continued to refine our evaluation tools and systems with divisional counselors and administrators, and developed tools to monitor our application flow and better illustrate our admissions process with a revised web presence.

In 2014-15 we jump-started a program to connect relocation agents and agencies in Singapore with the true story of SAS. Agencies that attended one of our SAS roadmap events on campus were given priority information about our admissions openings, opportunities, and programs throughout the year.

These admissions alerts allowed agents to efficiently place families at SAS with “inside knowledge” about timely and specific openings. Roadmap events also addressed common myths and urban legends about SAS’s location, student diversity, academic focus, and waitlists. In recent years, many for-profit schools have begun offering cash rewards and commissions to entice relocation agents to favor them. We appreciated the agencies that gave their time and attention to SAS, believing with us in families’ freedom of choice and in putting family interests and priorities first. We have enjoyed building keen relationships with relocation agencies that share these values.

Supporting Well-Known, Well-Served Families For the first time in SAS history, the file for each newly accepted student includes either a strengths and interests profile to introduce the student to counselors and teachers, or a report that summarizes the applicant’s learning needs review. Each report includes a specific entry point and recommended course of action. The entry point helps us know where to begin as we serve each child. In a school with a growth mindset, we anticipate marking various transition points as students progress in and out of support programs. In a school that increasingly values personalized learning, these profiles and reports allow educators to connect students quickly to clubs, activities, friends, and mentors who can help them reach their best future at SAS and beyond.

55

Human

Resources

Educational Qualifications

Russell Cooke Executive Director of Human Resources

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2014-15 Staff Demographics

Annual Report 2014-15

ration Do ist

orate ct

As a world-class educational establishment, we recognize one of our most important tasks is to attract the very best employees. Each year, as with any international school, a number of employees leave their positions and are required to be replaced. In 2014-15 we hired 46 faculty, nine administrators, 42 support staff, and had applications from over 3,000 people.

-

Support

1

14

1

SINGAPORE Ad

49

Faculty

nistrat mi

Faculty

Support

-

11

184

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2

nistrat mi

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UNITED KINGDOM

Faculty

n io

Ad

Canada nistrat mi

Faculty

nistrat mi

Support

226 14

34

38

Years of

Years of

Faculty

Support

-

25

-

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New Zealand

Years of

nistrat mi

Faculty

Support

2

16

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Australia

Faculty

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OTHERS nistrat mi

Ad

17

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UNITED States

Years of

Numbers of employees

Numbers of employees

Numbers of employees

nistrat mi

nistrat mi

94 Support

67

7 Faculty

102 Support

39

3 Faculty

43 Support

32

2 Faculty

47

nistrat mi

6

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Faculty

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6

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Numbers of employees

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Numbers of employees

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Service 12+ years

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Service 9-11 years

Ad

Service 6-8years

n io

Service 3-5 years

n io

Service 0-2 years

Faculty

89

Support

Support

14

85 57

Parent teacher

association Becky Moseley PTA President

The Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) is a volunteer association that nurtures our community by organizing events and activities throughout the year that bring our school and families together.

We engage parents in the SAS experience through welcome events and frequent division coffees. We also sponsor events that enhance the educational experience of SAS students throughout each division.

2014-15 PTA Executive Board

The PTA works with others in the SAS family to achieve our goals. Parent volunteers coordinate with the division administrations to organize

Assistant Treasurers

Luiza Kubota

Events Treasurer

Sachiko Sakai

High School Reps.

Heather Hoffmann, Carrie Gammons

Middle School Rep.

Alicia Haley

Elementary Reps.

Carolyn Edds, Patricia Sadayasu, Maria Luedeke

Early Childhood Ctr. Rep.

Morgan Frontczak

PTA Sales

Angelique Dittrich, Divya Singh, Deb Werner

Hospitality

Jodi Jonis

Welcoming

Wendy Weiss

Scholastic Books

Lee Ford

Food Fest

Jodie Stone

Sponsorship

Vinika Rao

Book Fair

Lauren Krespik

County Fair

Mina Bregman

White Elephant Sale

Karn Wong

Publicity

Niki Cholet

holiday parties in the elementary school, as well as other student activities school-wide. Parents also donate time and refreshments for our annual Staff Appreciation Day. A joint committee of the PTA and Booster Club is responsible for bringing high quality, affordable uniforms to SAS, with the PTA providing uniforms for students in preschool through grade eight. Uniform sales in the PTA sales booth in the PTA office, as well as our online store, generate a large portion of our funds.

The activities and events of the PTA raise funds and build community. Several family favorites include the PTA Carpet Auction, International Food Fest, Book Fair, and the County Fair. The PTA also ran a wine pull during the Eagle Gala. The funds raised support community service clubs, and provide high school Interim Semester and senior scholarships. We also sponsor visiting authors, artists, and musicians who enhance the educational experience of our students.

In May, the PTA donated over $250,000 in fund spending and scholarships, thanks to the continual effort of parent volunteers.

Annual Report 2014-15

President

Becky Moseley

Vice President

Monique Hirsch

Secretary

Morgan Frontczak

Treasurer

Jen Loi

Parliamentarian

Arathi Nilakantan

Standing Committee Members

F

Co

%

it m un y E v

17

olarship s ch

9

ts

49

m

en

Spend i

ng

d un

S

ECC = Early Childhood center Es = Elementary School Ms = Middle School HS = High School

%

HS Club

8

%

%

%

MS Event S/

3

s

5

g

%

in om

9

/ We lity lc la

Hosp i

Others

HS Programs 3% MS Programs 2% General and Administrative 2% PTA Sales 2%

E

SAS PTA EXPENDITURES 2014-15 %

SAS PTA FUND SPENDING GRANT ES Author Illustrator $52,000

GR2 Construction Sets $9,350

MS Author $35,000

ECC Author/Storyteller $8,000

HS Writer’s Perspective $35,000

ECC Outdoor Blocks $7,220

Environmentalist $18,000

GR3 Furniture/Lego Kits $6,500

MS/HS Visual Art $15,500

GR1 Osmos/Legos/Blocks $6,335

MS/HS Dance $14,500

ECC Kindermusik $6,000

MS/HS Theatre $14,000

HS Digital Cameras $4,980

ES Music $13,000

MS National History Day $2,500

Wellness Center Furniture $10,000

Robotics Bandsaw $1,900

59

Booster

club

Lan Fisher Booster Club President Booster Club is a parent volunteer organization dedicated to supporting extracurricular, cultural, and scholastic activities at the high school. We partner with administration, staff, and the SAS community to bring programs, events, and opportunities to our students to enrich their high school experience.

