Monday (7/13/2020) was a special day for the Secondary division of Saint Nicholas School. We started the new Academic Year 2020-2021 and held our first ever online school orientation program.

We have been preparing for this activity for a month led by our Ms Mega Prisay Sidabutar as the chairman. As everybody in the committee, she admitted that she was a little worried about the technical implementation of the orientation because this is the first time we do it online.

“The Orientation Program in 2020 was held virtually because the situation of the pandemic outbreak in the City of Jakarta, Indonesia has still not improved and is not yet possible to gather many people in one place,” said Mega.

All Saint Nicholas School students, parents and teachers don’t seem to want to miss this important moment at the beginning of the school year. Traditions that have been carried out for many years in our school must continue to be implemented even though it is done remotely using the ZOOM virtual meeting application. Teachers and staff prepare activities at school while students remain at home following the entire series of events.

Regardless of the hectic schedule, Ms. Lasriana Sinurat, the deputy chair of the committee, remained optimistic about the attention of the students even though the Orientation was held online. Lasriana revealed the entire series of events programmed by the committee for the two-day event.

“We do not eliminate the mandatory activities that must be carried out during the Orientation, it’s just the shape that we adjust,” Lasriana said.

The Orientation program begins with the flag raising ceremony. Appearing as a ceremony organizer, Mr. Soleman Pepang who is the registered National Principal of Saint Nicholas delivered his message to the participants of the ceremony.

“There are two things that I will emphasize. First, the pandemic situation is still not improving, all Saint Nicholas residents are expected to comply with the health protocol recommended by the government. Secondly, students should have the same seriousness as teachers who have tried as much as possible to prepare material during this online learning, “said Mr Soleman. He closed his speech while officially opening the 2020 Orientation activities.

After the flag ceremony took place solemnly, the activity continued with remarks from Mr. Asa’aro Lahagu, the Principal for Secondary School. A speech given by Mr Lahagu was also followed by a teacher’s introductory session to the students.

The activity continued with a brief seminar from Mr. Kriston Nainggolan with the topic “Assessment Systems and Effective Learning Methods”. The activity lasted for 20 minutes and continued with the explanation of the rules of distance learning conducted by Mr. Alfons Yulius as a familiar disciplinarian for students. The first day was finally closed with a meeting between the class teacher and students in their virtual space – each class.

The second day’s activity (7/14/2020) was no less lively as morning reflections managed to cool the online orientation atmosphere. Opened with worship songs from teachers and passionate sermons from Mr. Horasman Munthe, our Christian religion teacher. Not wanting to lose the enthusiastic moment of the students, Mr. Figur Wening Aji, our sports teacher, invites all participants to do physical fitness exercises from their respective rooms. Not only students at home, but also the teachers also took gymnastics seriously. The activity was followed by a brief presentation on Scouting and Paskibra by Mr. Yohannes Sahat, who is the Scoutmaster and Student Council coach at Saint Nicholas School.

In order to increase the motivation for students during this distance learning, the orientation committee presented the Saint Nicholas School Academic Head, Ms. Cindy Mutiara Ratu, as she give a self-development seminar on the topic “Success Study During Pandemic”. Students are equipped with a variety of successful strategies and various tips to maximize learning and internet resources during online learning in pandemic situations.

In general, the activities went very well. Mr Soleman Pepang officially closed the orientation activities and welcomed the students. The committee hardly experienced any significant technical problems and the enthusiasm of the students who took part in the activities was very high. “More than 90% of students attended based on our record. Those who did not attend have their reasons that we can understand in difficult times at this time,” Mega said. (YS)