Milestones in the Pathlight Story

Volunteer Project by Ms Stephanie Ho from ‘The History Workroom’

Date	Event	Source of Data

2003	Launch of Project Platinum by the ARC Project Platinum is a total solution to support people with Autism in Singapore throughout their lifespan. It Includes plans for an autism-focused school that offers mainstream academic curriculum. This eventually became the Pathlight School.	Project Platinum powerpoints
2003	MOE invited ARC to start an autism-focused mainstream school.	Interview
Jul 2003	Minister of Education Dr Ng Eng Hean announced the set up of Pathlight school. The school was to be a collaboration between the ARC and the Rainbow Centre with MOE and NCSS support. MOE funds up to 90% of renovation costs. Funds of S$234,000 approved.	School for autistic kids to open next year, Straits Times, 20 July 2003
	Renovation of building, hiring of staff and development of school curriculum is directed by a team of key volunteers (Denise Phua, Jean Koh & Jacqueline Ang) and key ARC staff (Sylvia Yap, Anita Russell & Dr Lam Chee Meng). All these to be done in 5 months. Sessions are convened to develop the school’s vision and mission. The school curriculum is designed and created. The school name and logo were decided during a branding exercise led by Kim Faulkner. The Pathlight logo can be interpreted in various ways. It can be seen as a smiley face representing the joyous place that is Pathlight school, or it can symbolise Pathlight as a bridge between the adult and the child. The green and blue colour scheme echoes Chinese saying 青出于蓝 which means that a Pathlight child can blossom way beyond his development when he first enters the school. The upbeat school song is written by Desmond Moi with inputs from the staff. The uniform: a polo T-shirt and cargo pants is designed to be contemporary and comfortable to wear. Also to give dignity to students. A principal, Peck Soo Hong and teachers are employed and trained. 10 teachers are selected out of 200 applicants. Presentations and various activities are conducted to publicise and recruit students for the new school. Fund-raising activities carried out to raise additional funds for renovation.	Interview

Jan 2008	The school year begins with 409 students enrolled, a 10-fold growth since its inception.
Feb 2008	Pathlighters were part of Singapore’s bid for the Youth Olympics 2010. Mr Teo Ser Luck, Parliamentary Secretary for Community Development, Youth and Sports officiated a special pledge ceremony at Pathlight.
Mar 2008	MOLLY’s first visit to Pathlight - The National Library Board held the launch of their mobile library – MOLLY in Pathlight.
Apr 2008	Pathlighters had a once-in-a-lifetime experience on the recently launched Singapore Flyer. This was generously sponsored by Motorola and students also got to meet with Nominated Member of Parliament, Ms Eunice Olsen, the Motorola Ambassador. A cheque presentation ceremony was held to announce the generous donation of $2 million by Ngee Ann Kongsi. The event was officiated by Ms Grace Fu, Senior Minister of State for Education and National Development. This marked the final stage of fundraising efforts for the development of the new Pathlight School.
Jun 2008	Our Primary 5 team excelled in the Learn @1 degree N – The Climate Herald event and proceeded to the next phase. Pathlight was the only special school to qualify for the post-event competition!
Jul 2008	This year’s A Very Special Walk is significant as it created the awareness of autism amongst the community. It was also celebrated with a fun-filled Carnival.
Aug 2008	Pathlight was the only SPED school invited to be part of the SingaporeCreates project, organised by MOE and MICA. The 11 proud Pathlighters received a token of appreciation from RADM (NS) Lui Tuck Yew, Senior Minister of State of Education and Information, Communication and the Arts, at the project launch. Their artwork is now displayed at selected Caltex stations. Our 2nd Sports cum National Day Celebrations was significant as it saw the participation of every student in Pathlight. The event opened ceremoniously with 13 students involved in a torch relay. Every student participated in one way or another in individual or specially designed tele-matches.
Nov 2008	Ms Wong Geok Choo (Secondary School Teacher) was among the 3 teachers who received the Outstanding SPED Teacher Award for their passion and commitment in providing an education for children with special needs. Pathlighters achieved very encouraging results in the 2008 PSLE. Results of the 21 students who took the PSLE – 10 in EM2 (Standard stream) and 11 in EM3 (Foundation stream): EM2 achievements: 100% of EM2 passed and did very well. Highest score is 229 and in top 20% of national score. Lowest score at 164 is almost double the national lowest score. EM3 achievements: 70% passes. Highest score of 106 is in top 21% of national score in EM3. Lowest EM3 score is 1.72 times better than the national lowest score.
Dec 2008	2008 GCE Normal Academics('NA') Level Exam Results Our student passed and qualified for the Secondary 5 ‘O’ Level programme. He even achieved a distinction in English and an A for Computer Application.