To achieve our goal, Booster Club conducts fundraising events throughout the year. Distinctive to the SAS campus is the Booster Booth, the school spirit store. In addition to uniforms, snacks, and school supplies, the Booster Booth stocks sweatshirts, t-shirts, tank tops, CamelBak water bottles, baseball caps, pennants, blankets, and much more. These items can also be purchased in our online store: sasboosterstore.com.

Local shipping is available and starting in the 2015-16 school year, Booster Club will be equipped to ship spirit merchandise internationally to alumni.

Annual Report 2014-15

The Booster Club barbecues held during pep rallies, IASAS events, sports exchanges, and other community gatherings are our most popular offerings. The barbecue crew breaks out the grills for good old-fashioned hamburgers and hotdogs. Our bakers organize three to four bake sales in combination with various ethnic food sales such as Japanese, Korean, and Indian food.

Booster Club also organizes social fundraising events to cultivate and grow the SAS community, such as Trivia Night and the popular home tour, where unique homes in Singapore are showcased.

The money raised goes to benefit our high school students. With the support of diligent volunteers and an engaged SAS community, Booster Club contributed $127,000 to fund various high school student programs and activities. As part of our commitment, Booster Club annually awards $30,000 in need-based Interim Semester scholarships to students and $20,000 in scholarships to graduating seniors.

2014-15 Booster Club Board President

Lan Fisher

Vice President

Kay Schot

Secretary

Chris Ferguson

Treasurer

Heide Angell

Parliamentarian

Garima Lalwani

Standing Committee Members Bake Sales

Sarah Clark, Lorraine Hadley

BBQ

Henrietta Hurst, Karen Gunn, Tonya Ford

Booth Manager

Kendall Jackson

Design

Sonja Echeverria, Amy Chou

Spirit Sales

Adeline Norton de Matos, Kie Young

Hospitality

Debra Alexander

Popcorn Day

Sheri Thomas, Jack Brick

Publicity

Thea Koh, Mandira Rana

Scholar’s List Lunch

Tammy Charter

Social Fundraisers

Sonia Kureishi

Special Projects

Doreen Chou, Chantal Wong

Uniforms

Mary Kate Wallace

V&PA Coordinator

Tammy Charter, Thea Koh

Athl et

Visua l

%

Performi

8

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9

&

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%

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ies

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61

Alumni

Relations

Lauri Coulter Associate Director of Alumni Relations Relationships are fostered at every step in a student’s academic career and last far beyond their time on campus. Even after obtaining a diploma from Singapore American School, every graduate remains an integral member of the SAS Eagle family.

SAS graduates ranging from 18 to 75 years old — regardless of where they are in the world — will have the ability to ponder what it was like growing up a thirdculture kid, reminisce about their unique time at school and in Singapore, celebrate the accomplishments they have achieved since then, and network with more than 8,000 alumni in our community.

Annual Report 2014-15

SAS graduates a have number of ways to stay connected with each other and the school. They can read Journeys magazine, regular newsletters, or social media posts; find and get in touch with friends through the alumni directory, which is available online or through an app; or, reconnect at any one of a number of gatherings around the world.

As we often say at Singapore American School, once an Eagle, always an Eagle.

th Americ or

Asia

2,543

a

N

Members by Continent

ou

th A m er i c

39

8,661 SAS website community members

8,350 Journeys alumni magazines mailed

Australia

a

S

5,529 Africa

Europe

43

296

4,807 SAS alumni Facebook page fans

6,495 Alumni quarterly e-newsletters sent

211

1,076 SAS alumni LinkedIn members

2014-15 Alumni Gatherings Hosted by SAS

Dallas Boston Houston Los Angeles New York San Francisco Singapore 63

Section 5

WORLD CLASS

FACILITIES

Annual Report 2014-15

65

Comprehensive

stewardship

Anthony Wong Director of Facilities and Services With 25 SAS direct employees and a team of contractors, the facilities office was responsible for an operating budget of $27 million for 2014-15. The team managed and operated 1.06 million square feet of buildings and 36 acres of grounds, enhancing student learning, increasing the asset value of the campus, ensuring a safe and secure learning environment, and integrating financial resource management and energy conservation into our operations.

Key objectives were met by ensuring timely and reliable support for: • Planning and managing new design and construction; • Executing renovation, repairs, and renewal of existing classrooms, other learning spaces, and grounds improvements under the 10-year asset management plan; • Busing 3,200 students safely each day; • Operating the air-conditioning plant for classrooms and offices; • Cleaning, securing, and guarding the campus effectively; and • Leading SAS’s environmental resource management and sustainability efforts.

Over 400 summer projects and maintenance work items were completed on time and within budget by the start of the 2014-15 school year. After open house, we commenced planning, briefing, designing, documenting, and bidding processes for the new construction works for the coming summer. The team supported large events such as the Google Summit, Food Fest, iCreate Conference, and County Fair, along with other events such as open house, back to school nights, parentteacher conferences, concerts, musicals, and dances.

