School Work: Not just answering emails – the principal who makes herself 'very visible' to staff and students

SINGAPORE: Not many students get to call their principal a penpal, unless they happen to study at Yusof Ishak Secondary School (YISS). 

A stack of several hundred A4 papers have become a staple on Madam Maureen Lee’s desk. 

These are letters from students, as part of her “Dear Mdm Lee” initiative. Many extend the full page, while some are a couple of sentences long. Students share anything, from struggles they may be facing to suggestions for improvements to the school. Some pen their reflections on another initiative she has, involving red beans and pencils.

The 57-year-old former teacher distributes these objects to teach life lessons. In caring for a red bean, students learn about the potential for growth.

On the other hand, pencils remind them that regardless of outside appearance, whether it's a 2B or mechanical pencil, it is the lead inside that matters. The eraser at the end of the pencil is an added reminder that some mistakes can be removed, and not to be too hard on themselves.

And Mdm Lee, who was appointed as the school’s principal in December 2017 and began her role in 2018, promises a unique handwritten reply to every letter.

“Of course I will reply, I asked them to write (to me). When you promise a kid, you must keep your promise,” she said when CNA spent a day with her in January to understand the role of a school principal today.

“I’m still a teacher at heart.”

It is a statement that would ring true over and again throughout the day, even before Mdm Lee arrived at school. As she doesn’t drive, she walks into campus every morning through the side gate, taking time to chat with a student or two along the way.

At recess, she blends into the crowd of students in her school’s canteen – and not just due to her petite stature. She can often be found nestled among students, whose faces light up when she joins them, engaged in casual chit-chat. 

With her office overlooking the courtyard, students passing by on the way home often wave enthusiastically when they spot her at her desk.

Such interactions, commonplace in Mdm Lee’s daily routine, are centred around her desire to ensure every student feels heard – a lesson from her first teaching stint that ended up shaping the next three decades. 

BELIEVING IN HER STUDENTS

In 1988, Mdm Lee was posted to Henderson Secondary School where she taught physics to “highly challenging” classes. The now-defunct secondary school in Bukit Merah had many students who required greater support. 

Even though she had volunteered at Telok Blangah Community Club during her junior college and undergraduate days by giving night classes to underprivileged students, the Raffles Girls’ School and Raffles Junior College alumnus grew up in an environment where her peers were “very highly driven”. 

She recalled having to find a way to motivate her students, who “perhaps had other priorities more important than learning physics”. 

“If they’re not motivated, it’s because I’ve not found a way to motivate them. So that’s the challenge I had – to really connect with them first, believe in them and then teach them the subject of physics,” she said. 

“Besides rapport building, it’s about how you see your learners, which will shape how much they can achieve. You shouldn’t cap the expectations for them. When you believe in them, they really could amaze you by achieving more than what you expect.” Her students did just that, with two classes taking on Pure Physics and surprising her with “really amazing” results.

Mdm Lee’s posting lasted a “very meaningful and very happy” 13 years, which included a promotion to the Head of Department for Science. 

In 2001, she became vice-principal at Balestier Secondary School. She was then given the opportunity to become principal of Kranji Secondary School in 2005, and principal of Anglican High School in 2011, where she stayed for almost seven years before joining YISS. 

REMAINING “APPROACHABLE” TO STUDENTS

Unbeknownst to her, YISS wouldn’t be just any other school. 

When Mdm Lee began her role at the start of 2018, students were told the same year that they would be the last cohort at the school’s Bukit Batok campus before it relocated to Punggol in 2021. The school now comprises just Secondary 1 and 2 students in a fresh cohort intake. 

This clean slate laid the groundwork for the school’s current culture, where a student’s holistic development is prioritised. 

Without a history of O-Level results at the Punggol site, Mdm Lee felt it gave YISS the “impetus to look at what really matters in education”. 

“If we build a student’s confidence, curiosity, and leadership, they would be more driven and motivated. They would want to come to school, because there is this joy,” she said. 

“If they don’t feel that they even have a friend or belong in the school, or they don’t feel curious about what they’re learning, it’s a really hard journey towards the exams.”

When Mdm Lee communicates this to parents during the school’s open house, she senses “there is hope that it’s not just about the O-Level results”. The strategy seems to have worked because there is currently a list of students requesting a transfer into YISS.

“The fact that our school has been rather attractive shows that parents have shifted in their focus on what makes a school that’s good for their child,” she said. 

