91 Bendemeer Road Singapore 339948 | Tel 62982911 | Fax 62995735 | Email bendemeer_ps@moe.edu.sg | Web www.bendemeerpri.moe.edu.sg

Today’s Learners Tomorrow’s Leaders

25 Feb 2019 Dear Parents, 1. Run for Life Programme In line with the Ministry of Education’s emphasis to nurture lifelong learners to ‘Learn for Life’, our school started our Run for Life Programme this year. Through the weekly run, we hope that our students will be able to adopt a positive attitude towards running and choose running as a lifestyle choice. In addition, our students will also be able to acquire and maintain their health, enhancing fitness and as a result, enjoy and value the benefits of living a physically active and healthy life. We also believe that the weekly run will enhance the students’ concentration in the classroom as well. These objectives are also aligned to the goals of the Physical Education curriculum.

Each level has a designated day and time in the week whereby all the students of the level will run round the parade square and the running track, or the School Hall and Indoor Sports Hall, together with their teachers. Each student will be able to cover a distance of between 200 m to 1 km for each run, with warm-up and cool-down exercises done before and after each run.

To make the Run for Life Programme more meaningful for all students and teachers, we have also started a ‘Run to Tokyo’ project, to simulate an Olympic torch relay starting with the lighting of the Olympic torch at Olympia, Greece, then to travel all the way to Singapore, where our school, Bendemeer Primary School is, then to bring the Olympic torch from Singapore to Tokyo, Japan, for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Games, covering a total distance of about 14 560 km. A display board charting the path that all the students in the school has run for each week, is also being put up near the running route for all students and teachers to have a visual of the efforts they have put in and the distance they have travelled thus far. The distance covered by all the students and teachers for each week is written on a foot print to mark the path that the Olympic torch has travelled with the whole school’s effort.

We are proud to share that all our students and teachers have covered a distance of 4288 km just after 6 weeks and we hope that all students and teachers will reap not just physical, but also emotional and psychosocial benefits as well as enjoyment through their participation in the Run for Life Programme to nurture them into lifelong learners.

2. Sports and Games Niche CCA Updates Our school conducted the school-based National School Games Opening Ceremony on 19 February 2019. With this opening ceremony, it marks the official start of the National School Games season for our school’s Floorball and Sepak Takraw Senior Boys Championship.

Our school’s Floorball and Sepak Takraw Senior Boys Teams have been putting in their best efforts in the on-going preliminary rounds and we believe that their participation in the National School Games will be a good opportunity to cultivate values and develop their character through sports, in line with the Singapore Primary Schools Sports Council motto of “Character in Sporting Excellence”.

BENDEMEER PRIMARY SCHOOL

91 Bendemeer Road Singapore 339948 | Tel 62982911 | Fax 62995735 | Email bendemeer_ps@moe.edu.sg | Web www.bendemeerpri.moe.edu.sg

Today’s Learners Tomorrow’s Leaders

Five of our school’s Track and Field athletes also took part in the Akira Swift Cross Country Championship 2019 on 2 February 2019 and we are proud to share that one of our students achieved a medalist position for the Under 12 – Distance 1 km category. 3. Prefects Investiture We want to congratulate our newly appointed prefects as they pledged their commitment to the school as student leaders at the Prefects Investiture held on 18 Feb 2019. As we celebrate their appointment as prefects of our school, the prefects were reminded of the meaning of leadership that “Leadership is a service, not a position” and the value of responsibility. The prefects were selected by teachers based on their leadership qualities, work responsibility and compassion towards their peers.

4. MOE’s Parents Gateway Mobile Application Further to the notice on Parents Gateway Mobile Application (PG App) that we sent on 14 Jan, we would like to inform you on the timeline for implementation of the PG App for our school will be as follows: Registration phase (To date, 25 February – 24 Mar 2019, end of Term 1 holidays) Parents, please perform the following by end January 2019

Download the PG App onto your mobile phone (available both iOS and Android platforms)

Perform a one-time registration process (refer to Annex A <Getting Started with Parents Gateway> for a step-by-step guide).