Annual Report 2014-15

Safety The facilities team worked closely with the safety committee comprised of representatives from a crosssection of the school to ensure that SAS continues to set high standards for compliance with the Workplace Safety and Health Act. The committee worked on training, addressing safety concerns, accident investigations, tracking playground accident statistics, and new safety procedures. Three safety training sessions were provided to all instructional assistants at the beginning of the year. Another accomplishment was the appointment of a travel risk specialist to support risk assessment and safety compliance for all off-campus trips, such as Classroom Without Walls and Interim Semester.

Cleaning Operating under an increasingly competitive market and nationwide manpower shortage in the cleaning industry, we retained experienced contracted cleaning staff and kept turnover to 10 percent. We achieved this by proactively working with ISS, our cleaning contractor, to secure better employment standards and wages for all our cleaning staff, and focused on training a skilled cleaning workforce of 28 full-time and 50 part-time staff who kept over 1 million square feet of buildings and 36 acres of grounds clean daily.

We fogged the campus over 80 times in the year and carried out search and destroy exercises weekly to eliminate dengue mosquito breeding areas.

The team completed minor summer and maintenance works, building safety systems in obscure places on campus, enhanced lightning protection, gas detection, pool water quality tests, and ensured the structural integrity of heavy curtains. Our small efforts and attention to day-to-day details contributed to a culture of excellence and quality service at SAS.

Security External security agencies and our security consultant helped with advice, audits, and appropriate improvements in security to balance maintaining strict access control and community convenience.

The administration also conducted and took away lessons from a tabletop crisis management exercise involving key leaders and external security agencies. Security also maintained good relations with our HDB neighbors.

Any society can be galvanized for a while to build something, but the will and the skill to keep things in good repair day in and day out, are fairly rare.

- Eric Hoffer, Working and Thinking on the Waterfront Success is the sum of small efforts - repeated day in and day out.

- Robert Collier

bus statistics

Provided safe, reliable, and quality transportation for

3,200

Traveled over

129

1,000,000

86%

253

buses

km for the year

students daily

of the student population travel to school on school buses

regular trips daily

97%

99.93%

0.018%

of bus riders have a journey time within the contracted 55 minutes

All our buses conform to the Euro

4 or 5 diesel standard

Annual Report 2014-15

of the total trips were on schedule

2

inspections per year

reported accidents

SAS energy consumption and costs since 1996-97 kWh 14,000,000

9.5 million kWh $1.1 million 2,343 students 65,398 sq.m.

12,000,000

10,000,000

10 million kWh (10% solar) $2.3 million 3,934 students 99,044 sq.m.

13 million kWh $2.2 million 3,757 students 97,314 sq.m.

SGD $3,500,000

$3,000,000

$2,500,000

8,000,000

$2,000,000

6,000,000

$1,500,000

4,000,000

$1,000,000

2,000,000

$500,000

0

RT

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-14

20

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12

-12

20

11

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-98

19

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19

96

-97

$0

kWh

681

532

493

168

10

Tons air-conditioning capacity

Toilets

Fire extinguishers

Electrical subboards and distribution boards

Fire hose reels

Art kilns

130

13

11

10

3

7

Drinking fountains

Swimming pool pumps

Stadium lighting towers

Automated road barriers

Standby generators

A/C cooling towers

8

8

6,139

10,064,098

4,746

424

Enhanced lightning protection systems

Precision air-conditioners for server room

Work requests received

kWh electricity consumed

New SAS cards issued

summer works project

2,300

69

Serving the SAS Community

12

:0 0 p . m

.

Groundskeepers mowing the stadium field

ARound the Clock

11

:0 0 a . m

.

Contractors fixing a sign in the high school

10

:0 0 a . m

.

Groundskeepers watering plants in the middle school

9 : 0 0 a. m .

Housekeepers removing trash bins

8 : 0 0 a. m .

Housekeepers sweeping the driveway after main traffic is in

6 : 4 5 a. m .

Custodians ensuring M301 is ready for a parent coffee

6 : 0 0 a. m .

Custodians switching on corridor lights

Sof TART the day

Annual Report 2014-15

2: 3 0 p . m.

Drivers awaiting school dismissal

3: 0 0 p . m.

Guards manning the gates at school dismissal

4: 0 0 p . m.

Housekeepers cleaning a middle school classroom

5: 0 0 p . m.

Housekeepers washing the corridors after school dismissal

6: 0 0 p . m.

Housekeepers cleaning the cafeteria and common areas

9: 3 0 p . m.

Custodians packing up after high school back to school night

1 0 : 3 0 p. m

.

of

EthNe dDay

Custodians calling it a night

71

Section 6

RESOURCING AN EXCELLENT

EDUCATION

Annual Report 2014-15

73

Financial

review

William Scarborough Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Business Operations Singapore American School is incorporated in the Republic of Singapore and recognized under the Singapore Charities Act. Accordingly, an elected board that serves without remuneration governs the school, and financial surpluses, if any, are used for the betterment of the school.

The chief financial officer manages the school’s finances under the guidance of the superintendent. In fulfillment of its fiduciary duties, the board provides oversight through the facilities and finance committee. All key financial decisions including establishment of the annual budget and schedule of fees require endorsement of the board.

The board also ensures that an annual audit is conducted.

The school’s financials are presented here, in part, with full statements distributed separately to school families.

A presentation of these statements, as well as an opportunity to ask specific questions, is offered at annual general meeting held in October.

The audited financial results for the 2014-15 school year compare favorably to the budget approved by the board in March 2015 for both revenue and expenses.

Contributors to a positive revenue variance included continued full enrollment, a slightly higher turnover than projected, investment gains, and the advent of the summer semester program. On the expense side, the school experienced favorable trends in salaries and benefits and reduced expenses in curricular categories, which were somewhat offset by increased building costs.

Enrollment-related income comprised 94 percent of total revenues. Other revenues, including donations, investment income, and guaranteed placement program subscriptions, contributed the remaining 6 percent.

