About Our Project

Over the months we spent in ZigZag Learning, we enjoyed our time learning and preparing for our PSLE together. Apart from our school work, we have learnt a lot about ourselves and each other through the group work and some of us have even become good friends. So, we wanted to continue coming after our exams in September as it would be such an abrupt end to our time together.

Uncle Christian with some of our classmates

Our brain storm session with Aunty Petrine

From the start, Uncle Christian has made it clear to us that the focus will not just be learning more things but rather to apply what we learn and experience that process through a project with specific goals. To be honest, we don’t think any of us really knew what he meant as we were just happy to get together again. But as the project unfolded and we kept growing and changing our initial ideas, we realised what he meant. Many of us have learnt through other programmes and in school that we need to “get out of our comfort zone”. Through this project, we experienced what it is like to do so. We also experienced the bitter pill of rejection when the people we approached for interviews turned us down. On the first of our interview days, we had four rejections in a roll! Though, we were told beforehand that some will reject our request for interviews, we were still devastated. Thankfully, we have the persistence of Aunty Petrine who is always there to coach, encourage, persuade, nag, challenge and even push us.

We broke up into teams for discussion

We figured the questions before each interview

It took us quite some time to really work as a team and it must have really frustrated Uncle Christian as he grows ever more convinced that we are the product of our system; Kiasu (afraid to lose) and Kiasi (afraid to die or make mistake). Although we were taught in our very first session how to use mind maps, none of us used it to record any of our interviews. We were not sure why, but he said "change requires courage and commitment" and we will not use it unless we dare to try and are convinced of its benefits. 

Finally we had our structure to our project

We mapped out the vicinity's amenities

There were some tense moments when some of us did not meet our timeline and had to ‘face the music’ in front of the group. It is through these situations that we really see the importance of teamwork and the consequence of not keeping our commitments to each other. Well, it is not all work and no play though. We would arrange to meet a couple of hours before each session, drop our stuff at the centre and play badminton, wave boarding and chat over bubble teas.  

We face the music...

We work together...

We had our ‘zigs’ and our ‘zags’ over the last couple of months on this project and are thrilled to see the results of our efforts. Now, we feel strangely connected to the St George’s community – the places, the people and its history. Hence, we named this project “My St Georges” and hope that other ‘St Georgians’ will get to know their physical and social environment through this blog and kindle in them a sense of pride and belonging to this community.

We make friends...

We had fun...