Celebrating the Nation’s 56th birthday the Sports School way

A sense of anticipation and excitement hung in the air as our student-athletes got ready on the morning of 6 August 2021 to commemorate Singapore’s 56th years of independence and National Day Celebrations. Collectively, the school evoked the National Day theme of “Together, Our Singapore Spirit”, as all student-athletes and staff participated in the National Day Observance Ceremony. Class-based activities were also arranged for student-athletes to ponder and reflect on the vital role they have in Singapore’s future.

In the weeks leading up to National Day, student-athletes from Secondary 1 and 2 also held a folder design competition to see who could design the best National Day folder as part of their Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) lessons. Student-athletes unleashed their creativity and got to work drawing and colouring in their transparent file folders to display their love for the country. 

Secondary 2 footballer Nor Aqmar Shamil Norsham took first place for his design in the Secondary 2 category. His design, was a revamped interpretation of the Singapore flag in the shape of our island. 

“I felt really surprised that I won the competition as I did not expect to win. I was inspired by my fellow teammate who was drawing the Singapore flag and decided to put a spin on it to draw it into the shape of the island,” said Aqmar.

As part of the National Day celebrations held in school, student-athletes from different levels all delved into an online Learning Journey Programme. The Secondary 1 and 2 student-athletes learnt about the Heroes of Kranji, while Secondary 3 student-athletes learnt about Semakau Landfill and the roles Singaporeans can play to help reduce waste. Secondary 4 student-athletes took the time to hear from the National Library Board on a workshop on combating fake news and had the chance to tour a Human x nature virtual exhibition. Our IBDP student-athletes too, participated in a virtual tour of the One-North area.

Secondary 3 pencak silat exponent Muhammad Naufal Abdullah said the programme on Semakau Landfill left a deep impression on him: “I learnt that we have maybe four or five plots left to fill in Semakau. This is worrying as the amount of trash Singapore disposes of is increasing, and yet we seem to be running out of space. As Singaporeans, I feel we can try to recycle more and be more conscious about using less plastics.”

“The Heroes of Kranji lesson was very enlightening. I could imagine the graves clearly as we got to see them virtually. I learnt a lot about what the heroes did for our country and to see the war memorial itself was very enriching,” remarked Secondary 1 netballer Mahalakshmi Suresh Gopalan.

After an informative and educational session, it was time for some hands-on activities! After moving to their assigned Mentor’s Classrooms, the academy mentors distributed specially designed Sports School masks to the classes, and engaged them in folding origami hearts and encouraged the student-athletes to pen their national day wishes on them.

“We really enjoyed folding the origami hearts. Since the netball team was thinking of doing a heart- shaped design for the overall collage, I decided to make it look like a balloon and added a girl holding the balloon. I suddenly had that idea because I’ve always liked balloons since I was young. Folding the origami and writing National Day messages made me really appreciate our country and our national day spirit,” said Mahalakshmi.

The celebrations drew to a close as the mentors led their student-athletes in a spirited round of community singing of two popular National Day theme songs, the evergreen “Count On Me Singapore”, and the catchy latest NDP 2021 tune, “The Road Ahead”.

“I had a lot of fun singing together with my fellow teammates, and that was definitely the highlight and best part of the National Day Celebrations for me,” shared Aqmar, who together with the footballers were one of those seen launching into an energetic and enthusiastic sing-along.

Despite this year continuing to be socially distanced and having online speeches and e-learning programmes, the content and well-planned activities helped to bring the student-athletes closer together and remind them about significant Singapore moments and the long way we’ve come.