In its efforts to provide an exemplary American education with an international perspective, the school employed 375 faculty members for classroom instruction, learning

Annual Report 2014-15

support, and counseling along with 237 support staff in classrooms, libraries, offices, and maintenance and 24 leadership team members. In total, salaries and benefits for 636 staff represented 89 percent of operating fund expenses and 66 percent of total costs.

Providing and maintaining quality facilities to support academic program accounted for 17 percent of total expenses, which represents an increase as we work to renew the campus. This investment is likely to increase over time as the campus continues to age and requires greater upkeep and renovation work. Significant renewal efforts in the fiscal year 2014-15 included the elementary school gym renovation, high school cafeteria improvements, and the upper baseball field upgrade, as well as initial costs for refurbishment of the auditorium.

Learning resources and technology support accounted for another 6 and 3 percent of costs, respectively. These funds provided classroom and curricular materials, musical equipment, library materials, and the middle school laptop program, among other materials used to deliver academic and co-curricular programs.

Additions to our planned reserves totaled 5 percent of expenditures. These are intended to provide adequate funding for the long-term facilities plan.

Lastly, central administration accounted for 3 percent of expenses. This expense category includes admissions, human resources, communications, community relations, the business office, and the superintendent’s office.

The net surplus will be added to the school’s reserves and endowment to support the long-term financial stability of the school. The board established these reserves in 2007 to provide a backstop in the event of an unexpected decline in enrollment. More specifically, the school’s reserves and endowment began the 2014-15 year with $127.7 million in total funds. The addition of surpluses

from fiscal year 2013-14, budgeted allocations for 201415 budget, and positive investment returns resulted in a total valuation of nearly $160.5 million on June 30, 2015.

The endowment represents $57.3 million of this amount.

The seven-member investment advisory committee is charged with supporting the board in the management and investment of these funds, as well as setting the school’s policy. The investment advisory committee is comprised of both board members and parents with investment experience, all of whom participate on a voluntary basis. As a direct result of their guidance and leadership, we have met our benchmark returns and enhanced the school’s long-term stability.

We are pleased to report the robust state of the school’s finances, which reflect the efforts of the board and the school administration to maintain and improve the school’s long-term financial health. As we approach the 60th anniversary of the school’s founding, we celebrate all those who have contributed to its impressive growth and progress. We look forward to an exciting future, grounded on careful management of the resources entrusted to us by the parents of current and former students.

Administration

100%

100% 3% Other income

Registration fee

7%

School fee

76%

6% 11%

Annual facility fee

Technology

3%

Salaries & benefit

66%

Research & development

0.4%

Learning resources

6%

School-wide

School-wide

2014-15

2014-15

Revenues

EXPENSES

Planned reserves

5%

Campus Operations

17%

75

Philanthropy

Anne Duncan Associate Director of Advancement for Annual Giving

Mission The mission of the SAS Foundation Limited (Singapore) and the Singapore American School Foundation (United States) is to provide charitable funding for educational programs, operations, and capital initiatives at Singapore American School and for SAS student educational needs.

About the Foundations Two charitable organizations provide support to Singapore American School; the SAS Foundation Ltd. is a charitable organization recognized as an institution of public character registered in the Republic of Singapore, and the Singapore American School Foundation is a US recognized not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. The first organization is based in Singapore and supports SAS educational needs in Singapore, and the second organization is based in the United States and supports SAS educational needs worldwide.

Both foundations are independent, autonomous organizations with independent boards of directors, and each follows the laws, regulations, and guidelines outlined by the appropriate oversight agencies respectively in the Republic of Singapore or the United States.

FUNDs RAISED S$ 1,971,300

Restricted S$ 485,800

Capital Contribution S$ 553,000

Unrestricted S$ 932,500 Start Date July 1, 2014 End Date June 30, 2015

Annual Report 2014-15

Annual Giving: Funding the People, Places, and Programs that Make SAS Exceptional Annual gifts make a difference in the quality and reach of an SAS education, funding the people, programs, and places that make our school experience truly exceptional.

Gifts are used in every division to fund programs that would not be possible without donor generosity. For 2014-15, funding priorities focused on: • Nurturing the talent, passions, and innovation of our people – our students and faculty – through support services and professional development; • Expanding programs that develop our students’ broad, global perspective through additional funding for clubs, activities, service learning, the annual speaker series, and innovation projects; and • Creating and updating places on campus that provide for a life-changing learning environment.

One of the places that received significant interest from donors in 2014-15 was the SAS rainforest. Singapore American School is unique among international schools as it houses a natural rainforest on its campus. Our 1.58-acre rainforest has been a resource for projectbased learning in all divisions since the campus was developed in the mid-1990s. Today, the SAS rainforest is in need of support beyond what tuition fees can supply. In December 2014, a team of concerned faculty members created a comprehensive proposal for the preservation of the rainforest and the addition of a plant nursery. Recommendations were organized into three major categories, with a total project cost scoped at approximately $600,000. The plan has three primary goals: • Restore and protect the current rainforest; • Create an endemic forest tree nursery; and • Create education, research, and teaching opportunities as well as partnerships with leading biodiversity centers.

The realization of this plan will make SAS a model for conservation education where our students learn about tropical Southeast Asian natural heritage in an authentic context to appreciate larger societal issues related to biodiversity, forestry, and sustainability. The project has created relationships with Singapore Botanic Gardens, Yale-NUS College, and National Biodiversity Centre (National Parks Board) that we hope to deepen.

In total, almost 60 donors supported the cause and raised $300,000, designated by the SAS Foundations for the restoration of the rainforest in the coming year.

The SAS Rainforest

77

Increasing Participation and Stewardship

The SAS Eagle Gala

In 2014-15, one of the goals of our advancement program was to increase participation – defined by the number of families who make charitable gifts for the benefit of the school. Ten percent of our families donated through annual giving last year which gives SAS a strong base to grow. The strongest independent schools in the world all foster a culture of giving back to the school, and we hope to grow a culture of giving at SAS, too.

