Showcasing the best of BRPS to our Minister for Education!

BRLC was thrilled to host Minister for Education, Mr Chan Chun Sing, for a visit to our school on Thursday, 15 September 2022. It was also an opportune time for a visit, as it was Careers Day for our Primary 5s and Primary 6s! Minister was in for a treat as he met our parents, alumni and mid-career teachers who held booths. From florist and architect to researcher and engineer, our students learnt more about the different jobs in various sectors such as STEM, Arts and Professional Services. Minister even got a chance to apply technology to learning using a toy car, roller coaster track and data logger to visualise energy conversions. He explained the energy conversions to some of our students present at the booth.

As part of our school tour, our student hosts Athan, Alara and Rian showed the Minister the creative products from our Viewpoints programme. These included student newsletters, broadcast videos, photographs, and personal reflections! Our 小记者 ,or Junior Reporters, even got to interview Minister. When our Junior Reporter Mills asked the Minister to share some words of wisdom, Minister simply replied that he hoped that Blangahnites would be happy and engaged learning in school! Our student hosts also showed the Minister our NE Gallery and Animal corner while on the way to the Discovery Room to observe a robotics lessons. There, our Primary 4 students shared their programmed robots with the Minister, explaining how they have designed and programmed a robot to pick up rubbish in an imaginary beach-clean up scenario.

Alara (Pri 5T), who was one of the hosts that day, shared that she was glad she had had the opportunity to meet him and hoped she could have more such opportunities in future. She said, “I was nervous initially as I thought he was going to be strict, but he was very friendly and kind. I learnt a lot from this experience, including being confident enough to share my thoughts with the Minister.”

At his last stop, Minister had a chance to engage in dialogue with our Blangahnites and staff. He heard from students what made school exciting for them, as well as some school improvement suggestions some may have. Our students shared their aspirations eagerly with the Minister. Many aspired to work as a banker or a businessman in the future. Commendably, Richie, from Primary 6, hoped to be a teacher in Blangah Rise Primary School! Richie spoke about his desire to "nurturing future Blangahnites" holistically. Minister was indeed delighted to hear from a potential educator!

At the staff dialogue, Minister shared his views candidly with staff regarding social inequality and the future of teaching and learning. Staff even got to exchange their views about the education system with Minister. Ms Usha shared, “Minister’s warm and friendly demeanor made all of us feel at ease. He was not only very forthcoming when addressing all the questions posted but he also cracked jokes along the way which kept the atmosphere light and relaxed. It was indeed an eye-opening experience!”

All in all, we thought that it was a mighty fruitful visit! From his social media posts, we are sure that Minister enjoyed his visits as much as we enjoyed hosting him!