23 May 2009	Spring Cleaning Day Parents and school staff came together to spring clean the new school to ensure school readiness for the first day of school
27 May 2009	Last day of Term 2 Students bid farewell to the old school.
28 May to 1 Jun 2009	School Move Days
1 Jun 2009	Official Cross Over All staff and operations started at the new site.
29 Jun 2009	First day of Term 3 Students stepped into their new school for the first time.
Aug 2009	The school reaches an enrolment of 501 students, with the latest intake of students in August 2009.
Oct 2009	Pathlight School embarks on a special partnership with Townsville Primary School to promote integration in the areas of (1) Physical, (2) Social and (3) Academic. This long term partnership will first commence with integration during recess for selected classes. This is the official first day for our students at Townsville Primary School.
Nov 2009	2009 PSLE RESULTS Pathlighters once again achieved very encouraging PSLE results! The following are the PSLE 2009 results of the 29 students. Results combine both Standard and Foundation streams (Merged Stream): 100% of Standard Stream passed and did very well. 89% of Foundation Stream passed. Highest score is 233 and in top 21% of the national score. Lowest score at 83 is almost 2 times better than the national lowest score.
Dec 2009	2009 GCE Normal Technical (NT) Level Exam Results Summary of results of the 4 candidates: 100% Passes 100% were eligible for ITE Our Top scorer achieved 5 “A”s out of 6 subjects offered 100 % of our students scored at least 1 “A” 75% of our students scored at least 3 “A”s100% of Standard Stream passed and did very well. New milestone: 2 Pathlighters are formally offered part-time employment positions of Baristas with Starbucks!

Jan 2010	Academic Year 2010 commenced with 529 students, a testament of our continued growth. Release of GCE ‘O’ Levels results - Mark of a New milestone! This is our inaugural batch of students being the very first cohort from Pathlight school to be fielded for this national exams. As the very first pioneer batch for ‘O’ levels, our 6 students did very well . 100% of students achieved 3 or more GCE O-Level Passes and 100% of our students are eligible for Pre-University or Tertiary Education. An important milestone: Launch of the ITE Skills Certificate in Baking Programme. Pioneer batch of 8 students.
Mar 2010	Enrolment is now 556.
27 Apr 2010	Pathlight Official School Opening The New Pathlight School was officially opened by Dr Ng Eng Hen, Minister for Education and Second Minster for Defence, on 27 April 2010. The event was attended by about 180 specially invited guests from various factions of the community who have supported the school in one way or another
1 to 3 Jun 2010	WeCAN Learning Congress 2010 WeCAN 10th Anniversary Autism Learning Congress brought together world leaders in autism, as well as empowered some 600 delegates knowledge and skills to help maximize the potential of people with autism.
3 Jul 2010	NYBC The Pathlight Secondary School team bagged 3 awards (Overall Champion Award, Top Most Earth Friendly Enterprise Award and Gold Award) at the National Youth Business Challenge 2010. The team pitted against 39 other teams from 28 schools such as Raffles Institution, ACS (Barker), and St Hilda's. The students are Elliot Chia, Megan Lee, Lee Zhi Da and Daniel Kwa. This event is organised by the Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s School of Business & Accountancy.
17 Jul 2010	A Very Special Walk The A Very Special Walk (AVSW) focused on a Hollywood theme this year. The event was filled with various activities such as movies, games and food. Students, staff, parents and volunteers came together and made this event a big success. In line with the slogan “Pathlight Gives Back”, we exceeded our fundraising target and raised $412,098.50. The proceeds went to Eden School Building Fund
7 Aug 2010	Youth Olympic Games(YOG) 3 of our students, Tong Qin Yuan (Track 3), Adrian Ignatius (Primary 5) and Daniel Lee (Secondary 1), were amongst the torchbearers to represent the youth of Singapore. The support from the Pathlight family was overwhelming and everyone was jubilant and spirits were high as we cheered the torchbearers on! It was indeed history in the making as the Pathlight family gathered to cheer the torchbearers on 7 Aug 2010.
14 Sep 2010	Pathlight Musical A milestone: We staged the inaugural Pathlight Musical in our school. Entitled "Yes We Can!", the performance depicted an inspiring life journey with its ups and downs in the eyes of a Pathlighter. Students and staff collaborated with a team of renowned artistic talents lead by Mr Jeremiah Choy (director), Ms Babes Conde (the music director) and Mr Gani Karim (the choreographer).
25 Nov 2010	2010 PSLE RESULTS Pathlight School is proud of all our 38 students' PSLE outcomes. Results combine both Standard and Foundation streams (Merged Stream): Pathlight School Highest Score is in the top 25% of the National Highest Score Pathlight lowest score is far better than National Lowest Score 100% of Standard/Merged students passed and all eligible for Secondary School Express or Secondary School Normal (Academic) Course 85% of Foundation students passed and are eligible for Secondary School Normal (Technical) Course.

