Inspirational Speakers and Visitors While the school’s events calendar was significantly impacted in the latter half of the year due to the Coronavirus pandemic, students still benefitted from a rich programme of educational opportunities and experiences. The following pages highlight just some of the high-profile speakers who worked with members of the school community, as well as major events hosted and organised by Tanglin – many of them supported by the TTS Foundation. LEGO Robotics Challenge Supported by the TTS Foundation This Saturday event in the Moot saw 60 Year 2 and 3 students working together to build and programme a robot that could move 10 LEGO blocks a distance of three metres. At the end of the event, teams were rewarded for their efforts and achievements with awards such as “Best Team”, “Best Robot” and “Most Creative Design”. The event also offered the children the chance to experiment with LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 robots – technology that is usually used by Senior School students – as well as Dash and Bee-Bot mazes. Students who excelled at the challenge were offered places on Tanglin’s LEGO League Robotics Team.
Hack to the Future Hackathon Supported by the TTS Foundation Led by Year 13 and Year 12 students, this exciting event required Junior and Senior school students to work collaboratively in addressing two themes of the UN Sustainability goals – Life on the Land and Life below Water – through the creation of an IT product. The students were assisted in their projects by Henry Simpson, Engineering Lead at metal and mining corporation Rio Tinto. There were also speeches by Mr Dinesh Sharma, Head of APAC FX and CPM Technology at Bank of America Merrill Lynch – who led a student workshop on cryptography – and Ms Aishwarya Prasad, Manager of Studio Technology at Lucasfilm. All students left with a product to be proud of and a desire to fix “big” problems.
US Embassy Visit Tanglin works closely with the US and Canadian embassies in Singapore to offer students workshops and fairs when universities are visiting the region. In Term 1, we hosted our annual talk for parents and students, Applying to the US, and were delighted this year to welcome in staff from the US Embassy to join in discussions on applying for a visa and work opportunities in the US, post studies. Speakers included Michelle Segal, Vice Consul of the US Embassy in Singapore, and Zehra Ratani, Director of EducationUSA.
Charles Tighe Supported by the TTS Foundation Charles Tighe is an Orff-Schulwerk practitioner from the US with a wealth of experience and expertise. Orff Schulwerk, or simply the Orff Approach, is a developmental approach used in music education that combines music, movement, drama and speech in an experience that mimics the way children play. In October, Mr Tighe led a bespoke programme in the Infant and Junior schools, guiding workshops for Year 2, 3 and 4 that incorporated music, poetry, movement and the visual arts. The children involved had a fantastic experience, actively participating in developing their own musicality across the curriculum and gaining the insight that music not a standalone subject.
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Andy Mulligan Best known for his young adult fiction, British writer Andy is a prolific author whose perennially popular 2010 novel Trash was shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal. He has also won The Guardian Children’s Fiction prize. Following on from the publishing of his first adult novel, Train Man, last July, Andy visited Year 6, 7, 8 and 9 students in November 2019 to talk about his work and sign books for his fans. He also took part in a lively lunchtime Q&A session with Junior School Library student reps.
Mark Grist This British performance poet and former secondary school teacher is the winner of two Lovie awards that celebrate online excellence, and regularly competes in international rap battles. The wordsmith brought his flair for rhythm and rhyme to Tanglin Junior School this year, presenting some of his back catalogue to Year 5 and 6 students, and helping them to perfect their own performance poetry skills.
Mark Hill Mark is a physical theatre artist and educator who has worked with a range of drama students at Tanglin over a number of years and we were pleased to welcome him back once again to work with Senior School Drama students. Mark has worked with innovative international theatre companies such as Zen Zen Zo (Australia), SU-EN Butoh Company (Sweden), and Dairakudakan (Japan) and is a visiting educator at international schools around the world.
