Summer work

The “summer” break punctuates the school year and it is a time for closure, recovery, celebration and induction. Over the recent holiday, we inducted 50 new teachers whose roles were created largely due to the growth of the School. Significant enhancements were also made to classrooms and the School environment. Tanglin is a not-for-profit school and this allows us to re-invest in campus facilities and the greening of our environment.

Over the summer, building projects were numerous and included the installation of new gymnasium equipment in the Griffith Jones Hall, the laying of new astroturf and the completion of the new kitchen in our Junior School that allows freshly cooked nutritious food to be served to our students. We are enlarging the size of our senior school to ensure that every child who enters Tanglin has the opportunity to complete their schooling with us. We have added an additional floor to our Senior School building and over the holidays the new classrooms and science labs were completed.


Academic results

We received the results of the tests and examinations our students sat at the end of years 2, 6, 9, 11 and 13 over the recent holiday and they were very pleasing. In Key Stages 1 and 3, results were very good, with a significant improvement in the children’s grades in writing recorded in Key Stage1. Results in Key Stages 2 and 4 were Tanglin’s best ever. Moving to the important Key Stage 5 exams, where results provide students with life-long passports to further opportunities, Tanglin achieved an impressive point score of 874.1 compared to a UK national average of 731.1.

Ninety-five percent of our students were accepted into their first-choice university, including prestigious institutions such as Oxford, Cambridge and the Sorbonne. At Key Stage 5, Tanglin ranked 225 out of all senior schools in the UK, and most of those ranked higher are academically selective. Importantly, students at Tanglin achieved an average of one grade higher than the level predicted based on their prior achievement. We are very proud of this significant “value-adding”.

Curriculum changes

Recently we have introduced a number of curriculum changes, including the teaching of Mandarin in Reception to Year 5 to complement our teaching of the language in the Senior School. Other additions include the teaching of religious education and classical civilisations at the GCSE level, film studies and philosophy at A level, applied ICT, critical thinking and Spanish at AS level and we are working towards being accredited to teach the IB Diploma, alongside A-level studies, in the Sixth Form.

Sport

We continue to focus on improving sporting opportunities for all Tanglin students. We have widened the range of activities we offer and I am pleased that participation in sport has increased significantly. Most notably, we have had a 37 percent jump in the numbers of senior students who play sport. Our sports days see strong competition amongst athletes and also promote involvement. Many school records have fallen on recent sports days. I am delighted that we are now very close to securing a playing field near the school on Jalan Hang Jebat. We have plans to develop this site and install a competition-level running track. This will be an exciting development for the School.


Corporate social responsibility

Excellence in corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a core commitment at Tanglin and I am proud of the advancements we have made in this area. We have appointed a CSR coordinator, Graham Worthington, and we are addressing issues of sustainability and reducing our carbon footprint.

Other initiatives include the running of an EcoKids Club in the Senior School, as well as the very popular Enterprise Club that involves students from Years 7 to 11 in raising money for charities in the region through innovative product marketing. We have an Energy Conservation Group and we are working towards achieving Eco Office and Eco School status To read more about CSR at Tanglin, please click here.


Personalisation At Tanglin

We have been giving serious consideration to how we can personalise what we do at the School to an even greater extent. Feedback from a recent parents’ survey revealed to us the importance of personalised teaching approaches and as professionals in education we know that learning is maximised when the curriculum is relevant and a warm and supportive relationship exists between the teacher and the student.

A very poignant piece of graffiti that I saw at Leeds University said “You don’t learn from those you don’t like.” We are examining how we extend our range of teaching strategies as research shows that the least effective way for a child to retain information is to be lectured about it. Far more effective strategies include to teach someone else, to learn by doing and to participate in discussion groups. To lift our level of personalisation, we must offer more choice within the curriculum and flexible learning pathways, ensure learning is relevant, give more guidance, implement more revealing methods of assessment and tailor learning strategies to individuals. We know the importance of offering a wide repertoire of learning strategies other than just “teachers teaching” and “students learning”.


Organisational health

Another issue that has been intensively discussed at the School is organisational health. We want to promote individual health and social well-being for everyone in the Tanglin community - students and staff. In addition, we believe that Tanglin Trust School as an organisation must be healthy. This means promoting the importance of the environment and being open to change and innovation through active listening and learning. Everyone at Tanglin should be empowered to have their say and we want to cultivate a “can do” culture where we are all passionate about student development, learning and parenting. Tanglin will host its first parenting conference on 18 October and many issues of great importance to young people will be discussed at this event.


Right sizing

We are committing to ensuring that every child at Tanglin has the opportunity to complete their schooling here and key to this is the expansion of our Senior School and Sixth Form. We are moving from a school population that is pyramid shaped to one that is shaped like a strong column. The number of students in our Sixth Form has grown dramatically over the past two years and in September 2009 we expect to have some 200 students in the Sixth Form and we plan that these students will be able to choose between the IB Diploma curriculum or A levels.

Work has commenced on our new Sixth Form building which, on completion in September 2009, will be serviced by new roads. This Sixth Form Centre will become the new face of Tanglin and the additional access roads will dramatically reduce traffic congestion coming into the School. We have a master plan for Tanglin’s development that involves the separation of cars and people and the maximisation of green space through sky lawns and gardens. I concluded my presentation on 8 October by showing an artist’s impression of our new glass fronted Sixth Form Centre (see below). Our replanted banyan tree can been seen in the foreground of the new building that features a library and research area, a cafe, galleries and other facilities. We have an exciting future ahead.

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