St Francis Convent is national choral champ
Published on: Thursday, October 23, 2014
KOTA KINABALU: SMK St Francis Convent emerged as the National Champion after beating 14 other secondary schools from throughout the country in the Choral Speaking category of the just-concluded National-level English Language Unity Carnival.The 31-member choral speaking team, drawn from Forms One, Two and Four classes, reportedly touched the hearts of the appreciative audience with their beautiful rendition of The Gift of Life. Scriptwriter Amanda Marie Pain Stephens is a student of Form 4 Science. Each participant received a championship trophy.On top of it, the school also won the Best Conductor's Award, received by Alyssa Naomi Teh, a favourite among teachers and students.
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Deputy Prime Minister cum Minister of Education, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin launched the Education Ministry-organised carnival at the Bukit Gambang Resort City in Kuantan. School Principal Pang Shat Muai attributed the team's success to sheer determination and self-confidence."I would also give credit to the English Language teachers involved in improving the choral speaking script until its 6th edition, and those responsible for training the students," she said.They are Sim Poh Hoon, Loh Pack Swan, Sister M. Carmen Cordova and Tok Fen Fen. Of the foursome, Sim and Sister Carmen were tasked to coach the girls.SMK St Francis Convent also clinched the top spot in the National-level Choir Competition for Secondary Schools in 2009. It was also held in Kuantan.
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According to Amanda, they have been practising hard since April this year for the choral speaking competition."But we decided to change it halfway because our teachers felt that the old script was not strong enough, and that its content would not touch people's hearts," she said.
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What inspired Amanda to produce the script for choral speaking is interesting. "The inspiration came during one of my chemistry lessons when I was tired of listening to covalent and ionic bonds. So I decided to start writing this script," she shared.Prompted by what she thought people took for granted, she came up with The Gift of Life, saying the script has a lot of her soul and internal thoughts in it.A surprised Alyssa, also a Form Four Science student, said she did not expect to be adjudged Best Conductor, realising that other conductors from other states were a force to be reckoned with. "To me, they were very intimidating," she remarked.On how she acquired her skills, she said she had been observing the performance of other conductors in previous competitions.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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