Principal's Message
Meridian Secondary turns 9 in 2025. Not many years ago, turning 9 in Singapore was a significant milestone. From 1979 to 1991, students were streamed to 3 different courses at the end of Primary Three. Long story short, some of us who grew up in that system had friends who were in Primary 8 when they took the PSLE, or took a different exam called the Primary School Proficiency Examination. That system has of course evolved. We now leverage on Subject-Based Banding (SBB) where students, at different stages of their education, are able to offer subjects at different demand levels corresponding to their readiness. SBB builds on the strengths of streaming – students take subjects at the level they are able to experience success, while enabling porosity – even as it seeks to remove the stigma of labelling that streaming has become synonymous with.
We welcome 292 Sec 1 students in 2025. They join the 2024 cohort as the first two cohorts to not only experience full subject-based banding but to sit for the Singapore-Cambridge Secondary Education Certificate (SEC) examination at the end of their Secondary Four year. The SEC exam will comprise different papers for each subject level, similar to the current A-Level examination, in which students take subjects at H1, H2, and H3 levels; and the PSLE, where students take subjects at standard or foundation levels. These students will receive an SEC that reflects the subjects and subject levels that students offer.
Not only systems evolve, but societies and generations, too. Every student cohort is different, and every school will continue to adapt its processes to provide them with positive school experiences that develop them to become better persons for others and give them the keys to open many doors when they leave. Sound academic foundations and strong social-emotional competencies are core, but the programmes and structures to build them need to evolve. In Meridian, we are proud to continue building our strengths in sports, leadership and the aesthetics, while exposing our students to a myriad of activities to stretch their potential.
Equally necessary, the significant adults in the students’ lives will also need to evolve in the way they build quality relationships, both with the students, and amongst themselves. To facilitate the former and as part of the National Mental Health and Well-being Strategy, MOE has worked with the Ministry of Social and Family Development and Health Promotion Board to develop Parenting for Wellness. This is an initiative, announced at MOE’s Workplan Seminar 2024, to empower parents with key knowledge and skills to build strong parent-child relationships, strengthen their children's mental well-being and resilience, and parent effectively in the digital age.
For the latter, MOE's Engagement Charter complements the Guidelines for School-Home Partnership developed in 2019. Students learn from the way adults interact and nurture their own relationships. And these documents seek to strengthen this pillar and help both staff and parents role model the right values and behaviours in our students. When all the adults practice mutual courtesy and respect as encapsulated in the charter, we will ensure not only a safe work environment for staff to thrive in but also lead to an eco-system that fosters both purposeful individual agency and collective community excellence.
As Meridian approaches its 10th year, there is no doubt that our community, our country, the world and life itself, will continue to evolve. But unlike the cliché of evolution being a process of survival of the fittest, we believe that evolution should enable all to flourish in their individual uniqueness. It is that uniqueness that will strengthen the collective fabric of society. We should all strive for that.
Yours-in-Education,
Mohamed Razali