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.

Convent Sentul CS Caring School

Convent Sentul CS – Caring School - Sekolah Penyayang

There are so many good acronyms for CS but one of my top favourites is CS – caring school.

I see the care of so many people in the school. Each day,there are fresh reminders of the care of different people in the school.

I received this lovely bouquet of fresh flowers from the PMR 2012 girls. Thank you girls! I love the flowers!!

Mr. Lee Geok Ai, our chairman of the Board of Governors is another fine example of a caring leader in the school. He gave RM 6,350/- of his own funds for the cash prizes to the outstanding PMR 2012 students . straight As students received RM 150/- each and those who miss by 1 and 2 subjects received RM 100/- each. Such generosity!!

Then we officially launched the Sekolah Penyayang program which is literally caring school. We celebrated the January birthdays of teachers and students. Happy Birthday!! Thank you Pn. Sarah Madiha and the counselors for taking the time to think through so many details and launching this program.

Happy Birthday to Pn Siti Sayeedah! We already  miss you a lot! You are CS's big  loss and SMK Segambut's gain. They better appreciate you!!

Dr. Cheah Yin Mee sent in her book gifts for our girls through her sister Mrs Low. Thank you!! We can see the care through the interesting colorful books you have carefully selected for the girls.

Then we celebrated the girls who Made A Difference ( very obvious big difference) in the MAD PMR programe. One secret behind their success is the dedication of many teachers especially Cik Krishnaveny, our PMR coordinator and Pn Wang our PMR exam secretary.

Pn Wang is simply delighted with the fresh flowers she received.

Then we celebrated the girls who had achieved 100% attendance full attendance for 2012. All in all, we have 42 girls from the noon session last year and 34 from the morning. Bravo!! Keep the full attendance coming!!

Mr Lee Geok Ai sponsored the colorful quality Tupperware bottles for the girls. Pn Sarah designed the cheerful yellow zany smiley button badge.

We are all especially proud of our little Sor Wei Kheng who achieved all As for PMR and also had 100%      full attendance! WOW!!

Afternoon girls full attendance 2012 girls and their happy  teachers 

 Wednesdays senamrobics before the school session officially begins. 

Prepared by our new canteen who makes look forward to coming to school.

CS - caring school.

Welcome 2013

The school holiday in November  and December 2012 was one of the busiest periods for the school. It was also very exciting! Why?The school underwent major changes beginning about from early December when the SPM exam ended.

It began when Mr KC Tang, a caring parent offered his expertise in colour coordinating the school paint makeover. Mr KC Tang is an interior design professional consultant with a very busy practice.  However he took time off work to come to school several times to study our building and to select  the best colours for the paint makeover. He quickly decided the classical design of our 72-years old school should be complemented with the classical colours to bring out the unique heritage building look. However before the mock makeover began, major pre-plastering work had to be done on  our ancient walls and pillars.

 

The mock paint makeover began. The coordinating project manager.Mr KT Yong gave us a sneak preview of  the proposed new colours.

Initially we were only supposed to paint the inside facade of the school since we were limited by budget constraints. The painting got underway and the inner facade became got more beautiful each day ....! Aww..! Soon the older outer pink facade and the inner classical facade looked mismatched in colours and in style.  Arifin who is a very passionate paints coordinator suggested strongly that we should paint the outside to match the beautiful inner facade. He promised to charge us a very minimal sum for the outer facade as well as to source for free paints. Mr Lee Geok Ai , chairman of our board of Governors sourced for more funding. His contact,  Inta Bina Sdn Bhd who had previously donated RM20 K to us in May for our staff training in Melaka donated another RM 20K to us for the painting project.  All these extras made it possible for the outer facade to be painted to match the inner facade.

Many projects took place simultaneously. The games courts and the assembly area badly needed to be resurfaced as the old flooring was uneven, cracked and puddles would form whenever it rain. Mr Lee got Mr Tan B Ver to give us very reasonable heavily discounted prices for the reinforced resurfacing which was about 5" thick. The teachers' assembly area was also beautifully done with cement imprint tiles. The new courts, assembly area and new stairs are funded from three sources, namely the funds donated by the Alumni to the school through the mission fund and the freewill collection from the parents during Parents Day July 2012 while the balance of the cost is borne by the board of Governors. Thank you, Alumni , caring parents and a wonderful Board.

