The Principal's Foreword
The Principal’s Foreward 2024
The recently released Forward SG Report laid out a new Singapore vision, one that embraces wider definitions of success. What does a broader definition of success mean? It is not just about shifting from academic to non-academic, personal achievements. More crucially, it is about giving greater recognition to collective contributions over personal achievements. This can help us become a much more heartwarming and cohesive society, one where everyone feels respected and valued.
Over the past four decades, we have grown our school community based on common values such as respect and compassion, a caring and inclusive culture, as well as the Bowen Experience (BE), our robust and unique curriculum that has nurtured Learners, Leaders and Champions. We are well positioned to contribute towards realising this vision of a new society that redefines success.
As Learners, Bowenians are R.E.A.D.Y for the Bowen Experience (BE). The BE includes rich experiences such as Full Subject-Based Banding and Bowen.Explore! to not just develop Bowenians’ individual strengths but also their sense of agency. Bowenians strive to Do Well in all areas, both in their academic and non-academic pursuits to take on the challenges of the future. Guided by a sound moral compass, Bowenians strive to Do Good by learning to be more selfless and to want to make a difference in the community around them.
Guided by our school motto, I Believe, Therefore I am, we believe that all Bowenians can step up and accept the challenge to lead in their own ways. Through both school-wide as well as customised leadership development opportunities, Bowenians grow as future-ready Leaders who can work in diverse teams, build positive relationships with others, and look at the truth and wisdom of multiple perspectives. With change and complexity becoming ‘new normals’ our aspiring leaders must navigate, they will need not just to look outwards but also seek inwards. As their physical, intellectual, emotional and social health are important for thriving, we have also strengthened our efforts to help Bowenians develop self-leadership through the BE. By leading self and taking care of their own holistic well-being, they can then better lead in service of others.
As Champions, Bowenians harness their learning and leadership capabilities to make a positive difference to the world. Our signature ChANgeMakers Programme, which innovatively integrates our Applied Learning and Learning for Life Programmes, nurtures Bowenians as empathetic, socially responsible and inventive thinkers who view problems as opportunities to engineer change. By tapping on their entrepreneurial skills in service of others, and by gaining confidence through applying their strengths, Bowenians are poised to become purposeful changemakers of the future.
Even as we keep an eye on the future, we also draw from the school’s traditional strengths that have been nourished since the school’s founding. Our fundamental values, culture of care, and spirit of ‘Dare to try’ will continue to guide us with passion, genuineness, benevolence, confidence, vibrancy and imagination, as they have done, over the years.
It has been said that the best way to predict the future is to create it. We look forward to writing the next chapter of the Bowen and Singapore story together with our students and stakeholders. We invite past, present and future students to join us in BElieving in themselves and BEnefitting lives, undergirded by a strong sense of BElonging.
Mr. Loh Chih Hui
Principal