Beginnings

The Fathers Wing @ MJ started in 2004 when the idea was mooted by former Principal Mrs Judina Cheong. It intends to spur fathers to be good role models to their sons and to be actively involved in their lives. It also seeks to build a committee of fathers who will spearhead activities that may help improve bonding between MJ students and their Dads.

Mr Amos Choy was elected to head Fathers Wing. Married with 2 boys, both his sons were students in Montfort Junior School.

“As a part of Fathers Wing, I’m accepted by the students and teachers as family. I feel great when the boys call me Uncle Amos. Even though I’m not their teacher, they greet me respectfully and are happy to see me around.

Boys need a father’s love and I treat them as if they’re my own sons. When I visit the school in the morning before assembly, I’d speak to them and they’d share with me their joy and excitement as well as their bad days.

Parents tell me how they’ve benefited from Fathers Wings activities and nothing beats the feeling of knowing you’ve helped foster closer bonds between a father and his son. It makes all the hard work worthwhile.

You can make a difference in the lives of your children as well as in the lives of their classmates and teachers in school.”

Activities

To help fathers bond with their sons, the Fathers Wing @ MJ have organized

• Events

o MJ Father & Son Street Soccer
o MJ Father & Son Xbox Competition
o MJ Family Badminton Challenge
o MJ Amazing Race Charity Event – Family Edition
o MJ One Minute of Fame for Boys

• Talks

o Fathering talks by Centre for Fathering
o Parenting talks by School Family Education

It also calls out to fathers of MJ students to share their wisdom and experience with other students through Career Talks for students.

Challenges

According to Amos, the main challenge in starting any Fathers@Schools program is to change the public perception that parents have no role to play in their children’s school life.

"Many parents have the impression that they’re off limits in this territory and that the only time to be involved is during the 40 Hours of Volunteerism that’ll earn their child enrollment in Primary 1.

Fathers tend to think that mothers should play the dominant role in the child’s education and that they’re to play an unimportant supporting role. Initially, teachers may feel unsure of trusting parents too."

To overcome these challenges, the Fathers Wing @ MJ seeks every opportunity to speak to parents and educate them on how they can be involved e.g. through Orientation Days and Meet the Teacher’s sessions.

Through years of working with teachers, this Fathers Wing has been able to earn the trust and respect of teachers and have learned to communicate and collaborate effectively with them. Teachers have discovered that parents are a treasure trove of resources that they can tap to enhance their teaching experience.

Keys to Success

The success of Fathers Wing can be attributed to these factors:-

• The leadership of the Montfort Junior School Principal and the support of its teachers and staff members. Schools must be willing to engage parents and partner with them
• A group of sincere and committed committee members
• A group of volunteers who’re willing to help in organizing, planning and implementing activities. The Fathers Wing volunteers are cooperative, sincere and responsible individuals who respect school boundaries and abide by school decisions
• Collaboration with wives to maximize everyone’s unique strengths. Fathers may prefer to plan and organize activities while wives prefer to help out in daily activities such as Learning Support Program, et cetera.

Future Plans

The Fathers Wing @ MJ have successfully created an environment where fathers can feel comfortable and supported in being involved in their children’s school life. Moving forward, Fathers Wing intends to

• Form a new task force to spearhead father & son activities
• Set up a new blog for fathers of MJ students so that fathers can be kept updated with activities planned for them
• Create a new name and logo that fathers can better identify with
• Get more fathers to be aware, to commit and to train themselves to be positive influencers in their children’s lives
• Create a large scale campaign where fathers commit to loving their children
• Organize workshops that address the unique needs of fathers

Montfort Junior School has signed up to be part of the national Fathers@Schools initiative and this will enable Fathers Wing @ MJ to receive funding for its numerous activities.

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