By Cao Yuhan (24S03M) and Jessica Zhu Yunjie (24A01E)

So, you’ve just started your journey in RI. Having heard so many good things about our unique gap day, we’re sure you’ve been dying to experience it yourself! Before you spend the whole day catching up on sleep, however, us writers are here to assure you that the Raffles Bicultural (China) Programme is definitely worth dedicating your Wednesday afternoons to. 

By Ashley Ong Le Xin (22S03P) 

What defines a nation? Race or religion? A common purpose? 

What is social injustice and how does it manifest? What is the neighbourhood effect? 

Where can we observe gentrification of spaces in Singapore? What are its impacts? 

GCEP is the programme that seeks to answer these questions and more. With a name as wordy as “Governance and Civic Engagement”, GCEP does seem like a complicated mouthful. We are simply, however, a group of 20-odd students who actively share our ideas on a myriad of social issues and love taking apart related concepts and policies. 

By Zhong Song Rong (22A01C) 

‘Why are numbers beautiful? It’s like asking why is Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony beautiful. If you don’t see why, someone can’t tell you. I know numbers are beautiful. If they aren’t beautiful, nothing is.’ – Paul Erdős

If you ever understood the beauty of mathematics, and want to feel it at a greater level, the Math Olympiad enrichment programme is definitely for you. Taught by an external trainer, Dr Chua Seng Kiat, we have weekly sessions every Wednesday afternoon, where we are given plenty of time and freedom to solve past year Singapore Math Olympiad problems. The trainer would start off each session with a brief introduction to mathematical concepts, and then go through a number of examples from it. We would then spend the rest of the session solving the questions provided in the handouts, and the trainer would eventually provide us with the solutions. 

By: Chen Guangyuan (22S06D), Annika Liu (22S06D)

Ever wondered how long it takes for a rocket to reach half the speed of light? Or how to travel across a river in the shortest time possible? Or how a pair of twins could actually be of different ages? If these interest you, then Physics Olympiad training may just be up your alley! 

Physics Olympiad training is a year-long programme in Y5 which prepares students for the Singapore Physics Olympiad (SPhO). These trainings go beyond just extra Physics lessons; they allow students to have an opportunity to expose themselves to advanced physical concepts and learn about how to better describe the world in a quantitative manner. 

By Jason Nathaniel Sutio (22S06U), Mei Feifei (22A13A)

What’s in a ‘just city’? 

That is precisely the kind of ambitious question that the Global Studies Programme (GSP) sets out to answer. Incorporating multidisciplinary thinking between the realms of the arts, natural world, science, technology, humanity and social impacts, GSP aims to develop its students into Renaissance men and women—people who can “talk a little bit about everything”. 

GSP sessions, held from 1pm-3pm on Wednesday afternoons, may seem pretty chill at first glance. Just arrive ten minutes early (the teachers are quite particular about punctuality!), listen to a speaker’s sharing for about an hour, and ask a few questions during the Question & Answer segment.