Celebrating Inspirations from Schools
Celebrating Inspirations from Schools SABAH H.I.P MATTERS: CELEBRATING INSPIRATIONS FROM SCHOOLS e ISBN 978-967-15479-6-0 Published by, Papar District Education Office. First print 2023 © copyright All copyright reserved. All extracts from this publication may not be reproduced or stored in a retrievable form or transmitted in any form by any means including electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without permission of the publisher. Editors Chang Yee Shee Fazidah binti Mohd Ismail
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrat i ing Inspirations from Schools and Strengthening the English Language (MBMMBI). We hope to persistently improve the students’ proficiency through increased exposure to the English language. HIP was implemented in schools starting 2016. Since then, there have been endless endeavours by proactive teachers together with students, parents and school community to inculcate optimistic attitude towards the learning and usage of the English language. This whole-school approach stimulates the strong encouragement and support for the schools to carry out amazing H.I.P initiatives collaboratively. Accordingly, this ebook compilation strives to provide well-deserved acknowledgement for the outstanding efforts of our amazing educators in Sabah in providing conducive environment for the students to learn and use English language especially, in rural schools. Undoubtedly, such proactive actions will be able to ignite motivation and inspiration for all the teachers nationwide in sharing more of such H.I.P success stories for the benefits of all in the future. Hence, I would like to reiterate my heartiest gratitude and congratulations to all the teachers for your amazing contributions, as well as, the editorial team who has successfully materialised the insightful sharings in this e-book of Sabah H.I.P Matters: Celebrating Inspirations from Schools. Hopefully, this initiative will create the ripple effect of success on educators and the whole school community towards the sustainability of the Highly Immersive Programme (H.I.P) eventually. Dr. Haji Mohd. Kassim bin Tusin Deputy Director of Learning Sector, Sabah Education Department. Sabah Education Department: The Learning Sector Deputy Director’s Note Dr. Haji Mohd. Kassim bin Tusin First and foremost, congratulations to the School Improvement Specialist Coaches (SISC+) of English Language Unit, Learning Sector of Papar and Beaufort District Education Offices for the brilliant collaboration to produce the first e-book of Sabah HIP Matters: Celebrating inspirations from Schools. The showcasing of teachers’ stupendous efforts in creating immersive English language environment in schools to enhance students’ English language command can be highlighted as the successful impacts of HIP under the policy of Upholding the Malay Language and Strengthening the English Language (MBMMBI). We hope to persistently improve the students’ proficiency through increased exposure to the English language. HIP was implemented in schools starting 2016. Since then, there have been endless endeavours by proactive teachers together with students, parents and school First and foremost, congratulations to the School Improvement Specialist Coaches (SISC+) of English Language Unit, Learning Sector of Papar and Beaufort District Education Offices for the brilliant collaboration to produce the first e-book of Sabah H.I.P Matters: Celebrating Inspirations from Schools. The showcasing of teachers’ stupendous efforts in creating immersive English language environment in schools to enhance students’ English language command can be highlighted as the successful impacts of H.I.P under the policy of Upholding the Malay Language
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrat ii ing Inspirations from Schools Foreword: This edition of H.I.P success stories is utterly inspiring! It signifies the relentless efforts of our amazing teachers in promoting the sustainability of the programme in schools. Hopefully, the impact of such creative H.I.P activities will thrive further to enhance the English learning environment for all the students – especially, in the remote rural areas. Budreh bin Haji Ahmad District Education Officer, Beaufort District Education Office, Sabah. It is my utmost aim that this e-book would serve as a reference for schools in conducting H.I.P activities. Let’s make H.I.P be authentic, be consistent, be immersive and as wide as possible. Bakri bin Sudin District Education Officer, Papar District Education Office, Sabah.
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrat iii ing Inspirations from Schools From the table of the Editorial Team: Overall, this compilation of Sabah HIP Matters: Celebrating Inspirations from Schools is dedicated to acknowledge teachers’ sheer commitment, creativity and effort in performing impactful activities under the H.I.P banner. It also aims to provide sharing platform for all the educators in Sabah to showcase H.I.P meaningful practices which ought to fulfil the process of PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Action) throughout the implementation in schools. Moreover, the documentation also serves to encourage teachers’ involvement as well as increase their professional skills in terms of academic writing and publication accordingly. Indeed, this e-compilation is a simple yet, noteworthy showcase of awesome initiatives under the four pillars of H.I.P activities, namely: the in-class, out-of-class, extra class and outreach. Initially, teachers tend to be hesitant to showcase their work due to their humble perception that there is nothing significant to share. In reality, their proactive and creative endeavour proved to be the hidden gem which deserves outstanding recognition as inspirations for others. Consequently, with the wholehearted support and commitment from twenty-nine amazing teachers across Sabah, this compilation of twenty H.I.P inspirations from schools managed to be materialised against all odds. Congratulations and thank you! Another fact worth to be mentioned about these schools is all of them are at least H.I.P level 3, with 80% have achieved immersive level 4 based on the H.I.P assessment in 2022. Hopefully, their sharing will be able to motivate educators nationwide in exploring more creative H.I.P activities, projects and innovations with positive outcome to enhance the students’ English language conduct in the future. Sharing is caring… Chang Yee Shee. SISC+ (Language), Learning Sector, Papar District Education Office. Fazidah binti Mohd Ismail. SISC+ (Language), Learning Sector, Beaufort District Education Office.
