23 February 2023 

rd

Dear Parents,

As we head into the long weekend, I write with an update on various matters pertaining to the Senior
School.

Firstly, I continue to work to ‘get to know’ the school. A wide range of students have been up to the office
to enjoy the Tanglin Tingle. The number of donuts eaten has been impressive as indeed are the reasons for
the nominations - tour guides, actors, academics, sport, music, service, competition winners, artists and so
on. The range of achievement is humbling, and with the event now established as a firm favourite among
staff as well as students, I very much look forward to continuing this opportunity. It has also been lovely to
meet a number of parents on side-lines and at events. The recent trip up to Bangkok to witness the SEASAC
winning weekend was a valuable one and the Tanglin parent turnout impressive. It great to see such
passionate and knowledgeable support at these events – thank you.

In recent weeks I’ve also been appearing at the drop off area near the school office and you may have been
wondering why? In essence I am looking closely at the way in which that drop off works in relation to the
staff car park and the student traffic that comes at times from Stars Avenue Entrance (formerly Gate D). This
is all part of understanding how the layout of the senior school could benefit us all, and what improvements
we might make moving forward. Thank you for your sensible driving and the cheery waves in recent weeks.

As you may recall from my previous notes, I am committed to improving infrastructure and provision for all
in the school. Recent conversations about the shape of the school day have provided wonderful
opportunities to learn more about the way in which our school timetable works and I presented some of
my findings to a large group of parent representatives recently. Their excellent work in communicating with
you and their patience through a long presentation is to be applauded.

The feedback prior to that meeting had prompted a number of changes to the plans published some weeks
ago (see diagram below for the latest thinking).
1. We have taken the two tutor/assembly slots and combined them into a longer timetabled
slot that will allow far greater pastoral input through extended tutor periods and/or
assemblies. This will compliment our work in Lifeskills through a more coordinated approach
and also resets the lunch break to a full hour.
2. We retain the two co-curricular slots but given the simplicity and flexibility of the model,
they can now be placed anywhere that optimises co-curriculum opportunities. As such the
below diagram is indicative only, and the final place for those slots is to be decided. It is worth
remembering that those slots were never seen to be the only co-curricular slots and we shall
be building that programme using post 4pm, pre-registration, the two new slots and lunchtimes
to offer a comprehensive set of opportunities in all domains. These changes offer a great
chance to review and refine the co-curriculum offering and the improved planning will assist us
in the delivery on the desire to increase the range of academic enrichment opportunities
through the delivery of societies. These will predominantly but not exclusively be in the
timetabled slots.
As highlighted in the booklet, there are curriculum gains too. In the Middle School we will have a further
four periods per two-week cycle (reduced from six due to the change with tutor/assembly planning) to add
into the curriculum. We are exploring all the options at present but certainly Maths, English and Science
will receive stronger foundations in Middle School as a result of these changes. The new day will also allow
us to add teaching into Upper School. The complex nature of the GCSE timetable does not currently allow
us the even spread we wished for, and you will have noted my concern about option subjects in this area. I
am working with the heads of those subjects and looking at alternatives to resolve this matter, and rest
assured I am determined that no examined subject shall see a deficit in teaching time.

The addition of curriculum time offers new opportunities to review our delivery of subjects and also the
additional areas of academic life such as homework. As you will be aware Mrs Russell (Deputy Head
Academic) is successfully driving the Learning to Learn project across the school and homework is becoming
more focussed as a result. There will be incremental developments on this through the year and Mr Bosch
(Assistant Head Academic) and Mrs Heyworth (Head of Middle School) are supporting this effort by auditing
homework across age groups and monitoring effectiveness. The combined aim is to make homework more
meaningful and effective for learning.

Students who succeed often work extremely hard outside of the classroom and it is a delight to note that
recently Pearson made 156 awards across 145 Tanglin students gaining outstanding grades across a range
of subjects in 2022. Next week I shall attend the ceremony rewarding the five students gaining the top
score in the world, the seven students gaining the top score in Asia and six students gaining the top score
in Singapore. Illustrious achievements indeed and all are to be congratulated for their brilliant success.

As we know, examination results aren’t the measure of a young person, but they do contribute to entering
fantastic higher education opportunities and this year six students have succeeded in being offered a place
at Oxbridge. At Cambridge we have offers to read Law, Computer Science and Engineering and
Biotechnology. At Oxford two students will read the highly prized Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE)
and one will read Chemistry. These life changing moments are also complemented by students receiving
offers at wonderful institutions in the US such as Carnegie Mellon and Pomona and we await news from
Stanford and Brown.

In April, I shall accompany Mrs Williams (Head of University Guidance) and Mr Goodliffe (Assistant Head,
Head of Sixth Form) to the West Coast of the United States. We will visit a range of universities over eight
days and also hold two alumni functions. We are enthusiastic about catching up with alumni and also
understanding their experiences at university and how we can prepare others better in the future. Our
itinerary will focus on Los Angeles and San Francisco, two areas filled with inspirational places such as
Claremont Colleges, UCLA, USC, Stanford, and UC Berkeley. The benefits of gaining insights into the future
of education, university admissions and the Californian perspective on the world of work are
considerable. On our return we shall produce a booklet and presentation of our findings and we look
forward to sharing this with you.

Teaching staff thoroughly enjoy working with engaging and purposeful students, of which we have many. As
a result, retention this year has been extraordinarily high. At the time of writing, we are conducting a search
for a Teacher of Chemistry, but this is in addition to our current levels of staffing in the department and we
are being exacting about the levels of experience and quality of teaching.
Fresh thinking is something we benefit from when we do recruit, and the teaching community is having to
exercise some of this with the recent developments in artificial intelligence. ChatGPT will not have escaped
your notice and I’m sure the impact on education (and homework) has crossed your mind. Mrs Russell is
leading our response with a three-pronged approach. She has developed guidance for staff in school,
working with our excellent librarians to develop further guidance for students and is designing a staff
workshop for the weeks ahead. We look forward to bringing you more on this as we move forward.

In recent years there has been a sense that we are preparing students for ‘jobs that don’t exist yet’. Whilst
I understand the sentiment, and it is true careers do and have changed rapidly, I’m not sure this is entirely
true even in California - that’s for another letter. As such we continue to attempt to offer a range of
experiences at Year 10 for young people to immerse themselves in the world of work and develop their own
thinking in what they would like to do. Thank you for recent support of Mrs Williams’ pleas for more
opportunities. We are nearly there but would love a few more offers from the parent body if that is
possible? If you have an opening for this, please let me know directly, it will be much appreciated.

Lastly, please do contact me via my PA Yana Jamil (Yana.Jamil@tts.edu.sg) or indeed write direct to me at
chris.seal@tts.edu.sg.   
 
Yours faithfully, 
 

Chris Seal 
Head of Senior School