We have also attached in Annex B some frequently asked questions on the PG App for your reference. To safeguard our students’ data, only parents who are registered in the official student records in the MOE database will be able to use the mobile app. Please note that the information shown on Parents Gateway is taken from the student records in the MOE database. If there are any discrepancies in the data shown on Parents Gateway, please contact the General Office at 62982911 to update the data. Transition phase (Term 2, week 1, 25 Mar 2019 – 30 Apr 2019)

Parents will continue to receive hardcopy letters through their children School will send out the same letters through the PG App

Implementation phase (1 May 2019 onwards) Starting from 1 May onwards,

Parents will only receive the letters through the PG App School will stop sending hardcopy letters to parents. If there are parents who are unable

to access the PG App, Form Teachers will assist them separately. We strongly encourage all parents to download and use the PG App as it will bring significant benefits for parents, including:

Providing parents with timely information about school events (e.g., enrichment and CCA activities)

Enabling parents to perform a range of functions including giving consent for school trips

Reducing usage of paper and decreasing environmental impact (hardcopies will no longer be provided)

91 Bendemeer Road Singapore 339948 | Tel 62982911 | Fax 62995735 | Email bendemeer_ps@moe.edu.sg | Web www.bendemeerpri.moe.edu.sg

Today’s Learners Tomorrow’s Leaders

There will also be benefits for the school as this helps cut down on administrative work of the teachers for them to better focus on educating the students. If you have any questions on the PG App, please contact our ICT Manager, Mr. Muhammad Iman at muhammad_nuriman@schools.gov.sg or our HOD ICT, Mdm. Annabelle Ananthi Clemant annabelle_ananthi_clemant@schools.gov.sg. 5. Guidelines for School-Home Partnership MOE has introduced the Guidelines for School-Home Partnership in light of increasing parental involvement in the educational journey of their children. These guidelines are meant to clarify the nature of school-home partnerships so that both parents and teachers can work together meaningfully for the holistic development of the child. These guidelines have been developed after consultation and feedback from schools and parents. We have attached a listicle to guide parents on how we can work hand in hand to support our students in learning self-management skills, taking responsibility and building resilience by:

working with the school to know and support your child helping your child relate to others helping your child develop good habits helping your child manage himself/herself

Our school practices will be aligning to these guidelines to allow for more purposeful and meaningful interactions with parents. We intend to engage parents to communicate our practices over the course of the year through appropriate school platforms such as in our future parents’ letters, school website and parents’ briefings. 6. Cyber Wellness Tip for Parents - Helping Your Children express themselves

appropriately online With increasing usage of technology in our daily life, there are opportunities and risks for our children. Technology has opened up opportunities such as e-learning, communication and social networking as well as self-expression and spreading positivity and goodwill on social media. While technology offers value, there may be potential issues of children engaging in inappropriate online expressions. We have included a tip sheet for parents on information of how to help your child to express themselves appropriately online. With appropriate online expression, our children will be able to create a meaningful and positive presence in the cyber community. 7. Snack Break As a gentle reminder, we would like to seek parents’ co-operation to pack healthy snacks for your child’s snack break. To encourage healthy eating habits for your child, we would like to share with parents on some simple and easy-to-prepare snacks provided by Health Promotion Board. We would also like to get parents to have your child bring along a water bottle for refilling of plain water so as to reduce their intake of sugared drinks. 8. Road Safety Reminders to Drivers We have noted there were occasions whereby parents had drove into the ingress next to Gate H (backgate) to alight their children. As the ingress is part of the fireman access and is also used as a pedestrian path, we have placed several safety cones at the ingress to restrict cars from turning into the ingress (see picture). We seek the cooperation of parents not to alight their children there as it is not meant to be a drop off point.

91 Bendemeer Road Singapore 339948 | Tel 62982911 | Fax 62995735 | Email bendemeer_ps@moe.edu.sg | Web www.bendemeerpri.moe.edu.sg

Today’s Learners Tomorrow’s Leaders

We also wish to advise parents who drive their children to school to exercise courtesy and consideration by not holding up traffic. Parents are to request their children to be ready with their bags and where possible, to be seated behind the driver and to alight on the driver side of the vehicle so that the children are dropped off promptly and safely at the foyer. Using pedestrian crossing On a regular basis, we have been emphasizing to our students the importance to observe road safety rules. Our students are reminded to use the appropriate pedestrian crossing to cross the roads. Our teachers are also deployed at the school’s zebra-crossing to look into the safety of our students when they come to school in the morning. The school is still observing incidences of parents/guardians jaywalking in front of the school’s main gate with their children. We wish to impress on parents/guardians to be role models and refrain from such actions which may compromise on the students, your child’s safety. Please ensure that you and your children make use of the available pedestrian crossing when coming to and from school. 5. March Holidays and Start of Term 2 Please be informed that the term 1 March Holidays will be from Mon 18 March to Fri 22 March. The first day of school for term 2 will be on Mon 25 March. Wishing everyone a restful break with your family.

_________________ Mrs Tan-Lim Kim Gek Principal