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Table of Content: Content Page Sabah Education Department: The Learning Sector Deputy Director’s Note. i Foreword: Papar and Beaufort District Education Officers. ii From the table of the Editorial Team. iii 1. Co-Curricular Activities for All (Vivien Chok Kui Eng, Lilawati Suhaimi, Zurayanti Daud & Marciana Maturin – SMK St. Patrick, Membakut, Beaufort) 1 – 4 2. Thank God Is Friday (TGIF) (Imelda Joe – SMK St. Mary, Papar) 5 – 6 3. English Book Review (Dg Sarah binti A Aliumar – SMK St. Joseph, Papar) 7 – 8 4. Self-Empowerment Programme (Asmi Binti Awang Piut & Nur Khairiah Tadin – SMK Membakut II, Beaufort) 9 – 10 5. Show and Tell (Nur Atiqah binti Ghani – SMK Gadong, Beaufort) 11 – 13 6. Local Superstitious & Mythical Creatures (Bedely Lodius – SM St. John, Beaufort) 14 – 15 7. My Big Story Book (Nur Qisya Janip Abdullah – SMK Beaufort, Beaufort) 16 – 17 8. Mini Project: Way of Helping Parents at Home (Shendy Richard – SK Lembah Poring, Membakut, Beaufort) 18 – 20 9. Assembly in English (Suzie Simon – SK St. Joseph (M) Papar) 21 – 22 10. Highly Immersive Programme (H.I.P) Facebook Page (Anizah binti Abdullah @ Yakob – SK Tampasak, Papar) 23 – 24 11. Flight Attendant Announcement Competition (Mohd Shamsudin Ali Bin Tami - SK Bahagia, Tawau) 25 – 26 12. H.I.P Chillax Station (Nainih Binti Abdullah @ Asbulleh & Zaharah binti Dzulkifli – SK Lingkungan, Beaufort) 27 – 29
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Table of Content: Content Page 13. H.I.P Smart Corner (H.S.C) (Siti Munirah Yakub – SK Pekan Papar) 30 – 32 14. C2W (Comment to Win) (Mohamad Hanif bin Jupilee, Sukor bin Langgar, Junaipin bin Amin & Dg Marzitah Hassan – SK Lubok, Beaufort) 33 – 35 15. Ladang Giram Sime Darby Plantation Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) H.I.P Corner (Ars-Hazwani binti Arshit - SK Ladang Giram, Kunak) 36 – 38 16. Fun Fest Carnival (Tawau District Level) (Nor Azniza binti Aziz – SK Jambatan Putih, Tawau) 39 – 42 17. AQUAMS Agent4 Change (Norhairani binti Awang – SK Buang Sayang, Papar) 43 – 45 18. Do Good Project (Andi Mohd Syahmi Afiq & Adibah E. Arim Sasi – SK Holy Trinity, Tawau) 46 – 48 19. WOW ( Wheel of Wisdom) (Dk Emas Rudziah Pg Mohammad – SK Sacred Heart Kota Kinabalu(M)) 49 – 51 20. English Fun Week & H.I.P with the Community (Chrispin Adrian Cyrillus – SK Bangkalalak, Beaufort). 52 – 54
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES FOR ALL Vivien Chok Kui Eng, Lilawati Suhaimi, Zurayanti Daud & Marciana Maturin. (SMK St. Patrick, Membakut, Beaufort) Pillar of H.I.P Activity: Out-of-Class Participants: 394 students, 34 teachers, 4 non-teaching staff, 4 cleaners & 4 security guards. Objectives: • Provide non-threatening environment for pupils to use English language. • Enhance the use of English vocabulary among intermediate and advanced pupils. • Encourage the use of Higher Order Thinking skills (HOTs) in video-making. • Provide opportunity and platform to practise English in daily communication among the schoolstaff (including teachers, non-teaching staff, cleaners and security guards). Description of Activity: This initiative was carried out to encourage all the school community to use English in everydayconversation. Since HIP is for everyone which calls for the whole-school approach, the initiative had explored the co-curricular activities as the main activity since the students love extra-curricular activities. The English teachers were the mentors while the rest of the teachers (for other subjects) in the school were appointed as advisory for Clubs and Society, Sports and Games and Uniformed Bodies under co-curriculum. The major theme of this initiative is “Learning English in a Fun Way”. Thus, in each category, there are different sub- themes assigned which are related to various interests or favourite topics / subject-matters of the students and staffs in the school respectively. For students’ participation, the focus is on the members of the Clubs and Society, Sports and Games, and Uniform Bodies involved under co-curriculum. Firstly, the task assigned to the members of the Clubs and Society was related to the sub-theme: “Learning English through Songs”. The students were instructed to create a creative TikTok video of an English song and upload it in the school's HIP Telegram group. They are free to choose any songs that they prefer to be recorded in the video. Since the students at this school like to sing, the activity incorporated the use of a trending application nowadays – i.e. TikTok. Next, the task assigned to the members of Sports and Games focused on the sub-theme: “Learning English through Sports”. The students were challenged to create a video introducing the steps or techniques of playing a game as guidelines. For example, the members of the Netball Club are expected to record a video on how to play netball. They may also include the step-by-step instruction, rules, and even tips of playing netball. They needed to explain everything in English. After they had done making the video, they uploaded it to the school's HIP Telegram group.
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 2 Meanwhile, for the members of the Uniform Bodies, they were assigned with the sub-theme: “Express Feelings through Words”. Therefore, they were asked to create a slogan and logo for Malaysia Day. Just like the others, they uploaded their work to the school's HIP Telegram group for the whole school to view, appreciate and enjoy. As for the Patrician’s school-staff, the sub-theme was also provided. Since the school staff, consist of teachers, non-teaching staff, cleaners and security guards, they were more interested in food- related topic. Thus, the sub-theme “Learning English through Foods” was assigned. Based on this theme, they were asked to come up with a video to introduce the local and traditional food in Malaysia creatively. For this video-making activity, they were free to choose any local cuisine that they love to showcase to the viewers. In this activity, they were assigned to collaborate in groups of three. They choose their own members whom they wish to work with. We needed to bear in mind that most of the staffs in this rural context (especially, the non-teaching personnel) are not used to speak English among themselves. Thus, the English teachers were there to assist them as much as possible until they were confident enough to talk in English for the video content as required. The school staff were guided on how to construct proper sentences for the purpose of introducing the food chosen. Once completed, they shared their food videos in the school’s H.I.P Telegram group. Impact: This Co-curricular Activities for All implemented under H.I.P at the school-level was centralised on the theme “Learning English in a Fun Way”, which was meant for students, teachers and nonteaching staff of SMK St Patrick, Membakut. The response was very encouraging be it from the students and even the school staff altogether. In fact, the students’ confidence level to speak English seem to elevate based on the sub-themes:- i. Learning English through Songs: There are students who are weak in English took part in this activity. They tried their best to sing the English songs with clear pronunciation of the lyrics. Furthermore, they learned and understood the meanings of the song-lyrics – which helped them to express their feelings while singing. Undoubtedly, it is a fun way of learning English via singing as well as developing their creativity in video-making using technology. ii. Express Feeling through Words: In making slogans, some called up their English teachers for advice. In this case, the students needed to find out suitable words to be included in their work – i.e. meaning in context. They deliberately learned new words/ vocabulary and at the same time, initiated necessary corrections in term of grammatical aspect while constructing English sentences. In addition, the interaction between the English teachers and students throughout the process developed their self-esteem whereby students were able to boost their confidence to speak English.
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 3 iii. Learning English through Sports: In sports there are many sports terminologies that might be foreign to students. In this sub-theme activity, students learn certain terms when explaining the sports and games’ rules and regulations. There are few technical vocabularies for sports such as “lob ball ” and “pivot ” for netball. This is very helpful for them if they wish to further their studies in sports science. At least they have learnt the basic terms of some sports respectively. As for the Patrician’s school-staff, there were non-English teachers who can speak English despite of their lacking of the language proficiency. These proactive teachers were among the major contributors in turning the project into a reality. The fun-learning in such a non-threatening environment where teachers constantly mentoring the other fellow teachers who are not confident enough to speak in English, including the non-teaching staff, was utterly inspiring. They were aided in pronouncing the words accurately. Of course, it was rather difficult as it was not a norm for the staff members to speak in English, but the never-ending encouragements and support from each other really helped them the most in making the video, especially when it comes to food-related topic. Thus, the staff eventually learned more English vocabulary to describe foods and ingredients of their recipes. Even the cleaners and security guards were highly motivated to participate in the food video-making. Way Forward: Overall, based on the positive feedback and outcomes observed, the school intended to continue this Co-curricular Activities for All in the future – especially, the TikTok challenge. Since most parents showed encouragement for their children through their willingness to reload the prepaid mobile-credit frequently during the project, it is a clear indication that there will be a similar strong support from the parents for the school to incorporate more of such digital-learning in the coming HIP projects. Moreover, instead of just learning vocabulary via singing, the educational emphasis can be extended further to learn and associate similar meanings of English proverbs with Malay “peribahasa” in writing and reciting creative poems or verse (“pantun”) in English. A creative challenge to promote literature! As for the Patrician’s school-staff activity, a variety of topics should be explored to suit everyone’s cup of tea. Instead of ‘local traditional food’, it can be zoomed in to highlight ‘healthy food’. They may relate it to their real-life experience in preparing healthy diet.
