In January and February this year, we commenced our annual yearbook photo sessions. At that time, visitors were gradually allowed back on campus, with the necessary visitor registration and security measures. This did not deter 14 wonderful parent volunteers who committed their time and effort to oversee the photo sessions. A big thank you to the parent committee who helped us reach out to parents!
Conscientious, committed and with lots of heart, these 14 parent volunteers did a wonderful job of making sure everything went smoothly, liaising with photographers, teachers, students and the school’s yearbook team.
We asked all of them for feedback on what they enjoyed about being involved in this project, and of course, we also wanted to know what could be improved – sharing their insights here.
Some of our parent volunteers for this event had only joined GESS over the last year, others have been part of our community for up to seven years. All of them were happy about the opportunity to be on campus again – some of them were on campus for the very first time, and for most of the volunteers this was the main reason to sign up to help. Being on campus for a good purpose, getting a better feeling of the community again and seeing their children’s classmates and teachers after Covid-19, which had been quite hard for the last two years. One volunteer shared that she enjoyed her voluntary stint, because she was able to contribute to the photo-taking sessions and liaise with the photographers.
All parent volunteers really enjoyed seeing the students interact and have their photos taken. Volunteer Kasia shared “It felt great to observe the different age groups and their reactions to the photoshoot,” and Diana felt that “seeing the kids strike a pose, without masks on, was absolutely delightful.”
They all agreed that it was great to be back on campus for the first time in a long time. Neima added that “it was amazing to finally get to see the wonderful environment our kids get to grow and learn in” and as Grace put it “It is good to be back!”
Like us, our parent volunteers are also looking forward to being able to go back to having group pictures of the whole class together, and we hope that this will be possible again this coming academic year. They also shared some ideas on what could be added to the yearbook in future editions, for example some ‘behind the scenes’ information on some of our CCAs as well as different teams and groups in general. We have been able to add some more articles and stories in this year’s edition, but will look into how to include even more community stories in upcoming yearbooks.
As our yearbook is for our school community, we are always looking for ways to help our community find a voice in the book. If you have ideas for our yearbook, write to us at yearbook@gess.sg and become part of our yearbook team.
