Mr Lee Geok Ai's angpows and a Gift of Love

I am using the Chinese New Year holiday season to catch up with my blog posts. PMR 2013 results were announced on 19th December 2013. We did the PMR results release event together with the " A Gift of Love " program organized by the PIBG. Each parent who came to support their child during this event was presented with a carnation beautifully wrapped by Tang Jer Fang, Tan Lay Hun and Alicia Sek under the careful supervision of Mrs Tang. The gift certainly brought many tears of joy to many parents. Thank you, also parents and PIBG for your kind contributions. To me, the best part of the event was witnessing beautiful moments of family bonding as students escorted parents up stage to receive the PMR exam slips together or when their daughter expressed words of thanks for the support given by their parents whilst presenting them with the carnation as a token of appreciation.

Straight As PMR 2013 students posing with their happy parents and us.

Mrs Tang, Tang Jer Fang and friends preparing the
250++ carnations for the the Gift of Love program.
It require about 4x4 = 16 (wo) man hours
 of back breaking hard work

Satisfaction!   It is a great feat to
wrap so many carnations in one day. 

I was also pleasantly surprised and moved to tears when Tang Jer Fang presented me with a beautiful bouquet she personally handmade ( her maiden effort ). SMK Convent Sentul was also honored to receive the award for the 4th place Best Performance in PMR 2013  ( Pencapaian Terbaik ) in the Day school category from the Director of Education of Kuala Lumpur. Thank you teachers for your hard work and parents and all stakeholders for your strong support.

All smiles at the beautiful bouquet
personally handmade by TangJer Fang
and at the excellent exam results she has.

Thank you teachers and parents for
your wonderful support in achieving this.
You have made the difference!

The Gift of Love program was again carried out during the Form 1 Orientation Day for the 2014 academic session on the 28th December 2013  with great success. Jer Fang and her mum prepared the flowers again. The Gift of Love Program was also a great opportunity to teach our new Form 1 girls to say " I love you" to their parents whilst presenting them the flower. On the same day, we also had the PIBG Carnival where a few stalls were set up to raise funds and to interact with the parents. Thank you En Tarmiezi, En Alan and so many others who helped man the stalls and looked into so many details.

Orientation Day flowers were gerberas

En Alan and En Tarmiezi helping with the collection
for the "A Gift of Love" program
flanked by Pn Siti Hasrina, the PIBG SU

Pn Rose and Mr Lee giving the flowers to the new Form 1 girls
so that they would present these flowers to their parents.

Thank you Pn Rose Saadiah YDP PIBG for
spearheading and organizing the "A Gift of Love "program.

Parent touched by the gift of a flower.

A happy mother  receiving the flower from her daughter

On 20th Jan 2014, Mr Lee Geok Ai, the chairman of the Board of Governors graced our school morning assembly once again. This time, it was to present his personal angpows of RM 150/- each to the 21 girls who had straight As and RM 100/- to those who had missed by 1 or 2 As. All in all, Mr Lee presented more than RM 6000/- cash for the excellent students performance. Twin Marketing ( Mr Lee's friend) also gifted us with RM 450/- to give to 3 girls based on their character values of being most helpful, most active and most improved. Twin Marketing also donated another RM5000/- towards the new classrooms fund as well as contributed  RM 100/- monthly each towards 3 needy students. Thank you Twin Marketing.

Mr Lee Geok Ai giving his speech.
The teachers and students behind him can be seen
 clearly paying careful attention to his speech.

Happy recipient of big angpow from Mr Lee.

All As PMR 2013

Excellent students PMR 2013

Character awards PMR 2013 angpows from Twin Marketing
Tang Jer Fang - Most Helpful
Mishalnee  Most Improved
Sara - Most Active

Komal, our school captain presenting Mr Lee
with a  handmade card to express their thanks
 for the new classrooms, the new walkway and other upgrades in the school.

