2021/02/22

Online Lunar New Year Assembly

Online Lunar New Year Assembly

Wish you all a joyful 2021

By Headmistress Ms. CHUNG

Although this year’s Lunar New Year could not be celebrated at school with you all, we made it happen virtually on the fourth day of the festival. It was quite refreshing for us to sing the New Year song in Putonghua and English with our students. We also had fun playing games related to the Chinese culture (https://bit.ly/3aAtRuq ). I could see the excitement among students and parents to win the New Year gifts.

While wishing you all a joyful 2021, I wish to reiterate here what I had shared at the online assembly regarding “SMILE.” As you are aware, smiling is a superpower that not only elevates a person’s mood but also changes other’s moods and makes a place happier. According to me, the word ‘SMILE’ is an acronym for the five strategies namely Share, Mind, Inclusion, Learn and Enjoy that we should practise every day to keep away darkness from our lives.

Let me explain them in detail.

Share: Share Care and Love

Nowadays, we do not have many opportunities for face-to-face interactions, but we can still express our love and care by sharing our feelings remotely with family members and friends through electronic devices. This enables us to remain connected and support each other.

Mind: Think positively and keep away from negative thoughts

We should strive to think and act positively during these trying times. It is very important for us to accept changes and adapt to the situation. For instance, instead of thinking negatively owing to the pandemic, we can use the new learning opportunities created for us during this unexpected period of class suspension. Therefore, we must make the best use of e-learning and spend time to develop our self-directed learning skills.

Inclusion: Being sensitive to the feelings and needs of others

By interacting harmoniously with others, we can be sensitive to their feelings and needs. I wish to recall the story of the movie I shared with you at the assembly about Thomas, an untidy boy. In this movie, his best friend having concern and care for Thomas teaches him to keep things tidy. The core message of this film relates to one of our school’s major concerns, that is LOVE.

Excerpts from:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JcYlu3SNoUg

Learn: Developing autonomous learning habits

Staying at home during the pandemic has taught us to learn and discover new interests. This is best time to develop autonomous learning habits. Reading is one of the habits that can be developed by all students conveniently at home, using our school’s e-library.

To nurture autonomous learning habits among our students, our teachers had made and shared a self-learning film on how to make a toy based on the principle of friction. Students were also encouraged to create and make their own toys and participate in the Toy Design Competition.

Enjoy: Enjoy spending time with your family

The pandemic has also allowed us to spend more time on extra-curricular activities with our family. Such activities while activating our mind and body also help our students to stay focused on their academic work.

While signing off, I wish all members of the POCA family to remain smiling in 2021 by practising the above strategies regularly.

Let us keep the adversity at bay by staying optimistic!