More than 130 educators and managers, including religious supervisors, from 12 Catholic preschools and childcare centres met for their annual Thanksgiving Day on 27 Dec.

The gathering, held at St Anne’s Church Kindergarten, is now in its fourth year and is an occasion for building communion as well as sharing best practices.

During the event, a new curriculum created by ACCS (Archdiocesan Commission for Catholic Schools) with outside expertise, was made available to the preschools and centres.

This “Integrated Curriculum” integrates the character development and religious education components with the academic – or core curriculum – component.

It incorporates the Catholic perspective while complying with the latest directives of the ECDA (Early Childhood Development Agency), the regulatory and developmental authority for the early childhood sector in Singapore.

Teachers from St Joseph’s Church Kindergarten and Holy Trinity Church Kindergarten shared with fellow language teachers from the other preschools their journey towards attaining SPARK (Singapore Pre-school Accreditation Framework) accreditation.

Ms Maria Goh, vice principal of Nativity Church Kindergarten and a Chinese language teacher, also shared how an attachment to Brisbane Catholic schools, and the Australian International School (AIS) in Singapore, inspired her to make changes to the way Chinese is taught in her school.

During the tour of the host school, St Anne’s Church Kindergarten, the 11 principals and supervisors heard from the principals of St Joseph’s Church Kindergarten, Ms Angeline Wong, and Holy Trinity Church Kindergarten, Ms Shirley Tan, about how they achieved SPARK accreditation.

Participants said they learnt much from the Thanksgiving Day.

“What struck me is that we’ve come a long way towards achieving Catholic identity,” said Ms Marie Rose Ng, principal of Good Shepherd Convent Kindergarten.

About the Curriculum
The new “Integrated Curriculum” is the result of a double pilot programme implemented in three Catholic kindergartens in 2013.

The programme involved the Core Curriculum Programme (for the academic curriculum) and the Character Education Programme.

It was a joint effort between ACCS, Dr Margaret Carter, a senior lecturer in education at James Cook University, Townsville, Australia, and three Catholic kindergartens.

The pilot programme was in response to the recent changes in early childhood education with an increased emphasis on social and emotional aspects of children’s learning.

The results and feedback from the programme guided the formulation of the “Integrated Curriculum”, which is one tool towards the achievement of SPARK (Singapore Pre-school Accreditation Framework) accreditation.

Currently, St Joseph’s Church Kindergarten and Holy Trinity Church Kindergarten have SPARK accreditation.

By Stefania Hartley
Source: Catholic News, January 12, 2014, Volume 64, Number 01

The Gospels provide authentic narratives about Jesus while picture storybooks, for example, can be a combination of narratives and interpretations of a particular story. It is paramount to use the Bible as the main resource and other forms of media as supplementary resources. Bible reading also brings the Word closer to the children. In teaching scripture stories to children, Mark Elliot emphasized the importance of using, first and foremost, the Bible to read and familiarize the story before using any other form of media like illustrated or picture story books, videos and images that are easily accessed online.

Elliot is leader of a team of senior Religious Education (RE) trainers from the Brisbane Catholic Education office facilitating a four day programme for 50 teachers, catechists and parent volunteers organised by The Archdiocesan Commission for Catholic Schools (ACCS). This is the second time, the four-day intensive course, designed to provide personal formation and pedagogical support that enhances the teaching of RE in the classroom, is being conducted. Emphasis is placed on the use of music, drama, arts and crafts in teaching Scripture and prayer to young students. The course is called Religious Education Access Programme (REAP) Singapore – it is a professional learning programme which forms one credit in the Masters of Religious Education degree.

Among the different areas covered are creating Prayer and Ritual resources such as rain sticks, prayer flags, finger labyrinth and prayer candles; Bible teaching strategies like Y chart, grab bag, frayer concept map, emotion maps, freeze frames and rolling freeze frames; Experiential Prayer Stations like praying in colours, praying with Apps and teaching children how to be silent and still for prayer. Designing rituals and sacred spaces were also among the topics discussed.

Br Nicholas Lye who sang and danced with the participants explained that “music is a language that touches deep into the heart. It connects us to that deep part of our soul where God may be found.” The team also talked about being a teacher in a Catholic school, on catholic identity, names & images for Jesus, about Mary and many more stories from both the Old and New Testament. Participants went home with an arm load of resources that will assist them in creating spaces for every child to meet Christ and grow closer with Him.

A thanksgiving Mass was celebrated by Fr Edward Seah, the Archbishop’s representative to ACCS, and he shared about the crucial role of educators in building and sustaining communities rooted in Jesus Christ. He encouraged everyone to be a positive presence in their places of ministry in order to bring about authentic witness to the Gospel of Jesus.

