To greet each other Happy New Year is a joy. To prepare the school for the new academic year in 2017 requires a great deal of effort, love, sacrifice, coordination and hard work from many parties.

The holidays at the end of each year  is never a quiet season for our  school. From 5th December 2016 when the SPM examinations ended, there is a busyness in SMK Convent Sentul not matched by many other schools.  The hive of activities executed by about 15 teams of workmen is closely supervised by their bosses on site  in school. The teams' bosses works in close liaison and are spearheaded by Mr. Lee Geok Ai, Chairman of the Board of Governors. I and Pn Wang and the  team of school administrators and teachers and office staff work together with these crews to upgrade the school. 

The school at 8.30 am in the morning will look different from the school at 12.00 noon and at 5.00 pm because the progress of the upgrading works done by the various crews of men. Mr. Lee  comes in personally many times to assess the problems faced by the various crews. His expertise empower them to resolve the problems faced. Photos of progress of work  sent through the what apps group helped him monitor and push the pace of work to reach our deadline before school reopens on 3rd Jan 2017.  Who are these  teams and what do they do?

Let me list them.

1.   Hackers and cement works.
2.   Tilers
3.   Painters
4.   Plumbers and Piping and Pumps
5.   Electricians and Fans Installation
6.   Landscapers
7.   Ironwork
8.   Furniture repair
9.   Furniture supply
10. Ceiling and Roofs Repair
11. Automatic bell Installation
12. Glass works
13. Bookshop Renovation
14. Frog Room and ICT upgrades
15. Banners Installation
16. Administrators and Teachers and Office Staff

I shall show some before and after upgrades photos.

The old cement floor staircase was moldy and even had a 
 plant sprouting out of it midway. It is so neat after being tiled.

The cement floors of some classrooms  had big holes even after 
we re-cemented many times so there was no alternative other
 than to hack and tile up these old floors.

6 classrooms with major cracks in their cement floor. Classroom floors are  tiled 
for the first time in CS long history of 76 years.


4 Cempaka floor after being  tiled.

We want to thank our generous sponsor Mr Alex Khor Ann Ling, the Managing Director of Topcera Sdn Bhd for donating RM6,5000/- worth of the tiles for the 6 classrooms and the staircase. The classes that are being tiled are 3B, 5C, 5D, 4 A, 4B and 4C while the floors of 3D, and 5B  are  repaired.

The entire Form Four block is being repainted in various shades of grey to match the church new grey colours and our zincalum block. The walls are  painted a sweet soft lilac blue colour aptly called "Lilac Petals." 

Old rusty steel cabinets with crooked doors were repainted
and realigned. They looked totally brand new!
We are so delighted with the big difference.

The canteen block and the Form 4 block being repainted.

New colours for Form 4 block

The erosion at the bottom of the assembly platform is being arrested by repacking the soil and returfing it with new grass. The field will be improved by new soil and returfing. New shrubs are planted near the zincalum block to provide more shade for the 3 classrooms there. Paths are filled with river pebbles add a fresh look to our grounds.  Canteen benches were also repaired .Mr Lee was concerned that the canteen benches would spoil the girls' new uniform when they came back to school. Mr Lee  got Daniel Yong Shi Yuen and his team of men from BeauTop to repair them all.

3 lorry loads of soil for returfing and tiling

                                    

                                                               We found difficult to plant things in this path.

                                                               Mr Lee had the brilliant idea to lay river pebbles.

 There were at least 15 holes in the roof of the KH block.

          Workers clamber up to repair the roof carefully.

                                  Students happy with the new soft colours of the classroom and                                                     the norice boards and the new cabinets.

Mr Daniel Yong of BeauTop was also very generous                                                             to donate about RM10,000.00  towards the fabric installation                                                             over all the classrooms soft boards.

One of the things that gave us great joy is to see the number of students in SMK Convent Sentul achieving full attendance for the  entire year. The full attendance record in 2016 is 127 girls who have never been absent from school .  I also have 14 excellent full attendance teachers whom I called my 007 teachers. They have 0 MC (Medical certificates ),  0 CRK ( did not use any of the 7 days legally allotted to them ) and have 7 days  to carry forward to 2017. We know for a fact girls and teachers sometimes do fall ill or there are pressing family events and matters, yet these 127 girls and my fourteen  007 teachers have made it a point to be never absent from school despite whatever challenges because they totally love the school.  We hope all our preparations to upgrade the school for 2017 will motivate others - students, teachers, parents and other stakeholders to give your all for SMK Convent Sentul and to be here with here. 

God bless you and have a blessed  year ahead! Happy New Year 2017.