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Appendix : Advertisement posted to the school community. Sports and Games Club and Society Uniform Bodies Non-teaching staff Non-English teachers
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 5 THANK GOD IS FRIDAY (TGIF) Imelda Joe (SMK St. Mary, Papar) Pillar of H.I.P Activity: Out-of-Class Participants: 390 students, 20 teachers Objectives: • To enhance the usage of English in daily conversation. • To improve the student’s performance in English. • To inculcate positive behaviour towards English. Description of Activity: This activity was conducted every Friday from 12.00 to 1.30 in the afternoon. The students involved were from the afternoon session (Form 1 and 2). It was conducted in rotation by the teacher-in-charge. The activities depended on the teacher-in-charge as long as English is used as a medium of communication during the activities. The activities conducted during TGIF including quizzes, creating cards for Raya celebration, poem recitation, spelling bee, public speaking and reading activity. Impact: General observation suggested that the students communicated in English during the activities, even those less proficient students were trying their best to attempt in English when being called. Perhaps when the nature of the activities was more towards fun learning, they would feel less threatening to attempt. Besides, the teacher-in-charge who aren’t the English optionists were showing their great effort to conduct activities in English. Way Forward: Sometimes the activity was cancelled when the teacher-in-charge was not around. As to improve this for the next cycle of implementation, the schedule of teacher-in-charge should be endorsed by the Principal. This would ensure every teacher involved would be acknowledged early of their roles and thus it enables them to find replacement if they have other commitments. Besides, weekly TGIF content could be attached in the schedule too. This would assist non-English teacher in implementing TGIF and to encourage varieties of activities.
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 6 Appendix: TGIF activity – to create Hari Raya card Short sharing on the storybook that they have read. Attentive students during briefing
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 7 ENGLISH BOOK REVIEW Dg Sarah binti A Aliumar (SMK St. Joseph, Papar) Pillar of H.I.P Activity: Out-of-Class Participants: • students: 2 person/ week (90 students / year). • teachers: 2 person/ week (63 / year). Objectives: • to boost confidence level among students. • to improve the pronunciation of teachers and students. • to provide new information and knowledge Description of Activity: This activity was implemented during assembly. Students and teachers took turn to do their book review. After they had presented, they would receive a button badge from the Senior Assistant of Co-curriculum as a token of appreciation. A class rotation schedule was drafted by the School Resource Center Coordinator. Students were randomly selected according to classes every week. They would usually be informed 3 or 4 days in advance so that they would be ready with their book review sharing. On the other hand, the rotation schedule for teachers was printed in the school management diary as reference for teachers. If they couldn’t make it on that particular week, they would have to contact their colleague to switch turn. To overcome the speaking anxiety in front of a crowd, English teachers offered their assistance to students and teachers in preparing the speech, mainly on the pronunciation and vocabulary. Impact: Based on general observation, this activity has managed to increase the confidence of students and teachers to speak in English. Initially, they were nervous to speak in front of a crowd. However, after they had presented, they would be less resistant to communicate in English. This situation was well-illustrated by Noraini Thien from 4 Wagner in her testimony: Teacher : How did you feel about your book review presentation? Noraini : I was nervous at first, but once I was in front, I forced myself to speak since I knew I had prepared earlier. Teacher : Do you feel this activity has helped you to become more confident in speaking? Noraini : Yes, I feel more confident to speak now.
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 8 Way Forward: The frequency of this activity was affected when there was no assembly since the book review activity was carried out during the official weekly assembly which was on every Monday. Out of so many events, it was mainly interrupted by the long exam period. For improvement, a yearly schedule needs to be endorsed before the implementation as to minimise the abrupt cancellation and to maximise the frequency of this event. Instead of relying on general observation and personal interviews with some students, a simple school wide impact study should be conducted as to get the feedback from the students and teachers, especially on what could have been improved as to maximise the impact. Appendix:
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 9 SELF-EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMME Asmi Binti Awang Piut & Nur Khairiah Tadin (SMK Membakut II, Beaufort) Pillar of H.I.P Activity: Outreach Participants: Form 3, 4 and 5 students (approximately 28 students). Objectives: • To encourage students to practise the use of English. • To enhance the students’ leadership skills. Description of Activity: This activity was organised by Sabah English Aspiration Society (SEAS) and Human Ecology Faculty of UPM on 30th July 2022. This event targeted at rural area students. There were about 28 participants from SMK Membakut II involved in the outreach programme – which consisted of Form 3, 4 and 5 students. The programme was packed with series of activities such as the talk, group activities, group presentations and so on. The activities were mainly revolved around speaking and listening. Students were given the opportunity to interact with their new friends from other schools. They had to step out from their comfort zone as well when everyone was required to talk during the presentations. Impact: The pupils were required to complete the Medal and Mission Cards (William, 1998) as the means of gaining their feedbacks, namely: two positive (medals) and one hopeful (a mission) reflection. Among the feedbacks collected at the end of the activity are as follows:- Basically, the students’ feedback signified that this Self-Empowerment Programme has encouraged them to speak English with their peers throughout the activities – despite of their grammar incompetence and shyness. Besides, it helped them to improve their communicative skills using
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 10 English language due to the non-threatening environment among friends. In fact, the students were looking forward to participating again in more of such programme in the future. There were also observable positive impacts of this H.I.P outreach activity as witnessed by the teachers. One of the observable positive behaviours was the students looked so excited and more confident when they were given the opportunity to express their opinion during the group presentations. The activity was able to provide valuable opportunity and platform for these young participants to express their opinion and ideas creatively using English language. Way Forward: In a nutshell, based on the positive feedbacks from the participants, there should be more of such self-motivational programme which incorporates the use of English to be organised at the school and district levels respectively. This might be related with the nature of teenagers in which meeting new friends is an exciting event for them. Added to that, the expertise shared by the NGO, higher education institutions or other private sectors could offer students new insights. This H.I.P outreach activity should also be extended to a larger number of students to maximise the impact. Appendix: The coordinator did the briefing Students did their group presentation SMK Membakut II participants during their group discussion Group photo
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 11 SHOW AND TELL Nur Atiqah binti Ghani (SMK Gadong, Beaufort) Pillar of H.I.P Activity: In-Class / Extra-Class HIP Activity. Participants: 66 students (from 2 classes of Form 4 & 3) & 2 teachers. Objectives: • Provide a platform for the students to share a topic that they love/like the most. • Encourage and motivate students to speak in front of audiences in English. • Improve students’ confidence to speak English especially, those with low proficiency. • Develop students’ communicative ability and encourage students to think outside the box (through Q&A session). Description of Activity: Show and Tell is a task that primarily focuses on speaking skill. The task was conducted during the T&L session of English subject where the students presented their sharing at the school’s English Creative Corner (ECC) which was located at the school-canteen. Teacher assigned the task to students at the end of the school week. This allowed the students to prepare their speech for their Show and Tell on the weekends. Students were encouraged to bring anything that they treasure or something that is precious for them. It should be a physical item and can be held or touched. For a big-sized item, students were allowed to bring just a photograph of the item (for their convenience). Each student was invited to stand on the mini stage to talk about the item that they treasure the most (i.e. what it is, its function/use, reasons to adore the item, etc.). Students could talk casually in front of the audience (their classmates) and were given ample of time to present. At the end of every sharing, the teacher encouraged other students or audiences to ask any questions regarding the item highlighted for the presenter to respond respectively during the Q& A session. Impact: Overall, the activity was not just an in-class assignment, but it was also an effective means of Assessment for Learning (AfL) which provided the teachers with authentic evidence of the students’ speaking performance and English proficiency level altogether. In fact, the teacher were able to identify the students’ strength for acknowledgement, as well as development needs or challenges in
