Commemorating the Singapore Bicentennial During National Day Celebration

The programme commenced with the story of Sang Nila Utama, the arrival of Raffles and the growth of the multi-racial settlements. Year 2 student, Emmanuel Carter, was commissioned to create an original Lego animation to show the precarious journey made by Sang Nila Utama and his encounter with the mystical lion. However, the star of the day was a group of junior students, who with the help of their drama teacher, Ms Aishwariyah Shanmuganathan, came up with a series of original skits to bring the different parts of the story together. They dramatised the arrival of Sang Nila Utama and Raffles through their body movements and words, supported by very simple props. As the story develops with the arrival of migrants from different parts of the world, the Dance CCA demonstrated to the audience how music and movement of different ethnic groups could be fused together into an energetic dance.

The drama team once again led the audience first to the fall of Singapore, and soon the emergence of nationhood. National Sports representatives in their national jersey then led the Singapore anthem and the Singapore pledge. Next, the school had the honour of hearing from our guest of honour, Lieutenant- General Chief of Defence Force, Singapore Armed Forces, the importance of multiculturalism in Singapore and our connectedness to the world as well as resilience in a changing world. LG Ong was presented with a special memento created for the occasion. The artwork, created in collaboration by three Year 5 students, Phoebe Kwan, Jaelle Khoo and Bryan Huen, portrayed the changes taking place in Singapore, using images of buildings or scenes from the past and collaged it with today’s modern images. Images of people and food were used to illustrate the diversity and harmony while pictures of soldiers and Newater reflected Singapore’s determination to survive and thrive even though the country is so small.

The school chamber orchestra next performed a new arrangement of different National Day favourites aptly entitled “Rojak” to reflect Singapore as a melting pot of culture and people. This was followed by words of good wishes from our alumni.

Mrs Tan Siew Hoon closed the programme with reading the speech for National Day from the Minister of Education on “What makes us a nation?”