30th Dec 2012, Sunday was probably the most exciting day on the school grounds! Two tractors and      over 25 trucks of soil and turf were deployed to the school in that one day alone! Five masons, 4 plasterers, plumbers,   6 painters, 3 general workers, electricians and their coordinators all worked very very hard to get the school ready for the the Form 1 Orientation day on the 31st December 2012. Mr.  Lee even  roped in Mr Alex Chin ( his long time friend) from Johor an expert on landscape contract to help move and supervise the project on the school field.  It was a fitting welcome for the parents of the new students!

Students who came to the school to visit got  very excited and  quickly spread news of the school's new look through Facebook. Read the students' responses to the new look.....

Another area of excitement are the new murals.We took some photos of the outstanding PMR students at the new mural. I like the floral murals as they give a feminine, cheerful bright look to the school. Teacher Ainil commented when she saw the pretty murals, she felt she was in a resort and not in a school.

The prefects' room was also upgraded. New doors and grills were fixed to improve security.The grills were donated by Kinma Construction.   Two new mist fans were installed to cool the room. More upgrading will still be done in the future. The area adjoining the prefects room was enlarged to create a store and also a shaded area for the girls. 

We also thank Kinma for their kind generous donation and installation of the new gates and the 4 mild steel trellis in the school field. We now have a new entry point into the school from the new car park via the new gate. Father Alan  of St Joseph graciously allowed the teachers, staff and parents to park at the church's new park. Father Alan also allowed us to build the said new gate from the church's  car park right into the school grounds to facilitate students, teachers and parents.Thank you, Father Alan and the parish of St Joseph. More and more I realize Convent Sentul  is like a community school, with so many contributions and favors from the community of the church and contributors like Kinma Construction and many others. We now have a new acronym for CS - Community School!

The school field.underwent major upgrading. For many years, the field sank continually, sand leaked out whenever it rained  and the field was devoid of grass in many areas. We often  have to top up the field with  lorry loads of soil just to keep using it. Since the field is the only patch of green for our school, the primary school and the church, it is very vital it be upgraded from its dismal condition. The Board of Governors took the initiative and responsibility to upgrade the field for the use of the students.  Two tractors, 31 loads of lorries were dispatched to upgrade the field. New trellises were added to support our lovely mature vines. New retaining walls were added  to prevent soil erosion. We are awaiting the total completion of the new field with new benches for the students and other items.

In the course of all this upgrading, I realize people did not just contribute funds or items but they contributed ideas and they put much thought about how to solve our problems at school. That realization is absolutely very encouraging. One incident that caused me to realize the above is the story behind our two sinks. We had two very sturdy strong sinks near the office. They were however heavily stained and much paint- splattered from many years of washing art brushes and art related activities.  Inno Marketing came up with the innovative idea of installing a sink within a sink. Look at the photo below! They also paid for the sinks and now we have two cute innovative sinks totally free of charge.. Thank Inno Marketing not just for the cost of the sinks, the installation but also the innovative ideas that indicate your care for the school.

The school wants to record our thanks to the wonderful team of men who made so many many changes possible in 4+ short weeks. We see many heroes rise to the occasion! Mr Yong Kam Tian from Engtex and Mr Ryan Wong coordinated all the various ongoing projects. We had very generous discounts from Delico, Kinma Construction, Nobel, Mr Wong YC, Mr Tan B Ver, Ariffin, Mr Yu,  and Jeremy from Omni Resources. These men coordinated many workers who were very committed  and worked through weekends and public holidays so that the bulk of the the work would be completed before the new school term began on the 2 Jan 2013.Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! May the good Lord bless you many-fold and reward you for your labours.

The chief motivation and mover behind completing all  these big projects in such record short time is without doubt, our visionary Chairman of the Board of Governors, Mr Lee Geok Ai. This  miracle of so many amazing changes in such short time is the  best Christmas and New year's present ever, for the school!

Once again, thank you so much  from all of us here at SMK Convent Sentul! You  men have, by your labours and giving brought many smiles to the hearts of the girls and staff at SMK Convent Sentul.

The best is yet to come for 2013!

Pride and joy

It's been quite some time since I last wrote a post. I have been really busy though there were so many things I wanted to write about. Many happenings in CS  made me ( and many others ) very happy despite the extreme busyness at the year's end.