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 12 term of their productive skills (namely: script-writing and oral presentation) for necessary intervention to improve respectively. Moreover, this Show and Tell activity encouraged the students’ involvement in publicspeaking appeared to be a meaningful learning process where the students were able to express themselves openly based on the topic which is entirely familiar to them – namely, the item that they adore or treasure the most! In fact, the topic enabled them is relevant to their real-life experience where they were expected to talk about the precious or sentimental values of the item chosen for their fellow friends to share their genuine feeling and passion. As a result, from the teachers’ observation, the students involved in the activity demonstrated significantly better performance with more self-confidence as they presented in front of their classmates (despite of some grammatical errors which did not hamper the intended meanings). Simple language used to describe the familiar topic! Furthermore, the implementation of this Show and Tell activity was able to boost the students’ motivation and capture their interest altogether. It was an interactive learning intervention which stimulated the students’ schemata, emotional intelligence (i.e. the nostalgia of the treasured item), as well as the communicative skills in using English. From observation, such interactive learning quality provided the students the fun-learning medium which they were more eager to participate. Nevertheless, by conducting the activity outside of the classroom (i.e. at the school’s English Creative Corner), it created a new environment for the students (out of their routine confinement) – providing them with challenging, exciting and different experiences to assist their learning eventually. Way Forward: Show and Tell should be continued as it is a great activity for students to participate in public speaking. It helps to boost students’ confidence to speak especially, in English. Teachers can implement this activity in their English lessons especially, at the early school year. This will enable teachers to identify the students’ English speaking proficiency level and find appropriate intervention to help them to improve gradually. Moreover, Teachers may explore other topics which can trigger the students’ interest and motivation – i.e. familiar topics to cater for all students with different proficiency levels. This is an important scaffolding step as to support low proficiency students. Other than that, Show and Tell can be extended as a competition for all the students in the school to participate as a co-curricular extra-activity under H.I.P out-of-class or even go for outreach collaboration with a few schools in the district.
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 13 Appendix:
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 14 LOCAL SUPERSTITIOUS & MYTHICAL CREATURES Bedely Lodius (SM St. John, Beaufort) Pillar of H.I.P Activity: In-Class. Participants: 78 students of Form 2. Objectives: • To create awareness among the students about the local superstitious or mythical creatures (for them to learn and appreciate). • To integrate mini-project and fun-learning in cross-curricular English subject. Description of Activity: Students discuss among their group-members (of 3 – 5 students) to choose which local superstitious or mythical creatures they wanted to share. Students were given time (1 – 2 days) to search for relevant information and details (online) pertaining to the creature chosen. Then, students prepare their drafts for the activity by constructing sentences in short paragraph using English language based on the information they had gathered. Once their drafts were approved, students wrote their final draft on the manila-card provided. Finally, students were asked to share the picture and details of the local superstitious or mythical creatures. Impact: Students were challenged to translate the available articles about the local superstitious and mythical creatures (found online) from Malay language or other native languages to English language (as group work). This prompted students to practise and develop their dictionary skills in order to ensure accurate translation in English, especially in term of the meaning in context. Students had the opportunity to use English to introduce their local superstitious and mythical creatures to others especially, the English-speaking readers and such information is usually only available in Malay language. Way Forward: To make the task more challenging, students should be asked to write longer (in few paragraphs) to describe the superstitious and mythical creatures or other interesting topics in the future tasks. Added to that, students could present their findings in various creative ways, including video-making to incorporate digital learning in the in-class activity. This in-class activity can be extended further as an out-of-class activity where the students can use the Speaker’s Corner as a platform to share their creative work.
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 15 Appendix: Students’ group-discussion in progress The details about the local mythical creature: “Mondou” The information about the local mythical creature: “Siut Dalan”
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 16 MY BIG STORY BOOK Nur Qisya Janip Abdullah (SMK Beaufort, Beaufort) Pillar of H.I.P Activity : In-Class. Participants: 29 Form 5 students Objectives: • To apply the elements of story writing in the task. • To encourage students to think creatively by choosing their own genre when writing their story in group. Description of Activity: This is an enrichment writing activity where the pupils were firstly exposed with elements of story writing in the previous lessons. They were taught of plots (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, closure), adjectives, bombastic words, 5 senses (Hear, Smell, Taste, Touch, See), dialogues and genre (fiction & non-fiction). The students sat in groups of five or four and each group would get a manila card. Then they folded the manila card into two parts, they could add more if needed. They were instructed to write simple draft of their plots. They continued by thinking about the adjectives, interesting vocabulary, 5 senses’ sentences and dialogues to be included in the story. After that they will write the story in the ‘Big Book’. Later, pupils presented their story to the class. Teacher commented on all the elements of story writing that were included in the Big Story Book. Finally, each group voted for their favourite story. This activity took 2 days (2 hours in total) to be completed. All the Big Story Books were put up on their English Corner. Impact: Overall, the pupils were able to include the elements of writing a story during the activity. They were able to collaborate effectively in their respective groups to brainstorm for interesting ideas relevant to the topic. At the same time, the advanced students in each group played important role in monitoring the use of the correct grammar and English language altogether, with little guide from the teacher. As a result, each group was able to come up with interesting story of their own creatively. In fact, the peer-assessment which was incorporated into the lesson (as they voted for their favourite story) appeared to be an effective strategy to boost the pupils’ motivation with the acknowledgement and appreciation gained from their creative learning products.
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 17 Way Forward : In the future, this could be one of the activities that should be included in the Language Week or English Panel Week to encourage more pupils to participate. Moreover, it can be implemented as the extra-class or out-of-class activity under H.I.P which calls for parents to support and guide their children in completing the Big Story Book. Accordingly, instead of using manila card, pupils could use recycled materials to produce their Big Story Book and the final products can be kept at the school library under H.I.P Corner for the whole school community to share and appreciate these creative work of art. Appendix:
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 18 MINI PROJECT : WAY OF HELPING PARENTS AT HOME Shendy Richard (SK Lembah Poring, Membakut, Beaufort) Pillar of H.I.P Activity: Extra class Participants: 26 pupils of Year 4, 5 and 6. Objectives: • Provide intervention to encourage pupils to help their parents at home. • Provide opportunity for pupils to share their experiences of helping their parents with daily household chores. • Cultivate moral values among pupils and acknowledge their good deeds. Description of Activity: Basically, this extra class activity is an English subject mini project. Pupils were given 3 weeks to complete their task which was related to the civic education to be implemented as required. The given task was to help parents at home during weekends. Pupils were assigned to take pictures of themselves doing the household chores to be compiled later as evidence in their report. Then, they wrote simple explanation on what they had done to help their parents respectively. The pupils were encouraged to get help from their parents in completing the assignment as guidance and support. Accordingly, the pupils were instructed to write as simple as they could as to encourage them to get involved in the task and boost their motivation, especially for those basic or low-proficiency learners). On top of all, the activity was expected to foster good moral values among the pupils. Impact: Overall, this mini project was planned meticulously by the teacher specially on determining the best topic for the pupils to focus on. Since the school is situated in the rural area in Membakut and the pupils mostly come from the B40 families with parents working as farmers, labours at the palm plantation and self-employed, the teacher needed to put all these background information into consideration. Thus, the topic on “Way of Helping Parents at Home” was entirely relevant to the pupils’ real-life situation which they were able to relate with ease. As the result, the pupils were able to complete their task on time with the help and constant support from their parents. It was really inspiring to witness the determination of the students and the willingness of their loving parents/family in supporting their children’s learning altogether.