The event was a significant learning experience for Anthony Xavier who is a parent volunteer teacher at St Stephen Primary and St Patrick Secondary Schools. “I learned methods of making Bible stories come alive giving students the opportunity to actively participate. Teaching religion can be fun and fulfilling experience,” he said.

Ms Isabel Ho from ONE also shared that the REAP course was enriching in tools, resources and experience of the trainers. The teaching moments were not just about content and techniques but also times for the participants to encounter Christ – to give Christ, we must first receive Christ. After which, participants learned to set up opportunities for children to experience Christ through scripture and prayer, art, and drama. The trainers brought out the message that bringing Jesus to young people is an attitude and a way of being through their way of being witnesses of Christ.”

ACCS hopes that more training can be provided to RE teachers and volunteers in the coming days to respond to the spiritual needs of the young. As Pope Francis recently said to the plenary session of the Congregation for Catholic Education, “The educator in Catholic schools must be, first of all, very competent, qualified and, at the same time, rich in humanity, capable of being in the midst of young people with a pedagogical style, to promote their human and spiritual growth. Young people are in need of quality teaching, together with values not just enunciated but witnessed.”

Jeanette Atabelo

Social behaviour and values are not innate in children but must be intentionally taught by adults who deliberately model them and use the learning environment and its systems and routines to scaffold and support their learning. Learning appropriate social behaviour and values is fundamental to the well-being and to the academic achievement of children. How can preschool educators turn positive social behaviours into a habit for their pupils? How can Primary and Secondary teachers support the character development of their students and help them internalise the values that are set out by the Ministry of Education in the Character and Citizenship Education Curriculum (Respect, Responsibility, Resilience, Integrity, Care, Harmony)?

These were the foci of a series of workshops for Catholic School and Preschool educators, conducted by Dr Margaret Carter and organised by the Archdiocesan Commission for Catholic Schools (ACCS).

Dr. Carter, who is a Senior Lecturer in Education at James Cook University, Australia, is a behaviour-change specialist currently based in Queensland. She has worked for profit and non-profit community agencies, education systems, regional indigenous and non-indigenous groups and individuals on social and emotional well-being and behaviour change for children and adults. Dr. Carter has published many books on children’s and young people’s social behaviour and is familiar with the Singapore educational environment, having spent two and a half years in Singapore (until June 2013) lecturing for James Cook University, Singapore (subject coordinator and lecturer for their Master of Education; Master of Guidance and Counselling; Graduate Certificate Career Development; Graduate Certificate Research Methods; Graduate Certificate of Education – Academic Practice). In Australia, Dr Carter has conducted workshops for the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane and for the Australian Catholic University (on educational leadership and behaviour management; educational leadership and spirituality).

Dr Carter remains an invited member of both the ethics subcommittee and the clinical supervision subcommittee for the Singapore association for counselling. Her current areas of research are: Cyber bullying; Learning in the virtual world; Third culture kids; Young children’s social capacity.

The first workshop, which took place on Thursday 20^th March in the Catholic Adult Education Centre, was conducted for all the educators of the two preschools belonging to the Good Shepherd Sisters (Marymount Kindergarten and Good Shepherd Convent Kindergarten), for their before- and- after- care school staff and crisis centre staff, as part of their Internal Professional Development Programme, by request of their supervisor, Tan Poh Cheng. “It’s been an excellent session: Dr Carter is engaging, experienced and relates well with the participants. The session was well planned and the concepts clearly explained and demonstrated through videos and examples” was Tan Poh Cheng’s feedback at the end of the workshop which was attended by fifty-three preschool educators.

The second workshop was open to all the educators of Catholic preschools and it was part of their Professional Development Programme for Character Education. With fifty-one participants, it followed the same structure as the one on the previous day.

During both workshops Dr Carter stressed that, when teaching values to preschool children, it is fruitless to just ‘tell’ them what to do (i.e. saying ‘use kind words!’). Adults need to model the desired value: for example, when teaching ‘respect’, adults must not assume that children have an innate understanding of the word respect or that they have necessarily experienced being treated with respect. The road to mastery starts with defining and explaining what is meant by ‘respect’, followed by role playing or modelling by the teacher, moving on to providing practice and guidance in real life contexts, followed by re-teaching whenever necessary and continued practice until the virtue is mastered. Modelling and consistency are paramount and adults must be on guard lest they themselves should be caught using unkind language towards the children.

The system of routines in place in each educational setting can either support or hinder the learning of values and social behaviour. In the second half of the workshops, participants were encouraged to examine their own preschool’s routines through role plays and, once a problem was identified, come up with solutions by pooling together ideas and wisdom with their peers. “I was enlightened to reflect on children’s behaviour by analysing within-the-child factors, our institutional and environmental factors” commented Lim Kiah Pin, from Canossian Convent Kindergarten.

