Singapore

BEAUMONT LEARNERS INVITED TO SINGAPORE FOR THE THIRD TIME

Beaumont Primary, together with Overberg Primary from Caledon, were invited for the third time by Mr Sam Wong, the Headmaster of Canberra Primary School in Singapore to take part in an interactive musical titled ‘We create the World”. The other schools that took part in this musical were Canberra Primary from Singapore, Pay Fong 3 Primary from Malaysia and Wuxi Donglin Primary from China. The touring party consisted of 36 learners from Beaumont and 29 learners from Overberg, with 7 staff members accompanying them. They departed on Friday 28 July and returned on Sunday 6 August.

The interactive musical was performed in the state-of the-art Star Theatre in Singapore. Mr Wong’s life-long dream as an educator has been to teach young learners that it is their responsibility to create their own futures and careers. The theme of the musical, “We Create the World, was therefore appropriate in terms of getting this message across to the learners. The musical was about a person who stole all the colours in the world. Certain people then got the instruction to find gem-stones with specific colours so that the colours of the world could be restored. Every school had to depict a specific folk theme / story. Beaumont depicted the Guardian of the Pool while Overberg depicted Racheltjie de Beer. Eventually the gem-stones were found by the people of the different folk stories from all participating schools, and in doing so the world helped one another to restore the different colours of the world.

The South African ambassador to Singapore, His Excellency Mr Pike and his wife attended this amazing, spectacular musical.

The learners also experienced some of the latest technologies in education (Orientation to future learning) at Canberra Primary and the also interacted with the learners on the sports field, notably soccer, “floor ball” (a type of hockey) and badminton. One of the special meals during the tour for all the participating learners from the different nations was a traditional South African braai at the school. The South African group was asked to play a leading role in the preparation of this meal. The idea was that there would be much focus on the different cultures of all participants.

The tour party also had time to relax and enjoy what Singapore has to offer, eg. Universal Studios, Water Cove Park, Trick Eye Museum, Wings of Time (a water, laser and fireworks display), Singapore Flyer, Gardens by the Bay and the Singapore Zoo. Both schools also took members of their management team with on this tour, as there is an emphasis on best practices (education management) at Canberra Primary School. Canberra is one of a few future schools in Singapore and they receive special funding to pursue this approach to learning.