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 19 The pupils were able to share and present their project with enthusiasm despite of the lack of fluency to speak in English as experienced by most of them. They appeared to be truly contented and proud of their sharing which highlighted different types of household chores completed to assist their parents or families at home, such as planting vegetable seedlings, watering the garden, cooking, making cakes, etc. Undoubtedly, it was a simple task yet, utterly meaningful! Moreover, the mini project also managed to provide opportunity for the pupils to experience the challenge to fulfil domestic responsibilities of helping their parents to do household chores. They were able to understand the importance of playing their roles in the real-life situation to contribute to their families. Nevertheless, this mini-project has deliberately instilled moral values among the pupils eventually – i.e. responsibility, respect, diligence, determination and love! Way Forward: Overall, this mini project can be best done for the pupils of young age in order to improve their discipline as well as to cultivate good moral conduct especially, in helping parents and families in daily life. Thus, the impact should be extended by implementing such activity in other subjects taught in school, not just English. In fact, it can be carried out as an outreach activity under H.I.P and even as an out-of-class project to be done during the co-curricular activities at school. Besides, there was a problem encountered when some parents had to send the pictures for many times repeatedly as they failed due to the internet connection issue. Therefore, it is recommended for teachers to consider other alternatives for the pupils or parents to submit the project report. For example, offline documentation in the format of a scrapbook. Accordingly, teachers need to be creative in selecting suitable topics which the students will be able to relate and initiate relevant responses effectively. With such meticulous considerations, the activity will be able to motivate the pupils to challenge themselves to use English in sharing their personal point of views, feeling and real-life experiences meaningfully despite of their incompetence in term of English proficiency.
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 20 Appendix: Rafeal shared his project in helping his parents with the house chores. The project presentation of Olivia. She was helping her parents to water the plants and prepare lunch for the whole family.
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 21 ASSEMBLY IN ENGLISH Suzie Simon (SK St. Joseph (M) Papar) Pillar of H.I.P Activity: Out-of-Class Participants: • Level 1 :114 pupils & 13 teachers. • Level 2 :128 pupils & 16 teachers. Objective: To encourage the practice of English speaking among pupils and build a positive English-speaking environment at school. Description of Activity: The Assembly in English was conducted on every 1st and 3rd week of every month. One level 1 and 2 pupils were selected to be the Master of Ceremony. English teachers would prepare the Master of Ceremony script for the students as reference. They would practise on their own. They could refer their English teachers if they needed any help with their pronunciation. Other than that, all announcements or reports from teachers were made in English even the language spoken wasn’t inaccurate as long as the message got across. Impact: Based on general observation, more and more pupils volunteered themselves to be the Master of Ceremony as compared to when the activity was firstly started. This signifies that the speaking environment was getting safer for the pupils to attempt and grow. Besides, it was observed that teachers were being quite supportive in building an English-speaking environment as even less proficient teachers braved themselves to make mistakes when making announcement in English. Way Forward: This activity would be continued as it was music to our ears when listening more and more pupils and teachers were attempting to speak in English. However, the activity would be improved by focusing on having a proper training for a group of pupils to be the Master of Ceremony and subsequently they could help to train more their friends. Some students could not understand the messages and reports during the assembly. They took the initiative to approach their teachers to clarify the messages conveyed and therefore the teachers needed to explain again. It was a hassle to repeat messages, but if this could be viewed positively as an authentic teaching moment, those students would develop their proficiency over time.
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 22 Appendix: Shelby was the MC of the day Natalie recited the pledge A pupil be the MC of the day. Mr Wilfred (non-English teacher) delivered his report in English.
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 23 HIGHLY IMMERSIVE PROGRAME (H.I.P) FACEBOOK PAGE Anizah binti Abdullah@ Yakob (SK Tampasak, Papar) Pillar of H.I.P Activity : Out-of-Class Participants : 200 pupils & 32 teachers Objectives : • To allow pupils to share pictures, videos, artwork and stories for educational purpose. • To encourage pupils to develop oracy skills and showcase their talents. • To assist pupils with different communication skills and techniques to be put into practice. • To provide a platform of information sharing to the parents and communities about event and stories happened at the school. Description of Activity: The teacher-in-charge randomly selected students to take the role of a journalist. The journalists were responsible to create a simple video, poster or write a short article on events happening in school or on opinion sharing. Students did this on voluntarily basis. After they finished their piece of work, they would forward to the teacher-in-charge for editing and posting to the Facebook page. Basically, the publication was conducted weekly. However, if the teacher-in-charge was too occupied, then it became a monthly publication. Impact: The oracy skills of the pupils who were involved as journalists increased as observed from the interviews and some videos prepared them. Besides, parents supported the effort of their children in making the videos and piece of art. Some parents would also leave their positive comments or like the Facebook posts. Their support sustained the interest of the pupils to involve as journalists. On top of that, the Facebook page has kept the school communities closed to each other because they were constantly updated of the school events. Way Forward: Not many pupils were interested to share their videos or be involved during the videos making due to the lack of confidence to speak in English. Most of videos were produced by the Level 2 pupils. As to overcome this, the involvement of English teachers might be helpful. This could be connected as in-class activity during English lessons. Moreover, to ensure a consistent weekly publication, this activity could be improved by recruiting a team of committed students as journalists and having at least two teacher-in-charge.
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 24 More response or feedback from the viewers might further motivate the videos maker to make more educational videos for the page. The H.I.P team could organize a video making competition by involving parents and community. This probably would boost more community engagement and serve as a motivation booster for students to keep posting. Appendix : FB Page link: https://fb.watch/gRHqBQIqBk/
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 25 Flight Attendant Announcement Competition Mohd Shamsudin Ali Bin Tami (SK Bahagia Tawau) Pillar Of H.I.P Activity : Out-of-class Participants : 36 Level 1 students Objectives : • To encourage pupils to use the language in a meaningful and fun way possible. • To instill confidence in speaking the language • To improve the pupils’ language especially in speaking. Description of Activity: This competition was held at school in March 2022 to May 2022 . There was a script prepared by the teacher for the pupils. The participants were required to record themselves acting like a flight attendant and making an announcement as if they were in the plane. Then they were required to send their video to their English teacher to be evaluated. No miming was allowed and the participant must record in one take only. The winners were selected based on the rubric ( pronunciation 10 marks, enunciation 10 marks, body language 10 marks, creativity 10 marks and overall performance 10 marks. The rubric is attached as reference in the Appendix). Impact: At the beginning, most of the students were shy and not really that brave to record themselves. However, with the help of parents and the constant encouragement from all the English teachers, some of them attempted the task. As observed, pupils also learnt to express message creatively through proper pronunciation and intonations. Way Forward: We are surely going to hold this competition again by extending it to the parents or the community. This is because we would like to involve parents in English learning. We wish to build the positive attitute towards English through fun competition. We believe their positive attitude towards English would influence their children too.
