From cooking shows to food deliveries

To enthuse students to log in for morning assembly and lessons during the Home-Based Learning (HBL) period, Christ Church Secondary School’s EAS team served up plates of early-morning fun.

Operations Support Officers (OSO) Mdm Aminah Binte Mahmood and Mdm Melorina Binte Ahmad “starred” in their very own cooking show, sharing simple food recipes that students could try at home. The segment was pre-recorded and broadcast online during morning assembly, with the help of members of the ICT team, Desktop Engineer Mr Homanathan A/L Ramasoonthan and ICT Associate Mr Muhammad Afiq Bin Hamdan.

Mdm Melorina (left) and Mdm Aminah (right), all ready for the cooking demonstration.

It was an enjoyable start to the day for the students, who were excited to pick up a new skill or two. For the school, it was an opportunity to boost the morale of the students during that difficult period, and check in on the students’ well-being as they logged in.

What does it mean to overcome personal challenges and go the extra mile for someone else?

Corporate Support Officer Mr Luke Teo Lead from Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Secondary School has a physical condition that makes it difficult for him to walk long distances. But it has not deterred him from putting in his best efforts for the school during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mr Teo wore many hats during this period – from being part of the contact tracing team, coordinating students’ meal orders and payments during segregated recesses, to supporting the weekly ART tests for students and staff and reporting the results.

It’s a team effort, acknowledges Mr Teo humbly, and it could not have been done without his colleagues’ contributions as well. “Knowing that our family (people in the school) got through the pandemic safely is rewarding enough for me”.

How can we keep our students safe, even during recess time?

At the height of the pandemic, Xinmin Secondary School started a new initiative Grab@XMS to help manage crowds during recess. Students could now order and pay for their food through a link, and have their orders delivered to them in their classrooms by their very own class committee members.

The EAS and OSO teams played an important role in ensuring that the initiative was able to run smoothly. They first had to coordinate the menu with the canteen vendors who prepared fixed dishes each day, learn how to manage the students’ orders and payments on an online system and even field queries from parents on the new system.

Management Support Officer Ms Tan Chwee Choo managing the food orders from students as part of the Grab@XMS initiative.

Apart from that, when schools had to pivot to Full-HBL, both teams helped to support the learning of students who returned to school for lessons, by preparing rooms and snacks to ensure that they have a conducive environment where they could have their lessons.

The stories are part of a collection from the MOE Heritage Centre.