TravelBug@Montfort Day 1 in Perak (The First Wave)

Thirty-four Montfortian gentlemen from Sec 2 and Sec 3 and five teachers (Mr Faizan, Mr Toh, Mrs Leong, Mrs Lee and Mr Singh) from Montfort Secondary embarked upon a-three-day-three-night overseas expedition to Gopeng Nature Reserve in Perak.

The 39 participants met up at school on Monday night and were encouraged by our Vice-Principal to be on our best behaviour as we were the ambassadors of Montfort Secondary across the Causeway.

The Montfortian gentlemen and their teachers endured an eight-hour coach ride to Gopeng in Perak.

Upon arriving in Perak on Tuesday morning [24th June], our adventurous gentlemen tackled the famous Gua Tempurung by undertaking an adventure caving expedition deep into the bowels of the 400-million-year-old limestone cave.

Crawling on all fours, our gentlemen explored the cave which was submerged in knee-deep waters. At some parts of the cave, our gentlemen had to navigate the low ceiling of the cave with barely enough room to breathe.

But like true warriors, all our boys emerged unscathed and completed the caving expedition in under two-and-half hours. This was a remarkable achievement as most teenagers will take almost twice the time.

While in the cave, our gentlemen learnt how to overcome their fears of the dark and tight spaces. They also picked up some geographical lessons on limestone caves.

After adventure caving, our brave gentlemen tackled the white-water rafting at Sungei Kampar. Sungei Kampar is Grade 2+3 Rapids. This makes it a challenging Rapid for teens.

In their six-man rafts, they navigated the 7km route with much gusto.

Said Leon Wee of Sec 2E3: "It was a great feeling to be able to handle the rough waters. It boosted my water confidence.

Added Yuvaraj of Sec 2E3: "This is a great personal accomplishment. I had learnt the importance of relying on my team-mates. It was adrenaline-fuelled experience. I would definitely recommend my classmates to go on the next TravelBug@Montfort next year."

As of our first day in Perak, the teachers are pleased to inform all participants' parents that there was NO CASUALTY and all boys are safe and sound.

Our Giants will be tacklling a four-hour trek on Wednesday [25th June] to an Orang Asli settlement and sample their lifestyle.

First Day of School - June 23 2008

It was the first day of school and a special prayer was said for students who are embarking on their Perak Trip on Monday night and Thursday night.

During the holidays, another group of students went to Shanghai and they had a fruitful trip. We thank the lord that they have returned both safe and sound.

School day also began with Mr Simen welcoming us back to school and the theme fo the term: FOCUS & ATTENTION = PERFORMANCE

Below are the excerpts of a blog from one of our students (mind the grammar but it makes it all the more genuine)

"Today , my Principal say a very important word or you can say phrase. I forgot to say that Mr Simen is a very good person which is MONTFORT secondary principal . He is a nice person I can say I hope people who had graduated from P6 and I hope all of you who have read my blog please come to MONTFORT secondary . It is located at Hougang ave 8 you can see it in front of you . Ok today my principal told us that he watch show which is on discovery channel . He says he saw a person and his friends climbing to mount everest . Mr Simen says that all of them are trying very hard to climb the mountain . then a guy say THIS COULD BE THE WORST DAY OF MY LIFE OR THE BEST DAY IN MY LIFE . Life are unpredictable there are up and downs so many happiness and so many unhappy incidents outside,school,family so many things which i just can,t describe it . well i hope you all know what i mean "

http://wanloong95.blogspot.com/

Mr Simen spoke the story about the Alchemist. Below is a synopsis:

The novel by Paulo Coelho tells the tale of Santiago, a boy who has a dream and the courage to follow it. After listening to "the signs" the boy ventures in his personal, Ulysses-like journey of exploration and self-discovery, symbolically searching for a hidden treasure located near the pyramids in Egypt.

When he decides to go, his father's only advice is "Travel the world until you see that our castle is the greatest, and our women the most beautiful". In his journey, Santiago sees the greatness of the world, and meets all kinds of exciting people like kings and alchemists. However, by the end of the novel, he discovers that "treasure lies where your heart belongs", and that the treasure was the journey itself, the discoveries he made, and the wisdom he acquired.

"The Alchemist", is an exciting novel that bursts with optimism; it is the kind of novel that tells you that everything is possible as long as you really want it to happen. That may sound like an oversimplified version of new-age philosophy and mysticism, but as Coelho states "simple things are the most valuable and only wise people appreciate them".