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 26 Appendix: FLIGHT ATTENDANT ANNOUNCEMENT COMPETITION JUDGING SCORE LEVEL 1 SK BAHAGIA TAWAU PARTS DESCRIPTION MARKS PRONUNCIATION Able to say clearly all the words in the given script correctly without or minimal errors. / 10 ENUNCIATION THE RHYTHM and the intonation while making the announcement. Should have that ‘real’ flight attendant feel and voice. /10 BODY LANGUAGE Gestures, and relevant movement while making the announcement. /10 CREATIVITY OVERALL creativity referring to the video entries, attire worn in the video and editing. /10 OVERALL PERFORMANCE Overall performance whether or not participants able to ‘act’ like a flight attendant focusing more on the voice, pronunciation etc. Should be judge holistically. /10 TOTAL MARKS /50
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 27 H.I.P CHILLAX STATION Nainih Binti Abdullah @ Asbulleh & Zaharah Binti Dzulkifli. (SK Lingkungan, Beaufort) Pillar of H.I.P Activity : Outreach Participants: 150 students, teachers, parents and school-community. Objectives: • To create a one-stop center for school members, parents and the community to do activities and get information about H.I.P. • To provide exposure to the English language in schools and communities. • To build school heads, teachers, students and the surrounding community with high confidence to speak English. Description of Activity: Established since 2021, this H.I.P Chillax Station aims to provide an opportunity for all pupils, teachers, parents and community in SK Lingkungan to learn English, regardless of age or proficiency level to pick up English language easily at the one-stop centre. It also strives to provide convenient access for all participants to learn the English. This program encourages the students, parents and the local community to improve communication and understanding of using English language. The initiative is believed to support the effort in achieving the target or KPI related to the mastery level of students' classroom assessment or PBD, especially in the achievement of TP 5 and TP 6. This programme also aims to create mutual relationships and networking among parents, the local community and the public sector or NGO for the benefit of all in English enhancement. Impact: This initiative was able to provide convenient platform for the pupils, teachers, parents and even school community to explore and demonstrate their potential to use English language confidently, in conversation or even reading aloud. At the same time, it enabled them to gradually improve their English proficiency. Moreover, this programme which encouraged the use of English at leisure within the school surrounding was really effective to foster positive behaviour towards learning English. It created a non-threatening environment to use the language. The students used English as they were playing hopscotch was a case in point. Besides, while waiting for their children (when the school-day ended), parents could read labels, signage, and materials or bulletin shared to polish their English. A simple yet, effective way to instil love towards English!
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 28 Furthermore, with the establishment of HIP Chillax Station, all the English and even nonEnglish teachers got the opportunity to play the important role in planning for the English-oriented activities in which they organised at the school-level. The activities were implemented under H.I.P which subsequently highlighted the students’ talents and potentials to shine. Accordingly, such active participation and acknowledgement of students’ achievement in English managed to boost motivation, as well as, creating learning interests among the students. Besides, teachers were able to explore the artistic aspect of their inner-self when they were engaged in the tasks of creating creative decoration and informative stimulus to promote English language at HIP Chillax Station. It was challenging to make sure HIP Chillax Station doesn’t end up as a beautiful white elephant. The set-up of HIP Chillax Station was done in collaboration with the parents and nonteaching staff in the school. Undoubtedly, the mutual effort contributed by all students, teachers, parents and the school community at large has fulfilled the underlying aspiration of the Highly Immersive Programme, namely, to create English immersive environment through the whole-school approach! Way Forward: Overall, the school intended to expand the multifunction of this HIP Chillax Station by adding more English language-oriented activities for the benefits of all, namely: i. Mini Library – easy access to interesting books in English. ii. Fun-Learning Games Stations – for examples: Scrabble, Monopoly, and other board games. iii. HIP / Reading Corner – sharing of informative bulletin / reading materials. iv. Storytelling / Public Speaking Corner. Appendix:
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 29 The process of building and decorating HIP Chillax Station with the involvement of teachers, parents and the school’s security-guard. The mini-garden landscape. The display of English Language notes / learning stimulus. Games corner in front of HIP Chillax Station.
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 30 H.I.P SMART CORNER (H.S.C) Siti Munirah Yakub (SK Pekan Papar) Pillars of H.I.P Activity : Out-of-Class, Extra Class & Outreach Participants: 610 pupils & 43 teachers. Objective(s): • To provide teaching aids for English and other subjects. • To create a conducive self-learning space for students. • As 3D encyclopedia and a reference center for students and teachers. Description of Activity: H.I.P SMART Corner (H.S.C) is a big scale of teaching aids facility especially designated for the English teachers at school. It could be used for other subjects too, but with English as the medium of communication. This initiative was started since 2020 and continuously updated and utilised to date. The H.S.C location is located along the corridor of the Year 5 and 6 classes. It consists of printed material and interactive teaching aids which cover a wide range of topics. Prior to the launching of the initiative, all English teachers came into consensus to at least use H.S.C once a week during their lesson regardless of classes. Homophones words on the floor and sentence cards is one of the stations found in H.S.C. This station could be used as to access the pupils' reading skills, listening skills, grammar or vocabulary depending on the creativity and purpose of the teacher. Impact: H.S.C provides the opportunity to learn English beyond the four walls of classroom and subsequently it successfully increased the students' interest in using English to communicate with their peers. This is supported by the H.I.P assessment data in which a total of 52% of students used English as a spoken language with their peers in 2021 compared to only 38% in 2019 (in which when H.S.C hadn’t been launched). As observed, when the learning interest of students was triggered, they were more likely to be engaged in English related activities. As we could observe, the student participation in the H.I.P outreach activity become active. The number of students who participated in English related outreach activities in 2021 and 2022 was triple to the participation in 2019.
