KUCHING: St Joseph PrivateSchool will commence the coming school year with three Form 1 classes and one class each of Primary 1 and Primary 2.
Good response from the public led the school to open up more classes than planned, according to director Gerald Lee, when met after the groundbreaking ceremony for a new cluster of classroom blocks situation on a two-acre site.
He said the enrolment for Form 1 classes for next year is full but the school is still accepting applications for Primary 1 and 2. The school is also open for Primary 1 and Form 1 registration all the way to the 2017 intake.
Twenty trained and experienced teachers have been recruited to teach classes which will follow the Malaysian national syllabus.
Referring to the recent announcement by the deputy prime minister concerning PPSMI (Teaching of Science and Maths in English), Lee said the school would teach the two aforementioned subjects in English, with the exception of Primary 1 and 2 where students would be taught in both English and BM.
In addition to this, students would be taught the English subject according to theSingaporenational syllabus.
Lee also disclosed that Mandarin would be a compulsory subject for Primary 1 and 2, with up to 10 periods a week dedicated to it. It will also be offered as an optional subject to Form 1 students.
The new school will be equipped with state-of-the-art facilities including a library, science labs, living skills (Kemahiran Hidup) labs, computer labs and language labs.
School sessions are from Monday to Friday, fromt7.30am to 3.40pm(primary school) and3.50pm(secondary school), with extracurricular activities for students after school.
Lee said the school hopes to lead the way in providing holistic education while incorporating character-building and religious studies to produce good citizens for the country.
The secondary school will be headed by a Malaysian Jesuit priest while the primary school administered by the Franciscan Sisters of Sarawak.
Construction work has already begun on the cluster of four blocks hosting 12 classrooms for the new school which is scheduled to be completed by January 2013.
The buildings will cost an estimated RM8 million and will be constructed by Liandar Construction Sdn Bhd.
Until construction is completed, classes will be held at St Bernadette’s.
A simple ground breaking ceremony as well as prayers to bless the construction site was led by Archbishop John Ha yesterday morning.
Building committee member Chris Chua said depending on progress of the construction work as well public demand, the school may be able to offer the full range of classes from Primary 1 to Form 5 or 6 in in three to six years’ time.
Interested members of the public may reach the school at 014- 6956575 or through the Archbishop’s office at 082-242634.