One new insight for Margaret Spruyt, a teacher from Good Shepherd Convent Kindergarten, was the realisation of the power of language in dealing with children: “It is very important to use the right language (or words) to speak to young children as it may help to enhance the child’s self-esteem or destroy the child’s confidence.”

“I will try to apply what I’ve learnt during my day-to-day interaction with the children and whenever I’m teaching them” shared Ann, from Canossian Convent Kindergarten.

The two workshops for preschool educators were part of the training and support offered to all Catholic Preschools following the launch (last December) of a new Integrated Curriculum for Catholic Preschools in Singapore, written by ACCS under Dr Carter’s guidance. The new curriculum integrates the Academic core with the Character Education and the Religious Education components, under eight broad themes (for example: ‘Me and my family’, ‘Anti-bias’, ‘People at work’) and has been made available to all Catholic Preschools. The new themes for term 2, which have been fine-tuned in the light of the feedback from the trials and in consultation with the schools, were introduced by ACCS Preschools Project Director, Merilyn Dasson, during the workshops.

Given the current emphasis given by the Ministry of Education to Character and Citizenship Education in the framework of a holistic education, ACCS invited, for the first time, Primary and Secondary School educators to Dr Carter’s workshops during two dedicated sessions which took place on the 24^th and the 25^th of March (for Primary and Secondary School educators respectively). The workshops involved group work and sharing by three schools about how they conduct Values Education and Values in Action programmes. According to Dr Carter, it takes only one person who is passionate about values education, who starts to interact and live the experience of the values, for the rest of the school to be influenced and eventually ignited. This person, however, needs a patron (a colleague or a leader) for support. This patron might not be passionate about values education but curious and interested to provide the needed assistance.

For each of the core values of the Character and Citizenship education programme , Dr Carter started by asking the participants to brainstorm a definition, then moved on to identifying what they look like vs what they do not look like. Then, Dr Carter went through examples of how to demonstrate the value in practice and how to create an environment where this is possible. Dr Carter stressed that values don’t just happen but need to be intentionally taught and teachers need to demonstrate them conscientiously and consistently. Twenty-two Primary School Teachers and thirteen Secondary School Teachers attended the workshops.

Among them was Lesley Goonting, chaplain of CHIJ Our Lady of Good Counsel, who commented that she gained a new insight on “the critical role ‘consistency’ plays in developing and nurturing a value education experience. Its effects need to be pervasive, engage all and be aligned/cascaded at all levels, programmes and in all interactions.”

For Br Dominic Chong, chaplain and brother in residence of SJI Junior, one new insight gained from the workshop was that “we, as teachers, can only influence our pupils on Value Education to the extent that we are already practising those values; we should periodically check ourselves on how do we see our pupils…as gifts entrusted by God or just as mere digits in the classroom.”

Dr Carter’s visit to Singapore has also served the purpose of conducting interviews with the children and the parents of the preschools which have trialled the new Integrated Curriculum. Upon request by other Catholic preschools, Dr Carter has agreed to comeback to Singapore for further school visits and workshops in August.

This article was published in Catholic News, April 20, 2014, Volume 64, Number 08

Catholic educators who took part in a training programme run by a team from Brisbane, Australia, said they gained much from it.

The course “introduced to me the many strategies we can adapt, e.g. using colours, mind scaffolding, music, art and dance, and using all the wonderful things of God’s creation to aid us in our teaching sessions,” said Mr Bernard Lim, a Catholic preschool board member.

“We were exposed to new tools through technology which enhances traditional materials,” said Ms Irene Leong, principal of Nativity Church Kindergarten.

“Every single activity that we experienced and enjoyed may be used with our students and, most importantly, was meaningful for ourselves.”

Mr Lim and Ms Leong were among 52 teachers from Catholic preschools, primary and secondary schools who attended the Religious Education Training Programme held at Catholic Junior College from Nov 26-29.

The Archdiocesan Commission for Catholic Schools (ACCS) in Singapore conducted the programme in conjunction with the Brisbane Catholic Education office, which sent a six-person team.

“More than anything, an RE [religious education] teacher should know that who they are as an authentic human being is just as important as what they teach,” Mr Mark Elliott, Principal Education Officer of Religious Education with the Brisbane office told CatholicNews.

“RE teachers need to have a deep understanding of scripture and be prepared to challenge students to recognise the person of Jesus not just in scriptural texts but in everyday life.”

According to Ms Merilyn Dasson, director of early childhood education at ACCS, the aim of the programme is for “religious educators to be able to infuse a genuine spirituality into the school and especially in RE classes”.

Some Catholic preschool teachers are also expected to go for a week’s attachment at a Catholic kindergarten in Brisbane next year.

This article was published in Catholic News (December 16, 2012, Vol 62, No 25).