Class party Day was really fun. I saw how creative you all were in decorating the boards and the photo booths. I loved the way the girls have honored the teachers through their decorations, their speeches and so many thoughtful gestures. 5 Kenanga and 5 Mawar, I am very touched by your affectionate display of love for me and the teachers.  Form 5 classes, I shall miss all of you all a lot especially 5 Bakawali whom I have taught for one entire year and have come to love so much as I watched you grow.

5 Bakawali party

                                                              Ms Anne says " I 'm single."

                                                                      
                                                     Happy teachers cutting the cake

                                              
                                   4 Anggerik was so creative in decorating their classroom

                                                1 Kenanga had cute anime on their board

                                                           Cute board in 4 Bakawali

 

 

That morning before the party began, we also had a great time at the Majlis Anugerah HEM. I am very pleased with the many improvements I see - the 98 girls who have completely full attendance for 2012, the girls who have performed many wonderful acts of service faithfully etc etc.

 

 

Pn Fitri and her camera girls - Tengku Amira Nabila and Khoo Jun Way were very happy with the wonderful camera purchased for the magazine shoots through the generosity of the mission board. Thank you all the corporate organizations who advertised in the school magazine. The camera was used to capture the smiles of the students as they recieved their HEM awards

 

 

 

 

 

We are also very pleased that Pn Fitri has recieved another innovation award for the second year running . The pictures shows her and Parveen and Fadillah and many excited visitors at the exhibition booth in the state education department. Congratulations Pn Fitri Yanti!!! Pn Fitri's work is on understanding geometry and visualizing the 3 D forms from the net (plans drawn ) . This is a fairly difficult and abstract topic in Form 2 Mathematics but Pn Fitri has made it fun for the students by incorporatings  hands on activity both in drawing, planning and constructing the 3 D format for many geometrical designs.

The banner at our booth on "Eksplorasi Dunia Geometri " brings pride and joy to SMK Convent Sentul.

The exhibition board showing the nets drawn by our students.

CS students and teachers - you are our pride and joy!

To the Form 5, all the very best for your exams,

To the teachers and the students - Happy holidays as of Friday Nov 9.

See you next year!

Ex- students of SMK Convent Sentul batch of 1977

I am always blessed by the love and affection of ex-students for their Alma mater.I believed the dedication of the earlier missionary principals, the teachers, the mission school ethos and the strong bonds of friendship have forged this deep affection for the school.

Today I like to record my thanks for the batch of ex-students of 1977. The two ladies I know from this batch are Mrs Rachel Samuel and Datin Cheam Swee Har. Rachel very kindly coordinated the collection of funds from this batch amounting to RM 4,500/- to be used for the installation of a LCD in the school hall. Rachel, who currently resides in Glasgow, Scotland, did all this coordination during her short visit to Malaysia in August. Rachel also  roped in her husband to help with the banking in procedures of the contribution. Thank you Rachel and the batch of 1977.

The new LCD in the hall was installed on 7th Sept 2012. It was used the very next morning by Pn Sagunthala who is also an ex-student of Convent Sentul. The very immediate use shows how much the LCD was needed. Altogether, I am also blessed to have 5 ex-students of Convent Sentul, faithfully serving their Alma mater with great dedication and diligence.

The above cropped part of the bank statement shows that your contribution of RM 4,500/- was deposited  on the 3rd of September. For us to install the LCD 4 days later showed how desperate we were to use the new LCD.

I personally tested out the LCD and the sound system yesterday during the Form 3 motivational slot I had with our PMR girls yesterday. From the posture and the body language of the students, it is quite obvious the girls are paying rapt attention, with their eyes riveted towards the screen. Definitely the clear visual display from the new LCD is a major factor in commanding the girls' attention. After the slot,we also gave individual boxes of raisins ( sponsored by PIBG ) to each PMR student.

Datin Cheam Swee Har who is also from your batch has been serving her alma mater as the Co curricular senior assistant since 20 May 2011. She is a great help and blessing both to me and the entire school. Datin Cheam brought my appeal for the LCD to you all during your gathering and re-union. She also liaised closely with Mrs.Rachel Samuel to ensure the contribution went through.Thank you Datin Cheam for your help and support and love for Convent Sentul.

