Student Leadership

The leadership development programme in CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’ School (SNGS) is a vehicle which the school implements for the benefit of its students. It is founded on the spirit of the school’s motto, mission and vision.

Guided by these fundamentals, our leadership programme seeks to nurture leaders who are committed to the excellence in everything they do. We also pride ourselves with the leadership brand that is distinguished by the pertinent characteristic of leadership excellence from the viewpoint of the disadvantage, for the benefit of the community. It is the intention that as the students realise their leadership potential, develop their skills and graduate from the programme. The main beneficiaries will be placed before the community and the individual.




The school desires every student who is part of the SNG community to undergo the leadership programme and grow because of it. It is a platform by which students develop their latent leadership qualities. They are equipped with key leadership skills and there are meaningful platforms to enact their learning.

The students’ leadership development programme is based on two principal provisions, the provision of ‘Training’ and ‘Opportunities’.

Drawing on J.C. Maxwell’s Leadership Model, the programme progressively introduces students to Maxwell’s Five Levels of Leadership. This programme will help them to understand leadership as influence, as well as to equip them with skills on how they can move up the levels of influence to become better leaders. This programme is also geared towards the equipping and polishing the key leadership skills and inculcating the school’s values required for students to exercise their leadership qualities and skills with excellence, and in which are characterised as being Christ-centered.

Cohort Milestone Leadership Training	At the end of the leadership training, the following objectives should be achieved:
Primary 3	Pupils should be able to: understand that leadership is an influence; understand that success depends on leadership; learn effective time management, with their various duties and responsibilities in mind.
Primary 4	Pupils should be able to: understand that leadership is an influence; understand the levels of leadership progression; learn effective communication; learn conflict management.
Primary 5	Pupils should be able to: understand that leadership is an influence; understand the levels of leadership progression; learn the power of shared leadership; know the importance of identifying and examining their goals; know how to achieve the goals they have set out to do.
Primary 6	Pupils should be able to: understand that leadership is an influence; understand the levels of leadership progression; learn the power of shared leadership; learn how to delegate, support, and direct a team; learn how to come up with solutions when encountered with a problem.

In summary, every student will undergo the prescribed leadership training. For students, who have displayed their talents and strengths in this area, further training will be given to develop their leadership skills laterally and in depth.

For students to have practical and purposeful application of the latent qualities and the training they receive, the school provides opportunities for all students and at all levels, each distinguished by their immediate context and complexity, towards the purpose of the development of the student herself, and also for the benefit of the school community and community at large.

At the class level, every class is structured as a class committee of which everyone is a member and everyone is given a responsibility. These responsibilities will provide more opportunities for the students to exercise their leadership skills.

 

Beyond the class level, students who have shown greater leadership potential as they serve in the class committee will be given further training and added responsibilities to develop them as student leaders:


Each level of responsibilities is distinguished from the previous by the complexity of tasks associated with the role and the position the student holds.

In line with the school’s mission and vision, we seek to ensure that students who are role models and responsible are given further opportunities to excel.

Students are assessed to qualify as a role model via Conduct Grade. The descriptors of the Conduct Grade state the expectations of behaviour for every student. The school also has the Leadership Grade that gives an indication of the students' level of leadership development in the following areas like acquisition of skills and character and influence.

Throughout the programme, students are constantly assessed via the two grading to ensure that they are given a right position and are provided with appropriate trainings and opportunities.

Conclusion

With each successful implementation of the development programme, each student will be equipped with the necessary skills to effect changes to the benefit of those around her. Through the various strata of leadership development trainings and opportunities, the school community will benefit not only itself, but also the community at large, thereby fulfilling the school’s mission via the school’s vision.

The prefects are selected at the end of the year by the teachers.  The selection is based on a set of criteria set by the Student Development Team.   

Yearly, the Head Prefect of St Nicholas Girls’ School is elected into position by the entire school population. During their campaign, the candidates for the Head Prefect position will communicate how they wish to contribute and serve the school. Upon election, the Head Prefect and Vice-Head Prefects will then carry out their promises made.

