Rugby School Thailand eNewsletter

Matters of Principal

This week Mr Grindlay explains more about the outstanding opportunities that will be available to RST through FOBISIA:

Whole School Announcements & Reminders

SPEECH THERAPIST
Rugby School Thailand will soon be hosting a Speech Therapist on campus once a week. Her name is Tanya Prettapapop, and she is a bilingual Thai speech and language pathologist certified/licensed in both the USA and Thailand. She is a consultant and billing will be from her directly, not RST. If you are interested in finding out more, please email our Whole School SENCo, Lissa Mason at lmason@rugbyschool.ac.th; or you may fill in this form:

Interest in in-person speech services

Khun Tanya's qualifications and website:
Tanya Prettapapop, M.S., CCC-SLP, License SP 24219
Certified Speech and Language Pathologist by The American Speech-Language, and Hearing Association (ASHA)
Thai Speech-Language, and Hearing Association (ThaiSHA), License ผ.ส. 324
Master's Degree in Communicative Disorders and Sciences
Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology
www.speechtherapybangkok.com

PARENT SURVEY
We value your thoughts about what you like at RST and what we could do better.

Please complete the below survey link by Monday 9^th May so your thoughts can be added to those of the staff and the students to inform our plans going forward.

English version - Google Form Link
Thai Version - Google Form

Half Term Dates
Friday 13^th May: Half-Term Begins
Tuesday 17^th May: Boarders Return
Wednesday 18^th May: School Resumes

"Neekrung" CARNI WOW - Saturday 28th May 2022
We're offering a special 20% discount for Rugby School Thailand & Wisdom Valley regulars!

View this link for mor information:

Neekrung CARNI WOW

WISDOM FIT GRAND OPENING DAY

Whole School News

INTERNATIONAL DAY
This week we celebrated “International Day 2022” and welcomed so many of our parents to join in with the celebrations. This day is about celebrating diversity and it is an opportunity to come together to appreciate and learn about the different cultures and national traditions of the students and staff that make up our community here at RST.

Celebrations in Pre-Prep:
We celebrated all our different nationalities with a fantastic parade in The Oval. What magnificent costumes were on display and so many countries represented just in the Pre-Prep. Then each class learnt about a new country and shared their knowlegde with another class- a great way to learn from each other.

Celebrations in Prep:
Activities throughout the day included learning a dance and producing a video, or creating a huge group postcard with details of specific countries. We also had a stunning variety of performances delivered by students (Blue Tigers Rock Band) and staff (Landing Lights) and impressive pieces from our music teachers; we ended the performance with a variation of a whole Prep song called ‘One Nation’, it was so magical to have the whole Prep together again.

We finished the day in the dining room, where parents from 14 different countries volunteered to bring food to share it with all the children and parents. The country tables were beautifully decorated with posters, traditional home clothes and so much more. A truly wonderful globally-minded event enjoyed by all.

Celebrations in Senior:
Though Senior students are currently in the throes of the end of year examinations, some F, E and LXX students were still able to celebrate International Day with the rest of the School community.

SWIMMING AT RST
Swimming at RST has seen some incredibly positive results and participation has increased across all three parts of the School this term. For more detailed information, please read the update from our Head of Swimming, Mr Cairncross, below:

Swimming Update

Senior News

Announcements

NEW HEADS OF SCHOOL
CONGRATULATIONS to Pun J and Albert S, our new Heads of School. Pun and Albert will lead the School Levee (Student Leadership) for the next twelve months. They are currently working hard towards their AS examinations but already have lots of excellent ideas to build student voice, enhance kindness in our community and continue to stress the importance of inclusivity. Their example will be key.

Pun and Albert have been at RST since the very beginning of our Senior section opening; they joined F Block (Yr 9) in 2018 and will be part of the first cohort of senior students to be going into their fifth year with us. Albert has always boarded and is a member of our thriving boys boarding house, School House. He enjoys fitness and sports, diving, and came to RST from his prep school in England. Pun is in Southfield and is talented in all areas of the arts. She has been instrumental in the growing RST Make a Difference community and is currently studying maths, chemistry, biology and geography. Pun and Albert will lead a Levee made up of six Heads of House and additional Levee members who will represent Academic, Arts, Pastoral, Service and Sport.

Reminders & Dates for your Diary

EXAMS: 2nd MAY - 24th JUNE
XX and D Block External Examinations

SCHOOL SPEECH DAY - SATURDAY 18th JUNE
Could parents please arrive by 10.45am at the latest. All senior students are required to attend in full School uniform (mandatory)

BATTLE OF THE BANDS
Senior Music presents “Battle of the Bands” which will be on the last day of term this year (23^rd June). The event promises to be a great celebration of music, with bands from across the School competing in an outdoor venue. Please scan the QR code for further details including highlights of 2020's event, rules, entry forms and song ideas.

Students interested in performing should speak to Mr. Costin or Mr. Furness and book rehearsal times for mentoring and support. The audition deadline is 3^rd June at the RST Recording Studio.

