Finishing our school year in a special way

Students went back to school on 10 July to attend the End-of-term Service and the Prize Presentation Ceremony. It was more than ten days after the last school day. Due to rage of the H1N influenza, students experienced a very special End-of- term Service. On that day, we could not see a few hundred students pack in the hall and sing our school song. We certainly missed the great performance of our choir. Some might even start to search in their memory for what the guest speaker had said in the previous End-of-term Service. What we could see was a spacious hall with only around 50 teachers and award winners. At the middle of the hall, there was a camera. It was sending real-time images of the stage to other students and teachers, who were staying in the classroom and watching the screen. It was probably the shortest service we had ever experienced. There were only two parts: the prayer session and the Principalˇ¦s speech. Then, we had the Prize Presentation Ceremony. This might look weird. It may be true that not all the students like attending the service in this way. However, our fighting against the swine flu is of paramount importance. In fact, students showed understanding for such special arrangements, which were done for everybody's good. After the service and the ceremony, students received their annual reports and other prizes in their classrooms. Then they were allowed to leave as early as 10 a.m. This was a special End-of-term Service and a special start of our vacation. 5B Lee Kam Yi, 5B Kwok Wan Yu, 5D Yan Chun Yin and 4C Poon Kwok Cheung Alan