Learning For Life Programme (LLP)
Explore how Fairfield's Learning for Life Programme uses the arts to build empathy and social awareness in students.
Focus: Developing Empathy and Building Social Awareness through the Arts
The arts is a ‘universal language’ that can overcome and transcend cultural differences, break down barriers of ethnicity, age, social class, ability/disability, and physical and psychological wellbeing, recent research has shown that empathy plays an important role in arts experience including perception, preference, and performance on how “arts empathic engagement” can facilitate cultural understanding.
Unique from other subject areas, the arts allow students to imagine and feel, thus activating students’ affective domain. Arts education also promotes group cohesion through collaborative works such as through mass singing, ensemble playing in music, dance and drama, and group work in art. Through arts engagement in a group setting, empathetic interaction across people from different ethnicity, age, ability and socio-background can be enhanced. Also, students will be able to develop cognitive and affective empathy, which is the ability to understand another’s thoughts and feelings, and respond to their mental and emotional states with an appropriate emotion and behaviour.
As such, the focus of our LLP in visual and performing arts aims to allow students to develop empathy and build social awareness in a safe, positive and inclusive environment that highlights students’ voice and choice.
LLP Song writing module: Fairfield Song Stories
Blessing our Healthcare Workers through a song – “Singapore, Unite as One”
In 2020, our P6 student Jacob Neo dedicated a song, entitled, ‘Singapore, Unite As One’ to uplift the hearts and spirits of COVID-19 patients and fellow Singaporeans who are facing hardship during this pandemic. The song also serves as a tribute to our healthcare heroes in view of their important contribution to us fighting the COVID-19 battle. It is also interesting to know that our student-composer, Jacob, only discovered song-writing in 2019 as part of the school’s Learning for Life Programme – “Fairfield Song Stories” and has no formal Musical training beyond school.
A music video which was produced by FMS(P) HOD (Aesthetics), Ms Michelle Yap and Music Teacher, Mrs Serena, featured Jacob (Singer-songwriter) and his fellow school mates perfoming to the song. This music video was presented to the National University Hospital staff on 27 Feb 2020 along with Thank-you cards created by staff and Fairsians.
We hope you would be blessed by the song. Share it with any healthcare heroes you know!
Singapore, Unite as One: https://youtu.be/5D2DnneT2N (opens in new tab)
Featured news on MOE Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/moesingapore/videos/205049547541925/ (opens in new tab)
The Fairfield Virtual Ensemble presents “Singapore, Unite as One”
To outreach to the community, the Fairfield Family, though isolated at home during the Circuit Breaker in 2020, saw 950 participants coming together to form a Fairfield Virtual Ensemble and presented the song “Singapore, Unite as One”, which was originally composed by our student, Jacob Neo. The participants included students, staff from Fairfield Methodist School (Primary) and (Secondary), Board of Management, Parents and Alumni (where one of the alumnus participant was from Warsaw, Poland!). This video reminds us of how, together, we can overcome adversity with grit and tenacity during this global pandemic. We thank every member of the Fairfield Family who participated to make this video a reality.