The SAS Foundation hosted a sold-out event with 550 guests for the 2015 SAS Eagle Gala. This year’s gala, “A Future of Possibilities,” was held at the Marina Bay Sands on Saturday, April 25. The event featured live and silent auctions, dinner, and dancing.

Another goal is to better ensure good stewardship of the funds raised. The SAS Foundation worked to educate the SAS community about the school’s needs and how annual giving benefits our students.

Two important events were held 2014-15. In February, students and faculty exhibited to our community how foundation funding has provided resources for a maker culture at SAS. Donors saw our second graders sail cars powered by wind, our high school students drive their robots, and ultimately, witnessed how their gifts have been transformational to the SAS maker culture. In May, following the rainforest campaign, 30 donors and their families had the opportunity to tour the Singapore Botanic Gardens sapling nursery and to plant a seedling that will one day be transferred to our own SAS rainforest.

The SAS Foundation Boards The work of our SAS Foundation boards is paramount in reaching our goals and we are grateful for the board members’ dedication to the school. The boards’ thought leadership and commitment to advancing the Foundation inspires participation from our alumni, faculty, and parents. When Rudy Muller moved back to the US, he resigned from the Singapore Foundation Board and became the chair of the US Foundation Board. Ray Zage assumed leadership of the Singapore Foundation Board in November 2015.

Annual Report 2014-15

Featured entertainers for the evening were the high school jazz band which opened the program with a performance of “Uptown Funk,” the middle school strings quartet, and our own SAS robot! Additionally, more than 30 middle and high school students volunteered as ushers.

Georgina Bach and Maria Luedeke co-chaired the event, supported by a committee of 30 parents.

Reserves Policy: SAS Foundation (Singapore) will maintain 25% of annual revenue as reserves, subject to an incremental cap of $50,000 each year and an overall cumulative cap of $120,000.

Reserves Investment Policy: Reserves will only be invested in cash, in fixed deposits, and high liquidity investments.

Conflicts of Interest Policy: Directors of SAS Foundation (Singapore) will submit their conflict of interest disclosure statement upon assuming office and at least annually; either by affirmative disclosure in which directors state that they do not know of any potential or actual conflict of interest, or by full disclosure of their outside interests. To see the policy in its entirety, please visit http://bit.ly/sasconflictofinterest Executive management: The SAS Foundation Ltd has no paid employees.

Audit: We will make available the audited accounts of the SAS Foundation Ltd to interested parties upon request to sasfoundation@sas.edu.sg.

SAS Foundation Board 2014-15 (Singapore) Raymond Zage, Chair Ang Peng Huat Margrit Benton Dr. Chan Wing Kwong Clarice Chia Woodworth Anita Fam Devin Kimble, Treasurer Koo Bon Sun

SAS Foundation Board 2014-15 (USA) Rudy Muller Brian O’Connor Adrian Peh Astrid Salim Jacqueline Seow Brent Smith Christopher Tan Sean Wallace

Rudy Muller, Chair Shelley DeFord Erica Dewan Bob Gross Dr. Chip Kimball Brent Mutsch Deirdre Simon

79

the SAS Foundations 2014-15 Honor roll of DONORS 1956 CIRCLE S$50,000 AND ABOVE Anonymous

Kenji and Astrid Taira

Raymond and Kaori Zage

EAGLE CIRCLE S$20,000-S$49,999 Anonymous (2)

Brooks and Laura Entwistle

Rick and Michelle Scurfield

Fanny Barki

Alvin and Juanita Hew

Helman and Maria Sitohang

Shirley Fung and Paul Bernard

Adam and Brittany Levinson

T&C Foundation

Wing Kwong Chan and Vivian Liu

Scott and Maria Luedeke

Sean and Lisa Wallace

Michael and Shelly Dee / The Hoglund Foundation

Chris Misner and Crystal Hayling

Adrian and Clarice Chia Woodworth

Mark Nelson and Margrit Benton

David Zemans and Catherine Poyen

Guy Elliott and Noemi Nemes

TIGER CIRCLE S$10,000-S$19,999 Gerard and Dominique Ah-Hot

Charles Gunawan and Maria Djoewardi

Kim and Birgitte Rosenkilde

Jeremy and Georgina Bach

David and Heather Hoffmann

Sameer and Yamile Sain

Jeremy and Willow Brest

Shruti and Vikram Hora

Brent and Sandra Smith

Yen Yeo Chen

Chip and Cheryl Kimball

Zanping Sun and Yuan Yang

Dickon Corrado and Ito Toshima

Michael Langlois and Anita Tan

Cheng Teik and Betty Tan

Debashish Dutta Gupta and Shobha Punukollu

Omar and Huma Lodhi

Steven and Asa Tucker

Alan and Christine Miyasaki

Mars Wang and Diane Gao

Rudy and Andrea Muller

Chiu-Man and Maria Warner Wong

Brian O’Connor and Nancy Menayang

Jessica Welirang

Edan and Bon Park

Phillip Widjaja and Patricia Kaunang

Adrian and Susan Peh

Yeap Transport

Everpaint Enterprise Thomas and Dina Fuller Eck Kheng Goh and Anita Fam Kevin and Amy Gould