4 Jan 2011	The academic year 2011 commenced with close to 600 students. Our waiting list for admission continued to average more than 200 applicants a year.
7 Feb 2011	With the student cohorts growing up fast, we started Transitions Support for our graduates. This support targeted the 3 stakeholders: graduates, parents and the receiving institutions. The first transition meeting for parents of 2010 GCE O & N level graduates took place on 7 Feb.
21 Mar 2011	Launch of IT & Design School with pilot batch of 36 Secondary and 20 Track V students. The aim of this school is to close the digital gap and create more avenues of employment for individuals with autism. Students started with 3 modules – Introduction to Interactive Design, Introduction to Visual Design and Introduction to Digital Art. Another 3 more modules on Introduction to Web Publishing, Introduction to Illustration and Introduction to Animation were slated to start in Term 4.
1 Apr 2011	In commemoration of 2011 World Autism Awareness Day, we launched our Artist Management Programme with our first panel of eight student artists at the 'Art for Autism' exhibition. This Artist Management Programme aims to develop the artistic talents of students and enable them to make an independent living through their artwork. At the 'Art for Autism' Exhibition, we concurrently launched 'Beautiful Minds Volume 2', featuring the writings, journals and illustrations by our students. The event was officiated by Mr Lui Tuck Yew, Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, and attended by more than 100 guests and industry practitioners.
29 May - 4 Jun 2011	Syafiq Bin Shamsudin, Pathlight's 2010 alumnus won 2 prestigious awards at nationwide competitions with his Ashwell Shape Chart, which was done when he was with Pathlight. He was the only SPED student to emerge with such accolades. For this invention, Syafiq was awarded: Tan Kah Kee Young Inventors' Award 2011 - Commendation Award (Student Section) D&T Awards 2011 - Creative Invention Award with Special Mention His invention, together with the other award-winning entries, was exhibited at the Singapore Science Centre.
24 - 29 May 2011	As part of our Artist Management Programme, four of our students' artworks were showcased at the Singapore Arts Festival held by the National Arts Council at the Kids Arts Village at Esplanade Park. The artworks were open to the public and helped our students to gain better recognition for their creative talents. The students are Glenn Phua Yi Jue, Seetoh Sheng Jie, Elliot Chia Jie Xing and Tay Jun-Yi.
25 Jun 2011	We had our Transition Meeting with 2010 graduates to help them with issues they face in their new educational environment.
3 Jul 2011	National Youth Business Challenge 2011 saw our team comprising students from both Secondary and Vocational tracks take the Silver Award and Most Attractive Display Award. The Carton Wonders II competed against more than 40 schools for the "greenest" business idea and generated double the sales amount from last year's competition. They pledged more than half the proceeds to AVSW 2011. The team members of Carton Wonders II are - Ng Li Jie, Phyllis Nyew, Mark Tan, Caleb Lim, Syafiq Ahktar and David Wee.
16 Jul 2011	A Very Special Walk (AVSW) 2011 raised a total of $670,895 where funds will go to support Post-School Options for employment and purposeful engagement in leisure and community activities for persons with autism. This year's theme of "There's a Hero In Me" saw many guests gamely turning up in a myriad of costumes - Wonder Woman, Batman, Spiderman, The Joker, Muscleman and even a Kill Bill costume. Red superhero capes were distributed to all participants, adding to the fun and cheer.
27 Jul 2011	Pathlight students swept 5 out of 6 prizes at the 2011 MILK Fund's My Dream Art Competition in both the Primary and Secondary categories. All top 3 prizes in the Primary level category were won by Pathlighters - Wong Jun Xiang, Joseph Lim and Qays Aquilla. In the Secondary level, Ron Ng and Cedrick Chia took 2nd and 3rd spots respectively.
