SPM 2012 results and behind the scenes

SMK Convent Sentul announced the SPM 2012 results in the hall  on the 21st March 2013 to excited , students, teachers and parents. We are very happy to note a healthy improvement in the grade purata and the pass rate. What delighted us was the seven fold increase of the straight A's students!

Proud and happy parents, teachers and Pn Rose, YDP PIBG
with the straight A's SPM 2012 students.

Star write up on SPM results.

I heard on the news that there was an increase in the percentage of straight A for SPM 2012 so I thought our improvement would roughly correlate to that. However when I read the actual report and did some calculation, I had a pleasant surprise. I was delighted  to discover that the increase in all A's nation wide was about 3.44% but SMK Convent Sentul's increase was about a seven fold increase. Whoa!

I want to offer my congratulations and grateful thanks to all the teachers who worked very hard with our girls  to achieve the wonderful results. Eleven subjects showed improvement in grade average. These subjects are B. Inggeris, Pend. Islam, Pend. Moral, Mathematics, Ekonomi Asas, Add. Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology,Kesusateraan Tamil and B. Punjabi. Two subjects showed very marked improvement -  namely Ekonomi Asas from a grade average  of 4.57 improved to 2.85 and Physics from 5.02 improved to 3.83. Nine subjects recorded 100% passes.

Often students and parents see the happiness associated with good results but teachers know full well the hard work they have put in behind the scenes. The pic below shows the teachers hard at work even on SPM exam results day.

Teachers and YDP PIBG Pn Rose happy with the results.

Pn Wang ecstatic over the great improvement in Ekonomi Asas

Mr Lim and Pn Sarimah intently checking out
the wonderful Add. Maths and Maths results!!

Our happy all A's students with teachers, parent and Pn Rose

This year we have three 10 As students, Divyeruthra, Teoh Wei Yee ( our head girl ) and Dharshyini. We also have seven 9As students. Mr. Lee Geok Ai, the chairman of our Board of governors has promised me over RM 6K in cash prizes for girls with results over 5As to be given on our annual Speech Day on 20 April 2013. We hope this will be an inspiration for the students to work hard and to achieve even better results for 2013.

Much hard work has been put in by students, teachers, parents and supporters of the school to achieve the good results we had. Often the hard work is unseen but it is clearly there, behind the scenes. I am reminded of this by a special flower that bloomed this week near our fish pond.

Pink lined white lily from Amsterdam
in its 3rd blooming in SMK Convent Sentul
in  2 years.

This plant is special to me. I bought the lily bulb for 7 euro from Keukenhoff Gardens, Amsterdam, Holland  in late April 2012. Maran our gardener planted it and it bloomed beautifully, twice last year sporting about 9 blooms. Then it lay dormant for almost a year. Only leaves sprouted. Suddenly this week on Monday morning, I spotted this beautiful blossom. To me, this beautiful bloom was a prophetic symbol of the beautiful results that was to come on Thursday and believe me, on Wednesday  night, I was not at all anxious.

Little flower bulbs waiting to blossom

This time, it is not just one blossom but you can see the rest of the flower buds waiting to bloom. Again, the many little buds speak prophetically to me that we will not just have one beautiful moment of results but many  more, unusual, unexpected beautiful moments. 

Students and teachers and stakeholders of SMK Convent Sentul, I want to remind you that when a flower blooms, it speaks of the unseen work below the ground at the roots. It speak of the hard work behind the scenes, below the ground, at the roots level. So .. girls and teachers .., don't ever give up working in the very place where it counts - in the classroom - learning and teaching, marking scripts and books and doing corrections etc. Learn to work hard diligently and quietly below ground level.

One day,  your beautiful flower will bloom and  bring pleasure to all the world.

Young artists in CS

In the last post, I spoke about how we used CS (Convent Sentul ) as an acronym for many phrases - for example caring and sharing, champion school etc. When we first embarked on this, we asked students to write what they thought the word CS mean to them personally. After selecting through all entries, we put these up in murals at the end of 2011 after the PMR exam. Sad to say, the murals quickly faded  due to our wrong choice of paint. We were too bound by cost then and we we selected paints that were not weather proof as these were cheaper. I regretted deeply that wrong choice of paint as the girls really worked hard under the hot sun.

So - we learnt our mistakes and this year - we decided to try again with better quality paints. We have also grown richer (economically ) in our mentality.  Under the close supervision of Pn Intan - our wonderful art teacher and also ex - CS student, our young artists work slowly and steadily on the faded murals until they now become vibrant with new colour.

Due to the low position of the place for the mural, my girls are humbled. They literally sit or kneel as they paint. See how happy my young artists are as they work on the constantly shine mural.

The caring and sharing mural is almost done. See how happy the young girls are.

My young artists cheerfully working on the champion school with all the stars and the hearts.

The real bosses of the murals are these girls. Marsha Ong and Dhenuka have worked on the murals since they were Form 3 and they are still coordinating it and supervising even though they are already  in Form 5 now.

In the background behind the girls, you see my hardworking and dedicated teachers holding a rehearsal for our SKUAD HEM event next week. You also see rows of  disciplined girls in the hot sun lining up for the rehearsal. What a testimony!!

The teacher behind the wonderful murals and the dedication of young artists is Pn Intan. Although Pn Intan is heavily pregnant at this stage, she is still very very active. Teaching, participating gracefully in Wednesday senam robics and also supervising our young artists work closely before she goes on maternity leave.

I have informed our young artists that their names, the class and the year they completed the mural as well as their teacher Pn Intan must be painted on the mural itself. I want a strong declaration to acknowledge the students and teachers who worked really hard on the mural. I also want the legacy of the handiwork of the students to stay in the school for a long time. Different students and teachers leave different legacies, some through art and murals, but many through love and dedication. The declaration of their legacy will inspire others to also leave their mark.


Teachers and students of CS, you really constantly shine - through the murals you put up, through the work you put in to groom and by your love to work and serve even in difficult circumstances. I am very proud of your dedication.

This year 2013 has been very challenging in particular for CS. We have had teachers redeployment, we have teachers falling sick and various others. Through these crisis, I see the good and the bad responses surface. It is a learning time for all of us as we go through the crisis.

For all who has learnt to be strong and to pull their weight and to add value, I salute you and say thank you.