• Poor scheduling/ planning on the part of school management - makes it hard for teachers to plan

• FSBB + public holidays compounding perspective that there's insufficient time

• Teachers' mindset about what curriculum coverage means/ looks like (cover every page of the textbook)

• HBL - Enactment issue: Students' self-directedness lacking. Should we have taken a more measured/ phased approach? How to develop their self-directedness and action mgmt over time?

• Some schools reluctant to let go 8 subject combinations - Parents' expectations, school branding, school history. Fear of letting go - there might be a stigma of being in a 6-subject class. Enlightenment takes time (e.g. recognising that student wellbeing is more important).

• Higher number of cases of students falling sick and seeking counselling (behavioural issues like meltdowns) help approaching Final-Term examination.

• Parents calling to request extra lessons even though child is performing well in school.

• Students have a lot of tuitions.

• Students comparing grades among their friends.

Reasons:

• Kiasu mindset of parents - fear that their child will lose out.

• High expectations imposed by students or parents.

• High expectations of teachers

• Peer pressure.

• At the primary school level for schools in the neighbourhood, we do not see that many who are highly competitive and anxious. In fact, after COVID19, we have noticed a general dip in the levels of motivation in our students.

• For students who are highly competitive and anxious, we note that they are usually perfectionists and cannot quite accept failure or consider less than perfect a failure. Notion of success is narrow.

2)

• For some primary schools, students are streamed into classes of different abilities intended to support lower progress or stretch higher progress students. This causes anxiety amongst parents as the compare what class their child is in, which could be passed on to their children.

• With both parents working, parents often try to make up for it by sending children for tuition, etc. Thus, giving children more stress.

1) Communication to parents and students, by engaging stakeholders (ECG Counsellor) - 7 Subjects + ALP

2) Partnership - CPCLL, Community partners

3) A small step at a time - Alternative assessment, not necessary (WA)

4) Learning for Life - (Re)Structuring of programmes

5) Support System - e21CC, PD for teachers

• Rather than layering programmes/ initiatives like Edtech/ E21CC on top of syllabus demands, use curriculum mapping to identify natural entry points within existing lesson time. (Articulating to our teams what is priority. Priorities should not solely be to tackle operational concerns/ prepare for exams/ exam-oriented)

3. Shift in how we envision lessons:

• Redefining success for students or even intentionally/ explicitly embedding values and 21CC in our teaching.

4. As leaders, we need to face our fears head-on! (Many of our fears are tied to our personal identities. Not to be driven by fear/ performance but by our own visions of the kind of leader we hope to be, and the kinds of teachers we would like to develop)

- Systems-wise, SL should also manage the talk about achieving certain results, otherwise it might transfer to MMs as something that is needful and thus a source of stress

- Continued/increased emphasis on every teacher a CCE teacher to shift away focus on narrow ideas of success

- Values being core rather than always a by the way/if there is time → would help in the management of anxieties as well, self awareness, etc.

- Engaging students in that culture of learning (growth mindset), values driving rather than results

- Communicating with parents

• Encourage teachers to upskill knowledge and skills (technological etc.) so that they are able to guide students to embark on life-long learning.

• Changing mindset of teachers that teach more does not mean that it’s better.

• Engage parents regularly to work together to guide their child to life-long learning (small steps).

2)

• Support for Learning

• “Open-door” policy for teachers to approach us without being judged.

• Platforms for teachers to share good practices - safe learning environment for teachers to learn, self-discovery and not fearing of making mistakes.