Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
The PSLE English composition topic for 2018 was ‘Teamwork’. One of our Writing Academy students happened to practise writing a composition on the same topic one day before her PSLE English paper!
For months, she had honed her writing skills by writing and submitting her assignments regularly for feedback from our Writing Coaches. It was no surprise that she scored an A-star for her PSLE English! Below is the practice piece that she wrote before her PSLE paper.
2018 PSLE English Composition Topic – Teamwork
Write a composition of at least 150 words about teamwork.
The pictures are provided to help you think about the topic. Your composition should be based on one or more of these pictures.
Teamwork
(2018 PSLE Topic)
As I gazed at my gigantic shelf of glistening gold medals and trophies, a certain trophy caught my eye. It had a thick layer of dust surrounding it, so I used a cloth to gingerly wipe the dust off the trophy, revealing the words, “Sunshine Primary School 2018 Basketball Cup: First Place Champion”. Another two words were engraved on it: Team Graciousness. Upon seeing those two words, I gasped. I thought that I had lost this trophy long ago, but it was on my shelf all this time! As I admired the trophy, I began to recall those incidents leading to how I received it.
When I was in Primary Five, I was in the basketball school team. Every month, we would have a basketball match against another school’s basketball team. In spite of all the cheers we received from our classmates and the amount of training we had, we had never won a single match before. That was due to our lack of teamwork and cooperation. During a match, we would argue over little things, and sometimes, we would refuse to play after an argument. Looking at the number of matches we had lost, I knew we had to do something.
During one of our training sessions, our school team was split into two to have an adrenaline-pumping match against each other. The inter-school competition was coming up and none of us wanted to miss our chance of getting that gold trophy.
“Three, two, one, start!” our basketball coach, Coach Leong, yelled. John, who was in my team, managed to grab the ball that Coach Leong threw in the air. Since John grabbed the ball, he refused to let anyone, not even his teammates, take it.
“Pass the ball to me, John!” I exclaimed. I was at a good position to shoot the ball into the hoop. To my dismay, John made an obnoxious face at me. Out of frustration, I made a futile attempt to snatch the ball from him. When I got my hands on the ball, it became a tug-of-war between John and I. Coach Leong shook his head and boomed like an active volcano, “Children! Is this the type of behaviour that I should be seeing? The match is in two weeks! Do you even know the importance of teamwork?” Coach Leong sighed and gave us a disappointed look. It seemed as if he had some sad news to tell us but could not bear to do so.
I was right.
Coach Leong explained with a glum look on his face that he would be retiring after the match. “I hope you can show me your teamwork and cooperate with one another in this match, before I retire.” I choked on my tears and felt a lump in my throat. My heart sank. We were giving Coach Leong such a tough time, when all he wanted was for us to show teamwork in the match. After that day, my teammates and I were determined to do our best and work as a team.
On the day of the match, we stood face-to-face with our opponents, the team from River Primary School. Once again, Coach Leong reminded us to work as a team. The referee blew the whistle and flung the basketball into the air. I knew I had to give my team a head start, so I leaped up in the air to grab the ball. “Sally, catch!” I yelled at the top of my voice. Sally was short but she could run at lightning speed and I think the other team assumed she was the last person I would pass the ball to. Before the opposing team could reach Sally, she had already shot the ball into the basketball hoop. Our team cheered with joy and I punched the air twice with my fist.
Sally did a perfect overhead throw and I caught the ball in mid-air, before dribbling it right towards the opponents. As the entire opposing team charged towards me, I kept my calm even though I was surrounded. I threw the ball over their heads. It flew through the air like a missile into the hands of Eric, who was standing right behind our opponents, next to the basketball hoop. Eric dunked the ball in.
We won the match 5-0. Finally, we managed to work as a team and Coach Leong was very satisfied. Each of us received a trophy for our amazing efforts.
As I recalled the match, I smiled as I looked at the trophy. I realised that the most important thing was not the trophy but the value of teamwork that I had learnt from that match.
~ by Amanda Foo (Primary 6)
Click here to read more model compositions written by our students.
The above PSLE composition example is written based on the topic ‘Teamwork’ and 3 pictures, which is the new PSLE English composition format.