SATURDAY SPORT
Please see the below schedule for the Saturday sport on offer on 7th May:

RSTMAD

Thank you to the following students who sacrificed their time over the past two weekends to help raise funds for the charities we support by selling refreshments at our Saturday Sport events: Joshua (F Block), Grahame, Lulu, Tetsuo, Eiji, Boo and Pupa (all LXX).

We raised 10,454THB over the course of the two weekends, and we couldn’t have done it without them!

Peace Places Third at the Navamin Cup Competition

One of our F Block students, Peace Hengtrakool, recently came in third place at the Navamin Cup Competition. The event was held at the Navamintra Queen Mother Guard Equestrian Centre and she was able to achieve a commendable final score of 66.946%. Well done, Peace!

The Whole Me Programme

Please click below to read more about what we covered this week, as part of 'The Whole Me Programme':

The Whole Me Programme Weekly Update

Learning

BUSINESS STUDIES
Throughout the last term of business lessons for A-level students, we held a series of business-based challenges, including debates and various business memory games. The teams were neck and neck throughout the term, and so for the finale we organised a business escape room, which was a great way to blow off steam after a heavy week of mock exams!

Students had a series of business-themed challenges to complete, from building chains of analysis to solving calculations, that provided students with clues that were hidden around the Senior building. Students had to put the clues together to work out the code to a padlocked safe, and Team A came out on top to win its contents.

DRAMA
F Block students have been working hard to rehearse different scenes from Benjamin Zephaniah's play, ‘Face’, ahead of their exam next week:

HISTORY
F Block historians recently learnt about the remarkable story of a young child who experienced first-hand her family's journey into hell during the Cambodian Genocide. Loung Ung's story, ‘First They Killed My Father’, has been heavily criticised as a work of fiction by the Khmer Institute and students were introduced to those critiques as well as to the author's defence of her book. Students were asked to produce a poster on some aspect of Cambodian history, that is in some way connected to Ung's story.

Jaa produced a colourful poster on the Ho Chi Minh Trail

Korya produced a landscaped slide on Angkor Wat

CHEMISTRY
This week FS Chemistry students measured the rate of a reaction between magnesium and acid using a gas syringe.

Prep News

Announcements & Reminders

Next week, Year 5 will play their inter-form football matches. Good luck!

Dates for your Diary

SATURDAY, 7 MAY (09:45 - 12:00)
Saturday Enrichment Programme : This week, we are offering:

Year 3-4 Snack Attack
Year 3-7 Nature Walk

SATURDAY, 7 MAY SHREK REHEARSAL (09:45 - 12:00)
A reminder that all Year 8s will be required to attend a rehearsal for their Shrek production.

SATURDAY, 7 MAY (09:00 - 10:00)
Calling all teachers and parents! Join us this weekend with your students or children aged between 4 to 10 years old for an up-close and personal session with Peter H. Reynolds, author and illustrator of internationally loved titles such as Happy Dreamer, Say Something, and Be You!

Learn how he creates his amazing stories, be inspired as he read aloud one of his favorite books, and have a chance to showcase your own fantastic artwork for Peter!

This webinar has been arranged by Scholastic; Click on this link to sign-up for free.

SATURDAY, 7 MAY and SUNDAY, 8 MAY
Harrow Tournament - Details have been shared with team players and can be viewed on SOCS

FRIDAY, 13 MAY
Half Term starts

THURSDAY, 19MAY
Prep Interhouse Swimming Gala

Globally-Minded Assembly

Students enjoyed an assembly on 'Global-mindedness' as part of our International Day celebrations. You can watch it here:

Shrek Performance

19 DAYS TO GO!

There are 19 days to go until Year 8's first parent performance of Shrek!

The performance times are as follows:

Wednesday 25^th May, 11am (Veraphan Theatre)
Thursday 26^th May, 4pm (Veraphan Theatre)

To ensure everyone is able to attend, we will initially allocate a maximum of 4 tickets per family. Please collect your tickets (designed by Woody in Year 8) from Khun Lha in the Prep office. Additional tickets will be made available from Monday 23^rd May.

Thank you for your support thus far, we are very excited to see you and put on a great show!

Tech Team: Artificial Intelligence Research

The newly formed Tech Team, along with some additional students from Year 8, have joined a 5-day Artificial Intelligence (AI) research project camp this week. The camp is being run by Mark Bennet, Vice President Education at Build Something Different (BSD). BSD was incorporated into RST’s computing curriculum 2 years ago, and continues to be the platform we use to teach Year 5 and 7 students the power of coding with HTML, CSS and JavaScript languages. Mark is currently completing his PhD at Chiang Mai University in AI.

Our students have been given the opportunity to take part in Mark's research learning on how AI works and are even training their own AI programme. The below flyer contains more information about the course:

Artificial Intelligence Research

House Dodgeball Competition

There is great excitement every Friday breaktime in Prep… This year we are hosting our first House Dodgeball Competition where Houses will compete in year groups in a battle that will surely be remembered for many years to come!

Last Friday, Year 6 represented their Houses to see who would be crowned Dodgeball champion at the end of the term. This week, it was Year 5’s turn and here is the schedule for the rest of the term:

13^th May: Year 4
20^th May: Year 3
27^th May: Year 7
10^th June: Year 8

Good luck to all and… may the best House win!

