Hwa Chong Institution (High School)

[csc]

ohnjay:

:?:

My son is Sec 1 going Sec 2 and keep complaining he bored and say he want to buy Sec 2 textbook to read. Can anyone tell me what textbook to buy for humanities (history, geography???) Help would be appreciated

Well, I suggest he starts reading his Literature texts.

[WeiHan]

ohnjay:

:?:

My son is Sec 1 going Sec 2 and keep complaining he bored and say he want to buy Sec 2 textbook to read. Can anyone tell me what textbook to buy for humanities (history, geography???) Help would be appreciated

I thought IP schools' students very busy during holiday with their project work?

Anyway.....i wonder in today's world, one can read more and learn more thing in the internet than books.

[anime fan]

hockey_blue:

Sorry for the misunderstanding.


Yes, I'm referring to HCJC which they call it HCI (College).

Does my daughter have a chance like this? I told her the same thing, no harm giving it a try. Given her status (neighbourhood sch student), a teachers' recommendation is a bonus to her, however, she is afraid that the teacher might laughed behind her back saying that she is just an average student and that even the top student of the sch can't even get into HCI and she, an average student want to get in blah blah blah...

I'm not sure if HCI (College) will look down on students from neighbourhood college because I find my daughter achievements rather acceptable compared to the top students in her sch. I think that... the only problem lies in her academic only... she has leadership and sporting talent...

Well, let's just say, I shall encourage her to try her luck... though chances are really slim... 0.00001% ....

Thanks guys.

as long as she is not usually late for class, and does not lag behind in languages,should be fine. To get in, she needs to pass both languages.

[MdmKS]

WeiHan:

ohnjay:

:?:

My son is Sec 1 going Sec 2 and keep complaining he bored and say he want to buy Sec 2 textbook to read. Can anyone tell me what textbook to buy for humanities (history, geography???) Help would be appreciated

I thought IP schools' students very busy during holiday with their project work?

Anyway.....i wonder in today's world, one can read more and learn more thing in the internet than books.

Good tha he asks for textbook to read and not computer game. Some are busy with computer games and facebook, especially those who are not active in CCA and especially so during school vacation.

[autolycus]

ohnjay:

:?:

My son is Sec 1 going Sec 2 and keep complaining he bored and say he want to buy Sec 2 textbook to read. Can anyone tell me what textbook to buy for humanities (history, geography???) Help would be appreciated

If your son wants to have a good overview of the humanities in advance, as well as keep a book that will be useful for the next 6-8 years, I suggest that you look for Ideas That Changed The World, by Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Dorling Kindersley (2004). ISBN: 9-781405-305938.

It is excellent preparation for studying the humanities, comes in very very short chapters, and is nicely illustrated with high-quality photographs. About 400 pages, costs not more than S$40/-, I think.

[ycpang]

Below msg from Dr Hon


Dear Students,
 
We are pleased to share with you that Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) has been conferred the prestigious Singapore Quality Award (SQA) for achieving world-class standard of excellence.
 
HCI is the FIRST school offering the Cambridge GCE A-Level Examinations to be awarded the SQA.  With this accreditation, we have taken another giant step towards fulfilling our vision as “A World-class Institution of Leaders”.
 
SQA is the pinnacle award for business excellence in Singapore.  With the Prime Minister as its Patron, the Award is presented to organisations which have demonstrated outstanding management capabilities and delivered superior performance and results.  
 
·        The assessors were very impressed by our systems and results, particularly our achievements on the world stage.  The achievements include:
·     The highest number of PSC scholars in 2010
·     Top in the world at the 2009 International Biology Olympiad
·     2 Angus Ross Prizes in the last 3 years, this is the top Literature Award in the world outside UK.
·     20 other world championships (2006-2010), including the Harvard-MIT Mathematics Competition, International Future Problem Solving, International ThinkQuest and various contests related to the performing arts and entrepreneurship.
 
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all teachers, parents and students for your hard work and support.  Without your firm commitments, we would not have been able to provide the unrivalled opportunities that distinguish education at Hwa Chong.  Pls help to convey my sincere appreciation to your parents.
 
Moving forward, Hwa Chong will continue to be a pioneer, pillar and partner in the education landscape in Singapore and beyond.
 
Thank you very much.
 

[lizawa]

There is an article on today's Business Times, Page 6, talking about Hwa Chong- Beijing satellite campus. I do not have the papers but a friend SMS me early this morning after reading it and said he was impressed. He asked if I know this immersion programme is opened for Primary School kids

[wonderm]

Below is the BT article today:



Leaders without borders

Hwa Chong Institution aims to break down geographical and cultural barriers in order to groom students to become bicultural leaders, reports TEH SHI NING
IT IS one thing to boast of students who have won world championships and attained global standards of excellence, but quite another to be the institution that produces such students.

Hwa Chong Institution's vision of being a world class school traces back to before the 2005 merger between The Chinese High School and Hwa Chong Junior College produced Singapore's first mega-school to offer the six-year 'through train' integrated programme.
'We were already travelling the world to find out what 'world-class' is. And we weren't just looking at schools but also organisations. We looked at what Google was doing, we looked at the case-studies of Harvard Business School,' says principal Dr Hon Chiew Weng, who led the high school pre-merger.

