After an eventful few weeks in our Grade 1 Cambridge classes, led by our students’ and teachers’ hard work and dedication, we would like to recognize our students’ performance and achievements during three recent activities: SUIS Voice, the ongoing Reading Race, and the Grade 1 assembly.
SUIS Voice
SUIS Voice competitions first began back in September 2020 during our African Intercontinental Carnival. Now in its third year, the annual competition invited students from every grade to read books on the region featured in this year’s Intercontinental Carnival. This year, we explored Oceania and the fascinating people, stories and history of the region.
For Classes 1I and 1J, this was the first opportunity for the children to get up on stage and demonstrate their talents in reading and presenting. The audience was treated to a variety of stories about Oceania – sea monsters hunting for gold; squishy, speedy octopuses rescuing pearls from the clutches of evil eels; a cat playing tricks on the townsfolk; a fancy cephalopod, and the story of how the kangaroo got its pouch!
Ten students from the two classes bravely, confidently and professionally took to the stage to articulately share their reading experiences and the fascinating books that they had chosen to read. The judges were wowed by the fluency, skills, and delivery of these young bibliophiles. We cannot wait to see what they will tell us about next year on their delightful reading journey!
Sincere thanks go to our judges, backstage team, parents and all the Cambridge Class teachers for their exceptional work on making this event such a smashing success!
Reading Race
With the goal of cultivating this love of reading, we began a weekly “Reading Race” for our 1I and 1J classes to encourage friendly competition, while fostering growth in students’ ability to read and engage with a variety of different text types.
Every week, our two Cambridge classes gather together to find out who the “Quiz Master”, “Merit Reader” and “Word Wizard” are in each class, while both classes compete for the coveted “Reading Race Trophy”. The Quiz Master must successfully attempt and complete quizzes on MyON; the Merit Reader must make improvements on their weekly reading habits; and the Word Wizard must read as many words as possible, whilst successfully completing the quizzes for the books that they have read.
The Reading Race Trophy goes to the class that overall reads the most words and does the most quizzes each week: So far, it has been a tug-of-war between the two classes, with more to come!
Most importantly, we observed how incredibly and impressively supportive our students were of their classmates: Whilst they all wanted to win, the roars of triumph and joy that they let out for their classmates was both heartening and encouraging – their attitudes created an atmosphere of sharing with and joy for others, no matter how much they had wanted to take a trophy home with them. The Reading Race was a rousing success and a weekly highlight for both classes and all their teachers. Per ardua, ad astra!
On the 7 November 2023, Classes 1I and 1J gathered in the Sunken Theatre for our first grade assembly, hosted by Class 1J.
Students, dressed in their formal school uniform, took their seats and eagerly awaited as our student hosts Max and Angelica started the event off by welcoming both classes as well as our guests, Ms. Courtney Govender, Ms. Helen Liu, Ms. Summer Gao, and Mr. Scott Hockley.
The theme for the assembly was ‘’We’ve got talent!” Five students from Class 1J volunteered to showcase their skills and talents. Performances included a group song by the whole 1J cohort, a piano performance by student Chris, a song by Casper, a puzzle-solving demonstration by Evan, a Piano performance by Elon, and a Latin dance performance by Jodie.
One of the other main focuses for the assembly was the Awards Ceremony. Students received awards based on how well they had upheld their morals in recent weeks, namely ‘politeness’ and ‘orderliness’.
Last, but not least, to end our assembly, Mr. Hockley came forward to announce the winner of the Super Class award, an award given to the class that has best upheld school standards and morals over the past month, including but not limited to, ‘cleanliness’, ‘tidiness’, ‘orderliness’, ‘politeness’, and ‘punctuality’.
The students anxiously waited in anticipation as Mr. Hockley came forward to make the announcement, and, after a brief description of what the award was for, the winners were announced: Class 1J! Both classes cheered as 1J students came forward to accept the trophy.
After gathering for a photo, both classes returned to their homeroom class venues, filled with pride for their fellow classmates and a refreshed outlook on the morals and values of the school.
The students from both classes have done us proud, a well-rounded group of individuals who not only perform well in all spheres on their own, but who also have the ability to work as a team, supporting, motivating and respecting each other, while holding up a high standard of morals and values.