Principals engage students with games, ‘buddy lunch’

While she was the vice-principal at Chongzheng Primary School, Madam Ratna Kumari was also a game master to her pupils.

Over a span of three weeks, she conducted team building activities and student engagement sessions - such as getting them to work together to solve a challenge - for her pupils.

Madam Ratna was certain of one thing - she wanted to get to know her pupils personally.

She said: "Getting feedback from teachers is just one dimension. To really understand the needs of children, I need to talk to them and spend time with them.

"For me to be a good school leader and to come up with programmes that will directly address the students' needs, I need to be able to know them personally."

She intends to continue this practice at her new position as a principal at Tampines North Primary School and will hold these sessions at least once a year.

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AT HEART

"I guess I am still a teacher at heart. Children like games because they are interactive. Through games, I can see their strengths and weaknesses and find ways to help them from there," said Madam Ratna, who started her stint at Tampines North last week.

Madam Ratna was one of the 66 principals recognised at the Appointment and Appreciation Ceremony for Principals held yesterday at Shangri-La Hotel.

Another principal recognised for her efforts was Madam Rasidah Rahim, the principal of Queenstown Secondary School (QTSS). She joined the school in 2015.

Recess at QTSS is different because QTSS students eat with intellectually disabled students from Lee Kong Chian Gardens School (LGS).

"Buddy lunch" is one of the initiatives at QTSS that started in 2013 to inculcate empathy in students by exposing them to children with special needs.

Under Madam Rasidah's guidance, QTSS and LGS students organised communal lunches for the elderly and also trained for the Special Olympics together.

Initially, her Secondary 2 students were uncomfortable about playing basketball with LGS students as the LGS students were much older and it was hard to communicate with them.

But what touched her was on the day of the game, Madam Rasidah witnessed one of her students passing the ball to an LGS student who was positioned under the net and telling him to score.

"I thought that was beautiful that they played to each other's strengths. It showed me that this really helped to build the inclusivity that we want in Singapore."