Tampines House Assembly (TH Assembly)

Tampines House Assembly on 9/9/2014

On Tuesday 9th September, in the canteen of UWCSEA East Campus Gabriel Abad, director of boarding, started the TH Assembly.

He talked about the Tampines House problem. According to Gabriel, a lot of people have locked their doors to their rooms for not necessary reasons. “Doors must remain unlocked at all time except when you need some privacy,” he said “that mean unless you are changing or Skyping with your relative and so on.” he added. After that he talked about the boarding trip to Wild Wild Wet on Sunday 14th. “I heard a lot of complain from grade 11 and grade 12 that they have a lot of work and that is why I picked that Sunday.” Then he talked about Reach, the online boarding house management system. “All leave request must be confirmed first before you can leave the boarding house.”

Then Marcel Campbell, one of the house parent and the catering committee, had talked about dinner time. “We’ll be starting a new tradition in 2 weeks time,” she said “and to those who take dinner to your room please come and eat at the canteen.” She said “ If you spend just 10 minutes eating and talking with other people, it would be great, but if you just take your dinner and eat it in your room, you would be a bit stressful because you just do your work and not being sociable.” She also talked about the UWC Day Special Dinner on 22nd of Sept and she would like all of the boarders to go the dinner. After that Gainluca Mancini, a scholar from Italy, had talked about The Boarding Environmental Stewardship Team. “The Boarding Environmental Stewardship Team (BEST) will transform green ideas into action. We will work with our boarding community to improve our home environment and put sustainable practices in place at Tampines House. BEST is lead by boarders for boarders who take responsibility for minimising our impact on the environment with a focus on waste minimisation, energy and water conservation, as well as green spaces.” he said. He also asked if anybody want to join the team and if they want to, contact him.

Finally, Cosme, a grade 11 student at UWCSEA East campus, had made a suggestion to the Boarding House Council about grade 11 study time since the grade 11 study in the library for 2 hours but grade 12 study in their own rooms. On that account, Cosme had asked a grade 12 student to volunteer to reflect on their study time in their room, Sia, a grade 12 student at UWCSEA, come and talked about it but time wasn’t on their side so Cornelius, one of the house parent, end the assembly and tell everyone to go to study time.

Written by Sewen

Library or Room?

Every Monday to Friday, from 7pm to 9 pm, students at the boarding house who are in grade 7 to 11 have to go and have their study time at the library. It is a time for students to do their homework or review their lessons or tomorrow subjects.

Except for grade 12, they can study at their own rooms. Students at other grades always complain that it is unfair to let the other students go to the library and walk back to their own room. And let the grade 12 students stay in their room after dinner.

However, Marcel, one of the houseparent, explained that the reasons why they let the other grades except grade 12 to study at the library, because they are still little kids so it is better to let them study at the library so that they can pay attention to their study more than at their room. But is it a right decision?

There’s been a rumour from an anonymous student said that, “ I cannot dissipate on what I’m learning at the library. People always keep scolding at each other which is very loud and the house parents don’t even know about that because they are outside. We come to study at the library because it suppose to a quite place but it isn’t. So what is the purpose of being at the library?”

Because of this rumour, the house parents at the boarding house start to think about it over. And they decide to have an assembly after dinner time one evening. It is a vote council. Students have to raise their hand for their own favourite whether at the library or at their own rooms.

It’s about 70% of the students show their hands for their own room and about 30% show for study time at the library. One of a girl claimed strongly that, “ I cannot study at my own room. I always feel disturbed from people around me. Sometimes they do not have any homework so they spend their time make up or chat with their mother. I can concentrate more at the library. I don’t mind walking from my room to the library.”

Because of there are two different ideas and they are both good at both side. So the house parents have to discuss with the other and decide whether should they let the students study at the library or room or keep one houseparent in each room at the library. They still figure out about it. But what do you think, library or room?

Written by Khantey