The card from the PMR students

I also want to take this opportunity to thank Ipcos Facade who contributed more than RM 50,000/- towards the construction of the 3 new classrooms. Thanks also to Inta Bina who also generously contributed RM 20,000/- towards the new classrooms. Inta Bina also continued the sponsoring of the needy students program. To date Inta Bina has given more than RM 60,000/- to our school since May 2012. Jeremy of Omni Resources was also very generous in giving to the new classrooms fund and to the needy girls program. Mr Selvaraja of North Soils has been very faithful and generous in continuing his support of RM 100/- monthly for the 3rd year running since 2012 towards twenty needy Indian girls. Mr Selvaraja's support has crossed over RM 72,000/-. Thank you kind gentlemen! We are blessed by your kindness.  I think Father God will award you with His character awards from heaven for your kindness

Major transformations in 6 short weeks of holidays!

This post is long overdue. It should have been written  in  December 2013. But December 2013 was a very hectic period in SMK Convent Sentul, despite it being the year end school holidays. My profuse apologies.

That period was hectic because we were working very hard to get three new classrooms and one new staff room ready for the new academic term in 2014. At the same time, events such as the Holiday Musical program, the Clothes Bank workshop, SPM 2013 exams, teachers transfers etc were taking place concurrently during the school holidays. Many people mistakenly think school holidays are easy lazy, hazy days. Please stand corrected as school holidays is the only period to do major renovations in school without disturbing the pedagogical processes involving teachers and students. However between mid November to 6 December, the contractors would only work on Fridays and weekends since we had to observe silence during the SPM examinations.

To max the holiday period, we persuaded the tenant of the caretaker's house to shift out by mid November so we could have more time. Here she is shown, holding the extra money we paid her to shift out earlier. Father Alan of St Joseph church was very helpful and helped her her out by allowing her to put her furniture in a spare room until she could shift in to her new premise. For old timers of the school, yes, the caretaker's house is no longer there - it has been totally demolished and replaced by 3 beautiful modern classrooms!

This pic shows Mr Lee Geok Ai, our chairman discussing the location of the new classrooms with the contractors. Mr Lee came very often during this period especially during weekends and early in the morning.

When the proposed plans were sent to me, I was very, very pleased. We had hoped for only 1 new classroom, but what was proposed was three modern classrooms."Eyes have not seen nor ears heard what the Lord has prepared" became a reality in the space of 6 short weeks!

The caretaker's house was totally demolished and its bricks used to build the raised platform to cut cost.The surrounding trees were cut down. Many big machines - excavators, cranes and cement mixers were on site to help us race against time. In the following picture, you see the picture of the train passing through in the background. Mr Lee design had to include sound proofing against the frequent trains, heat proofing and various other factors.

See passing train  in background. The  cement is being poured
out by crane and workers level the cement. They worked even during rain!

Slowly but surely the new classrooms took form and structure

.Mr Lee decided to add on more transformations. He also did an entire new covered walkway that led  from the former 5 Mawar classroom in a straight path to the new classrooms instead of the zig zag pattern we used to have.

Of course we also had to do major landscaping to straighten the path. The gardeners and cleaners were kept very busy, uprooting trees that could be replanted.

Students were delighted by the changes taking place.

Meanwhile I had no idea that students were posting on FB on what was been built in the school. Their comments were very encouraging especially in the stretch when we worked very hard. Meanwhile the holiday musical program was carried out over the space of 5 weeks. Our girls received musical training from professional trained pianists in a  NGO INC situated in the nearby Sentul Raya complex.

The two kind pianists who volunteered their services FOC courtesy INC. Their training made a big difference to our girls hearing and pitching. I heard them the first  few session and they could not pitch accuractely. By the time they reached the 5th session, it was sheer delight to hear them sing.

Singing You raise me up

On Dec 2nd 2013,  Dr Cheah Yin Mee, her two sisters and their friends set up the clothes Bank.  Our girls had a field day choosing matching clothes, shoes, belts accessories  and bags. Our girls were beautifully decked from head to toe. Dr Cheah brought in her friend from Singapore to give the girls a professional talk on how to conduct themselves during job interviews. The girls also received an unexpected angpow from Dr Cheah. What a lovely treat!

