Brother Patrick’s recent visit to St. Joseph’s (SJIIM) in Malaysia was first and foremost about re-establishing the De La Salle Brothers’ presence in the school. The pleasure of students, staff and parents was palpable as Brother Patrick greeted the community daily on their arrival to school and at dismissal time. Children who normally rush in shyly with a hurried ‘good morning’ stopped deliberately to speak to Brother Patrick and he got to know quite a few in his short visit.
Due to Covid-restrictions, there were no large scale meetings. However, Brother Patrick had a full schedule and met with different parent and student groups across the school. Brother Patrick attended an assembly with each year group across the Elementary School. He witnessed the students learning new actions to our, “We are Lasallian,’ song. Our Pastoral leader even built a quiz about his life so the students could get to know him and his work better. This really helped to build a connection with our younger students.
The Lasallian trail is a sequence of lessons that gives Year 7 students an opportunity to explore the Lasallian features of our school building. This year, Brother Patrick joined 7Y and 7L as they explored the school building. It was wonderful to have a Lasallian Brother explaining the different Lasallian features of our school and the students were eager to ask him lots of questions! Brother Patrick helped the students to understand that it is the people in the school building who make it a Lasallian community as we come together to live out the values of faith, community and service. Whilst visiting the High School, Brother Patrick also had the opportunity to visit lessons, meet teachers and meet the High School parent representatives.
Brother also met our Catholic Parents group, our Parent Support Group (PSG), the Parent Association (PA) representatives and the parent representatives from different segments of the school. The parents shared with Brother Patrick what they were grateful for about St. Joseph’s and what they hoped to see the Brothers’ support to develop further. Our Elementary parent reps even introduced him to the Malaysia tradition of tossing the ‘Yee Sang’ to celebrate Chinese New Year. Brother also took part in the school’s evacuation exercise. (Text & Photos: Mr. Tony Lai)
Our community has this to say of Brother’s visit.
“Our students loved interacting with him through daily conversions, in year group assemblies, and from the time that he spent visiting with different classes. Brother Patrick shared personal stories about his life and was more than happy to answer questions about his earlier life as well as questions about his life today. His words really inspired our students and staff.”
Mrs Karen Willoughby, Lasallian teacher from the Elementary School
“The Catholic Parents community were eager to meet Br Patrick to learn about the many Lasallian and faith practices carried out in the other Lasallian schools. His humble and down-to-earth presence firmly rooted in faith, service and community was insightful. Madam Mak, Head of School, found Brother’s calming presence and wisdom uplifting and she is confident that the school will benefit much from Brother’s many subsequent visits.”
Ms Leanne Wee from our Catholic Parents’ Group