GECKO CIRCLE S$5,000-S$9,999 Peng Huat and Swat Ang

Jim and Pam Kellett

Sandro Raniolo and Christine Pillsbury

Bart and Valerie Broadman

Brian and Tina King

Don and Mallory Riegger

Capital International Incorporated

Ashok and Garima Lalwani

Gregory and Regina Salathe

Mark and Mieke Chamberlin

Henry Law and Alice Shyu

Scott Sullivan and Anna Marrs

Shiv and Roopa Dewan

Kaling Lim and Seok Yee Lau

Jeffrey Tolk and Astrid Tuminez

Paul and Morgan Frontczak

Ilian Mihov and Ralitza Peeva

Ronald Widdows and Laddawan Wilai

Richard and Kimball Hall

Kishore and Anjali Moorjani

Zhou Hin Engineering

Alexander and Kaarin Hardy

Brent and Maggie Mutsch

Michael and Betsy Zink

ISS Facility Services

Richard Nijkerk and Lauren Bogen

Annual Report 2014-15

ORCHID CIRCLE S$1,000-S$4,999 Beecher and Robin Abeles Ehab Abou-oaf and Jaylan Elzoheiry American Association of Singapore Atelier Tang Avodaq Barclays Educational Gift Matching Program Eric Bryars and Cynthia Cheong Soo Chan and Ling Fu Raymond Ching and Joy Tan Mary Kuo and Allen Chu Citystate Ardent Travel Coda Group Andre Cohen and Laura Yung Jason and Beth Cone Kenneth and Lauri Coulter Wade Cruse and Elaine Heng Jose Cruz and Lisa Yeoh DB Acoustics Craig and Toni Dudsak Joe Duncan and Sarah Wang Judson and Anne Duncan Amir and Nathalie Emami Leif and Alison Eskesen Tetsuichi and Kaoru Fujiwara Fuyuki and Tomoko Fujiwara Shawn Galey and Katherine Krummert

Jake and Dru Gearhart Eck Meng Goh Patricio Gonzalez Morel and Sue Lynn Koo Arjun and Adeline Gupta Nick Haslett Bryan and Christine Henning Hoe Brothers Catering Marshall Horowitz and Bonnie Hobbs David Hoss Alex and Anouk Hungate Susumu Ito Nilesh Jasani and Shital Raiyani Michael and Alexandria Johnson Jeff and Torie Knighton Jeffrey and Andrea Koch Anand and Teresa Kumar Tajinder Kumar and Anuradha Singh Ranjit and Gauri Lakhanpal Robert and Kate Landau Anne Lee Lockton Companies Kevin Lu and Joanna Wang Jeff and Joy Marino Rick Mayo-Smith and Thi My Duc Tran

Clay and Buffi McDonald McDonald’s Corporation Kevin and Kellie Meehan Mercer Singapore Martin and Teya Miller Mike Miller Scott and Sarah Morris Tetsuya and Erika Nakazawa Y.S. and Suzie Nam Jagannath Narendran and Hasika Jagannath Doug and Maureen Neihart Kellar and Dee Nevill Ong & Ong Jin Teik and Emily Oon Brian Parker and Rachelle Gehrig Steve Payne and Tamera Fillinger Kim and Heather Raineri Edward and Susan Sadler Vikram and Komal Sahu Ashish Saksena and Sonal Priyanka Edmond and Maria Scanlon William and Martha Scarborough Elizabeth Schwarze Tanmai and Priya Sharma Matthew and Kristen Shields

J Mark Shields and Mami Hirota Rick and Paula Silverman Amit and Spradha Sinha Soh & Tan Enterprises Nick and Jennifer Sparrow Mark and Blair Speciale Mike and Vanessa Spier Tim and Mona Stuart Lilien Sun Cynthia Sung and Neil Clarke Sunray Woodcraft Construction Richard and Debra Surrency Dave and Leslie Swift Tomonori Takihi Technologies Creation Eric and Amy Thompson Evgeny Tugolukov and Natalya Pavchinskaya Anil Tummalapalli and Radhika Dhall Nolan and Patricia Villarin Visione SAS Paul Welsh and Lauren Mehrbach Wei and Helen Xiong Milan Zavadjil and Tatjana Vuleta Hankun Zhao and Jiexia Liu

TRAVELER’S PALM CIRCLE UP TO S$999 Anonymous 4th Grade Baildon-Early Greensville Classroom Ravi and Sunanda Agarwal Alpha Acoustics Engineering Amano Time and Air Singapore Joseph and Aura Antonio Linton Atlas and Aliza Knox Avlite Eric and Kate Baca Keith and Monica Barnett Neil and Julie Barry Brian and Maureen Birdsell Garth and Mina Bregman Trinard and Karen Broussard Robert and Kate Brundage Rick and Jeanne Buechel Builder 90 Bob and Amy Buttermore Treena Casey Century Technology Michael Chae and Andrea Knoblich Anka Chan and Yuko Tamaki Ishwar and Vanisha Chandiramani Ee Chien Chua Justin Chuo and Nora Khiang Peter and Melissa Clark Tim and Jodi Cofer Brian and Emi Combes Tom and Jeri Ann Conaty Russell Cooke Mike and Kim Crawford Dan and Ali Cuozzo Craig and Meghan Dalziel

Phillip and Shelley DeFord Dell Employee Engagement Fund Michael and Kalpana Denzel Lisa Desmond Glenn Dittrich and Angelique Prins Bill and Kathy Dolny Emerson Charitable Trust Zach and Laura Jo Evans Susan Ewert Darin and Sara Fahrney Kevin Fialko and Dawn De Pintor James and Michelle Ford Chris and Jillian Foster Kevin and Kathleen Foster GDS Engineering Steve and Kristin Georgi Fernando Gil de Bernabe Varela and Mary Ann Abejuro Tim and Diane Greisinger Jim and Beth Gribbon Frans and Natalie Grimbergen Joelle Guilfoyle Michael and Joanna Hambrick Rudi and Heike Hanz Fornefeld Richard and Sherral Hartung Nancy Hawes Douglas and Moemi Heskamp David Hodge and Carmen Benitez Stewart and Schuyler House An-Ping and Sarah Hsieh Zhen Huang John and Laura Hudson ICD Security Solutions Scott and Tara Jackson

