Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus (CHIJ)

Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus (CHIJ)

I had the privilege of visiting CHIJ Katong Primary School on Monday, a visit made possible by, Morag, one of the residents in the complex where Dionne and Duncan live. Morag is Scottish and her husband Singaporean. Their daughter had previously attended the school and Morag is a regular volunteer at the school.

For the last two years the school has been operating on temporary premises while their original site gets a complete ‘make-over’ – I was able to see briefly the work in progress. The principal, Margaret Tan is looking forward to setting up the remodelled school towards the end of the year.

CHIJ is a 1200+ student school for girls founded by a Roman Catholic priest. The school vision is, “From girls to women of grace and substance”. Although founded by a religious order, the school has children and teachers from all faiths. The emphasis is not on a specific religion but on values and principles of being and living that most of us would agree were relevant to all of us. The fact that the school ‘really lives its values’ is what attracted Morag to this school rather than an international school, which is what most expatriates would have chosen.

Several things were of interest at CHIJ – I am sure I will think of others as I reflect more fully on the experience over the next few weeks. Firstly, it operates under the auspices of the Singapore Ministry of Education and so follows the curriculum requirements set down by the government. Secondly, the school year, while it starts in early January, generally follows the calendar year with breaks every ten weeks. Thirdly, there were 40 children in each class. Fourthly, 800 children in the upper grades start school at 7:30 am and finish at around 12:30 pm while 400 or so children in the lower grades start at 1 pm – I don’t recall what time they finish. Teachers start and finish in line with children’s attendance.

While the school is operating out of temporary premises (the site had previously been occupied by another school which has since been relocated) it was interesting to see how ‘permanent’ everything was. Three computer labs, each with 40 computers (2 PC and 1 Mac), colour printers, servers and software were available for issue to children as we would do for any other library item.

While I was in the school I had an opportunity to attend a parent session on managing anger. The parent association organises and publicises a programme of educational events for the community. Today’s session was called ‘Breaking the anger Habit’. The next two are, ‘Parent talk for lone parents’ and following that, ‘The psychological impact of information technology’. The presenters are professional people paid for by the parent association – I didn’t find out how exactly how the funding for that works.

I was interested in the leadership model the school uses and will write more on that for our staff. The language may be different but there are similarities with the way we write up our strategic and annual goals. There are some differences in the detail that are worthy of reflection.

Cafeteria


While the school is operating out of temporary premises (the site had previously been occupied by another school which has since been relocated) it was interesting to see how ‘permanent’ everything was. Three computer labs, each with 40 computers (2 PC and 1 Mac), colour printers, servers and software were available for issue to children as we would do for any other library item.

Staff work room.