Filzah and gang choosing clothes

Wei Ning and Ang trying out the clothes for size.

Vinni beautifully decked out.

Dr Cheah handing out angpows

Meanwhile we totally converted the former 4 A classroom into the senior teachers new staff room. We also upgraded, repainted and re-oriented the old staff room to create more space for our dedicated teachers.

The teachers had to pack up their belongings to get ready for the upgrade and the shift into the new rooms.

Packing up to shift

Old cabinets with spoilt doors

New cabinets

The senior teachers new room

The teachers smiling happily in the upgraded.
more spacious old staff room.

Pn Roszam teaching in the new high ceiling, well lit new classroom.

By the way, Mr Lee's friends Ipcos Facade totally sponsored the cost of the framework for the new classrooms. They donated more than RM 50K. Praise God and thank you Ipcos Facade!! Our next job was getting the the school ready with new banners and holistic values for our girls but I will write more about that in the next blog post.

  Now  you know why the holidays was such a hectic period!

Habits of Minds HOMS, Happy Deepavali and Selamat Awal Muharam.

Datin Cheam, PK Koko and Form 1 girls and teachers begining the HOMS murals

The Habits of Minds HOMS murals were drawn by the Form 1 students under the diligent supervision of Datin Cheam and teachers this week. Since I was called out of school unexpectedly to attend  a week long course in IAB Genting, I could not fully participate in this event which I had much looked forward to. However during the evenings when I went down to KL on Monday evening for the  PIBG AJK meeting and then again on Tuesday evening for the  Board of Governors meeting, I caught glimpses of the girls, teachers and Datin Cheam hard at work on the murals.

The completed murals.
Note the girls' input with a creative style of placing the words
at different angles

Painting even in the rain shielded by umbrellas
showed the value of persisting HOMS
was painted not just on the walls
but also in the souls of our girls and teachers.

Striving for accuracy - Bull's eye - girls.

Inter racial thinking independently -
a Malay, a Chinese and an Indian portrayed on the mural.

I sought leave from the course to come to school early on Thursday morning so I could wish all the staff , the workers and students Happy Deepavali, Selamat Awal Muharaam and Happy holidays for the long break. It was also a good time for me to catch up on the finished HOMS murals.

With Maran and Jothi

Ratu(s) Sari for Happy Deepavali - Ms Anne and me.

The Form 5 girls

So a belated Happy Deepavali and a be-early Selamat Awal Muharam. May the Habits of Minds values be engraved not just on walls but also in our minds and souls.

The pianos of SMK Convent Sentul

When I first set my eyes on the piano in SMK Convent Sentul hall, it was a very sorry sight. Lonely and forlorn, it was abused and desecrated as a shelf to place books, bottles and drinks. How did a piano descend to being used as a shelf?  It was wobbly - the base was no longer level and so only unsteady melodies could be eked out as the piano wobbled while being played. The sides paneling were in  bad shape.Many keys were missing or spoilt. It was really a very pathetic sight.

I asked around. "When was the last time you heard this piano being played?" No one remembered. Such a sad answer. I thought through for several months on how it could be restored. To take it out to a shop to repair it would already cost a bomb in transportation without even considering  restoration costs. "Why don't you just buy a new piano? It will be cheaper you know. More practical" a friend suggested.

I didn't understand why exactly but my heart preferred the old  piano restored rather than a brand new piano sitting in the hall. Maybe the idea of restoring and salvaging what was no longer useful struck me as being more noble and romantic. So I continued to ask around to see if anyone could help.

One day Mr Lee Geok Ai, the chairman of the board of governors connected me with Mrs Tang, Jer Fang's mum. She in turn connected me with Mr Lim, a piano master. When the piano master came at about 11 am, he informed me that what we had was, indeed a very old piano of some 65 years. I asked if it could be restored. He hmmed for a while and thought about transporting the heavy piano back to the shop. He said after a long while " If you can get a carpenter here - maybe,maybe I can do something but no guarantees."