Hwa Chong's journey of pursuing organisational excellence as a means to improve its education over the past 14 years, led to its clinching the Singapore Quality Award this year. It is the second school to do so after Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)'s win last year.
'In the beginning, we thought that to get this award we must impress people with results and systems and processes. So we told the assessors all about our students' championship wins, their scholarships to the best universities in the world, our links with partners globally,' Dr Hon says. But though critical, these weren't in the end what most impressed.
'What stood out for them was our bicultural leadership,' he says. In other words, the distinguishing feature was the clarity of Hwa Chong's broader vision - to be a global academy that grooms bicultural leaders - which ties together its various programmes and initiatives.
Hwa Chong's positioning as a bicultural school means 'striking a balance between tradition and innovation' and knowing how to 'keep the traditional heritage but yet be very forward looking at the same time', says Eileen Tan-Tay, principal consultant for organisation development and an economics tutor at the school.
Dr Hon paints Hwa Chong's growth in three broad phases. The first emphasised academic excellence in an exam-oriented way, but was soon replaced by a second phase stressing scholastic achievements. This, he says, is clear in how the Hwa Chong Diploma, introduced in 2008 as a 'passport to top universities worldwide', looks at students' leadership skills and community service too.
In this third and current phase, Hwa Chong's focus is on grooming bicultural leaders in a 'borderless learning environment'. Innovations which have emerged to support this strategy include the Hwa Chong-Beijing Satellite Campus, which was set up to move beyond short-term and superficial cultural exchange programmes to offer students a longer immersion during which they study the Chinese curriculum and gain greater exposure.
So while he speaks, Dr Hon says, one group of HCI students can be learning about China's social and cultural developments in the Hwa Chong-Beijing Satellite Campus, while another is in Shanghai learning how business is done there, and a third is doing research in the Virginia Academy of Sciences in the US.
There are plans for other satellite campuses to be set up in the US and India, but in the meantime, Hwa Chong still has more than 100 partners across 16 countries with whom they create programmes to break down geographical and cultural borders for its students.
'That we can maintain this network of partners is crucial - actively engaging alumni, non-stakeholders. It isn't due to chance that people just knock on our doors and want to work with us,' says Dr Hon.
Another initiative of the school that breaks down boundaries, this time between disciplines, is its Projects Competition. While its name isn't the most exciting, the programme involves a 'very very different way of doing project work' from other schools, Dr Hon says.
The programme, started years ago, underwent a major revision in the mid-1990s to throw away subject-based categories and move into cross-disciplinary ones such as experimental and non-experimental research, creative arts, math and infocomm, entrepreneurship and inventions.
'Hwa Chong prides itself on a research culture, which has driven innovation,' says Mrs Tan-Tay. This makes it conducive for students to flourish in these aspects too, she says, citing one instance of Hwa Chong students working across time zones with a team in the US to eventually win the Stanford Global Innovation Tournament.
Dr Hon sees much value for students in the Projects Competition too. 'In Sec 1 and 2, they do the work in our own labs and they will fumble but that's okay. Many of these students have never failed before, so when they come to Hwa Chong we're willing to let them fail, sit up, wonder what happened and find their own way to do things better,' he says. And after a few years, many are very good researchers, able to collaborate with external labs and research institutes too, he says.
Delivering all these exciting new plans to transform Hwa Chong into a global academy are its quality teachers and quality staff.
'The assessors were quite impressed with the high energy levels, and innovativeness shown by our staff,' Mrs Tan-Tay says. This is in part the result of hiring and retaining motivated staff, but is also thanks to deliberate moves like the I3 (Innovate, Improve, Impact) system.
In the past, staff suggestions had to be coerced from each member of staff and the top-driven approach meant that the management decided which suggestions to act upon.
The new system however, allows staff to act on any ideas for improvement they chance upon in their own areas of work and log these proven ideas and results into the system.
About 75 per cent of the innovative entries logged thus far are teaching and learning related, so the system has also become a knowledge database for staff to share best practices and develop more innovative lesson packages.
'The underlying culture is very important. We have 4,200 students and about 500 staff members, so if we're to run this organisation like a bureaucracy, you won't get innovation nor creativity,' says Dr Hon.
Another structure which has worked well for Hwa Chong is the organisation of its high school into consortiums or 'four mini-schools within the school'.
'This is very different from the subject departments system, where the teacher's focus is on say Mathematics and if the students are doing well in Math, he thinks, 'I'm fine, I've done by job',' Dr Hon explains. Instead, the consortium system means teachers are more involved in the holistic development of the 500 students in their mini-school and can push through changes more quickly.
In the future, Dr Hon thinks one challenge will be to seek out more resources to further research and development work. The Hwa Chong Centre for Pedagogical Excellence set up in 2007 is one step in that direction, to promote and support teaching innovation.
Hwa Chong was also among six schools selected by the Ministry of Education to pioneer its FutureSchools@Singapore programme, which links schools with industry partners to serve as test-beds for R&D in infocomm in education. This receives funding support from the National Research Foundation.
'So far, I've been able to mobilise teachers to do a bit of R&D work in some areas. But going forward, I'm planning to look at R&D into leadership concepts. Specifically, a hybrid between servant leadership and entrepreneurial leadership, which I think is something that will be good for our nation,' Dr Hon says.

[Zann]

Just wondering why HCI does not offer MEP till now? A frien of mine has to choose one with MEP.

[phankao]

Zann:

Just wondering why HCI does not offer MEP till now? A frien of mine has to choose one with MEP.

Yup - apparently HCI doesn't believe in it. Say it clashes with their existing programmes. But strangely NYGH can, hor! Anyway, even NYGH's is a school-based MEP, not an MOE MEP center, but that's fine too bc it is run along similar lines.