K.C. Dat Itthichai and Ratchada Kittismidh Li Peng Koh Amit Kunal and Shradha Nayan Lands’ End Incorporated Nicholas Laveris Simon and Cathy Lawrie Jung Min Lee and Sun Young Kim Brad Levitt and Selena Freese Marc and Heidi L’Heureux Shang Li and Chang Ching Liu Gregory and Amy Lovas Donald Macintyre and Sophie Won Midori Maloney Renee McKeone Bryan and Michele Mecham Ishaan and Maayan Misra Seung Ki Moon and Eun Mi Cho Rocky and Becky Moseley Shamik Mukherjee and Rohita Rajkumar Paul Matsudaira and Maureen Murray Samba Natarajan and Vidya Sambamurthy James and Melissa Nesbitt Dinh Nguyen and Helen Ng Ryuichi and Noriko Nishizawa Richard and Frances O’Keeffe Craig Olsen and Jo McIlroy Richard and Patricia Payne Kent Peterson and Susan Sedro Michael Piontkowski Bill and Margaret Poorman Devin and Dianna Pratt Rajiv Ramanathan and Arpana Vidyarthi

Matthew and Cathryn Ray Daniel and Marion Rubin Andrew and Yasmin Schleider Ken Schunk Benjamin Segal and Jacqueline Mahal Bhavesh and Nita Shah Brian Sheehan and Cara D’Avanzo Lyman and Holly Smith Marc and Melissa Spiotta Spot Management Services Adam Sprankell Stanley Security Ken Stefano and Molly Maguire-Stefano Charles Stoehrmann Miguel Stucky De Quay Vieira Da Rocha and Graca Viterbo Abreu Loureiro Takeo and Setsuko Sumino Kirk Sweeney and Nighty Rachchomphoo Sodai and Yuka Tanaka Kate Thome Bruce and Liz Thompson Tinkle International Raju and Reema Uttamchandani Kamal and Swapna Verma Sumeet and Malini Wadhera Peter and Georgina Webster Jonathan and Junko Wise Anthony and Rachel Wong Amanda Wood E.J. and Sara Wunsch Paul Yang and Sally To Zhang Ye Susan Zhang Yanni Zhao

81

the SAS Foundations RAINFOREST DONORS Anonymous

Kevin Lu and Joanna Wang

4th Grade Baildon-Early Greensville Classroom

Rick Mayo-Smith and Thi My Duc Tran

Jeremy and Georgina Bach

Chris Misner and Crystal Hayling

Jeremy and Willow Brest

Brian O’Connor and Nancy Menayang

Bart and Valerie Broadman

Edan and Bon Park

Mark and Mieke Chamberlin

Brian Parker and Rachelle Gehrig

Soo Chan and Ling Fu

Steve Payne and Tamera Fillinger

Shiv and Roopa Dewan

Sandro Raniolo and Christine Pillsbury

Craig and Toni Dudsak

Don and Mallory Riegger

Judson and Anne Duncan

Kim and Birgitte Rosenkilde

Debashish Dutta Gupta and Shobha Punukollu

Vikram and Komal Sahu

Brooks and Laura Entwistle Leif and Alison Eskesen Paul and Morgan Frontczak Thomas and Dina Fuller Frans and Natalie Grimbergen Charles Gunawan and Maria Djoewardi Alexander and Kaarin Hardy Bryan and Christine Henning Shruti and Vikram Hora Alex and Anouk Hungate Nilesh Jasani and Shital Raiyani Michael and Alexandria Johnson Chip and Cheryl Kimball Jeff and Torie Knighton Jeffrey and Andrea Koch Michael Langlois and Anita Tan Henry Law and Alice Shyu Adam and Brittany Levinson Omar and Huma Lodhi

Annual Report 2014-15

Clay and Buffi McDonald

Sameer and Yamile Sain Gregory and Regina Salathe Rick and Michelle Scurfield Tanmai and Priya Sharma Matthew and Kristen Shields Rick and Paula Silverman Helman and Maria Sitohang Scott Sullivan and Anna Marrs Cynthia Sung and Neil Clarke Kate Thome Anil Tummalapalli and Radhika Dhall Chiu-Man and Maria Warner Wong Jessica Welirang Adrian and Clarice Chia Woodworth Yeap Transport Ray and Kaori Zage David Zemans and Catherine Poyen Hankun Zhao and Jiexia Liu Zhou Hin Engineering

the SAS Foundations GIFT IN KIND DONORS ACE (Action Committee for Entrepreneurship)

Cal Galicia ’21

Prakalyam Gallery

Raef Galicia ’24

Pret-a-Portrait

Adrift by David Meyers

Google

Pure Group

AirBnB

Vivianne Gordon-Pullar

Ralph Lauren

American Club Singapore

U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission Blair Hall and Valerie Brandt

RedMart

Ashlee Loranne Linton Atlas and Family

Hilton Singapore

Derrick Santo

Baobab Photography Studio

Irene Hoff

SAS Community Sports and Activities

Base Entertainment

International Medical Clinic

SATS

Benares

Ishka

Seoul Education

Berry Bros. & Rudd

Hotel Jen

Silverworks by Sally Greene

Valerie G. Brandt

Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary

Singapore Repertory Theatre

C+S Prints

Kim Robinson

Sky on 57

Victoria Camelio and Michael Fisch

Chip and Cheryl Kimball

Cynthia Sung

The China Collection by Anne Lockett

Devin Kimble

The Syndicate Juice Company

Mary Kuo and Allen Chu

Kira Spa

Taksu Gallery

Marc Clemente

Aliza Knox

Taylor B Fine Design Group

The Club at Marina Bay Sands

La Pizzaiola

Telunas Beach Resort

COMO Hotels and Resorts

L’Espace Beauté

Therapy: A Clothing Boutique

CUT

LinkedIn

Kate Thome

DB Bistro

The Little Gym Singapore

Tiffany & Co.

