FANTASTIC SPM 2010 RESULTS.

23rd March 2011 was an exciting day for all secondary schools. The atmosphere was also equally exciting in SMK Convent Sentul. Students waited excitedly in our newly painted hall for the SPM results to be released.

SMK Convent Sentul had a record number of outstanding students! We had 10 straight As students!! Congratulations. The school grade purata ( average grade) not only broke the 2010 target but also broke the 2011 target so we have to revise our targets for this year!

Amazing and simply ...awesome!.

What brought a lot of joy was seeing the many happy families come in support of their daughters and the many happy families rejoicing and beaming at the good results.

As I work on the analysis of the SPM results, I am amazed by the very very obvious improvement . Kudos to the adminstrators, the Guru Kanan and the teachers for their hard work and to the students for high achievement. Pn Phoon Yoke Meng, the previous principal must be given due honor and credit for her leadership which have inspired this great improvement in results.

•14 out of 24 subjects recorded the best ever performance in the past 5 years. These subjects are B.Melayu, B.Inggeris, Pend. Islam, Sejarah, Mathematics, Science, Pend.Seni Visual , Add Mathematics, Perdagangan, Ekon Asas, B. Cina, B. Tamil, B. Punjabi and Kesusasateraan Tamil

•22 out of 24 subjects showed a marked improvement in the average grade with 3 subjects showing over 40% increase and 2 subjects with over 30% increase and 7 subjects with over 20% increase

We set our sights high for this current year! We pledge to work towards better results. and a reminder to all students and teachers - real meaningful learning begins first in the classroom with students paying attention and yet enjoying the lesson.

Let SMK Convent Sentul flag fly proudly!

•12 out of 24 achieved 100% passes.

School makeover begins

In the first month I was Principal at Convent Sentul, I typed out a very very long wish list. I sent some parts of this wish list to people I loved and trusted. One part of the wish list involved getting funds from those who had abundance to give to the needy.


Allysa - my ex-student awaiting SPM results from my former school Seksyen 5, helped me see the wish list could become a reality. She saw part of my wish list and offered a sum from her angpow money to help a needy student for one year. That inspired my faith because this 17 year student had the faith to give despite being a student and not even a student related to Convent Sentul in anyway.

Another part of the wish list involved a physical makeover for our 71 year old school. So I asked for help. We have to date 3 different paint companies who are considering our request for free paint. The first company - SKK already started the ball rolling by generously donated the paint for our hall. We also have 3 different parties to provide the labour to paint different parts of the school.

The first contractor, Andrew Seoh came by to the school and then sent us 4 of his workers so that we can finish repainitng the hall before school reopens. The workers started on Thursday, immediately after the pengawas camp










But makeover do not begin by merely camouflaging really - it really must begin first by repairing. The first thing the workers did was to locate all the flaws areas and the uneven areas and to patch up with white filling.


Next the ceiling and we do have a fairly high ceiling.



See the men at work and see the work of their hands. They have to work through Saturday and Sunday so that the hall will be ready before the students come back from the holidays.







They worked first with the ceiling and gradually I saw the change of colours from our former green to a happy yellow.



The change of colours.


The external doors to the hall are being repainted.

The difference between one coat of paint and two coats of paints. Hmm.. I wonder how three coats of paint will look like?

In our personal makeover as wholistic people, we must first begin by repairing those areas where we have personal issues.

We need to sort out a priority list on which areas to begin with first - for example the ceiling or the walls? Do remember if we start first with the wall, the repainting of the ceiling will splatter on the walls.

Finally we need to experience at least two coats of the new paint before it even looks pretty. Too often we fidget too fast and say - "Look I have already improved "and the change of colours is not so obvious or permanent because it has just been only one coat of change. Let your makeover be more obvious by going through the right steps in the right sequence and for a longer period. That way the paint materials and the labour has the most impact. Remember God is interested in giving you a physical and spiritual makeover but you have to cooperate with Him so that his donated materials and his labour in you have maximum impact.

Another part of my wish list which I recently added. I saw this lovely orchid garden in BTPN in Cheras while attending a course there.

