PRESS RELEASE 10 September 2008 Embargoed till 21 Sep 08, 1800 hrs Recognising School Achievements in 2008 First Primary School to win School Excellence Award 1. The pinnacle award for educational excellence under the Ministry of Education (MOE) Masterplan of Awards (MoA), the School Excellence Award (SEA), will be given to a primary school for the first time this year. Raffles Girls’ Primary will receive this top accolade with two other schools, National Junior College and Temasek Junior College. This year, a total of 246 schools will receive 555 Level Two Awards1 and Special Awards2 under the MoA. These awards will be presented to the schools at the 2008 MOE Work Plan Seminar on 25 September 2008 by Minister for Education, Dr Ng Eng Hen. 2. The MoA recognises our schools’ efforts in providing a holistic education to enable our students to achieve the Desired Outcomes of Education. The awards serve as milestone checks to guide schools on their journey to excellence by providing a systematic and progressive framework to chart progress through self- assessment, benchmarking and continuous improvement. 3. Parents and students can also refer to the MoA for information on the key dimensions of a school’s performance to help them in the selection of schools. 4. This press release provides information on the following: A. Award Winners under the MoA3. These comprise schools that have attained commendable achievements in various categories, including exemplary school processes as well as excellent outcomes in academic and non-academic areas. Information on the 2008 award winners are provided in the Honour Rolls. Information on past Level Two and Special Award winners whose awards are still valid is also provided. 1 Level Two Awards include Sustained Achievement Awards (SAAs), Outstanding Development Awards (ODAs), and Best Practice Awards (BPAs). 2 Special Awards include the School Excellence Award (SEA) and the School Distinction Award (SDA). 3 The MOE Masterplan of Awards was instituted in 1998 as part of the implementation of the School Excellence Model (SEM). The SEM is a framework for school self-assessment that emphasises a holistic approach to education with equal focus on processes and outcomes. 1 B. School Achievement Tables. Introduced in 2004 to replace the school ranking tables, they highlight secondary school achievements in academic value-added and non-academic domains. A. Masterplan of Awards 5. The MoA was expanded and refined in 2004 to provide a broader and more holistic picture of schools’ performance. It comprises four levels of awards as shown in the following diagram. MOE Masterplan of Awards for Schools School Excellence Award (SEA) Special Awards School Distinction Award (SDA) Sustained Achievement Outstanding Development Best Practice Awards Awards (SAA) Awards (ODA) (BPA) Academic Physical & Character Development Value-Added Aesthetics Domain Domain Domain • Academic • Aesthetics • National Education • Organisational Level Value-Added Effectiveness Two • Sports • Character Development Awards • Student All-Round • Uniformed Development Groups • Staff Well-Being • Physical Fitness4 • Teaching and Learning • CHERISH5 Achievement Awards (AA) Development Awards (DA) Academic Physical & Character Development Value-Added Aesthetics Domain Domain Domain • Academic • Aesthetics • National Education Level Value-Added • Sports • Character Development One Awards • Uniformed Groups • Physical Fitness6 • CHERISH7 6. Level One Awards are given to schools to affirm their achievement in certain domains in a single year, while Level Two Awards recognise schools for their sustained excellence in specific areas. The Special Awards recognise schools’ 4 SAA Physical Fitness will be given out for the last time in 2009. 5 The SAA CHERISH award will replace the SAA Physical Fitness from 2010. 6 AA Physical Fitness (TAF Award) will be given out for the last time in 2008. 7 The Joint HPB-MOE CHERISH award will be presented for the first time in 2008. 2 holistic efforts in establishing outstanding educational processes and obtaining excellent outcomes. (I) School Excellence Award 7. The SEA recognises schools for their excellence in both education processes and outcomes. It is the highest and most prestigious award in the MoA framework and serves as a mark of distinction for schools that have achieved sustained achievements in a wide spectrum of student development processes. 