Malay Department SHPS 2006

The Malay department focuses more than the teaching of the Malay language in St. Hilda’s Primary School although the study of Malay language and literature is an integral part of the department's curriculum. The department also focuses on the Malay culture and aims to deepen our pupils’ understanding of the Malays and their place in the modern multi cultural Singapore. Our teachers will continue to strive the use of visual, aural, oral and kinaesthetic as methods of curriculum delivery with themes that go across all teaching areas including crafts, songs and even games.

Parents of P6 Malay pupils met on 2nd February 2006. The main objective of the P6 Parents and Teachers Meet is to improve the cooperation and in particular the dialogue between teachers and parents in order to enhance the educational achievement of their children.

On the 10th February 2006, the Malay department collaborated with the Mother Tongue Department to host the Annual Jamiyah Old Folks Home Chinese New Year Dinner. The department aims to instil in pupils the sense of community. All donations went directly to the above mentioned charity.

Pupils from P5-P6 enjoyed an educational trip to JB on the 14th March 2006. The main aim of this project is to introduce pupils to the historical significance of the Malay culture and language. It is part of the department’s effort to educate pupils through experiential learning. Following that, a reading motivational workshop was conducted during the first week of Term 2 for the primary 2 – 4.

The annual Malay cultural camp was conducted on the 20th June 2006. The camp was a wonderful experience and introduction to the Malay culture, language and arts for the Malay pupils. A total of 90 pupils from P2 to P6 learnt the art of Batik Painting, Silat followed by a Speech and Drama workshop.

The P4 pupils with their peers from the Chinese and Tamil classes participated in the Read and Reach Programme jointly organized with Meridian JC during the month of July. The programme that was conducted on every Wednesday for 4 consecutive weeks aims to instil in young pupils the love of reading and understanding the need for racial harmony in Singapore through the use of storytelling as a springboard for the learning of listening and reading in Mother Tongue languages.

In the month of July 2006, the department organised a creative writing competition for the E6 cluster. The objective is to provide a platform for the Malay pupils to showcase their talents in writing about the issues of the modern world. One of our pupils, Rukhsana Yusof achieved the 2nd prize in the P6 category.

On July the 28th, the upper primary Malay pupils visited the Jamiyah Orphanage. They managed to collect $700 worth of cash and 5 huge hampers worth of dairy products, biscuits and writing materials for the under-privileged children jointly contributed by the Malay parents and teachers. It is hoped that the trip will create awareness on the plight on the less fortunate children in Singapore.

The Malay department will continue to use weblogs or Internet blogs to showcase the writing ability of the upper primary Malay pupils. We’ve found weblogs to be an excellent way to fuse educational technology and storytelling inside the classroom.

Reported by:

Cikgu Elmi Zulkarnain

Subject Coordinator ML