Yu Neng Primary School

Narratives

The Global Village: fostering community

The school has a rich history where it started from 1935, with its beginnings from a village school. The buildings are broken into smaller clusters of outdoor and indoor learning and play areas to capture the school’s origins as a small village school.

The heart of the school is designed as an event space for social encounters and activities: a village square. The acts of social interaction between children reflect the merger of two neighbouring schools in the history of the present school and its united identity. The event space consists of a series of four covered decks and an open-air plaza. To reach it, one enters the entrance lobby and is led strategically through a main corridor to the decks and plaza, which flows onto the cafeteria, library and courtyards.

Multi-level Living Rooms: orchestrating chance encounters

The multi-levelled covered decks create a stack of ‘living rooms’ that allow the vertical layering of activities:
1. The Galleria: an exhibition area at the 1st storey that is supplemented along the main street corridor by a permanent exhibition in colourful wall murals of global habitats with their characteristic flora and fauna. This creates a global environmental consciousness in children through theoretical learning.
2. The Maths Corner: is created as a niche for children to enhance their creativity through mind games and puzzles, which can be borrowed from a counter here.
3. The Interactive Pods: provide private study and discussion areas outside the staff room on the 2nd storey and the audio-visual room on the 3rd storey.
4. The Arts Amphitheatre: is linked to the Art Studios on the 4th storey. Their exhibition space doubles up as the lobby to the performance amphitheatre. This encourages a fusion of visual arts and performance arts.

The Collaboration Spine: encouraging hands-on learning

The 1st storey spaces are organised as a horizontal layering of activities. It starts at the exhibition area and opens onto the plaza and cafeteria beyond at one end. The plaza allows a space for social interaction through games and play, with the marking of games on plaza floor. Social interaction is also developed within the relatively formal setting of the cafeteria.

On the other end, there are activity decks for formal assembly and informal learning and play. These decks open out to ‘The Vegetable Garden’ and ‘The Fruit Orchard’ in the courtyards between the classroom clusters. This garden and orchard relate the children to the beginnings of the school as a village school and expose them to a lost agricultural and Acadian life. One of the most interesting ecological niches is ‘The Desert’ with its sand and cacti.

The largest ecological niche is the centrepiece of the outdoor areas - The Ecological Boardwalk over a pond and a mini waterfall. The pond and waterfall have lush tropical vegetation. The pond has also a cut-away glass side, which allows the children views of pond life that are usually found only as textbook illustrations. This pushes global environmental consciousness through practical learning.

Borderless Learning

It was with great excitement for the staff and pupils when we shifted back to the brand new school. We have waited patiently for 4 years for the new school to be ready, during which time we have to make the best use of the limited facilities at the holding school.

The school has come a long way since its founding as a village school back in 1935. The new school has somewhat captured the “kampong” (local word for village) spirit where the children studied, played and mixed freely with one another in a closed knitted kampong community. The design of the school is such that several corridor walkways of the various blocks converge at the open space at the centre of the school. This is where many school activities and programs are organized for the pupils. There are many plots open space in the school where pupils can do their homework, project discussion, self- study and remediation. The new school has facilities that cater to the training needs of our pupils. The Music Rooms are equipped with sound proof, parquet flooring and ceiling high wall mirror for aesthetic learning. IT training is facilitated by updated computer equipment in the 3 computer labs. The classrooms are internet ready and are equipped with the necessary AVA equipment to enhance learning.

The school accords great importance to outdoor borderless learning, and builds its design around school compound, eco garden and eco pond are tapped on for the conduct of authentic lessons where pupils construct knowledge amidst nature. The garden is designed with various types of plants and fruits according to the science syllabus. The eco-pond consists of two tiers with waterfall that cascades and dwindles to a lower pool. An upper pool allows pupils to observe marine life through a glass tank. Pavement leading to the eco-garden has been tessellated for the teaching of “Tessellation”.

A Maths corner set up beside the lift promotes learning of mathematics through fun and strategic games. Pupils are free to loan games sets or learn new games from the station masters during recess time and before and after their curriculum hours.

Our Art corridor is adorned with beautiful ceramic art pieces created by our pupils. These art pieces also lines the wall next to the General Office in theme of Corals Reef, Temperate Climate, Tropical Rain Forest and Habitats of the World. The display of pupils art work along the corridor greets stakeholders and visitors as they enter the school premises promises a land of fun and holistic education.

With a school that encapsulates the essence of serious learning amidst aerials of fun, pupils can look forward to an authentic learning experience quintessential for the 21st century.