On the 10th of Sept, during the morning assembly, I publicly acknowledged the contribution from your batch of 1977 for the LCD to the students and teachers. I did this for two reasons; the first being gratitude and public acknowledgement for sponsorship was necessary and the second reason; so that I can educate the girls not only to receive but also to give in due time. I am pleased to report that this year our excellent students of 2011 gave out of their Mayor's Cup gifts RM 1000/- towards an air conditioner in the SAL ( self accessed learning room )

For your information, the vendor who installed the LCD originally quoted RM 4,250/- which was the sum mentioned by Datin to you during your gathering. Your batch however gave beyond the sum needed and again we say "Thank You". The vendor was also very kind and has given us a discount and the LCD with installation now cost only RM 4,100/-. I will use the extra RM 400/- to purchase two extra remote control for the LCD and another set of wire from the laptop to the LCD.

Thank you once again for giving and for inspiring others to give. May the good Lord bless you all for your generosity.

Climbing to view Mulu Caves Pinnacles

My adventurous friends organized a trip for 10 of us to climb the point to view the awesome Mulu Pinnacles in Sarawak. So climbing Broga Hill and the flying fox last month was a kind of training for that but to be quite honest, Broga Hill was chicken feed compared to the Mulu Pinnacles track. My friends and me who have climbed Gunung Kinabalu also rate this adventure to view the Mulu Pinnacles the most  challenging adventure in our lives!

So what was so challenging about this? To begin with, we had a long boat ride ( about 2.5 hours)  upstream the Melinau river. At times when the river was too shallow, we had to get out and push the boat! This was followed by a 8.8 km track through the forest carrying our backpack for the 3 days and 2 nights stuff we needed.

All 10 of us stayed in one room at Camp 5 which was really spartan and far more simple than Broga Outbac! No aircon and the electricity supply was only from 6.00 pm to 9 pm.We rented and hung our own mosquito nets. There were more Mak Sallehs than Malaysians staying at Camp 5. Convent Sentul, you need to appreciate the luxuries of your home and also toughen up generally both mentally and physically.

The next morning, we started off about 6.10 am using our headlamps to guide us. At 200 m, we started climbing. The climb was very vertical, lined with sharp rocks so unlike Broga which was mostly clay.At 900m, we reached the Mini Pinnacles and stopped to rest. By the way, each climber had to carry 3 litres of water and their own lunch pack up.

We used iron rings and ropes to pull ourselves up. I felt my sweat falling down like rain. Then we came to the ladders section. There were 17 ladders altogether.

I am really glad there are clear markers on signposts all the way up. Each signpost  for example, 1300m, 1400m all the way to the 2400m post encouraged us. They reminded that our hard work brought us nearer to our goal and that we had made progress.

Finally at 11.00 am ++, we reached the point to view the Pinnacles.I learnt the importance of having friends to support you when you are challenged. If not for my husband, I doubt if I can make it to the top. So students and teachers, whenever you are faced with a challenge, overcome it by having strong group support and never solo. I also am awed at  how God inspired me to climb by the song "He raised me up "

He raised me up so I can stand on mountains

He raised me up to walk on stormy seas,

I am strong when I am on His shoulders

He raised me up to more than I can be

The descent was even more difficult and dangerous compared to the ascent. I climbed  backwards and of course it took longer hours. I took 4+ hours to ascend and 7+ hours to descend. Altogether I spend 13 hours climbing. I did not go to toilet the entire day even though I drank more than 3 litres water that day. Everything must have come out as sweat!

I have to thank my very experienced guide Undi for making sure I reached Camp 5 safely. He guided my every step especially when it rained and it was pitch dark. Undi displayed utmost responsibility and did not abandon me and a Singaporean girl even though we were very slow.

Finally I reached Camp 5 at about 7pm to the cheers and claps of my worried friends. I realize God raised me to stand on mountains and to be more than I can be despite my very real limitations of age, weight, gender and other issues.

So people of Convent Sentul, don't ever let be limited by very real limitations but learn to dream big. We need to be especially not to be limited by your gender or background. Do not allow your past to determine your future! Determine your future by your choices to dream big! Your  big dreams can be realized if you rallied the support of friends and family and those who have the expertise!

Dream big and achieve your dreams with the help of friends and God.