8. This year, 3 schools will be presented with the SEA. They are: a. Raffles Girls' Primary School b. National Junior College c. Temasek Junior College (II) School Distinction Award 9. The School Distinction Award (SDA) recognises the high-achieving schools with exemplary school processes and practices, and that are on their way to achieving the SEA. 10. This year, 11 schools - 4 Primary Schools, 3 Secondary Schools, 3 Full Schools and 1 Junior College (JC) - will be presented with the SDA. They are: Primary Schools a. Ai Tong School b. Henry Park Primary School c. Kong Hwa School d. Radin Mas Primary School Secondary Schools a. CHIJ Secondary (Toa Payoh) b. St. Anthony's Canossian Secondary School c. St. Margaret's Secondary School Full Schools a. Catholic High School b. CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls' School c. Maris Stella High School Junior College a. Anglo-Chinese Junior College 11. The honour rolls for the SEA and the SDA are listed in Annex A1. The lists of SEA and SDA winners from 2004 to 2008 can be found in Annex A2. 3 (III) Sustained Achievement Award 12. 31 schools will receive the Sustained Achievement Award (SAA) for the 10th time this year, with sustained excellence in one or more academic as well as non- academic areas. 13. The SAA recognises schools’ ability in sustaining good outcomes over a number of years, in five areas: Academic Value-Added, Aesthetics, Sports, Uniformed Groups and Physical Fitness. Schools need to achieve an Achievement Award (AA) in the same category over three consecutive years before they may be awarded the SAA. 14. This year, a total of 243 schools will be presented with 505 SAAs. The breakdown of the 505 SAAs is shown in Table 1. The schools will receive a plaque for each SAA won. Details of the SAAs for the Academic Value-Domain and the SAAs for the Physical & Aesthetics Domain can be found in Annex B1 and Annex B2 respectively. Table 1: Summary of Schools Winning SAAs in 2008 Academic Value-Added Physical And Aesthetics Domain Domain No of Total ‘A’ Uniformed Physical Schools Normal Express Aesthetics Sports Level Group Fitness Primary - - - 10 - 60 65 135 97 Secondary - 2 23 74 89 52 37 277 120 JC/CI 2 - - 7 - 2 7 18 10 Full - 0 5 5 2 10 9 31 5 IP - 0 1 11 6 11 15 44 11 All 2 2 29 107 97 135 133 505 243 Refinement to Criteria for Academic Value-Added Awards 15. Refinements have been made to the criteria for the Academic Value-Added (VA) awards this year. With immediate effect, JCs offering the Integrated Programme (IP) will no longer be eligible for the VA awards. The VA awards recognise Secondary Schools and JCs which have added value to the academic performance of their students, after taking into account the O-level performance of the students prior to admission. For IP JCs8 , these students constitute an increasingly small proportion of their student populations. 8 The IP JCs refer to Raffles JC, Hwa Chong Institution, National JC, Victoria JC and Temasek JC, and the JC sections of River Valley High School, Dunman High School and Anglo-Chinese School (Independent). 4 (IV) Best Practice Award 16. The Best Practice Award (BPA) recognises schools for their effective practices and systems that lead to good educational outcomes in both academic and non- academic areas. There are 4 categories of award for the BPA: Organisational Effectiveness, Student All-Round Development, Staff Well-Being, and Teaching and Learning. 17. The sharing of best practices by award winners in the Best Practice Sharing Forums organised annually has allowed other schools to put in place similar processes to enhance the educational outcomes for their students. 18. This year, 17 schools will be presented with 24 BPAs (see Annex C1). The schools will receive a plaque for each category of the BPA. The breakdown is as follows: a. 3 schools will receive the BPA for Student All-Round Development b. 7 schools will receive the BPA for Staff Well-Being c. 14 schools will receive the BPA for Teaching and Learning 19. The BPA is valid for 5 years. The list of BPA winners from 2004 to 2008 can be found in Annex C2. (V) Awards for National Education 20. National Education (NE) is an important part of the education process. It aims to develop in our young, the instinct for survival, national cohesion and confidence in our future. NE provides the knowledge, experiences and tools for our young to know and understand Singapore, to acquire a well-founded confidence about the Singaporean way of life, and to critically think about how they can shape Singapore’s future. 21. The NE Awards aim to encourage and recognise schools for their NE efforts. There are two levels of attainment for the NE Awards: the Development Award, i.e., DA (NE), and at the next higher level, the Outstanding Development Award, i.e., ODA (NE). The attainment of each level of award depends on how well a school meets the same set of evaluation criteria for both levels. a) Development Award for National Education 22. The DA (NE) is valid for 3 years beginning from the year the Award was conferred, or till a higher level award is attained, whichever is earlier. A certificate will be presented to the winning schools. The list of 2008 winners for DA (NE) is given in Annex D1. b) Outstanding Development Award for National Education 23. The ODA (NE) is valid for 5 years beginning from the year the Award was conferred, or till a higher level award is attained, whichever is earlier.