Every year during PSHE and Wellness Wednesday lessons, we organise an activity that promotes unity among students while also benefiting the wider school community. Last year, students came together to create an aerial photograph forming the word #ZERO, symbolising our collective stand for zero discrimination within the Epsom College Malaysia community and beyond.
This year, in celebration of our value of Asian Heritage at Epsom College Malaysia, students participated in Gotong Royong activities. Gotong Royong is a traditional Malaysian practice rooted in the spirit of community cooperation. It emphasises people coming together voluntarily to help one another without expecting payment, fostering strong social bonds and a shared sense of responsibility for the common good. Through this initiative, students worked together to support the Epsom College community by helping various departments and boarding houses.
During Wellness Wednesday lessons, students were first introduced to the concept and significance of Gotong Royong. This ensured that everyone had a clear understanding of its meaning before signing up for the different activities.
Students were able to choose from a wide range of tasks. These included designing and decorating noticeboards, tidying classroom spaces, creating and displaying posters for different areas of the school, compiling inventories of essential academic equipment in classrooms, organising sports equipment and art materials, decorating and arranging spaces within boarding houses, repairing benches outside boarding houses, and creating reminder signs to switch lights and air-conditioning units on and off across the school.
Students who were not assigned to a specific activity supported their tutor groups by compiling inventories of essential classroom equipment and creating or updating tutor group noticeboards in their tutor rooms.
It was wonderful to see students and staff working together to contribute to so many areas of the Epsom College community. We hope to make this an annual tradition and to continue expanding opportunities to support both our school and the wider community of Bandar Baru Enstek.
A huge thank you to all the staff and students who helped make our first Gotong Royong event such a success.
Mrs Jennifer Garnett
Student Wellbeing & Assistant Headteacher, Wellbeing and Behaviour