CCA Previews 2013 16 January 201319 December 2014

CCA Preview ’13: Football

Reading Time: 3 minutes

by Joel Chong (13S03A)

“Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes.” – Gary Lineker, England football legend.

That’s true, but not entirely. For one, A Division matches are played for a reduced 80 minutes. But there is more. Imagine playing at the Jalan Besar Stadium with hordes of friends and schoolmates cheering you on. Imagine embarking on a jinking run, beating one, two, three players before unleashing an unstoppable shot into the goal. With its fair share of thrills and spills it brings with it the ecstasy of winning which may suddenly turn into the heartbreak of losing and the regret which long remains etched in the memory.

But above all, Lineker is right: football is a team sport in which 22 men chase after a ball – not alone, but together, as a team. Here at Raffles Football, there is no space for the individualists, the show boaters and crowd pleasers. It is team above self. Though our team is filled with unique members with differing views and backgrounds, we press on and look to iron out the differences. It’s truly “one for all and all for one”.

Coached by one of the best youth coaches in Singapore, RI Football has traditionally taken its place amongst the ‘Big Four’ of JC football. After an unfortunate blip last season, the passion to play and desire to bring the trophy home is as strong as ever.

“Width and depth support, mobility, penetration, creativity,” replies coach Philippe Aw, when asked what the team aspires towards. Drills, passing, shooting and runs are all part of the rigorous training sessions designed to build technique and physical fitness. The team frequently meets up for extra “self-training” sessions to do runs, work out in the gym or simply kick a ball around together. We have also braved the rigorous six-day training week during season, when we had to juggle football and school work as well as the taxing physical trainings – climbing 24×3 stories with barely a break in between sets. Apart from training sessions, playing tchoukball, watching movies and going out to binge eat are all activities through which the team comes together to relax and bond.

Members can look forward to playing matches on a frequent basis, with friendly games with other schools and clubs planned out for game time and experience. These games lead up to the A Division Football Competition in which JCs compete for the coveted national title. In addition to games and training, Raffles Football also plans CIP events to teach less fortunate kids basic soccer skills.

Joining Raffles Football will not only help improve one’s physical fitness and coordination, but will bring many intangible benefits. The memories of hanging out with your buddies after training sessions or going to watch a game together rank amongst the precious times one will reminisce after one’s JC years. Football allows one to escape the overwhelming workload and deadlines and simply take a break and enjoy. Raffles Football is summed up nicely by striker Jiang Peicun, 13A01A, who came up with this year’s team cheer – “One team. One dream. Raffles, Champions!!”

CCA Previews 2013 16 January 201319 December 2014

CCA Preview ’13: Piano Ensemble

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Perhaps because of the word “Ensemble,” the images most members would associate with our CCA are probably:1) an entire ensemble packed onto stage, simultaneously tickling the ivories of ten grand pianos, or 2) about twenty people squeezed shoulder-to-shoulder at the keyboard of a grand total of one piano, each passionately banging away at about two keys each.

Sounds familiar? If it does, don’t worry, you’re not alone! About the whole of PE Batch ‘13 was with you in our first impressions.

As much as the Piano Ensemble would like to offer such a visual spectacle, we don’t have quite enough space or resources to put up such a show. Still, though we might not be able to stage a 30-something hand masterpiece, rest assured, we certainly do more than the usual solo playing! In their two years here, members have the chance to perform duets, duos and even triets with other like-minded piano enthusiasts, batchmates and friends. Engaging, fun, yet professional – or at least, what we feel to be so – this CCA hopes to fill what usually is a technically demanding process of practising an instrument, with plenty of enthusiasm and interest. After all, quality does come over quantity.

And quality is definitely something that we strive for, be it in our annual concert, competitions or smaller-scale recitals. This is evident by the consistently stellar results attained by the CCA’s members in the annual inter-JC piano competition – Vivace, the pianistic equivalent of the SYF – for which we are happy and thankful that we have been clinching the gold award every year since we first participated in 2005. The ensemble’s endeavour for excellence is also reflected in its innovative and out-of-the-box concert themes, which include “For Euridyce” (2005), “Child’s Play” (2009), and most recently, “Légende” (2012).

As German poet Berthold Auerbach once said, “Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” If you’re wondering what else we engage in apart from performances and competitions, RI PE is also heavily engaged in community service, in hopes of sharing and spreading our passion for music to others, and, in doing so, help them discover the profound healing powers of this medium for emotion. Each year, our CCA undertakes several different types of projects with different beneficiaries every year. These comprise giving monthly hour-long lunch-time recitals at the Singapore General Hospital as well as offering weekly piano lessons to the children of Chen Su Lan Methodist Children’s Home.

And what can you expect from our weekly CCA sessions? We’d really like to think that anything goes – planned sessions with Master classes, musical sharing, rehearsals and even the much-feared pre-concert Quality Control checks will definitely be on the programme. However, just as much, if not even more time will be devoted to batch planning, discussions and even just bonding time, because the direction of any CCA is ultimately determined by all its members. You can expect spontaneous improvisations, spontaneous practices, and a lot of laughter and inside jokes forming.

So if you are a piano enthusiast seeking to showcase and develop your pianistic talents, or a compassionate pianist who wishes to propagate love through music, or a hobby player who’s simply bored of playing the piano alone, then look no further, the doors of Piano Ensemble are wide open for you!

CCA Previews 2013 16 January 201319 December 2014

CCA Preview ’13: Biosoc

Reading Time: 3 minutes

By Doriprismatica atromarginata Class: Gastropoda

Biosoc 2012 at the Biodiversity Pond – our backyard

Be it molecular biology, ecology or the ever-popular medicine, the Raffles Society for Biological Sciences (affectionately known as ‘Biosoc’) caters to all interests in the wide field of Biology.

Much to the dismay of some, the club does not spend 2 hours every Thursday ‘mugging’. Instead, members delve into any aspect of Biology that is of interest. As a completely student-planned and student-run CCA, the content of sessions is highly flexible. The topic for the day could be a member’s pet interest, a presentation of another’s scientific research or an in-depth analysis of the latest biology-related news.

Sessions cover not only the theoretical concepts, but also involve active hands-on practical aspects in the lab. The occasional field trip out of school is also something you can look forward to as a member, along with talks by alumni or professionals to help you decide your university course and find out more about a career in Biology.

What can you look forward to as a member of Biosoc? Well, at the start of the year, the club will have a CCA camp to welcome the new J1s, which conveniently includes a field trip that will add to the member’s Learning Journey component of the Raffles Diploma. Later in the year, the club collaborates with all the other Science clubs in RI (Y5-6) to organize ‘Eureka!’, a science competition for secondary school students.

In an effort to reach out to the rest of the school, the club also conducts a frog dissection during Biology Week – an initiative by the Biology Department. Participants get to cut open the fresh carcass of a chloroformed bullfrog under the careful guidance of club members! Working with the Singapore Heart Foundation, the club will spend one Saturday morning going from door to door in HDBs to collect data on the key health indicators of the resident’s such as taking their height, weight and blood pressure, along with educating them on the risk of cardiovascular diseases. The club also participates in the annual International Biomedical Symposium where members will undergo intensive training by alumni medical students as they absorb one medical textbook after another in an effort the do the school proud.

Informal outing to Gardens by the Bay. The above picture shows an incomplete CCA and is not representative of the gender ratio in the club.

As an academic CCA, attendance will count towards the Cognitive domain for the Raffles Diploma, but that is not the sole benefit of joining Biosoc. With a comfortable size of 20 odd members, you will find yourself among friends of similar interest and be exposed to different topics of Biology. Tightly-knit and bonded, Biosoc is the perfect place to explore and further your interest in Biology.

So who can join Biosoc? Anyone and everyone with a strong interest for life sciences and a knack for investigating the mysteries of life is welcome. Potential members do not have to be Biology students, much less in Biology Raffles Academy or Biology Olympiad to join. There are some Physics students in the CCA, who wanted to nurture their passion for Biology despite not being able to take it as a subject! Perhaps the only consideration is this: with dissections of various organs and caterpillars as CCA pets, it is certainly not for the squeamish!

CCA Previews 2013 13 January 201319 December 2014

CCA Preview ’13: Audio-Visual Unit

Reading Time: 3 minutes

By Melissa Tham 13SO5A

Although getting CIP hours and watching free concerts is very appealing, there is definitely more to Audio Visual Unit (AVU). AVU is the CCA that keeps your numerous school concerts and events going. We control what happens behind the scenes, from the most basic — making sure the stage is lit when it’s supposed to be, and enabling the performer to be heard over the crowd through the use of the microphones— to the more complex—controlling the sound quality of the instruments as it blasts from the speakers, and spinning the moving lights so it truly feels like a rock concert!

Other than the tangible benefits of many CIP hours (active members can easily attain 150 hours over the CCA year), AVU members have lots of opportunities to meet people from many other CCAs, especially performing arts, from the events that AVU does. Working with various performers does allow members to expand their social circle and make new friends, especially after numerous rehearsals! Moreover, audio-visual geeks will love playing with the cool equipment we have in school. The experience of being in the control room and literally controlling the situation (lights, sounds, action!) is a very enriching one. The job satisfaction comes from the feeling of working under pressure, striving to do your best during the actual event when there are no second chances, and finally seeing the audience leave with happy faces.

The CCA does not have regular sessions; attendance comes from serving at compulsory events like morning assembly and covering events. This ad-hoc system means that AVU members independently sign up for events that they are free to go for, which may be beneficial for those with unusual schedules.

Training camps are conducted after induction, where the technical knowledge will be taught to the new members. Most of the learning comes “on the job”, especially in the events right after training, as Year 6 members will teach and guide new members to manage an event well. General Meetings are also conducted occasionally for the CCA members to meet up, have fun, and bond with each other! In addition to continuous event coverage throughout the year, the CCA will meet for induction, orientation training camps, media training, as well as handover and farewell around May.

While some might have the misperception that AVU is a slack CCA due to the lack of regular sessions or how members get to go for free concerts, active members will testify that successfully coordinating the lights and sounds of an event is a rewarding challenge that does not come easy.

As the Technical Head Lucy Luo (13S06R) says, “AVU is a fun and worthwhile CCA to join, not just for the paper benefits of the CIP hours, but more importantly for the experience of working with different people and excelling under pressure. Also, the technical part is really fun!” Furthermore, as current member Joanne Tan (13S06R) says, “AVU has been a really great CCA to me. I really treasure the experiences I’ve had and the people I’ve gotten to know through AVU.”

Look out for our interviews come CCA feste, and join us if you are interested!

CCA Previews 2013 13 January 201319 December 2014

CCA Preview ’13: Track and Field

Reading Time: 3 minutes

by Ezra Toh

Citius, Altius Fortius. These are the Latin words which are the very essence of every athlete’s dreams. With its meaning and importance preached at every single Olympics, to the Track and Field athlete, ‘Faster, Higher and Stronger, resounds even more emphatically. Why? The answer is simple. Every athlete competing in any track and field event, be it the 100 meter sprint, the high jump or the discus throw can draw strength directly from the Olympic motto. The Raffles Track and Field team bears this same motto in mind, it pushes itself to the limit, runs with lightning-speed toward its goal, jumps to greater heights and throws itself into the history books.

CITIUS

The entire team at the end of the 2012 season.

First, ‘Citius’, which means ‘faster’ in Latin, represents the nature of our training programs. In track and field, especially sprinting events, world records are surpassed by minute timings, measured by tenths or even hundredths of a second. Olympic athletes train extremely hard, all for the sake of shaving those few milliseconds off their personal bests. Here at Raffles, we do exactly the same. We work our socks off for these tiny improvements. It is not rare for people to heap scorn onto our seemingly inefficient and time-consuming training regimes. Training can either be 3 or 4 times a week, each lasting about 2.5 hours. The programme varies from track work, gym sessions to endurance workouts. Improvements are not immediate; in fact they are, most of the time, painstakingly gradual. However, this is precisely where we learn the true meaning of hard work and patience in our endeavors.

Ng Chin Hui anchoring RI to victory in the 4x400m finals @ National Schools 2012

ALTIUS

This means ‘higher’ in Latin. The Raffles Track and Field team seeks to obtain the ultimate ‘double gold’ achievement at every national championship. However, that is not the only thing we seek. Many intangible benefits are reaped along the way – higher levels of self-discipline when training during season and higher standards of character as demonstrated when we fight for every point despite gloomy circumstances. A few years back, the team managed to clinch double gold at the National Championship but not before a nail-biting fight to the finish. Going into the final day, the team had their back to the wall as our rivals had a commanding lead. Needing to win maximum points for certain events on that day, our athletes held their nerve, and swept the podium in all the long distance events, squeaking past our rivals by a single point. Furthermore, just recently in 2012, the team saw themselves needing to make up a 20-meter gap in the 4x400m relay final. Despite being behind most of the race, the team fought back, showing great determination and resilience, eventually beating our rivals by 3 meters to clinch the gold medal. Instances such as these, are a testament to the character and mental strength of every team member.

FORTIUS

‘Fortius’ means stronger in Latin. Physical strength is needless to say important but the very thing that holds this team together is the strong bonds of friendship and camaraderie within Trackers. Track and Field is no doubt an individualistic sport but without a team to contribute to, each one of us would just be fending for ourselves without anyone to turn to for moral support or encouragement. Hence, the bond between Trackers is ironically strong as everyone plays a part in contributing points for the team to win the national schools title. This may sound unusual, but we speak from experience. With activities ranging from regular team lunches, movie outings and exciting beach trainings, Raffles Track and Field constantly seeks to beef up on our repertoire of off-track activities to foster stronger bonds and relationships within the team. With these strong bonds intrinsically weaved into our CCA, the journey proves to be even more enjoyable and fun-filled.

Lastly, Track and Field is also a lifestyle – where each session can be treated as a chance to keep fit and stay in shape. More than just a CCA, we are a group which constantly seeks to improve ourselves, reach new peaks of excellence and stay bonded all the way. No one gets left behind.

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