 

2013 - 2014

The Head Prefect for 2013-2014, Charmaine Tay wanted to share inspirational stories with her fellow sisters to inspire them to do good and also to motivate them to strive for excellence. She shared these stories to students in hall during morning assemblies. She would relate the stories to the students’ personal lives so that students could connect to the stories and know how they could apply the messages to their lives.

One story which resonated with many people was a story “Coffee on the Wall” whereby customers of a coffee shop pre-paid cups of coffees so that the less fortunate could also get a cup of coffee when they needed it. This story not only demonstrates the importance of being generous but also communicates to students that they may not be paid back for their good deeds all the time.


One of our Vice-Head Prefects for 2013-2014, Chay Yenrue, organised an art competition to promote and showcase the artistic talents of her fellow sisters in the school. The theme of the competition was “My Favourite Thing”. The response to the art competition was overwhelming and many submitted beautiful art pieces. The completed art pieces were submitted to Yenrue who then displayed the shortlisted pieces at the Family Lounge. Students were then encouraged to vote for their favourite piece.  It was challenging picking the winners! The winners of this art competition were presented prizes during morning assembly so that everyone in the school could celebrate their achievements with them!


Another Vice-Head Prefect, Shannon Boh, wanted to befriend the students through fun and interesting activities, and help them to relax in the midst of their studies. She led a group of prefect volunteers to reach out to the students at the Pastoral Care Room during recess every alternate Tuesday. She planned activities like doing origami, quizzes and games for the students to take part in during recess. Shannon hoped that through these activities, she would be able to interact more with the student body get to know them better.

2012 - 2013

Our Head Prefect for 2012-2013, Rebekah Seow, wanted to create an opportunity for everyone to come together as a school to demonstrate their unity. Her goal was to lead the school in setting a record in the Singapore Book of Records so that everyone can feel how it is like to work together to accomplish something as a team.

She started by sharing stories about teamwork with the school during morning assembly, to show everyone that great things can be achieved through teamwork. Then she shared with the school her idea of how the student population can work together to set a record in the Singapore Book of Records -- by getting every student in the school to write down why they are proud to be a St Nick’s girl and then pasting these slips of paper to form the largest Chinese characters made out of paper slips in the form of ‘爱我圣尼各拉’. She decided to embark on this project because she wanted to create a unique gift for the school’s 80th anniversary - a gift that would be from the entire primary student population to express their gratitude towards the school.

All the pupils were excited about this record breaking project with many even adding beautifully drawn pictures to their write-ups. With support from teachers, parents and the entire primary student body, we are proud to announce that on 7th October 2013, we have officially set a record in the Singapore Book of Records.


Our Vice-Head Prefect Kerrianne Goh, wanted to promote the spirit of care among the students and encourage them to motivate each other through life’s difficult times. This she did through the continued promotion of the use of mini care corner boards that were created by the 2011-2012 Head Prefect, Li See Weng. She also created motivational posters for the classes to inspire them to learn from life’s lessons.

To further promote Di Zi Gui teachings in our school, the other Vice-Head Prefect, Lynette Quah, shared stories with good moral values before flag raising in the morning. She linked the stories to Di Zi Gui so that pupils can relate what they have learnt to different contexts. Lynette hoped that from her sharing, pupils will put what they have learnt in Di Zi Gui into practice and become better children with good moral values.

2011 - 2012

Our Head Prefect for 2011-2012, Li See Weng, and Vice-Head Prefect, Tan Manting, wanted to cultivate a culture of positive thinking among the students. Hence, both of them collaborated to give a presentation during assembly about thinking positively and then organised a Poster Making Competition with the theme of “Positive Thinking”. Through this, they hoped that their fellow sisters would think of various ways to be positive and eventually cultivate this good attitude in their earlier years. The Poster Making Competition was also a means to encourage students to creatively come up with ideas about positive thinking on their own rather than to be told to think positively.

They shared, “Why do we want to encourage positive thinking? This is an attitude which will see us a long way throughout our life. By having this wonderful attitude, we be a happier person, much lesser stress and eventually do well in both holistically and academically. The best part of all is not only do we help ourselves, we will also be able to encourage our peers.”  

We are pleased to share the top three posters for the lower primary and upper primary respectively.

Lower Primary Winners