Inter-Form Football

This week, Year 6 students have been playing inter-form football at break times. So far, all the forms have played each other, they have had to communicate and collaborate and show resilience to achieve their best. The final takes place next Monday; good luck to all the Year 6 forms!

Support for Learning: Booster Pack Information Video

Our Support for Learning (SFL) department create fun and informative ‘Booster Pack’ information videos to help support our community. The first one they made highlighted why ‘core strength’ is so import for Whole Person learning: it affects balance, coordination, life skills, stamina and concentration.

They are now working on another Booster Pack information video on ‘fine motor skills’ and we’ll share it with you next month. In the meantime, you can watch their 'Fight the Slump' video to remind you how you can boost your core... no matter what your age!

Pre-Prep News

Dates for Your Diary

BIKES TO SCHOOL
Monday, 9^th May – Year 1
Monday, 23^rd May – Reception

OUTDOOR EDUCATION CENTRE
Tuesday, 10^th May – Year 2
Wednesday, 11^th May – Year 1

SAFEGUARDING WORKSHOP
Tuesday, 10^th May

YEAR 2 SWIM GALA AND FUN SESSION
Friday, 27^th May

PHOTO DAYS
Monday, 6^th June & Tuesday, 7^th June

Nursery Ants

Once upon a time, there were three little pigs… What a great starting point to learn new skills. Along with the moral that only hard meticulous work pays off because there are no shortcuts to success, we learnt about houses around the world, family trees, the importance of being united and helping each other in difficult situations, and much more.

On our walk around the campus, we looked for different natural materials that the pigs could use to build their houses, while discussing their properties. We also had a chance to feel the texture of straw and wooden sticks as we decorated our tiny houses. We couldn’t use real bricks, so we cut pretend ones from red paper. This project was a great opportunity to straighten the muscles in our fingers and practise our fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and spatial awareness.

The wolf huffed and puffed the pigs’ houses down; we used straws to create colourful blow art masterpieces while experiencing the power of our breath, strictly following our Covid-19 protocols by having the children work in isolation from others. We discovered that the wolf’s breath must have been really powerful, almost like the hairdryer we used in our experiment when testing which objects could be moved by air without being touched.

The Reception classes have been focusing on the story 'Whatever Next!' as part of our ‘Space’ topic. This week we began to make a story map as part of our ‘Talk for Writing’ programme. The Giraffe class all worked so well to make their own story maps. The next part of the programme will be to change a part of the story and then finally we will write our own mini stories.

This week Year 1 students enjoyed a trip to the Elephant Sanctuary where they promote sustainable and ethical ways of treating elephants. They learnt lots about the elephants, including how to treat them and fed them pineapples and bananas. They also used their poop to make paper!

It was lots of fun and we enjoyed decorating our envelopes. The staff at the sanctuary were very grateful for our visit and our families’ donations from our arts and crafts fundraiser. If you would like to visit the Sanctuary, you can find them here: 12°56'04.6"N 101°03'24.3"E https://goo.gl/maps/cxhv8vtgXKnGqcGx7

As part of our topic on Siamese Civilisation and Thai History, Year 2 have been discussing food that is eaten in Thailand. This week they have been making their own somtam dishes (papaya salad) with Chef Bank in the School dining hall. We had a mixture of spicy, sweet and sour dishes that tasted yummy!

Last Friday Pre-Prep students arrived in pyjamas armed with their teddy bears to enjoy a day of bear activities. There were lots of learning about teddy bears, sharing of teddy bear information as well as stories all about bears. In fact, it was a 'beary' great day!

WEEKLY HOUSE TIME SESSION
This week’s session was all about how we form habits – good and bad! Mrs Rees explained to Rupert Brooke how to break goals down into manageable tasks that we can perform daily until they become habit. This makes our end goals much more achievable and particularly relevant as we head into exam season! Everyone left the room feeling super motivated and discussed how they are going to tackle their goals!

Enrichment and Sport

OUTDOOR EDUCATION CENTRE CCA
The Year 5 & 6s Outdoor Education Centre activity enjoyed learning how to cook over camp fires this week (important skills to learn in preparation for Duke of Edinburgh expeditions in the Seniors).

They also enjoyed their noodles & agreed that outdoor cooking was the best!

MASTERCHEF CLUB
This week MasterChef Club students were taught how to cook Isaan cuisine from our special cook, Khun Mongthat, who joined our master teacher Khun Natt. Khun Mongthat shared her secret recipes with the students, whilst Khun Natt guided the students in the art of food presentation.

Students learnt how to cook: Mango Sticky Rice, Laab Moo/Nue/Gai and Nam Tok Moo.

A great time was had by all, and the dishes tasted amazing!

SATURDAY FOOTBALL
Last Saturday we hosted our largest sporting event at RST: 4 schools, 4 clubs, 25 teams, 57 games, 133 goals. 3 of the RST teams reached the finals, however the storm meant we had to abandon play. It was, nonetheless, an amazing day of sport on our campus!