02 January 2018 (2018/001)
Dear Parents/Guardians,
New Year Greetings to you and your family!
I would like to extend a warm welcome to all our pupils and I look forward to working with my Staff and parents/guardians to make our pupils’ learning experiences meaningful and memorable.
Let me take this opportunity to share with you our school’s Vision, Missionand Values.
Our School Vision: “Confident Cultured Aspiring Learners”
We, atNorth Spring Primary School, believe that every pupil has the aptitude to learn and develop confidence in whatever they do. They are capable of demonstrating respect and care when collaborating with peers. We assist every pupil to be a self-directed andeffective lifelong learner, striving for excellence in every endeavour.
Our School Mission: “To Build Character, Nurture Minds and Strive for Excellence”
How do we ensure that every pupil becomes a confident, cultured and aspiring learner? It is through building their character; inculcating the right values via all our programmes and encounters with the pupils. At North Spring Primary School, we aim to provide our pupils a holistic education which enables them to be the best they can be.
Our School Valuesare Integrity, Responsibility, Resilience and Compassion.
Allow me to explain what the values mean for North Spring Primary.
Integrity is the foundation of all that we do. We want your children/wards to not only be honest but have the moral courage to speak up when they see things done incorrectly.
Responsibility entails doing things for themselves and also being accountable to others in the areas of work, time-management, taking care of the environment, etc
Resilience is absolutely important to be built inyour children/wards. This ‘can-do and never-say-die’ attitude allowsthem to bounce back from setbacks when we give them room to make and learn from mistakes.
Compassion – It is our firm belief that ALL our pupils will be successful and therefore on the journey towards success and excellence, they must learn to remember those who are less fortunate than them and when they achieve success; to remember their roots, the people who have played a role in their lives and to give back to Society.
We will ensure that these values are translated into behavioural indicators which your children/wards can seek to have and ask that you work with us in ensuring that they grow up to be citizens who contribute significantly to Singapore because they have their hearts in the right place.
FOCUS 2018
Character building continues to be the core of education and we look forward to your partnership in helping us imbue in your children our school values of Integrity, Responsibility, Resilience and Compassion. Do take note of Character & Citizenship lessons whenever we inform you and we hope that your children will grow up to be honest in all their dealings; responsible in their tasks and to the people who have put their faith in them; resilient in their attitude when they face disappointments and setbacks and to have a heart for others.
We are very proud to inform parents/guardians that we are able to maintain our good PSLE results in 2017. We congratulate the pupils on their successes; thank our teachers for all their hard work and parents for their support. We believe that our pupils can do better and will continue to work towards achieving better quality passes in 2018. For the P6 pupils, we will be conducting their Intensive Study Programme for PSLE from 18 June2018to 22 June 2018 and we urge all parents/guardians NOT to take the children away during that week.
TEACHING AND LEARNING remains as one of the main emphasesfor 2018 and this is done through small group/parallel group teaching so that more attention can be given to the pupils. In addition, our P3 to P6pupilsare banded in classes according to their academic results in 2017. This allows us to carry out targeted teaching and cater better to the children’s needs.
The pupils’ learning needs and styles will be met as teachers employ differentiated teaching methodologies. We look forward to your support of your child/ward in ensuring that they have proper time management; offering time for leisure AFTER schoolwork/assignments has/have been completed. We encourage parents/guardians to use the Students’ Diary as a first line of communication between yourselves and our teachers. You may indicate your need to communicate with the teachers and our teachers will get back to you at their soonest convenient time when they are not in class.The other support you can render to us is to be present at our FIRST Parent-Teacher Meeting for all levels on Thursday 8March 2018. More details will be furnished at a later date.
We also value regular attendance so that your children will not miss out on their learning opportunities and hence any absence will have to be covered by a valid medical certificate. We also strongly discourage parents from taking the children on overseas trips during term time unless due to unforeseen circumstances and we seek your support and co-operation as curriculum time is sacrosanct.
School Hours and Remedial Lessons
All pupils will report to school by 7.20 am every morning and lessons will begin after the Flag-raising and Pledge-taking Ceremony at 7.30 am. Remedial lessons for selected students will be carried out on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 2.30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Curriculum times are as follows:
Reporting Time / 7.20 amCurriculum Start Time / 7.30 am
Curriculum End Time which includes: Co-Curricular Activities for Pr 3 to Pr 6 students (on Thursday mornings from 7.30 am to 9.30 am) and Programme for Active Learning for Pr 1 & Pr 2 students / Monday & Thursday : 1.30 pm
Tuesday & Wednesday : 2.30 pm (includes staggered lunch for all levels)
Friday : 1 pm
Due to the later end time of lessons on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, all levels will be given a staggered lunch break of 30 mins as indicated in the next table.