As the alchemist himself says, when he appears to Santiago in the form of an old king "when you really want something to happen, the whole universe conspires so that your wish comes true". This is the core of the novel's philosophy and a motif that echoes behind Coelho's writing all through

Mr Simen also went on to say that this was the higher forms of our Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom (DIKW) learning framework at Montfort School. It was also the basis for 'Awakening the Giant in You' and choice that we make every day.

With genuine intentions, Mr Simen also delved into the matter of what made education so important. He said that "The happiest moments of the year are when the students are around" simple because he chose to be a teacher-at-heart. Freedom of choice is God's greatest gift to man and what distinguishes him from animals. Therefore, because he chose to be a teacher and to be involved in education, "the happiest momements is when students are around and when there are students to teach"."

Montfort Scouting Camp - Excerpts of Blog

These weeks were good as each of us have played a vital role in making the campfire possible. Like the gifts (Ivan, Daniel Phang) , firepit (Matthew), Emcees (Mervin), Performances (Kingman, Sanjay, Zhi Kai, Stuart) and food (Keith).

The campfire was good in my opinion .... but we got to remember one thing - It's the process of preparing for the campfire that is more important - We as a crew managed to solve the problems that we encountered along the way and these problems have taught us lessons that we can learn from and the ideas that came from our brainstorming and how it can be implemented in the next campfire.

This is the final leg of Scouting for us this year, the Ventures and I feel that the time we spent together has bonded us very closely.

It's has been 4 years since we first got to know each other and through the punishments, swearing, hardships, fun times, 'le pah' times, camps and all the other times, we really got to know each other better, one's strengths, weaknesses and how one reacts to a specific kind of situation, may it be good, bad or even funny.


But now it's time for us to go and get ready for the final sprint - the O's. May all of us put our final burst of energy in this final sprint and get back again some other time.

On a final note, I would like to thank those who have made this campfire possible, your effort was greatly appriciated by Montfort Knights.

http://e-return.blogspot.com/2008/06/montfort-knights-biannual-campfire-2008.html

Parents-Teachers Meeting

Well, the Mid-Year-Exams are over and we have the usual Parent-Teacher Meeting as well as the collection of report books.

There is sure to be a few really depressed students as they did not receive the required grade set by their parents or themselves. Anywaym, although the Semestral Assessment 1 (SA1) is 25% of the overall grade while the Continual Assessment (CA1)is 15%, there is still a chance to bounce back in the Semestral Assessment 2 Exams and Continual Assessment 2 Class tests.

Back to our class, our class did poorer than last year, leaving the first 2 positions in the level to be taken by Class 2E1. However, the top scorer in our class managed to swipe position 3 and 4. Position 5 for the level was a student from another class.

We must strive to work harder to achieve ouyr future endeavours. Our education in Montfort Secondary school will be over in the blink of an eye: 1 and a half years more, after our O-Levels and then...boom! We're in JC/Poly now.

There is not much time now and if we do not make EVERY EFFORT POSSIBLE to realise our TRUE POTENTIAL, our future is being shaped.

Of course, every student's potential may be in something else, but that doesn't mean you are bound to fail in education. Education is but a part of life that can be mastered by ANYBODY, as long as you take your effort. It's where you learn discipline, focus and a systematic way of thinking and writing.

Education is also very important in life because it develps Wisdom. And wisdom is something nobody can take from you, using the DIK-LW formula. (Data-Information-Knowledge / Learning-Wisdom)

Cheers!

Laurent Ee
Taken from http://montfortinnovators.blogspot.com/
Edited by Montfort Blog

POSed Day May 30 2008

Today had POSed day.

what is POSed day?

Its Post secondary education day.Where some tertiary institutes come over to our school to set up booths and give talks to us on our options after the "O" lvls.

We proceeded to the hall,and the event started with a short prayer and then Mr Simen gave a short speech to address the guests. He spoke about the origins of POSed Day and encouraged our students to be engaged in finding out information for ourselves on POSed Day. "Don't be a passenger on a moving bus and view just fleeting images", he said.

Then the guest speaker Mr Christian chua gave a speech on "Breaking through the Glass Ceiling". It was a very meaningful and as usual very humourous talk. He mainly concentrated on the word "MOTIVATION". He say that if we were to break the word up,the word "motivation"comes from the word motive. Motive, as defined by Mr Chua, is a "reason to..". One must have a motive to do something or a reason to be motivated to do something. For example,one might be motivated to score well so that one can get a PSP as a reward if he or she scores well.The reward is the "motive"or rather the stimulus to trigger why he or she wants to do well.

