<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Yishun Town school to go autonomous
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>It will be 28th such school; status brings more funding, freedom </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Amelia Tan
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Yishun Town Secondary 1 students (from left) Voltaire Peralta (Pinoy?), 14, Hazel Lim, 13 and Toh Ting Hui, 13, measuring the pH level of their school's eco pond during a science lesson. The school was granted autonomous status partly because of its well-rounded programme. -- ST PHOTO: WANG HUI FEN
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->YISHUN Town Secondary School is the latest to join a band of schools which enjoy more funding and freedom.
The school will go autonomous next January, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said yesterday.
It will be the 28th autonomous school here and the second to gain such status this year, following St Margaret's Secondary's admission to the fold earlier this year.
Gaining autonomous status brings extra funding for the school - an extra $300 for each student every year - and more freedom in developing its curriculum.
Yishun Town will also be allowed to admit up to 10 per cent of its students directly based on their talents in non-academic areas like sport. This will allow the school to form niches in these areas.
The school made the cut because of its well-rounded programme and consistent results in academic and co-curricular activities such as uniformed groups, which attained the Sustained Achievement Award for the sixth time last year.
Yishun Town is the only school besides St Margaret's to have achieved sustained value-added performances for both the Express and Normal courses for the past two years. It has also done well in aesthetics, sports co-curricular activities and physical fitness tests.
The school's principal, Mr Tan Yee Kan, said the school will put the extra funds towards creating more opportunities for overseas trips for students, and improving its teaching strategies to better fit its students' learning abilities.
He added: 'We are a neighbourhood school, and our students may not have the chance to travel. We believe that by sending them overseas, we can expose them to other cultures and build up their confidence.'
He attributes the school's strong academic performance to the attention teachers pay their students. In 2002, the school introduced its 'Year Master System', which sees form teachers reporting on the performance of their students to a 'Year Master', a teacher who follows a batch of students through their four or five years at the school, allowing him or her to understand the students better.
Several neighbourhood schools have gained autonomous status recently, including Xinmin Secondary and Ngee Ann Secondary. [email protected]
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>It will be 28th such school; status brings more funding, freedom </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Amelia Tan
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
Yishun Town Secondary 1 students (from left) Voltaire Peralta (Pinoy?), 14, Hazel Lim, 13 and Toh Ting Hui, 13, measuring the pH level of their school's eco pond during a science lesson. The school was granted autonomous status partly because of its well-rounded programme. -- ST PHOTO: WANG HUI FEN
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->YISHUN Town Secondary School is the latest to join a band of schools which enjoy more funding and freedom.
The school will go autonomous next January, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said yesterday.
It will be the 28th autonomous school here and the second to gain such status this year, following St Margaret's Secondary's admission to the fold earlier this year.
Gaining autonomous status brings extra funding for the school - an extra $300 for each student every year - and more freedom in developing its curriculum.
Yishun Town will also be allowed to admit up to 10 per cent of its students directly based on their talents in non-academic areas like sport. This will allow the school to form niches in these areas.
The school made the cut because of its well-rounded programme and consistent results in academic and co-curricular activities such as uniformed groups, which attained the Sustained Achievement Award for the sixth time last year.
Yishun Town is the only school besides St Margaret's to have achieved sustained value-added performances for both the Express and Normal courses for the past two years. It has also done well in aesthetics, sports co-curricular activities and physical fitness tests.
The school's principal, Mr Tan Yee Kan, said the school will put the extra funds towards creating more opportunities for overseas trips for students, and improving its teaching strategies to better fit its students' learning abilities.
He added: 'We are a neighbourhood school, and our students may not have the chance to travel. We believe that by sending them overseas, we can expose them to other cultures and build up their confidence.'
He attributes the school's strong academic performance to the attention teachers pay their students. In 2002, the school introduced its 'Year Master System', which sees form teachers reporting on the performance of their students to a 'Year Master', a teacher who follows a batch of students through their four or five years at the school, allowing him or her to understand the students better.
Several neighbourhood schools have gained autonomous status recently, including Xinmin Secondary and Ngee Ann Secondary. [email protected]
