Game For Life Community of Practice
Singapore , 22 Nov 2017
1 year ago, CoachSG started a Community of Practice (CoP) and met for the first time in November 2017 with selected MOE PE HODs and teachers to share best practices for Character and Leadership Development through Sport (CLDS).
Known also as the Game For Life CoP, we met again on 8th November 2017 with more representatives from MOE Primary to Junior College schools, Polytechnics, Institute of Technical Education (ITE), Physical, Sports & Outdoor Education Branch (PSOEB) and National Institute of Education (NIE). At the start of the meeting we revisited the vision of the CoP – established during the first meeting, which is to increase the quantity of individuals creating quality positive experiences through sport.
During the meeting, our invited speakers, Dr. Ralph Pim, Sport Advisor and team consultant who was the ex-Director of Competitive Sports from United States Military Academy at West Point and Mr Muhammad Farhan Mohd Huzaimy from Admiralty Primary School shared their thoughts and experiences on character and leadership development through sport. Dr. Pim who is a global expert on CLDS provided his perspective on the subject matter from the military domain to schools in New Zealand that he has consulted on.
Our other speaker, Mr Muhammad Farhan shared the work of Admiralty Primary School in developing character and leadership through Co-Curricular Activities (CCA). At the end of the sharing, a space was provided for Questions & Answers with the speakers. A common theme in the discussions ran along the lines of the necessity to unpack values into measurable behaviours for character development through sport to occur.
An open space discussion was also arranged for CoP participants to lead conversations on CLDS topics that resonate with them. The remaining participants moved to conversations where they are keen to contribute their thoughts. The topics include exploring developing a CCA toolkit for Character Development and the model of CCA Centric schools in which Boon Lay Secondary is an example. After these small group conversations, the participants gathered back as a large group to share their insights and takeaways with the larger group.
Moving forward, a by-invite-only facebook group which had been created for the CoP serve as a platform for the continuation of conversations on CLDS and sharing of CLDS resources.