Fos 09 - Information Guide

FRIEND OF SINGA 2009 FRIEND OF SINGA 2009 Introduced in 1990, the Friend of Singa (FOS) is into its 19th year running and continues to promote the essential values of selflessness and love behind the kind acts of young caring individuals. This Award aims to complement the schools’ efforts in inculcating courteous behaviour amongst its students. The FOS 2009 is open to all students in the primary and secondary schools, Junior Colleges, ITE Colleges, Polytechnics, Universities, special schools and Singapore International schools. Participating schools are invited to nominate up to five students for this Award. These students will be honoured as Friend of Singa Ambassadors upon attending a workshop and completing a kindness project together. The Singapore Kindness Movement hopes by giving them such recognition, it will encourage their peers to emulate their fine example. Please logon to http://www.friendofsinga09.blogspot.com and fill up the registration form to register. The deadline for registration is 12 June 2009 (Friday). To help kick start these projects, the Singapore Kindness Movement will fund up to $150 per project.

A summary of the FOS 2009 is below:

FRIEND OF SINGA 2009

1. SELECTING THE STUDENTS: Each school may select up to 5 students as Friends of Singa 2009. The students must be from the same school, but not necessarily be from the same class or level. The outstanding qualities and exemplary courteous acts displayed by students nominated for the previous years of the Friend of Singa Award are summarized below. When schools are short listing candidates for the awards, special consideration should be accorded for acts that are over and above the traditional forms of courtesy.

Qualities

· Well-mannered · Polite · Considerate

· Helpful · Kind · Generous · Courageous

· Honest

Examples of courteous acts ♦ Greeting and showing respect to teachers and fellow students ♦ Running errands for teachers and initiating dutiful acts, such as, setting up the overhead projector or cleaning the room without being asked ♦ Offering help to peers who are weak academically and counselling them when they are distressed ♦ Readily volunteering his/her services in group activities and displaying a good team spirit ♦ Holding the door open for others to pass through ♦ He/She always Greets, Smiles, says “Please” and “Thank you”. ♦ Being considerate and gives way to others. ♦ Cleaning up and returns his/her trays after a meal. ♦ He/She do not litter and keeps the environment clean. ♦ Being punctual at all times. ♦ Helping a handicapped student in his/her homework and making sure he/she reaches home safely ♦ Assisting the elderly to cross the road ♦ Lending a helping hand to someone in need, as in an accident ♦ Helping a fellow student to pay school fees or contributing to a friend’s hospital bills ♦ Sharing pocket allowance with a fellow student from a poor family ♦ Forgoing school allowance to contribute to charity ♦ Requesting a seated commuter in the bus or in the MRT to give up his seat for an elderly person ♦ Chasing after a male flasher and detaining him till the police arrive ♦ Scaring off a group of gangsters who were beating up another student ♦ Returning a lost wallet to the school's office/ police

*Please note that this list is by no means the most comprehensive or the most exhaustive. This list serves only as a guide to complement the selection process adopted by schools.

FRIEND OF SINGA 2009

2. WORKSHOP: All selected students are required to attend one workshop* conducted by SKM. This workshop is designed to help facilitate the kindness projects more effectively. Students will be watching 2 anti-model plays where they can participate to re-enact scenes and find solutions to resolve the conflicts the characters face. This workshop is free of charge.

The details of the workshop are as follow:

· Session 1: 22 June 2009, 10am to 1pm (For Primary Schools) · Session 2: 22 June 2009, 3pm to 6pm (For Primary Schools) · Session 3: 23 June 2009, 10am to 1pm (For Secondary Schools & above) · Session 4: 23 June 2009, 3pm to 6pm (For Secondary Schools & above) · Venue: The Black Box (100 Victoria Street, Level 5, National Library) *Note: Teachers may accompany students to the workshop – limited to one teacher per school. However, teachers are not encouraged to participate in the student interactions. The exact schedule of the workshop will be released at a later date.

FRIEND OF SINGA 2009

3. KINDNESS PROJECTS: After attending the workshop, the students must complete a group project related to kindness and graciousness in their schools. The FOS 2009 will only recognise projects that impact on the school community. Projects related to the larger community such as beach clean-ups, visiting an old folks’ home and donations to a charity organisation will not be considered for this award. This is because these programmes are considered under the Community Involvement Programme (CIP). Projects’ content/messages should not be offensive or contain any racial, political or religious implications. Students may consider:

· Raising the awareness of the benefits of having a kind and gracious school · Celebrating (recognizing) the kindness of classmates or teachers · Inspiring schoolmates and staff to practice kindness and graciousness in schools · Highlighting the social graces that are found lacking and effecting positive change in schools

To help kick start the projects, the Singapore Kindness Movement will be funding up to $150 per project. Funds will be released to the schools after the project is completed and SKM has received the project report. Students will have 1.5 months to work on their projects starting from Term 3. The final project submission must be received by 14 August 2009 (Friday).

FRIEND OF SINGA 2009 Some project ideas:

· Kindness Chain — Create the longest kindness chain in school. When someone does a

kind act, record his/her actions in a piece of paper. Chain up these strips of paper and see how long your kindness chain will go!

