SJI COMMUNITY
Service
The pandemic challenged everyone to reevaluate and rethink who and what we value , how we live and why we learn . The familiar became unfamiliar , even strange . Yet , the pandemic offered everyone the gift to consider others , to care for those in need and to act beyond ourselves .
This gift helped us in SJI to practice our value of Service more selflessly . Everything we teach and learn , every act of praying and playing , in school is intertwined with the Lasallian invitation to serve the community , especially the last , the lost and the least . Indeed , an SJI education is worth nothing until we - students and teachers - are willing to use it to benefit others .
During this pandemic , Josephians met the needs of different groups by serving the community in such ‘ other-centered ’ acts of care , concern and charity . Sixty-five Josephians taught students from Greenview and Bukit View Primary schools how to read in MOE ’ s ‘ Make Hay Every Day in May ’ initiative during the June holidays . Everyone in school wrote affirmation cards to cheer on the medical teams at Tan Tock Seng Hospital . Teachers partnered with Food from the Heart Foundation to continue caring for poorer families . The SJI PRISM club worked with Chef Violet Oon to raise funds for the Make-a-Wish Foundation for critically ill children . Even alumni like Janelle Teoh ( IB Class of 2018 ) helped out to care for the quarantined migrant workers .
I am glad that everyone in SJI continued to serve and care for others during this pandemic . Our selfless , generous service has taught me again that we are indeed making a difference for others even now . I am confident that Josephians will do so much more and even better in the future for all peoples because of the way we have responded to those in need during this pandemic .
Community
“ St Joseph ’ s Call ” is a cherished school song . This is its chorus : St Joseph ’ s , St Joseph ’ s / Together standing tall / Shoulder to shoulder / We ’ ll heed St Joseph ’ s call . Isn ’ t this true each time we sing it heartily and with gusto as a school , with our arms clasp around each other ’ s shoulders , in non- COVID-19 times , of course ? I believe each time we sing it we know how special a gift the school community is to each of us .
Many of us probably realised this truth more deeply during the pandemic . I think of our teachers who spoke gratefully of how you , our students , helped them to manoeuvre the Zoom and Google Meet interfaces so that they could use the ‘ Share Screen ’ function to teach well . As they remarked , “ You cared .” I recall the excitement of the Admin Staff who worked behind the scenes to prepare and pack the many COVID-19 Care Packs of SJI Masks , ice cream and chocolates the school distributed to cheer and motivate everyone in school to keep going when the going got tough during the pandemic . I think of the ingenuity of the
IT and AVA Teams and the creativity of student leaders and teachers to think out of the box so that we could still celebrate school and national events like Inaugural and Thanksgiving Assemblies and National and Teacher ’ s Days . I marvelled at how staff and students creatively put together the SJI Virtual Open House when the pandemic prevented us from hosting this event .
It mattered that everyone played a significant part this year . Because we did , our school community is strengthened , our school spirit is energised and our school community remains united . We are in a good place to look ahead to 2021 .
A Challenge Met and a Promise Kept
Indeed , it mattered that we practised Faith , Service and Community well this year . Together , we rose to the challenge I posed to us at this year ’ s Inaugural Assembly : to meet the test the coronavirus outbreak poses to our resolve to be the kind of school we claim to be , for others . How we respond to this test would help SJI either grow stronger or weaker as a community , I added .
We have met that test . We have grown stronger . We are a better school . We are more together as SJI .
We have accomplished all this because we kept faith with God and with one another , served generously together and lived our community life fully as the Josephians we all are . This is why I am confident that we have fulfilled our promise to make this demand by our Founder , St John Baptist de La Salle real in SJI :
Union in a community is a precious gem … If we lose this , we lose everything . Preserve it with care , therefore , if you want your community to survive . ( Meditations 91.2 )
As a school community , we have survived 2020 well , a year we will always associate with the coronavirus pandemic .
We therefore have much to give thanks for . Together , we have bravely declared that SJI continues to flourish in this pandemic because all we have done , are doing and will continue to do truly matters . This is why the hope-filled image of a sky full of stars that the band Coldplay sings is an apt image with which to close this message . Josephians , students and teachers alike , have truly lit up the darkness the pandemic cast over all of us this year .
As we look ahead to 2021 , I pray God will continue to help us keep lighting up not just the skies in all our lives , but first of all the Josephian Spirit of Faith , Service and Community in our hearts – because in all things , these values truly matter for a good and happy life with God and with one and all .
May God bless SJI , always and all of us , every day . Ora et Labora
Fr ( Dr ) Adrian Danker , SJ
Josephian Annual 2020 7