On 20th and 21st July, 2004, a group of 28 students led by their
Vice-Principal and two teachers, were at Fairfield on a study
tour as part of MOE’s Student Exchange Programme. It
was an honour and a privilege for our school to host this
short visit of one and a half days. The programme was planned
by the Mother Tongue Department. It was truly an enriching
experience for the Fairsian buddies and the Jingfan Middle
School students when they interacted with one another at a
friendly game of Captain’s ball. The visitors also had
the opportunity to sit in at some lessons and were treated
to a mini-concert which featured the Choir, Band and the Dance
Club members.
Two of our journalists met up with Mr Shen, the Vice-Principal,
on the first day, to find out from him about the purpose of
his visit to Singapore. The interview was conducted in mandarin.
| Journalists: |
Good morning, Mr Shen. We
are from the Journalism Team. Could we ask you a few questions
regarding your visit to Fairfield? |
| Mr Shen: |
Yes |
| Journalists: |
What is the purpose of your visit to
Singapore and to Fairfield, in particular? |
| Mr Shen: |
We are actually on an Exchange Programme
between our students and the Singapore students. We have
come to interact with the students here and to understand
the Singapore education system better. Another reason
is for my students to learn how to converse more fluently
in English and your students to converse better in Chinese.
I hope that this visit would strengthen the ties between
the two schools. |
| Journalists: |
How did the Exchange Programme
with Fairfield come about? |
| Mr Shen: |
Through the Ministry of Education.
MOE is actually
overseeing this whole project and connected well with
us and the school to make this event possible. |
| Journalists: |
Is this the first time your
students are on such a programme and do you think there
will be such opportunities in the near future? |
| Mr Shen: |
Well, this is the first
time we have such an arrangement and I hope it will be
successful. If everything goes on well, which I believe
it will, there is a possibility that this will be an annual
event. As planned, students from Singapore will come to
China during the vacation for an exchange programme in
my school. In turn, my students will come to Singapore
in July to have a different experience in your country. |
| Journalists: |
Thank you very much for your time and
we hope you will have an enjoyable time in our school. |
| |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We also had the opportunity to interview two students
from Jinfan to find out if they had enjoyed themselves
in Fairfield.
|
| Journalists: |
What is the purpose of your
coming to Fairfield? |
| Students: |
To study, mix around and
to broaden our views. |
| Journalists:
|
How did you find the game,
Captain’s ball? |
| Students: |
It was interesting. We have
never played the game before in our country. |
| Journalists: |
How did you find the students
here? |
| Students: |
They treated us well. |
| Journalists: |
How are the schools in China different
from those in Singapore? |
| Students:
|
The school hours in China
are longer. School begins at 7.30 am and ends at 4.45
pm. |
| Journalists: |
What are some of the
subjects you study in school? |
| Students:
|
English, Geography, Computer
Studies and Physical Education. |
| Journalists: |
In your opinion, which subject do
you have difficulty with? |
| Students: |
(in unison) English! |
| Journalists: |
Lur Heng Guang 1E
Keoy Jun Jer 1D
Eunice Soh 1D
Yee Hann Kenn 1F
|