· Pass It On Cards — When a student does something kind, he/she signs the back and

gives the card to the recipient of the kind act. The recipient passes the kindness and the card on to someone else. Signed cards are collected at the end of the day or week and displayed, so students can see where their card went.

· Days with a Theme — Come out with a different act of kindness for each day of the week. For example, Monday: Give a smiley sticker to anyone who says “Thank you!”; Tuesday: Write an appreciation note to a classmate; ... ... ; Friday: Help to clean the tables in the canteen.

· Kindness Zone — Decorate a kindness zone along one of the corridors. When students

or staffs pass by this zone, he/she will have to pass on the kindness to someone else. The FOS students may record a video to show the acts of kindness.

· Acknowledge Your Gracious Teachers — Stick those kindness stickers on! Award your teacher with a kindness sticker each time they have been gracious/kind to you.

These are just some ideas to help you start the kindness projects in your school. You need not follow strictly to these ideas. We welcome more creative and original ideas from the FOS students!

Getting your staff involved: We welcome the teachers to be involved in the projects as well! Teachers may brainstorm ideas together with the group of FOS students. Nonetheless, please be reminded that the objective of the FOS Award is to empower students to take leadership in initiating kindness and graciousness in schools.

FRIEND OF SINGA 2009

4. SUBMITTING PROJECT REPORTS All project reports and re should be submitted to the Singapore Kindness Movement by 14 August 2009 (Friday) 6pm via email to: [email protected] Videos and photos may be posted to (with school name clearly stated): Attn: Ms. Lam Chi Man 140 Hill Street #05-01 MICA Building Singapore 179369 The project report should consist of:

· A write up on project, level of success and future recommendation · Photographs · Videos, if any · Interviews with school mates/teachers, if any · Students’ reflection about their learning experiences (e.g. journal logs) · Referrals from school mates/teachers · Detailed expenditure reports with original receipts. Selected project will be featured at Singapore Kindness Movement’s website, www.kindness.sg and will be displayed at the Friend of Singa Award Ceremony held on 26 September 2009.

FRIEND OF SINGA 2009

5. EVALUATION AND AWARD SYSTEM: All Friends of Singa (FOS) students who attended the workshop and successfully implement the kindness projects in their schools will be awarded a certificate and a FOS pin. Schools will also receive a trophy if the group attains the Gold, Silver or Bronze Award.

Administrative Matters Please ensure that the Friends of Singa students’ names and school names are spelt correctly as replacement of the certificate/trophy may result in delay of the collection. Any additional costs arising from the replacement of trophy will be borne by the school.

Evaluation of the projects The project gains merit when it is able to impact on and involve a large number of participants in your school. The project should reach out to both students and staff (teaching and/or non teaching). The table on the next page shows the evaluation system:

FRIEND OF SINGA 2009

Factors Relevance to kindness and graciousness in school community (35%)

Gold The project’s content/message is strongly related to small acts of kindness in the school community

Silver The project’s content/message is related to small acts of kindness in the school community

Bronze The project’s content/message is fairly related to small acts of kindness in the school community

Participation The project’s content/message is weakly related to small acts of kindness in the school community

Out-Reach and effective change to school community (30%)

The project is able to effectively raise the awareness to be kind and gracious in the school community.

The project has raised the awareness to be kind and gracious in the school community.

The project has raised some awareness to be kind and gracious in the school community.

The project has raised little awareness to be kind and gracious in the school community.

The project involve a large group of participants from the school

The project involve a large group of participants from the school

The project involve a small group of participants from the school

The project involve a small group of participants from the school

Sustainability (15%)

The project will be sustained in the long run and will have a lasting impact on the school community.

The project has potential to be sustained in the long run and can impact the school community over time.

The project has little potential to be sustained in the long run and is not likely to impact the school community over time.

The project a oneoff effort and does not impact the school community over time.

Originality (15%)

The project idea is new, innovative and the project is executed in a creative manner.

The project idea is new and innovative.

The project idea has been used before, there is little relevance to kindness and graciousness

Cost Efficiency (5%)

The students made clear attempts to efficiently use their given funding and are able to raise their own funding.

The students made clear attempts to efficiently use their given funding.

The project idea has been used before, but project still gains merit in relevance to kindness and graciousness The students made little attempt to efficiently use their given funding.

No attempt made for cost effectiveness in the project.

FRIEND OF SINGA 2009

6. THE FRIEND OF SINGA AWARD CEREMONY The Friend of Singa Award Ceremony will be held on 26 September 2009, 3pm to 6pm, at the Singapore Polytechnic Convention Centre (500 Dover Road Singapore 139651).

All Gold, Silver and Bronze winners will be invited to attend the function. During the Award Ceremony, trophies will be given out to the representative of the group. Selected kindness projects will be displayed at the Convention Centre. If your project is selected to be on display, the Singapore Kindness Movement would like to invite the group of students to be present at the exhibition so they may explain their projects in greater details to the guests.

More details of the Friend of Singa Award Ceremony will be given to participating schools closer to the ceremony date.

“When you are kind to others, it not only changes you, it changes the world.” - Harold Kushner