“My role is not me staying in the office answering emails, but about rallying people towards a shared vision. And that can only be done if I make myself very approachable, make myself open to anyone who would like to come up to me, be it a teacher, a student or a non-teaching staff, to tell me what troubles them or how they can contribute towards the school,” she said. 

“I do that by making myself very visible. During recess time, I’m always checking in with my students, or even standing there in case someone would like to come and tell me something about their day.” 

She also greets students and parents at the front porch every morning, shares anecdotes from books she has read during morning assembly, speaks one-on-one with students who have special education needs and regularly takes “learning walks” around the school.  

During these walks, she visits some classes as “a fly on the wall” for about 10 minutes, occasionally speaking to students about what they have learnt, then speaks with the teacher after the lesson to understand how learning can be made better.   

On one such learning walk with CNA, she observed a geography lesson where the teacher laid out building blocks to design a 3D map of the Punggol estate, in order to teach the challenges of creating maps. Even though she didn’t intrude into students’ discussions, they willingly explained the lesson’s tasks to their principal, as though she was a fellow groupmate.

Asked how she thinks students see her, Mdm Lee laughed and said they may see her as "someone who is like a friend", and "because I do pen my responses to their Dear Mdm Lee letters, they do see me at times someone who they can confide in".

"I’d say I’m a nurturing principal, open to their ideas. And sometimes they may even be crazy ideas, but well, that is a sense of wonder in every kid," she added. 

The feeling is mutual, it seems. Among the comments from students about Mdm Lee, CNA was told she was “very nice” and they felt “very comfortable talking to her”. When asked how they felt about approaching authority figures in school, like their principal, a student said, "Actually, there is no gap between anyone in this school."

They didn’t feel the same about their primary school principal, some added candidly. 

“FLAT STRUCTURE” AMONG STAFF 

But building such a culture requires every teacher’s buy-in, so Mdm Lee makes it a point to be equally “accessible” to her staff. 

Whether she was casually dropping by discussions on Total Defence Day activities with Character and Citizenship Education teachers or getting case updates from school counsellors, her interactions highlighted the “flat structure” under her leadership. 

“Teachers can approach me directly, and need not be through their reporting officer. There are many channels – open-door policy, through text or dialogues with them one-to-one, focused group discussions, touch points at the pantry, staff room, or anytime when we meet along the day,” she said. 

Most staff members who spoke to CNA had just joined YISS at the Punggol campus and shared similar sentiments as their students about their principal. One teacher found her “a very good leader”, while another said she was “very down to earth” and “easy to talk to”. 

This closeness with teachers also enables her to better support them when tension arises, such as in conflict with parents. She acknowledged there are “bound to be differences” in seeing certain issues, especially when “educating the whole child is a complex yet delicate responsibility”. 

In these situations, she validates and listens to both parents and teachers, adding that such tension could be an opportunity to build trust. 

“In my experience, when you sit down and listen to (parents), help them and give them the space to voice out in a heart-to-heart, they can see (our perspective). I also help them see the strength of the teacher. Parents will need to appreciate that the teachers are doing their best for the child and trust the school,” she shared.

However, “if it is truly the fault of the teachers, I would then have to apologise and help the parent continue to have faith in the school”, she added.  

Mdm Lee recalled an instance when she and her staff tried their best to support a child from a “difficult home background” and still didn’t succeed, and another time when they tried to help a child with “emotional concerns” yet didn’t manage to “turn them around” during their short stay with YISS. 

“When parents blame the school despite the good intentions of the teachers, as leaders who feel and love, we would feel tired because of the emotions put in,” she said. 

“I have found the way to motivate my staff is to allow them first to voice and acknowledge their feelings, to empathise and never to blame or lay guilt.  Also, to give space for them to recover by walking alongside them, supporting them behind gently and to inspire them to revisit the reason we are in this calling.”

Mdm Lee, too, holds fast to her reason for becoming a teacher. Even when she is disappointed or weary, she is "never jaded".

“It is really to do a part for the future. As a principal, I am also a teacher, except the school is my class and the subject I teach is holistic development,” she said. 

More than 30 years since she became a teacher, every action still boils down to believing in the child, regardless of circumstance.

“If you want to be a chicken rice stallholder, be the best. You want to be the best version of yourself,” she explained, adding that leadership is a choice to empower others to act on their passion. 

“If you don't have the passion, well I must say, then teaching may not be your calling.”

Even though Mdm Lee would consider passing the baton to a successor ready to take YISS to greater heights, retiring is far from her mind. The teacher-at-heart doesn’t think that she "would ever have finished my job". 

At least not before she responds to several hundred penpals.