Take 5 – 22 February 2016 by Mr Sathis

23 FEB 2016

Good morning Mdm Tan, Mr Lee, Mr Tan, fellow colleagues and Gessians:

I would like to begin this week’s take 5 with an anecdote that happened in one of my PE classes:

The class was split into equal teams and were told the rules to complete a team building challenge. As they were competing against each other to win, some groups decided to bend the rules. Eventually the team that won the challenge did not win it fairly. Before I could address this teachable moment of competing with Integrity to the class, a boy from the winning team raised his hand and admitted that their team had actually cheated. He plucked the courage to speak up on his team’s behalf and apologised to his classmates that they should not have done so. I was heartened to know that this boy realised his team’s dishonesty and made amends to it by following our school core value, Integrity.

Integrity is defined as ‘the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. It is doing the right things for the right reason and not about pleasing anyone. It is about being honest with yourself and honest with others. Sometimes you maybe unsure of the right thing to do. When this happens, you can ask yourself 3 simple questions to arrive at the right answer:

How will my decision affect others?
How this will make other people feel?
Will I be proud to tell my parents or teachers that I did this?

Doing the right thing is an incredibly important thing. It will affect your friendships, your family, your community and your future. Little choices that we make can have big consequences on ourselves and others. Please continue to practice the value of Integrity and uphold the other school values, just as how the boy did in my anecdote.

Before I end my Take 5, I would like to take this opportunity to promote Sports Thursday, a new initiate by the PE department. Our main aim is to promote an active and healthy lifestyle as well as the spirit of sportsmanship among the GESSIAN community. It is also a great opportunity to interact and bond with your peers, and even your teachers if you could get them to sign up and play.

Wishing all a great week ahead. Thank you.

Onward !

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