Scholars enhance UWC life - United World College of South East Asia

Dunia, April 2010
8
Meet the East Team 2010
On Thursday, 25 February, the College
held an event at the Ang Mo Kio Campus
attended by over 200 current and future
East Campus parents. The event provided
the opportunity to introduce Head
of East Campus James Dalziel (currently
Middle School Principal on Dover Campus),
who will take up his new position in
August 2010 as well as Stephen Meade,
Deputy Head of East Campus, who will
join the College in August 2011 from the
Jakarta International School.
Student-led conference day provided the
opportunity for the children to discuss
their learning with you, their parents. The
value of student-led conferences is that
they encourage children’s ownership of
their progress in learning, the chance to
reflect on and consolidate their progress
and to share the responsibility of communicating
this progress.
The conferences reinforce the central
role, you as parents, play in your child’s
education and give the parents a further
understanding of how learning takes
place as well as the chance to be actively
involved in the learning process. This
style of conference encourages increased
interaction and develops skills in
organisation, communication and critical
thinking.
The school was abuzz throughout the
day as excited children led their parents
through the Classroom and Single Subject
conferences. In the classrooms the
children were able to explain the process
of their learning in their units of inquiry, literacy,
mathematics and the conferences
concluded with the sharing of the student
Simon Thomas, UWCSEA Projects
Director, also provided an update on the
progress of the Tampines site and the
planned phased opening. Although the
opening of the Middle and High School
is planned for August 2011 (Phase 2),
the construction of all the superstructures
on the site will be completed before the
Infant School opens in August 2010.
When the Infant School welcomes its first
students in August 2010, the self-contained
facility will be completely finished,
Student-Led Conferences 2010 on the East Campus
portfolios. The single subject conferences
enabled the children to demonstrate the
skills they have developed and as with
the classroom conferences, were very
interactive. In some cases these activities
supported the children’s understandings
of their grade level units of inquiry.
These are some of the comments from
the children on the day:-
Charith (K1KMc) - “I’m the teacher today
and the boss!”
Freddie (3HaB) – “They (SLC’s) give my
parents a taste of what I have been doing
at school.”
Victoria (5LWh) – “It is better I share
rather than the teacher because it is work
that I have done.”
Thank you to the parents who took the
time to complete the online evaluation
survey. Your comments will be taken into
consideration when planning the 2011
conferences.
Curriculum Team
and fully operational. Since the
construction of the remainder of
the site is expected to be complete
by February 2011, familiar
construction inconveniences
such as noise and dust will be
minimal. Safety of the students is
our primary consideration.
Grades 2 to 6 will be on the Ang
Mo Kio Campus next academic
year, joining the Infants in Tampines
when Phase 2 of the campus opens
in August 2011. The same year there will
be an intake of students in Grade 7 to
10. Grades 11 and 12 will be introduced
as students progress in the following
academic years.
To keep up to date with progress, please
subscribe to an RSS feed or alert on the
dedicated microsite: www.uwcsea.edu.
sg/tampines.
Text and photos by Kate Woodford
Photos by Kate Woodford