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 31 Way Forward: First and foremost, financial fund is crucial to continuously ensure that learning materials at H.S.C is always updated according to the latest syllabus so that H.S.C doesn’t become oldfashioned. However, at times, teachers need to contribute their own money along the way. For instance, they had to buy their own paints. To ease that, H.I.P team sought few donations from several sources. To make this more sustainable, a constant relationship needs to be established with more outreach partners. The H.I.P coordinator isn’t an English language teacher. She wishes to provide more professional support so that the H.S.C could be more relevant and attractive to pupils and teachers, but she could only depend on her experience and the sharing from other H.I.P coordinators from the district. Accordingly, the collaboration with English teachers is crucial in maximising the potential of H.S.C by extending H.S.C initiative as an in-class H.I.P activity. The frequency of H.S.C utilisation should be documented properly as to further understand the impact H.S.C has generated not only in terms of motivation, but also in terms of the achievement of pupils in curriculum. Appendix :
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 32 Grammar Station : Present – Past – Past Participle Conducting reading activities at H.S.C Parent using the learning stimulus at H.S.C
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 33 C2W (COMMENT TO WIN) Mohamad Haniff Bin Jupilee, Sukor Bin Langgar, Junaipin Bin Amin & Dg Marzitah Hassan (SK Lubok, Beaufort) Pillar of H.I.P Activity: Out-of-class, In-class, & Outreach. Participants: 47 (48%) pupils, 13 (100%) teachers and 17 (41%) parents. Objective: The aim of this C2W activity is to create a stress-free environment for the pupils, teachers and parents to actively use English in everyday life by providing stimulus (videos) and appreciation (the gift). Description of Activity: C2W (Comment to Win) is an online-based activity to encourage pupils, teachers and also parents in using English to communicate. We took advantage of our newly created blog and School YouTube Channel where all the school activities are in the blog. Since most of the parents are active in School WhatsApp Group, we decided to share all the videos we had collected since 2016 including all the previous year’s H.I.P activities for the whole members of the group to enjoy and appreciate. The competition was originally only for the pupils and teachers, but when we asked the pupils if they could ask their parents to join, they agreed to help. So, we added a parent’s category for them to post comments. This activity is easy and simple. The participants only needed to watch all the videos that we uploaded to the channel and chose one video to comment. At first, our pupils and the parents were a bit hesitated to join. They told us that it was hard to comment in English. Then, we found a solution where we taught them on how to use Google Translate. (They would type in Malay language and copy the translated text suggested as their comment). The pupils were good in using Google Translate, but the parents were still lack of confidence to join. Then, we made a video on how to use the Google Translate. We even shared a video of our Parent Teacher Association President using the Google Translate to comment in our blog. Surprisingly, we found out that the major motivation to the parents was the pupils. When we showed the pupils’ comments (in English) to the parents, they gradually started to join. Even though it was the first time we included the parents, we received a lot of positive feedback from them. Most of them are interested and to our surprise, about 41% of the parents logged in and shared their comments eventually. We still received a lot of messages after the competition ended but we had to be fair to those who already made their comments before the due
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 34 date. The parents told us that they faced difficulty to join because the internet connection was not stable since they only relied on one telco to get online. Some of the parents managed to join the competition because they asked for the teachers’ assistance to post the comments they made (due to internet access issue). Impact: Even though we allowed the used of Google Translate in the H.I.P activity, we actually noticed a number of positive impacts. For a start, the pupils who already commented asked us if they could submit another comment. This was a good sign as they wanted to get involved in the English activity. The best thing is the pupils who wanted to submit their second comment seemed to have forgotten that they previously relied on Google Translatex. Most of them started to type straight in English. Since we carried out the competition in class, we also noticed that the pupils read the English text before they posted it. They were proof-reading their own comments. Some of the pupils found out that the Google Translate is provided with an audio / voice function which they can access to listen to the correct pronunciation of English words that are uncommonly used or unfamiliar to them. Moreover, the teachers also noticed that most of the pupils especially, those in Year 5 and 6 and some from Year 4 classes started to communicate (speak simple / short sentences) in English with the person-in-charge of this competition as well as their friends. They admitted that the activity boosted their confidence in using English. Accordingly, the teachers also benefited from C2W as they felt more at ease to speak in English after the activity. Surprisingly, we started to get greetings in English from the parents. A simple “good morning” and “how are you?” are absolutely worthy of our effort! Way Forward : Overall, we will continue to organise such fun-learning activity under H.I.P in the future – as we explore more than just writing-skills enrichment in English. We want all the pupils and parents to be actively involved in our blog by commenting our posts in English. Then, we will conduct another competition which challenges the participants among the pupils, parents and teachers to demonstrate their speaking skills. We will also let the parents write their comments in notebook if they have difficulty to post them online and we will help them to post their comments in the school blog. We believe such initiative will be able to increase the parents’ participation. Hopefully, our school will get more up-todate devices and efficient ISP for online access in the future which will surely boost our motivation in organising more proactive digital-based activities for the benefits of all.
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 35 Appendix: The girl is reading her comments Pupil asked teacher to listen to her reading Pupils found that the build-in audio function Instead of using Google Translate, a pupil of Google Translate is useful for them to directly typed his comment in English voice out or read aloud their written text Mr. Junaidi, the PTA President, accompanied Winners were announced during National by the headmaster (Mr Jamaludin), was Day celebration at school-level. *(Mr. enthusiastic to type his comment in the blog. Norbert from SK Weston, Beaufort as the judge for teacher’s category). Note: The full video as evidence of C2W activity is available in the school blog www.buletinsklubok.blogspot.com under the H.I.P section. You may also visit our channel in YouTube – named: sklubokbeaufort Channel.
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 36 Ladang Giram Sime Darby Plantation Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) H.I.P Corner Ars-Hazwani binti Arshit (SK Ladang Giram, Kunak) Pillar of H.I.P Activity: Outreach Participants: 120 pupils, 18 teachers, 3 school staff, 4 parents & 8 volunteers of CSR Objectives: • to enable the school community (especially the pupils) comprehend the basic spoken form. • to enhance the interest of learning English Language. • to encourage all the school community to participate in the activities to improve their communicative functions or conversational skills. Description of Activity: In order to inculcate positive behaviour towards the learning and usage of the English Language, Highly Immersive Programme (H.I.P) Corner has been set up with the collaboration between Sime Darby Plantation Giram Estate (under their Corporate Social Responsibility / CSR) and SK Ladang Giram. The collaboration with the Sime Darby Giram Estate management started with a formal letter and a paperwork that requested the manpower and all the equipment needed to beautify the previous H.I.P Corner. The management of the estate was quite concerned of the welfare of their workers’ family and therefore the collaboration in setting up the H.I.P Corner was a welcomed initiative. Sime Darby Giram Estate provided 5 men and equipment. The workers painted the walls and stairs for 3 days. They even designed the hopscotch on the floor and drew simple mural on the stair. The H.I.P Corner is meant to increase the usage and exposure of the English Language in school. It’s a fun learning environment which facilitates the building of confidence to use the language more frequently. A lot of enrichment activities had been conducted in this H.I.P Corner such as Verb Hopscotch, Tongue Twister Challenge, Telling Time, Sit-Read-Write, Solve the Riddles and many more. In the H.I.P Corner, there would be a support mechanism such as peer-to-peer, teachers to pupils, parents to pupils as well as teachers to parents to encourage each other on the involvement in activities.
