Rounds

A Fresh Approach to the New Senior Secondary (NSS)

Miss Gatchalian’s dedication to the nurture of students is manifested in her creative and interactive way to provide students with an English learning environment. A novel idea is the setting up of the “Starluck” café, where students are encouraged to practise their spoken English in an English-speaking environment. They also learn more about the real-life society through the authentic set-up, where students take charge of running the café. She also motivates students by providing them with a large variety of what she calls “toys”, which is an array of teaching aids. A generous dealing out of a variety of gifts she chooses herself help boost students’ learning incentive and active participation in the numerous activities she organises.

Miss Gatchalian also has her own approach to the teaching of the Electives in the NSS. She feels the students should be exposed to more than three Electives. She hopes to cover all electives in the course of three years while focusing on three major ones. The latter would be taught every three years so that students would be refreshed constantly and their knowledge would be deepened with every encounter with the Electives.

Miss Gatchalian is of the opinion that writing can be taught through supplying samples of good writing, helping students analyse them and using a manner of substitution as a practice towards final original composition. There is a “formula” to good writing.