Prize Day at Sir Temi Zammit Boys' Secondary School, Mtarfa

The staff and students at Sir Temi Zammit Boys' Secondary School recently celebrated the prize-giving ceremony for the scholastic year 2004/2005.

It was a very enjoyable evening, during which a good number of students were awarded prizes for their achievements at school. The programme included musical scores played by the school band, a folkloristic play and modern dance depicting songs from the Eurovision Song Contest.

The school band, which was made up of four students under the direction of William Debattista, played excerpts from Mozart's Andante and The Music of the Night by Andrew Lloyd Webber, from The Phantom of the Opera.

The memories of the grandfather, Tifkiriet in-Nannu, was the title of the play performed by a good number of students. The actors portrayed the customs and way of life when children used to play in the streets and when a young man used to get the help of the matchmaker (huttab) to express his honest intentions to his future bride. The students sang, played and acted the serene and relaxed way of life so as to portray the contrast between the "now" and "then".

Chris Azzopardi, Helen Camilleri and Julie Galea wrote the script and directed the play, while Lorna M. Attard and Anna Saliba assisted in the production. This play was awarded the Best Production and Best Direction awards when it took part in the Malta Cine Circle Competition for secondary schools.

The performance ended with a lively representation of two songs from the Eurovision song contest, performed by students under the direction of Agatha Sant a member of the School Council. They danced to the rhythm of My Number One and I Do.

The head of school, Carmel S. Micallef, thanked all the participants and also congratulated all the students who were awarded prizes for their academic and personal achievements throughout the recent years. He highlighted the fact that the school's greatest satisfaction is when students excel in academic qualifications and thus pursue other studies at tertiary level. Furthermore, the satisfaction is also felt whenever students leave school embracing a holistic education and sound character. This goal is reached when the educators work hand in hand with parents for the benefit of the students.

Mr Micallef stated that the exemplary behaviour and enthusiastic participation of the majority of the students outweighs that of the few unruly students, who need to be heard and encouraged to comply with the mainstream educational system. This is done by the support of the guidance teachers, the counsellor and in some cases social workers.

On the other hand, there are other satisfactory achievements, such as when Trevor Zahra and Carmel Cauchi spoke to our students about the inspiration for their stories and answered all students' questions related to the books being studied at school and other books published during the years.

There were other occasions when students participated in television programmes and were interviewed about the crafts being produced at school as part of the Comenius project which is now in its third phase. In fact, four students and two teachers have just returned from Vienna after taking part in the Comenius project.

Other groups were taken to Bradford on a school exchange and other cultural visits were organised to Rome and Sicily. There is another visit to Tunisia in the pipeline. At school, we are also presently involving all the school staff and students in reducing, recycling and reusing projects.

Throughout the year three religious processions are held within the school grounds. These commemorate Christmas, Our lady of Sorrows and Corpus Christi.

A new resource room for students with special needs was inaugurated by George Borg, network co-ordinator for special and inclusive education. This facility will cater for the ever-increasing number of students with special needs who will next year amount to about 10 per cent of the school population.

A school internal audit was held in the beginning of this scholastic year, where four officials from the Education Division spent a week monitoring and assessing what goes on at our school. This came out to be a unique experience which revealed our strengths and weaknesses in a professional way.

This was the first time that our school started giving book prizes to second-placers. This was made possible through the dedication of the parents, members of the school council, especially Ms Sant. Also their participation in fund raising made it possible to increase the reading material in the school library. This participation may attract other parents to involve themselves in such activities in order to enhance the parent-teacher-student co-ordination so as to achieve the holistic educational set up for the benefit of our students.

This was also reiterated by Alfred Mallia, director operations, who was the main guest during the prize-giving ceremony. He stressed the importance of parent involvement in schools. He urged those present to approach the school premises so as to take part in the education and upbringing of their offspring along with the professionals at school. Only with such involvement will good behaviour and sound character formation be guaranteed.

He highlighted the importance of the passing on of love and discipline and the inclusion of the awareness of young people's rights and obligations. He also congratulated the successful students on their achievements throughout the scholastic year.

Finally, I would like to say well done to all those members of the school staff, parents and students who in one way or other assisted in the preparation and accomplishment of this exceptional evening. I hope that Sir Temi Zammit Boys' Secondary School continues to offer the best to its students, who, after all, are the centre of all our efforts.