Level / Staggered RecessTime / Staggered Lunch Break for Tuesdays & WednesdaysPr 1 and 4 / 1stRecess : 9.30 am to 10 am / 1st Lunch Break :12.30pm to 1pm
Pr 3 and 6 / 2ndRecess : 10 am to 10.30 am / 2nd Lunch Break : 1pm to 1.30pm
Pr 2 and 5 / 3rdRecess : 10.30 am to 11 am / 3rd Lunch Break : 1.30pm to 2pm
Your child/ward will be allowed to have a 10-minute quick bite during curriculum hours on Mondays and Thursdays when school ends at 1.30 p.m. and on Fridays when it ends at 1 p.m. Teachers have been advised to make provisions for this sometime between 12 noon and 12.30 p.m.We will appreciate if you could pack a healthy snack for your child to consume for a quick bite. This could come in the form of recommended fruits (apples, bananas or grapes), cereal bars, buns, pau or sandwiches which are easily consumable.
PAL (Programmes for Active Learning) Implementation for Pr 1 and 2 Pupils
With the completion of our PERI-Upgrading and the availability of additional facilities, the school embarked on the implementation of PAL lessons for our Pr 1 and 2 pupils in 2016. The objective of the PAL lessons is to provide pupils with broad exposure to two areas - Sports and Outdoor Education, and Performing and Visual Arts. It aims to facilitate the well-rounded development of pupils in the five learning domains (cognitive, moral, social, aesthetics and physical) and help pupils to develop social emotional competencies.
RAFFLES STUDENT CARE CENTRE
Our Student Care Centre within our premises is into its fourth year of operation. Selection and admission of students is based on set criteria in terms of needs. If you require more information, please contact our Student Care Centre Assistant Manager, Mdm Masliana, at 63854588 during office hours.
SCHOOL SAFETY AND SECURITY
The safety of our pupils is paramount to us as we are situated in an estate surrounded by roads highly used by drivers and commuters. For the safety of our pupils in the school therefore, we would like to appeal to you to refrain from driving into the school compoundwhen you wish to meet up with any of our teachers. Kindly park your vehicle in the multi-storey car park directly opposite or next to the school. We would appreciate if you could also park your vehicle at the multi-storey carparks and walk across to the school building using the pedestrian crossing when you wish to fetch your child home after dismissal. Similarly, please allow your child to alight at the respective gates (B, C or F) when you send your child to school. Please refer to the attached letter from Singapore Police Force and Land Transport Authority for guidelines on road safety.
However, Gates B and C will be opened on rainy daysand you will be allowed into the school compound to let your child alight or board your vehicle in wet weather.During wet weather, we would like to request for vehicles leaving the school gate to turn left onto Rivervale Street so as not to cause a congestion within the school compound.
In the interest of school’s and your child’s/ward’s security, you are requested to report to the Security Counter facing Gate C so that our Security Guards can record your particulars and issue you a Visitor’s Pass. Once you have obtained the pass, kindly proceed to the General Office so that our clerical staff can assist you in locating your child or his / her teacher. We seek your cooperation in observing the above procedure in order to maintain safety and security for our pupils.
We seek your cooperation in refraining from bringing money, water bottles, PE attire or books which your child/ward has forgotten to bring to School. We would like to instillRESPONSIBILITY in each child, not through punishment but devising ways with the child to help him/her remember. We will ensure that your child/ward gets to eat even if he/she forgets to bring pocket money to School and for all the above, we will use our Student Diary as a tool of communication with you. Please reiterate to your child to go straight home after school instead of allowing him/her to go to their friends’ homes/shopping centres/fast food centres, etc. Please be punctual in fetching your child/ward after their school activities so that they do not wander off on their own.
IMPLEMENTATION OF “40 KM/H WHEN LIGHTS FLASH” SIGN AT SCHOOL ZONES
North Spring Primary School is one of the schools which LTA has introduced the "40 km/h When Lights Flash" sign accompanied by flashing amber lights to facilitate speed reduction at Rivervale Street.
These amber lights are intended to be in operation during hours of school activity, hence only rendering the speed reduction valid when the amber lights flash. When the amber lights are not flashing, motorists would be able to travel at the original speed limit of the road.
We would strongly advise all motorists and pedestrians to exercise care at all times as the onus is on ourselves to ensure our own safety and the safety of others.
TEMPERATURE-TAKING EXERCISE ON FRIDAY 5 JANUARY 2018
As part of measures to maintain schools’ preparedness to resume temperature-taking regime, as well as to ensure that all new students are familiar with temperature-taking, there will be a temperature-taking exercise conducted on Friday, 5 January 2018 by the school. In preparation for the exercise, we will be conducting a pre-exercise check on Oral Digital Thermometers (ODTs) on Wednesday, 3 January 2018. We would like to seek your assistance in ensuring that your child brings his/her personal ODT on the two days mentioned. ALL P1 students and International students new to NSPS will be issued their first ODT FREE. All the other students should purchase a new ODT from the pharmacies, NTUC or school bookshop if their ODTs are missing or no longer working.
