Our Pride

Class of 2022 - Valedictorian’s Speech

Good afternoon Mr Ong, Mrs Lee, Mr Amran, teachers, parents and friends. I’m Koh Sin Eur from Primary 6-2 and I’m honoured to be given the opportunity to speak to you today. Today is a very special day for us, as we, P6 Vistalites, have reached an important milestone in our lives .

Compared to other batches of graduates, I believe that this year’s graduates have been through something defining. What I’m talking about is of course— Covid-19. This has really changed our primary school lives.

We were still in Primary 4 when we had the circuit breaker in 2020. That was the first time I came across the term HBL — or home-based learning. When the school first announced it, I found myself wondering, “Can we really have lessons at home?” In the beginning, I felt that HBL was much better than attending school.; however, I soon faced some challenges, from unstable networks to issues with passwords. Fortunately, all of us became more confident on how to handle such situations over time. We learnt to take such issues in our strides and make home-based learning work for us.

By far, the biggest difficulty I faced during HBL was focusing on my work. During the circuit breaker, my whole family was home. There were times when we were all video conferencing and we had to find a quiet corner to do it without disturbing one another. Even when my family members were not on Zoom, it was difficult for me to focus on my lesson as they might be moving around. Despite their best efforts to sneak around and whisper, it was challenging at times to keep the environment quiet and conducive. I can only imagine how much more challenging it was for peers of mine with bigger families.

Without my teachers watching over my shoulder during HBL, I could easily have slacked off, pretending to listen to lessons while daydreaming or not doing my work diligently. Honestly, there were times I was tempted to do so. This leads me to one important lesson that I have to take more responsibility for my work. My teachers and parents can do everything possible to ease our learning at home but if I do not have the right mindset, it will all go down the drain.

I’m sure that many of my peers also felt bored during the circuit breaker. The joy of not having to go to school soon gave way to the despair of not being able to meet up with friends. Also, we were not able to participate in activities like the P5 Camp and the NE show. All my peers, including myself, felt that life was really unfair!

Well, we came to terms with it, managed to persevere and here we are now. Our experiences over the past 3 years have made us more resilient as students. Fortunately, activities like camps and learning journeys are starting to be held again. We have just had our learning journey to the Asian Civilisation Museum in August, something which we were excited about and thoroughly enjoyed. And I sincerely wish that future batches will be able to experience and enjoy all that we have missed.

At this point, I would like to thank my peers and close friends. I treasure the moments we spent together even more now because I know that it could all be taken away. I’m grateful to you, my friends, as school would be a bit duller and less colourful without you.

Other than friends, the other important person in our primary school lives are our teachers. Teachers are like our parents in school and I would like to thank all the teachers who have played a part in my life in North Vista in particular, Mr Huang Shi Hao and Ms Tan Hui Min, for guiding me through my leadership journey as a Vista Student Leader; Mr Tan Kheng Eng, my Form, English and Mathematics teacher, for being very patient with us; and Ms Liu Ling Zhu, my Mother Tongue teacher, for all the fun lessons and encouragement.

As we look back on our 6 years in North Vista Primary, some of you may, like me, be feeling emotional. It is okay to cry. Don’t bottle it all up. However, after you cry, wipe away your tears, lift up your head and look towards your future with hope, nourished by all the wonderful memories - memories of not just significant events but of bits and pieces of our daily lives in school: of time spent in class with our teachers; of moments spent playing and chatting with friends in the Bistro. And even though we did not have our P5 camp, we have our in-person graduation performance. Time spent sweating and rehearsing for the performance; and laughing at our own clumsy selves are no less precious.

Just like clouds in the sky are made up of tiny droplets of water, I hope that you, my peers, have created your own clouds, made up of snippets of memories that you can cherish and look back on fondly.

I wish everyone the best for your future!

Congratulations and thank you!

Koh Sin Eur
18 November 2022