Roopa Dewan

Little Ones Photography

Twitter

Lelya Eichenberger

Marina Bay Sands

Viterbo Interior Design

Elements Pilates

MasterCard

Expat Dental

Rick Mayo-Smith and Thi My Duc Tran

US Ambassador Kirk Wagar and Crystal Wagar

Facebook

Nihon Harmony Resorts

Waku Ghin

Fairmont Hotels

Niseko Powder Connection

Rebecca Weinrauch

Stephen Fang

Niseko Sports Rentals

David and Wendy Weiss

Feld Entertainment

Opus Bar and Grill

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts

Original Sin Mediterranean Restaurant

Rear Admiral Charles Williams and Mary Beth Williams

Framing Angie

Osteria Mozza

Scott A. Woodward

Saffron Rain

Clarice Chia Woodworth

83

Annual Report 2014-15

Section 7

THE SAS

STORY 85

Telling the

SAS story

Vanessa Spier Director of Strategic Communications The 2014-15 school year was an exciting one for the communications department at Singapore American School. There were endless stories of achievement, inspiration, passion, and innovation among our nearly 4,000 students and 375 faculty members, and a growing number of platforms from which we told our story.

The goal of the communications department is to engage parents, students, faculty, and prospective families in the SAS story and to support recruitment, retention, relationships, reputation, and referrals for the school. We do so by ensuring that we reach our audiences wherever they are, tell a consistent story about SAS across each channel we employ, and analyze our results afterwards.

School-parent communication is vital for enhancing each student’s learning journey and we offer a variety of tools to help parents stay connected to the daily life of our campus. One is eNews, our weekly digital go-to source for notices, events, and important news.

Crossroads, the official school magazine sent to all families, was published four times throughout the year, and featured articles submitted by the SAS community that highlighted academic, extra-curricular, and servicerelated learning and achievements about the student and faculty community.

Housed within the SAS website is Perspectives, the school-wide blog designed to highlight and share insight into each of the perspectives of our community.

In its second year, Perspectives grew to a weekly post frequency.

Social media continued to grow rapidly in the school community throughout the 2014-15 school year. Most SAS parents connected with Facebook, where our audience grew from 9,160 likes to 12,940, and the number of posts the school published to celebrate the SAS community grew from 440 to 797 year-on-year. Education thought

Annual Report 2014-15

leaders and faculty tended to connect more through Twitter, where the school experienced 64 percent growth in followers and delivered over 400 tweets.

The SAS YouTube channel saw a lot of action throughout the school year and became an increasingly important communications channel, as the communications team launched five new videos. Revolutionizing Learning to Change Lives was the first to launch, and highlighted the forward-thinking work the school has undertaken through its multi-year research and development process. That, along with a shorter length version and three companion profiles about young SAS alumni, were produced by an SAS alumnus who collaborated with one of our own students. The communications team also produced a faculty recruitment video that had the unintended outcome of becoming popular with parents, who used it to share a taste of SAS with relatives across the globe.

To help us tell the SAS story in more ways and connect SAS students with real world experience, the communications and alumni relations offices jointly launched a high school work-study program. The program quickly drew 29 interns who took on projects in video, graphic design, blog writing, social media, Crossroads feature writing, and even events planning.

Intern work was published in external publications and across the school, giving interns valuable experience, and the office invited industry experts to give practical and career advice to the students at monthly roundtables.

Now, more than ever, expatriate families have more choices for their children’s education. To effectively reach prospective families, the communications team continued to increase search engine optimization work. After ensuring that visitors can find us, we refreshed the look and feel of the website and developed deeper, valueadded content, both reflecting improved branding and visuals developed in the previous year.

A significant achievement of the communications office for the 2014-15 year was the development of a new comprehensive admissions book to tell the SAS story.

The guide offers prospective families a bird’s-eye view of every part of the school, from our differentiators to our history, from our curriculum to our academic results, and from extra-curriculars to transportation.

digital campaign that highlighted a series of real stories of passion and achievement of individual students and programs that sets Singapore American School apart from the competition.

This is an exciting time for communications, and we look forward to telling the SAS story and engaging our community more than ever before.

Another major department initiative was the launch of the SOAR campaign, a print and

12,940

797

Facebook likes

Facebook posts

160,154

4,471

mobile visitors to the SAS website

Perspectives blog views

101,605 eNews opens

243

Crossroads articles

35,080 2,496,012 clicks on eNews links

36,000 views for five new videos

website page views

250,977

minutes watched on the SAS YouTube channel

Senior

signoff

Bianca Antonio SAS Class of 2015 (Mechanical Engineering, Brown University) Singapore American School taught me that there is no one route to solving a problem. I have been challenged to think of solutions through multiple disciplines, meshing art and engineering. In my Capstone course I set out to create sustainable, attractive living environments for people affected by natural disasters in the Philippines.

While many graduates are moving to jobs in STEM fields, I believe that the arts and humanities are also necessary for solving the world’s problems. SAS allowed me to explore these supposedly opposing subjects equally; I have taken rigorous courses in math, physics, art, and history, and have learned to synthesize all my knowledge from those fields to discover what I want to do in the future. Students no longer need to focus on math and science because they are good at it. We are challenged to leave our academic comfort zone and explore courses that might intimidate us. We embrace these subjects because they broaden our perspective. Plasticity of mind is especially important in our globalized world - where the rate of change in technology challenges us to keep thinking of the next solution.

SAS also exposed me to countless opportunities that give me an edge in university. I have had experience creating model houses as prototypes for the Capstone project I mentioned above, using the school’s 3D printers and laser cutters. I have organized charity runs with hundreds of runners for my service club, Gawad Kalinga, using the school’s resources and facilities to raise awareness and improve the lives of students in rural Philippines. I have had access to Wacom tablets, computers, clay, wood, oil paint, mesh, and all sorts of supplies and have just been told to make art for the sake of it and not be afraid to fail.

Few high school students get these amazing experiences, and I am grateful to SAS for providing me with all of them.

Annual Report 2014-15

89

WWW.SAS.EDU.SG WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/SINGAPOREAMERICANSCHOOL

40 WOODLANDS STREET 41 SINGAPORE 738547 (65) 6363 3403 Singapore American School CPE Registration Number: 196400340R Registration Period: 22 June 2011 to 21 June 2017 Accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges