Arts, Commentary, Op-Eds, Student Issues

Teachers & CCA Leaders Speak Out on SYF Reforms
Reading Time: 3 minutes

By Lye Han Jun (13A01A)

Green, black and white – without the Gold?
(source: Corporate Communications Dept File Photo)

The SYF has long been considered a biennial highlight in the calendar of Performing Arts CCAs. In 2011, RI clinched 9 Gold with Honours, 6 Golds and 5 Silvers across Year 1 to 6.

The Ministry of Education has announced that from next year, the SYF Central Judging will be renamed the SYF Arts Presentation. Instead of receiving awards, schools will receive certificates: distinction, accomplishment and commendation. The existing norm-referenced scheme will be replaced by one that is criterion-referenced, which means schools will no longer be benchmarked against each other. From next year, schools only need to score 75% to attain the highest award, rather than 85%.

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Arts, Commentary

Raffles Players J1 Production: The Bold, the Young, and the Murdered
Reading Time: 4 minutes

By Lye Han Jun (13A01A)
Photos courtesy of Seet Yun Teng

One cannot be faulted for expecting, from the promotional materials for the play, something with a bit more gravitas. The red-black-white colour scheme, the unsmiling cast photo: standard fare for a murder mystery with a psychopath lurking in the shadows. Making your way to your seat in the TSD room entails groping around a thick black shroud, your path lit by a few dinky glowsticks on the floor, à la a makeshift haunted house. The stage manager’s warning to the back row of audience members to take care not to fall off the platform seems to be part of the setup, until the curtains rise and you realise that she’s not doing this to create atmosphere—there is in fact a very real danger of audience members toppling off the platform in a violent fit of laughter.

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Commentary, Internships, Life After Raffles

Diary of an RI Intern: Writing for The Straits Times

Reading Time: 8 minutesBy Regina Marie Lee (13A01B)

If the name Miranda Yeo sounds familiar, you might have read some of her articles in the Straits Times earlier this year. Before graduating from RI in 2011, Miranda took History, English Language and Linguistics, Literature and Math in the Humanities Programme and was Vice-President of the Boon Lay Youth Club. After graduation, she interned at Singapore Press Holdings’ Straits Times Newsdesk from March to June 2012 and is currently studying at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at NTU.

Miranda, pictured here with Boon Lay Youth Club President (2011) Wu Wai Choong Teacher-In-Charge Mr Chan Ter Yue

As some of our Year 5s head out to internships this holiday, Raffles Press talks to Miranda about her experiences. We find out whether her initial interest in journalism persisted after a challenging yet enriching internship, where she had a Hougang resident set his dogs on her while requesting for an interview! She recounts how the eight times a story she wrote didn’t eventually make the paper were “veritable stab(s) to the heart”, and how her initial ideas about “boring old Singapore” were disputed as she met interesting and diverse strangers on the job.

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