Miraculously on that day of all days, I happened to have a visiting carpenter who was there with his aide to repair the school chairs and  tables. ( Most schools do not have visiting carpenters even and for me to have a carpenter on the same day the piano master needed one was really a miracle and God's prearranged coincidence. ) So I called the carpenter and his aide to the school hall and they conferred together with Mr Lim. When the carpenter first stepped foot in the hall and I ushered him to the piano - he protested loudly in Cantonese - " I don't know how to do pianos. I only know how to repair chairs and tables."

Carpenter and aide repairing tables

Mr Lim calmed him down. "First you and your aide help me shift the piano out into the middle of the hall and then we all turn the piano upside down together. Then you level the bottom of the piano so it won't wobble. Later we turn it upright again so I can work on the inside of the piano." They took about an hour before the piano was upright and steady on her legs again. Now Mr Lim dismantled the entire piano and displayed all her innards. He painstakingly worked on each key. The carpenter was instructed to prepare new side panelling while Mr Lim worked with the piano innards.

The operation was performed in full view of the afternoon girls who had begun gathering in the hall for the assembly.However we could not carry out the assembly in the hall as operation piano took a good 4 hours plus plus. When Mr Lim came to give me the bill, he said Mrs Tang reminded him not to charge a lot. Guess the price he charged me for that 4 hours plus plus of real hard work? Only RM400/-. As he gave me the bill,he said cheekily, " Oh, I didn't charge you anything for the free show the afternoon girls had today, watching the piano being restored."

The piano was further improved by frequent tuning and also by varnishing it with dark shellac. Each morning, the girls would play on it before assembly. It brought so much joy and pleasure to hear the sweet melodies. The girls also played it like for about 30 minutes before major school events like speech day or PIBG AGM. Another source of joy was to play it before examinations started . Joyce Tan played it during the PMR exam. It calmed the girls' nerves. Visitors also played on it when they came to the hall.

Joyce at the piano

Michelle Tan playing the piano

Another source of joy the piano gave was the cross cultural informal learning that took place outside class and school times. Often in the afternoon, I would chance upon girls crowding round the old piano. Someone would play and others would just enjoy the music while others learnt. A few days later I would find the learner had been able to tinkle out a similar melody from the piano.

Cross cultural learning around the piano

The piano was also occasionally accompanied by the violin played by Rabiah. Joyce rallied the girls to form a team where the piano was played each morning by someone from the team.

Rabiah and Tay. The violinist and the pianist

Sometime this year, a friend Connie asked me to recommend her a piano master to improve a piano for her children. Of course I recommended Mr Lim, our piano master. When Mr Lim went to tune her piano, he realized the keys were a bit stiff for her young children and he told her so forthrightly. Connie then asked Mr Lim if he would consider buying the piano for studio use since it was not suitable for her children. He was hesitant since the stiff keys would make  it  difficult for young children to play on. So he asked her, "Ma'am, would you like to do something charitable?" Connie asked. "What charitable deeds are you thinking of? " Mr Lim - you know you can donate this piano to SMK Convent Sentul. The girls there are much older and your piano despite its stiffness, is really much better than the piano they currently have."

Ha! So Connie called me and asked if I wanted another piano. Of course my answer was a big YES!!! Actually I and the pianists had wanted another piano for some time. Our grand old dame did have many limitations despite the joy she brought us. In fact  the pianists had asked several  times if I could buy another better  piano for them since they played so very often in school.Connie got Mr Lim to restore the piano beautifully and also had the piano repainted and she got piano movers to send it to our school. The new piano came to us totally FOC!!! Thank you Connie and James Poh and Mr Lim for thinking about our school !!

My girls thought I had spent money buying another piano for them and were very appreciative of it. When I finally tested the keys, I found it not at all stiff so I was a bit surprised and asked Tay - one of our pianists. She laughed and said, " We played so much until it lost its stiffness. Haha!"

Hearing the sweet music each morning reminds me of God's providence and miracles through kind and charitable people. His blessings are ever new!