The short stories of three of our Year 1 Literary Arts students, Olivia Liu, Nicole Teng and Rochelle Lee, were published in Snack Fiction Anthology: A Collection of short stories from All In! Young Writers Festival in July this year! They were among the youngest writers to be published in an anthology that contains submissions from students from River Valley High, National University of Singapore and the Singapore American School.

Copies of Snack Fiction Anthology can be found at libraries in Singapore. Congratulations, girls!

National Poetry Competition 2017

Photo courtesy of Poetry Festival Singapore 

Congratulations to Year 5 Theatre student Raman Mruthika on clinching the top prize for Tamil poems at this year's National Poetry Competition!

Organised by Poetry Festival Singapore, the theme for this year's competition was "Regardless of Race". The violence and mayhem caused by race riots in Singapore's formative years highlight the need for harmony and cohesion in this multiracial society. Poetry can provide a space to address biases and for everyone on this island to seek respect and to realise dreams regardless of race.

14th Raffles Institution Inter-school Philosophy Dialogue

Year 3 students Eng Min Ern Sabrina and Jessica Jade Nobleza, as well as Year 4 student Agarwal Jaanvi, won the Gadfly Award at this year's Raffles Institution (RI) Inter-school Philosophy Dialogue!

SOTA was one of the 18 schools which participated in the 14th edition of the Dialogue on 29 July 2017. The theme for this year was Philosophy and the Arts. The Dialogue began with four workshops by practitioners in the fields of drama, music, fine arts and literature. Participants then worked in groups to ponder on several philosophical thought experiments that dealt with issues such as what constitutes as art, the purpose of art, and the value of art to society. Sabrina, Jessica, and Agarwal were selected as the most outstanding student of their groups and were awarded the Gadfly Award. Congratulations, girls!

Read more about the Inter-school Philosophy Dialogue HERE.

Anugerah

Year 6 Music Student Syakirah Noble participated in Anugerah, Mediacorp Suria's singing competition, and was placed 2nd in the finals. Syakirah impressed the judges and viewers with her powerful and emotive vocal performance. One of the judges Taufik Batisah, a local singer and winner of the first season of Singapore Idol, praised Syakirah's performance as one that is on par with the performances on international stages.



Syakirah has this to share about her Anugerah journey: "It was a very fun learning process and an experience that money could never buy. I learned about the habits and skills one should cultivate when working with the professionals, such as being on time, being cordial with the producers, and also treating the crew in charge with the utmost respect because without them, there would be no show at all."

"In this competition, I also learned time management skills, how to juggle learning new songs consecutively each week and school at the same time, as well as the discipline of keeping up with school work. The most important thing I learned throughout this process was to trust yourself, and to shut out the negativity when you begin to doubt yourself and your skills. It's truly important to do so because this is something that all artists face, and this is the one thing that gets in our way of excelling at what we do. Being a part of this competition has helped me to grow as a young musician and as a young adult.”

Elite Talent Academy 2017


Photo courtesy of Ms Celine Tan

Some of our Dance students under the Arts Excellence Programme participated in the Elite Talent Academy organised by the Commonwealth Society of Teachers of Dancing (CSTD) earlier in June this year!

Our students did well and some of them won awards too!
Dineaish s/o Rajendran (Year 2) was the winner in the 13+ Group A and Toh Yu (Year 2) clinched the Silver medal in the same group!
In the 13+ Group B, Courtney Mae Lim (Year 4) was the winner! Myrabeth Yeo (Year 3) and Francine Ho (Year 5) performed well in the same category and took home the Gold medal and Silver medal respectively!

Congratulations to Year 3 Visual Arts student Kyra Poh who bagged two gold medals in the Solo Freestyle and Solo Speed categories at the indoor skydiving competition, Windoor Wind Games 2017, held in Spain on 3 & 4 February 2017!

Watch her Solo Freestyle routine HERE. 

Together with her team, Kyra also clinched the silver medal in the 4-speed category as well! Her achievements were also reported on The Straits Times HERE.

Mandai ground-seeding ceremony

Division III Debating Championships (D3DC) 2017

Congratulations to the SOTA Debates Team! The team consisting of Hong Whvan Hsin (Year 3), Aum Sebin (Year 4), Dawn Lim (Year 4), Joanne Teo (Year 4) and Nur Sabrina Bte Mohamad Suhaimi (Year 4) emerged as the overall champions of the Division III Debating Championships (D3DC)!

Organised by the Debates Association, Singapore (DAS), this is the third time SOTA has participated in D3DC. Up against more than 10 other schools, this team won all rounds of the competition, including the third and final impromptu round, with the highest points!

SOTA’s second team, consisting of Year 2 students, Rachel Smitha Pary, Megan Tan, Tasneem Begum, Kooi Xiu Min, and Victoria Sung, did well to win two out of three rounds. Dawn, Joanne, Sebin, and Tasneem were also selected as some of the best speakers in the competition!

Well done, SOTA Debates Team, we’re very proud of your achievements at the D3DC!