Being the first IP school in Singapore setting up a JC wing for the first time (as opposed to other IP schools who set up a secondary wing), our school spirits in terms of cheer is very lacking. Even though it is much better than my practicum school, who have little to be proud of in terms of achievements as a neighbourhood school, its terrible compared to SAJC (even 10 years ago).

I still remember those days in SAJC, when our school basketball team went into the finals against HCJC for the nth time, (almost) the whole school went down to cheer our team in the finals. In fact, some of us were there to support them during the preliminary rounds. Sucre still went back to cheer for SA's soccer team even after she graduated and I went back to look at SAJC play against (and finally won) HCJC in the finals after graduation too. That is the school spirit that many Saints (the name we called ourselves) are proud of.

SAJC vs HCJC finals in those days was like Singapore vs Malaysia in those good old days. The whole competition hall will be filled with students from both schools and we would cheer our hearts out for our team, losing our voice in the end. We had a simple system for councilors to communicate what will be the next cheer to shout. Everyone was high and standing for the whole match as we cheered. Of course, at the end of the match, I will go over to the HCJC side to look for my cousin among the audience and congratulate them for winning the title yet again.

Ah... those were the days..

Anyway, comparing what I have seen in school and what I experienced in SAJC, here's what lacking in the cheers.

• Warm - up cheer: For SAJC, it goes like this. SC:"Saints, are you ready!" All:"Eveready!" (repeat 1 or 2 more times). During this warm up cheer, the SC will coordinate our next cheer by showing signals for the next cheer. This ensures that when we start our cheer, we start with full force. A warm - up cheer is important because it allows everybody to be prepared for a cheer

• Signals: Which brings us to this point, I don't see any pre-arranged signals to inform students of the next cheer to shout. Which makes on the spot coordination difficult when other schools are cheering. I shall wait for my first sports day with the school to see how's the environment like. Who knows, maybe signals aren't required. Or they are using the numbers indicated in the "cheer sheet" as their guidelines (Saints never need a cheer sheet when they cheer)

• K.I.S.S: This stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid! One of the guidelines I noticed for the success of SAJC's cheers. They were simple to the students. The SC did most of the work by leading. The 3 Basic Cheers for SAJC was a fine example of what I meant. When signals are not available, SCs can take the lead by shouting the cheer while other students follow through by shouting a few key words or letters after that. Remember that asking for 1000 students to memorise 20 cheers with 100 words and different hand-feet coordination may be impossible so it's important to keep it simple. Keeping things simple will allow the cheer effects to be fully felt by your rivals too because the words will be clear to them. Using a tongue twister as your cheer will leave your rivals amused when many students find themselves tongue-tied and nobody can figure out what you are shouting. Unless you have months to practice, like doing a stage performance.

• Uniqueness: I think there is an unofficial common cheers used by many JCs such as Thunderation, Dynamite, Hey "Mickey" You're so Fine and F.I.G.H.T. (don't think it's in our school yet though). Yet every school should have its own unique cheers. We do have one that plays with the school motto. I kinda like this 诚信勇忠 cheer because it is unique and simple, except the part where "绝不" sounds like "全部". As for SA, we have our Saints go Marching in song, the science faculty invention of a cheeky "SA SA the best the best" cheer (don't know its name) and my favourite, the "Stamping cheer". The stamping cheer is unique because the whole cheer consists of only one word, "Saints" but the cheer has a great impact and can potentially last very long. My heart always raced in anticipation whenever we do this cheer.