9 Aug 2011	Pathlight School was chosen as the venue for Ang Mo Kio GRC's National Day Observance Ceremony and a contingent of students and teachers represented Pathlight at the event. This was the first time that a SPED school was included in the National Day Observance Ceremony. Prime Minister Mr Lee Hsien Loong, who is also the MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC graced the event , and more than 1000 participants comprising grassroots leaders, residents and participating schools participated in the event. They were entertained by performances from participating schools, including a rousing performance by Pathlight’s Performing Arts students. The PM was presented with a painting of Joo Chiat shophouses done by our student, Glenn Phua in his signature ink-on-paper style.
12 Sep 2011	We hosted the Minister for Education, Mr Heng Swee Keat and Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ms Sim Ann for a visit to Pathlight and a dialogue session with our school leaders and educators. In an interview with the press on our premises, the Education Minister made the formal announcement that MOE will be looking to boost capacity and quality of education in the special needs sector. He further added that Pathlight will be gradually boosting its capacity to 900 by end 2013.
23 Sep 2011	Pathlight was the only school in Singapore to be awarded the ThinkQuest Gold Champion School for our involvement in ThinkQuest projects. This prestigious award is an initiative of American technology giant Oracle's Education Foundation and is given only to educational institutions where both students and educators actively utilise web-based learning and interaction platforms.
Oct 2011	We started a new chapter of our collaborations with our existing and new corporate partners to showcase and raise the profile of our student artists. Their artworks are now displayed and available for sale at Starbucks Holland Village, Lend Lease Head Office at JTC Summit and the Ascendas European Nordic Centre.
Oct 2011	Pathlight was given the green light to begin work on Campus 2 at our former premises (6 Ang Mo Kio Street 64) in order for the school to take in more students in January 2012. Campus 1 (5 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10) will house our Preparatory, Lower Primary and Vocational Track students, while Campus 2 (6 Ang Mo Kio Street 64) will house our Upper Primary and Secondary students. Renovations work on Campus 2 began.
11 Nov 2011	Pathlight held our Transitions Support Meeting with Receiving Institutions of 2010 graduates to share strategies on how to support the learning of students with ASD.
2 Dec 2011	Our 2011 batch of Primary 6 students scored stellar results for their PSLE examinations. Our Highest Score was in the top 15% of the National Highest Score, an improvement over 2010’s 25%. 100% of Standard/Merged students passed and all were eligible for Secondary School Express or Secondary School Normal (Academic) Course. 90% of Foundation students passed and were eligible for Secondary School Normal (Technical) Course. 12 of the Foundation Course students did very well and were eligible for Normal (Academic) Course.
19 Dec 2011	Pathlight School achieved 100% passes for our GCE 'N' Level examinations and all of our students were eligible to progress on to Sec 5N(A) and/or to ITE. 100% of our Normal Academic & Normal Technical students passed and were eligible to progress to Sec 5 N(A) and/or for ITE courses. 100% of our students scored below 15 points (COP). Our Top scorers achieved 6 points each. 22.2% of our students scored 3 "A"s 33.3% of our students scored 2 "A"s 55.5 % of our students scored 1 "A"

3 Jan 2012

Pathlight started the new year with 2 campuses and a total student enrolment of 706 students.