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Best Practice Award (BPA)

Definition

10.              The Best Practice Award (BPA) recognises a school for its effective practices and systems that lead to desirable education outcomes, academic or non-academic.  There are four award categories for the BPA.  They are: Organisational Effectiveness, Student All-Round Development, Staff Well-Being, and Teaching and Learning.

Winners

11.              This year, 14 schools will be presented with 20 BPAs.  The breakdown is as follows:

§         Six schools will receive the BPA for Student All-Round Development;

§         Eight schools will receive the BPA for Staff Well-Being; and

§         Six schools will receive the BPA for Teaching and Learning.

These winners will receive a plaque for each category of the BPA.  The details are given in Annexes A, A2, A3.

12.              A comparison of the number of BPAs won by schools in 2003, 2004 and 2005 can be found in the table below:

Sustained Achievement Award (SAA)

Definition

13.              The Sustained Achievement Award (SAA) recognises a school’s ability in sustaining good outcomes over a number of years, in either academic or non-academic areas.

Winners

14.              This year, 153 schools will be presented with 216 SAAs.  The breakdown of these 216 SAAs is as follows:

§                16 SAAs for Academic Value-added;

§                19 SAAs for Aesthetics;

§                19 SAAs for Sports;

§                69 SAAs for Uniformed Groups; and

§                93 SAAs for Physical Health.

15.              The 153 winning schools comprise:

§          63 Primary Schools[6] winning 76 SAAs;

§          87 Secondary Schools[7] winning 125 SAAs; and

§           8 Junior Colleges[8] winning 15 SAAs.

The winning schools will receive a plaque for each category of the SAA.  The details are given in Annexes A, A2, A3 .

16.              A comparison of the number of SAAs won by schools in 2003, 2004 and 2005 can be found in the table below:

17.              23 of these winning schools are also first-time winners of an SAA.  A list of the schools can be found at Annex B (the Annex is in pdf format).

Lee Kuan Yew National Education Award (LKY NE)

18.              Started in 2002, the Lee Kuan Yew National Education (LKY NE) Award recognises schools that have made special effort to design and implement innovative and effective programmes to equip our students with the basic attitudes, values and instincts which make them Singaporeans.  As the LKY NE Award is the pinnacle of all NE awards, winners of the LKY NE Award will be deemed to have attained the Outstanding Development Award for National Education.

19.              This year, the LKY NE Award will be presented to Greenridge Primary School.  The school will receive a plaque and a cash award of $3000.

Outstanding Development Award (ODA)

Definition

20.              The Outstanding Development Award for National Education [ODA (NE)] recognises schools' consistent efforts in establishing strong and sustainable processes to ensure the inculcation of NE values among students.  The first ODA (NE) will be given out this year.

Winners

21.              This year, the ODA (NE) is awarded to eight schools.  They are:

a.                        Chongfu Primary School;

b.                        Pasir Ris Primary School;

c.                        Rosyth School;

d.                        Telok Kurau Primary School;

e.                        Bendemeer Secondary School;

f.                          Nan Hua Secondary Secondary;

g.                        New Town Secondary School; and

h.                        Hwa Chong Institution (College Section). 

(B)  A Holistic Approach: The School Achievement Tables

Broadening of Information on School Achievements

22.              The School Achievement Tables provide a broader picture of schools’ performance, so that they capture schools’ achievements in both the academic and non-academic domains.  These comprise:

a.                        Academic Value-added Awards;

b.                        Physical & Aesthetics Awards;

c.                        Character Development Awards[9];

d.                        Best Practice Awards; and

e.                        Special Awards (SDA and SEA).

Please see Annex D1, Annex D2 for the 2005 School Achievement Tables for secondary schools.

23.              In addition, the following are other sources of information on the achievements of schools that will also be available to the public:

a.                       Honour Rolls of schools that have performed exceedingly well in the different domains of the expanded Masterplan of Awards[10];

b.                       Web-based System (accessible at http://www.moe.gov.sg/schdiv/sis), which will allow parents and students to generate comparative lists of schools based on specified parameters.    

c.                       Individual School Pic, which will be available in both the web-based system and the annual posting booklets; and

d.                      School websites maintained by individual schools.

Banding of Schools

24.              Since 2004, MOE has shifted from ranking schools based on exact academic scores to banding schools with similar academic performance.

25.              Secondary schools are placed in bands of one O-level point[11] width.  For the Special/Express course, schools with average L1B5 of 18 points or less (after rounding down to the nearest integer) will be grouped into 9 bands.  Likewise, for the Normal course, schools with average L1B4 of 23 points or less (after rounding down to the nearest integer) will be grouped into 6 bands.

26.              As in previous years, secondary schools with small candidature (fewer than 40 students), those not admitting Secondary One students in 2006, or those closed in 2005, are excluded from the School Achievement Tables.  In addition, secondary schools that offer the Integrated Programme are also excluded.  The list of secondary schools that are excluded from the banding exercise can be found at Annex E .

27.              Explanatory notes on how to read the School Achievement Tables can be found at Annex F (the Annex is in pdf format).

Conclusion

28.              The School Achievement Tables, together with the other sources of information such as Honour Rolls, web-based system, School Pics and individual school websites, will provide a holistic picture of schools’ performance.   This will help parents and students make more informed decision when selecting schools.  The information will also help schools to reflect on their performance and devise strategies to provide holistic education.

List of Annexes

[1] The MOE Masterplan of Awards was instituted in 1998 as part of the implementation of the School Excellence Model (SEM). The SEM is a framework for school appraisal that emphasises a holistic approach to education with equal focus on processes as well as results.

[2] As is the current practice for winners of SAA and BPA, winners of the Special Awards will be allowed to use the logo of the awards on their official letterheads and other publicity materials for as long as the awards are valid.

[3] The first Outstanding Development Awards (ODA) for National Education will be given out this year.

[4] Achievement Awards in the categories of Aesthetics, Sports and Uniformed Group refer to the awards won at the various national level competitions such as the National Championships and Singapore Youth Festival (SYF) Central Judging.

[5] These awards include the Sustained Achievement Awards (SAA), Outstanding Development Awards

(ODA), Best Practice Awards (BPA), School Distinction Award (SDA) and School Excellence Award (SEA).

[6] Includes the primary section of full schools.

[7] Includes the secondary section of full schools and Hwa Chong Institution.

[8] Includes the college section of Hwa Chong Institution.

[9] The Outstanding Development Awards (ODA) and Development Awards (DA) given out in 2005 only include the National Education (NE) category.

[10] Please see Annexes A1-A3 for the 2005 Honour Rolls.  Information on the composition of the Honour Rolls can be found in Annex F.

[11] For Special/Express course, this is based on average L1B5, which is the average of students’ aggregate grades in L1 (English or Higher Mother Tongue Language) and the best 5 subjects.  For Normal course, this is based on average L1B4, which is the average of students’ aggregate grades in English and best 4 subjects.  The smaller the values of L1B5 and L1B4 scores, the better the performance of a school.

Source: www.moe.gov.sg  Press Release 20 Sep 2005