What is the glass ceiling? It is a ceiling that is invisible and we think that it is there above our heads and it is preventing us from breaking away from our comfort zone. This so called "glass ceiling" is placed on us by others,, by ourselves ,and over time we belive in them.For example,people might tell one that he or she cannot make it big in life because he or she is from a poor family. Over time,he or she believes and thus cannot achieve. Thus, to achieve in life,we must first break through this glass ceiling as it is not there at all in the first place,but rather,its there because we think it is there!Very true indeed!

Mr Chua also shared about how he bacame a professional public speaker.He sold his new book at a discounted price at $15-/and then we walked down to canteen to have our refreshments.

Then it was back to the hall where Mr Trevor gave an overview of our options after the O Levels. We next attended talks by the JCs and Polytechnics and visited their exhibition booths.

I went on the polytechnic route and visited the booths with some of my friends. We chatted with the Ngee Ann Polytechnic lecturer who briefed us about the DPA (Direct Poly Admission) and for the benefit of my readers,these are some points she mentioned to us"

a. The DPA is a newly introduced route.

b. Only 100 places are available

c. Candidates are selected through their"talents".which would be written in a summary of about 250 words on why he or she is a suitable candidate for the course of choice.

d. The previous year's results would be taken into consideration though it would not have such a heavy weightage.

e.Candidates would have 3 choices for courses they would like to apply for

f. Sucessful apllicants would be called back for interviews

g Their "talents" must have some relation to their course they are applying for or they have some experience in that field.(e.g for computer courses,a candidate who has won a national competition in computer engineering would stand a better chance then another who did not participate)

h.If candidate is given a place,actual O Level aggregate must be less then 26.

I visted the other booths and collected brochures.

Here are some courses I am intersted in:

.Temasek poly:Tourism and hospitality mgt,Resort and leisure mgt
.Ngee ann poly:Tourism and hospitality mgt
.SP,NYP:Tourism mgt
.Republic poly: Resort and hospitality mgt
.Mass comm or maybe buisness studies too.

Temesek Polytechnic has an academy in sentosa so i guess I am keen to go there. Republic poly is tied in with Raffles hotel and the cut-off point is 17 for 2008.....so i guess i can make it there if all fails for me?

- Excerpts from http://darences-welcometothecescommunity.blogspot.com/

Shell Science Fair Best Enterprising Science Project - Champs 2008

Our four students from Sec 2Es participated in the Shell Science Fair 2008 (Lower Secondary Category) last week in Singapore Science Centre.

Fifty schools participated and the team won the "Best Enterprising Project" for their project titled "Biodegradable Plastics".

We would like to congratulate the boys on winning the award and thank those who have helped in one way or another in supporting the students.

Chemical Car Powered Competition 2008

Last saturday on the 24th of May, 5 teams (comprising eighteen students from 3E, 3NA and 4E) represented our school at the Chemical Car Powered Competition 2008 organised by the School of Life Sciences & Chemical Technology, Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

They faced fierce opposition from strong teams like Nanyang Girls', RI, ACS ,CHIJ St Nicholas etc, but kept their cool and blazed through 3 rounds of intensive competition and finally one team made it to the semi-finals. The team clinched 3rd place.


We would like to congratulate the boys on winning the 3rd place in the competition and thank them for their hard work and dedication. We would also like to acknowledge our Lab Asst. Thomas Ang for going out of his way to help the boys in the competition.

Last Day of School - May 23rd

You Lift Me Up

It was the last day of school. The day began with Mass Workout and a surprise performance by the choir, which sang "You Raise Me Up". It was connected to Mr Christoper Foran's prayer. We reflected on God giving us comfort and solace, as well as strength. The challenge was for us to also give the same comfort, solace and strength to our peers.

It was also a way for us to engage and contribute to the community. As the choir sang, many students were stunned and moved by the wonderful performance. It was also a performance for members of the public waiting for their buses to go to work, as well as for the workers who were working on our new indoor sports hall

They Workd So Hard! Wave and applaud them!

At the end of the morning assembly, Mr Lloyd Yeo pointed out that while the choir was singing and even during prayer time, several workers working on the new indoor sports hall took a brief respite from their work to appreciate the music and to even prayer. When Mr Edmund Lim announced that the school had raised $22,596.15 for victims of the Myanmar and Sichuan disasters, the workers even stopped and applauded.

The school turned around, waved to the workers, applauded and thanked them for the hard work they were doing for the indoor sportshall.