They have this metal trellis above which they have grown this very fragrant vine that smells like pandan with luscious leaves and clusters of small white fragrant flowers. Pots of orchids hang below. But their orchids do not bloom profusely as of yet.

My dream orchid garden will be something like this. Beneath the fragrant vine on a wooden trellis, orchids hang and bloom profusely as those orchids in my house.

I will keep on dreaming for myself and for SMK Convent Sentul.

Success in SMK Convent Sentul

Congratulations Pavitra Nayagi 3 Anggerik for winning the National Level Chess Competition Under 16.

SMK Convent Sentul is proud of you and we hope you are equally proud of SMK Convent Sentul. Carry on being a bright shining star for SMK Convent Sentul.

In the last post, I blogged about accepting failures, now we speak of our joy in success!

Help us accept success and failure in work and play.

SMK Convent Sentul school song

It's quite unusual but lately the school song has been ringing overand over again in my mind and in my heart . And the sections that alight on my mind and heart doesn't always start from the beginning of the song - sometimes just the chorus will come to mind and at other times the end of the song. Hmm...? I do wonder why this happens.


Our school song goes like this.

O! Hark now hear our joyful cries of pride in our school
Steadfast are we in our duty, simple in virtue
We pledge to you our loyalty and hardships we endure
We will strive to make you proud our school that we adore
O! Lord we pray for guidance and blessings on our way
Help us to accept success and failure in work and play
O! Hark now hear our joyful cries of pride in our school
Steadfast are we in our duty simple in virtue

When I first heard the minus 1, I thought it was pretty difficult to follow. Now after about 4 months in the school, I am struck and awed by the wise words in this song and the ethos that has been ingrained in the school through the school song.

This morning for instance, the part that became alive to me was the line "Help us to accept success and failure in work and play." Typical traditional culture teaches us to embrace only success and reject failure. But this song teaches us to accept both success and failure in work and play. How profoundly wise.

I am at this point of time reminded of a movie I often showed to students and teachers on white water rafting near Jeram Besu between Raub and Pekan. Before the people embarked on their 5 km journey down the river, they were literally trained to fail as part of their safety procedures. They were asked by their trainer to deliberately capsize their boat, to be thrown into the cold waters and then to work together as a team to make their boat turn upright again after they had been thrown into the water. This was to ensure that in the event when the boat actually capsized, the participants would not panic and drown due to the panic of having the cold waters strike them

It is only when the boat is made to capsize that the reality of the cold fast and raging waters strike us. In the face of the crisis or so called failure, we have to calm our fears, settle our embarrassment and other issues and simply learn to rise again.

We need to purposefully teach our students and society that failure is a neccasary part of life and failure is a stepping stone to success. Too often we unknowingly propagate the myth and the lie that life is pure success all the way. And when our students faced failure at some point in life, they feel embarrased, ashamed and depressed and drown in these negative feelings and become unable to deal with the crisis.

How much wiser to recieve the words of the school song and to know that failure is part and parcel of life and handling failure positively brings us closer to success.


Down the river of life are challenges and crisis. We need to handle the failures before we can taste real permanent success.

Fun in Physics Lab

Doesn't the picture make you think my Physics students in 5 Anggerik are doing some crazy stunts seemingly hanging upside down from some beam?

Relax - that's just an image from a convex lens and the image is inverted (upside down ) so it looks as if the girl is upside down but truth is she is just standing normal and raising her hands up.

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You can see my girls are safely grounded right way up on solid ground - it is just their image on the white screen which is upside down . Even the reflection of the girls in the convex lens show they are standing right way up normally

Our beautiful Harkiren from 5 Anggerik smiling happily and showing off our SMK Convent Sentul badge.

This is one of the essential elements we want to incorporate in learning and teaching here in Convent Sentul Hands-On, Heads On and Hearts on Learning.

Learning hands-on by successfully conducting the experiment.

Learning heads-on by understanding the image on the white screen is inverted, diminished and real and being able to measure the focal length accurately by measuring distance from the lens center to the screen for a distant object using a ruler.

And finally hearts on learning - her grin that says it all and both students and teacher have enjoyed the lesson.

My prayer and hope for Convent Sentul is that this scenario of real meaningful learning that brings smiles to teachers and students be found in every single classroom in SMK Convent Sentul.