The following was contributed by a friend whom I've known since primary school, Win:
When I came to Singapore at the age of 7 from Hong Kong, I could not
speak a word of English nor understand this alien language then. I was
really fortunate to be in St. Anthony’s Convent (SAC), which provided me
a very friendly and warm environment which I could be a part of for 10 years.
It was definitely not easy to adapt to a new environment and when I
just came to Singapore. I was enrolled into SAC in the midst of the 1st
semester in Primary 1. To my relief, my form teacher Ms Ong could
communicate in Cantonese. I remembered my first friend JL who
came to me with a big welcome smile. The rest of my stay with SAC was
the best school days I had.
It was stress-free years in our
primary school days during our generation. I could hardly remember having to struggle through tests nor examinations. We studied but it was
never a chore as we had so much fun added to our school life.
I loved the moral instruction classes, in particular watching the bible
stories movies from the roller film projector. The movies were not in
HD nor had digital sound features, but the roller film projector
certainly did a good job, though at times we had regular intermissions
every now and then due to break downs.
Music classes were most
fun. Each time, we girls hoped to be selected to choose our favorite percussion instrument like tambourine, castanets, triangle with the metal
rod and the music room would be so alive! We were even given the
opportunity to play on the accordion and it looked huge on me as I was
small in size.
I could remember after school, we would all just
rush out to the school compound to buy our favorite Magnolia cut
biscuit ice-cream, “ding ding’ sweets and crispy pancakes all awaiting
for us after our half day school session. And yes, I loved the
triangular packaging Magnolia milk too, which seemed to taste better
than the carton ones these days.
While waiting for the school bus and
parents picking us up back home, we had many creative self made games
and activities. One of the most innovative one was “Yeh Yeh” better
known as zero point. Rubber bands were linked together and formed into a
look alike skipping rope. Two persons would hold onto each end of the
rope and the girls would do all jumps and stuns to get over the rope.
However, the game was banned when an accident happened to one of our friend
who fell and her front tooth was chipped off!
That did not stop us
with our after school fun. We had quieter games too like five-stones,
pick-up sticks and “charteh”. We collected bottle caps for this game
called “kuti kuti”. We loved football and dog and the bone too! Each
day we looked forward to this happy hour after school.
Moving
on to St. Anthony’s Convent Secondary school together with all my
primary school classmates seem to be a natural progression. Spending 6
years together in SAC Primary School and another 4 years in SAC
Secondary School provided us a platform to bond our friendship even
stronger.
When asked which school I am from, SAC
would always pop out to be my answer although most would mention our
college or university we attended. I am proud to be an alumnus of
SAC and I believe Sec 4 class of 1981 will continue to lift up to our
school motto “Via, Veritas, Vita” …. the “Way, Truth, Life”.
God Bless all.
No comments:
Post a Comment