UPDATE OF STUDENT DATA & Medical RecordS
A Student Medical Record form has been developed by the Review Panel for Safety in PE, for use by all schools.We would like to seek for your cooperationin completing the students’ health declaration form as well as updates to contact details. We have a systematic process in place to collect the information and disseminate it to the relevant teachers (e.g. PE / CCA / Form teachers) within the first 2 weeks of school. Please return the declaration form to the Form Teachers by Wednesday, 10January 2018. Kindly keep the Form Teachers informed should there be any changes in the information in the course of the school year.
CLASS TIME-TABLE
School commences on Tuesday2January 2018 and as such we need to run in our Time-Tables for all levels for a week before we can issue the confirmed Class Time-Table to our pupils. This phasing-in of the Time-Table will enable our teachers to resolve any hitches. We will issue the confirmed Class Time-Table to all pupils on Wednesday 10 January 2018.
Our teachers will keep their pupils informed as to the stationery or books required for the day until the date of release of the confirmed Class Time-Table. As far as possible, pupils’ workbooks will be kept in the classroom cupboards to ensure that pupils do not carry too heavy a load when commuting to and from school.
SCHOOL ASSESSMENT MATTERS AND WEIGHTAGE
Please note Weighted or Non-weighted Assessments are conducted in line with Holistic Assessment of Pupils. Non-weighted Formative Assessment will be spread out throughout the term using pupils’ daily assignments.
Any absence during the Weighted and Semestral assessment period will need to be covered by a Medical Certificate. You may refer to pages 29 to 31 of the Student Diary for information on the School Assessment and Weightage.
PUPILS’ NAME TAGS
For easy identification of our pupils by their names and for security reasons, we seek your help in ensuring that your child’s/ward’s name tag is ironed-on or sewn on their uniforms and PE attire. Please note that your child’s/ward’s name tags do not need to be changed with each year as he/she is assigned to wearthesame colour coded name tags throughout his/her six years with the school. (Please see illustration below.)
Level / 2018 / 2019 / 2020 / 2021 / 2022 / 2023Pr 1 / Blue / Yellow / Green / Purple / Pink / Brown
Pr 2 / Brown / Blue / Yellow / Green / Purple / Pink
Pr 3 / Pink / Brown / Blue / Yellow / Green / Purple
Pr 4 / Purple / Pink / Brown / Blue / Yellow / Green
Pr 5 / Green / Purple / Pink / Brown / Blue / Yellow
Pr 6 / Yellow / Green / Purple / Pink / Brown / Blue
P6 TALK CUM SEC 1 POSTING BRIEFING SESSION FOR PARENTS
All parents of Pr 6 pupils are invited to attend a talk cum Sec 1 Posting Briefing on Friday, 19 January 2018 from 4 pm to 5.30 pm. More details will be furnished in a separate note.
PHOTO-TAKING FOR THE SCHOOL SMART CARDS (P1 &P6 pupils only)
The Ministry of Education will be conducting the yearly photo-taking exercise for all students in P1and P6only for the issue of the School Smart Cards (SSC). MOE’s vendor will be conducting the photo-taking session in our school on Thursday, 18 January 2018.
P4 SUBJECT-BASED BANDING BRIEFING SESSION FOR PARENTS
In our continuing efforts to forge closer links with our key stakeholders, we will be organising a P4 Subject-Based Banding Briefing Session for parents of our P4 pupils. We will share with you important information on the Primary 4 Subject-Based Banding Exercise which will enable you to make informed decisions for your child/ward after the results of the P4 End of Year Examination have been released.
The session will be held on Friday, 23 February 2018 from 4 p.m. to 5.30 p.m.at the School Hall. After the briefing session, the P4 Form Teachers will be in the hall to meet up with you for further clarifications. More details will be furnished at a later date.
YEARBOOK 2017
Your child/wardwill receive a copy of the Yearbook 2017 which encapsulates the memories of the significant events and achievements for the year 2017. We hope you will share many enjoyable moments with your child/ward while you browse through the pages of the Yearbook 2017 as much as our editorial team has enjoyed putting it together for you. We seek your understanding that we WILL BE issuing ONE yearbook per family and it will be given to the oldest child in our school. This is to facilitate the leftover copies which will be given to P1s of2018. However, if a parent has made an advertisement contribution in the yearbook which goes towards the production of the yearbook, an additional copy of the yearbook willbe given to the parent.
MOE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE SCHEME (School Meals Programme)
Pupils who are on the MOE Financial Assistance Scheme (School Meals Programme) will receive $2 per school day for their meal expenses. In addition, MOE FAS pupils will receive 2 meals at $2 per meal per week for after-school needs (e.g. remedial lessons). This will be disbursedvia the School Smart Card and pupils are advised to take good care of their cards and keep them safely.
SCHOOL ACTIVITIES & IMPORTANT DATES