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 37 Impact: The success of H.I.P Corner is measured based on positive behavioural changes and the participation of all the school communities at school. A few positive behavioural changes were observed. Firstly, pupils from all levels involved and committed in participating all the activities at the H.I.P Corner. Pupils shared their excitement to their teachers about the activities they had joined. Peer-to-peer support was also observed in completing tasks at H.I.P Corner. Some pupils helped each other to understand instructions in completing the hopscotch. Other than that, some non-English teachers shared their excitement to communicate in English Language during the out-of-class activities conducted at the H.I.P corner. It was observable that some non-English option teachers were trying to answer the riddles sticked on the stairs. They asked among themselves or the English optionists about the meaning of the riddles and finally they managed to solve the riddles. The activities took place at the H.I.P corner were shared in our school’s Facebook page. Comments left by the school communities (teachers, parents, pupils and alumni) suggested that they were quite elated with the learning activities took place and were ready to provide more support in the future. Way Forward: In order to continue on implementing and improving, role-play approach is one of a good way to stimulate English usage and therefore, it is suggested the building of a mini café. It is built with the intention to implement spontaneous conversational skills that usually applied in a restaurant. There will be also a mini garden that emphasizes on road safety. H.I.P is meant to increase the usage and exposure of the English Language in school, especially out of class. Hence, the next H.I.P project would be emphasizing on spontaneous conversational skills and fun learning environment. Appendix :
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 38
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 39 Fun Fest Carnival (Tawau District Level) Nor Azniza binti Aziz (SK Jambatan Putih, Tawau) Type Of Activity: Outreach Participants: • Ambition Show Competition – 42 participants (Pre-schoolers, Level 1 & 2 pupils) • Fun Fest Star Competition – 27 participants (Level 1 & 2 pupils) • Colouring Competition – 25 participants (Level 1 pupils) • Drawing Competition – 20 participants (Level 2 pupils) • Book Review Competition – 24 participants • Ethnic Costumes Competition – 48 participants (Level 1 & Level 2) Objectives: • To encourage pupils to use English in a fun and engaging way. • To boost pupils’ confidence to use English in an authentic situation. • To promote critical thinking among the pupils. • To instil reading habits among the pupils. Description of Activity: SK Jambatan Putih organised The Fun Fest Carnival on 15th October 2022 in conjunction with the celebration of Tawau District Level World Children’s Day. As it targeted kids and family, the Fun Fest Carnival’s Committee prepared a lot of interesting activities and competitions for the visitors. During the carnival, there were food stalls that sold different types of food in the school’s parking lots area, mini games for kids below 7 years old in the field, archery opened for everyone at the field, moving library in a bus from Tawau District Library as well as inflatable playground for young kids. A few competitions took place at the same time such as Ambition Show Competition, Book Review Competition, Fun Fest Star Competition, Drawing Competition, Colouring Competition and Ethnic Costumes Competition. The competitions were opened to all primary schools in Tawau and 19 primary schools participated in the carnival. In Ambition Show Competition, pupils wore their future-dream-job’s costume and presented why they chose that occupation as their ambition. It was incredible to see how cute and confident the pupils were when presenting their dream costume and dream job, especially the pre-schoolers.
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 40 Parents and community were indirectly involved in this competition as well because they needed to prepare the costumes and help the pupils with their speech. Next, in the Book Review Competition, pupils were asked to review an English book that they had read. It was amazing to see that some of the pupils were really able to talk about the book whilst portraying their ideas critically and creatively. More interestingly, many pupils were excited to join this competition and even the hesitant ones stepped out of their comfort zone and challenged themselves to do the book review. Other than these two competitions, the Fun Fest Star Competition also attracted a lot of participations. It is indisputably true that using song is a fun way to use English, not only for young learners but also for adults. The singing competitions were lively that everyone including the parents and the audiences were having a lot of fun. Likewise, for students who are creative and talented in drawings and colouring, the Drawing and Colouring Competition were the right option for them. This competition is no different from any other drawing and colouring competition – the only difference is that the drawings the pupils produced must have English words. Last but not least, the Fun Fest Carnival was one of the most outstanding Highly Immersive Programme (HIP) activities carried out in SK Jambatan Putih for year 2022 as it involved not only pupils, teachers other than English teachers, parents and community as a whole. Despite a few limitations, the carnival was generally a huge success and the pupils especially gained a lot of experience from the carnival. Impact: The impact of this Fun Fest Carnival was not only visible on the day of the competition, but also before and after the carnival was held. Throughout the few weeks of preparation for the district level events, pupils were involved in helping the teachers in many ways. Other than the pupils, the parents and communities had also shown great commitment and cooperation to make sure the carnival was a great success. From preparing the competition posters, labelling competition rooms and labelling directions of the schools’ building, preparing the presents and souvenirs for the winners, preparing trophies, and many more; the committee from the Parent Teacher Association worked hard to help as much as they could. As observed, after the carnival was held, more pupils were showing interest in Englishrelated activities, be it in the classroom or outside the classroom. It is extremely remarkable to see that English which was once used to be considered as a challenging subject for the students is now seen as an exciting subject. Moreover, in some competitions or activities, the teachers were even having a tough time choosing the students as many of them were eager to participate.
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 41 Not only that, non-English teachers are also showing more interest in English-related activities and are ready to give their support and commitment in any English programmes as well. In the previous years, some of the non-English teachers would withdraw themselves from being involved in any English programme. However, nowadays we could always hear most of the teachers talking to each other about how fun and interesting English activities were. Way Forward: During the carnival, many teachers from other schools and the visitors were surprised that we were able to organise such a big event at the district level with only 35 teachers in the school as the committee. It was indeed a huge event for our school. Our school was literally the second-home for a few days for most of the teachers. The teachers, the pupils and the school communities have proven that although we are small in numbers, but we too can make something big if we work together as our Headmistress always highlights, “Together we can make a difference”. Since this carnival was a success, the school administrators, the Headmistress in particular, agree that this kind of activities should be carried out again in the future. It is because this carnival did not only give fantastic impact to pupils from SK Jambatan Putih alone, but also it offered opportunities for the students from other schools to polish their talents. Equally, it is a great way for the parents and communities to be directly involved in the school’s activities and events. Appendix: Drawing & Colouring Competition Ambition Show Competition
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 42 Book Review Competition Fun Fest Star Competition
[SABAH H.I.P MATTERS] Celebrating Inspirations from Schools 43 AQUAMS AGENT4 CHANGE Norhairani binti Awang (SK Buang Sayang, Papar) Pillar of H.I.P Activity: In-class & Outreach Participants: 50 Year 4 and Year 5 pupils & 5 teachers Objectives: • To raise awareness level of air pollution issues as well as various environmental issues in Sabah including waste management and water pollution. • To expose the children rights to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. • To deliver knowledge to the children on how to participate in reducing environmental issue such as waste management by practising 5R in their daily life. • To provide opportunities to use English as a medium of communication. Description of Activity: Our school was chosen to be part of the project in collaboration with Gaya Teacher Training Institute, UNICEF and Sabah Environment Protection Department (EPD) on air quality monitoring for school in Sabah (AQUAMS). The collaboration started from September 2022 and would last for a year. There were a series of events under this initiative. Firstly, on 31 October 2022, two English teachers from our school were called to attend a training which aimed to assist teachers to prepare teaching and learning materials for Year 4 students in conjunction with this project. This project involved 50 pupils. The pupils would learn environmental issue through videos given by the organiser and they would experience many interesting activities in class in order to help them to understand environmental issues and how the issues are effecting children’s health and life. On 5th December, eight pupils and two teachers were invited for a day device training at Shangri -La Tanjung Aru Kota Kinabalu. The training focused on introduction to the AQUAMS Project, get to know the hardware or devices, basic coding workshop and exposure to current global environmental global issues. The pupils were excited to explore as they gained new knowledge. They were quick learners too! Next, KK Coder is scheduled to install the device at the designated area at our school in February 2023. They had conducted a site visit prior to the installation as to check the suitability of the location. We are expecting to further explore the project after having the device installed.