Rugby School Thailand eNewsletter

Matters of Principal

This week Mr Grindlay reminds us that educating a young person entails much more than academic achievement alone; it’s about creating a rounded and successful person.

Whole School Reminders

PICK-UP TIMES: THURSDAY, 2^nd JUNE
A reminder that pick-up on Thursday will be 15:15 for Pre-Prep, 15:30 for Prep and 15:45 for Senior.

School will be closed on Friday, 3^rd June.

VACCINATION STATUS
If your child has been vaccinated and you have not informed School, please do so by contacting leadnurse@rugbyschool.ac.th to ensure that our vaccination records are up to date.

PARENT SURVEY FEEDBACK
Parents and Guardians are invited to a feedback session by the Principal on the recent parent survey. There are two slots:

Wednesday 1^st June - 8am at the Black Box Theatre (Prep and Senior parents)
Friday 10^th June - 8.30am at the Pre-Prep building (Pre-Prep parents)

BOARDING WEEK: 6^th – 10^th June
During the week of 6^th – 10^th June we will be hosting the inaugural 'RST Boarding Week'. It promises to be a week of boarding based fun, with opportunities for students who don't normally board to enjoy sleepovers in the boarding houses, there will be 'afternoon tea' for different year groups, a social media 'takeover' and an open house for RST parents on Friday, 10^th June when they pick up their children from School.

'Neekrung' CARNI WOW: SATURDAY 28th MAY
We're offering a special 20% discount for Rugby School Thailand & Wisdom Valley regulars:

NEWSLETTER IN THAI
A reminder that you are able to translate the newsletter content from English to Thai, when you click on the 'translate' button:

Whole School News

CHANGES TO SCHOOL UNIFORM
We have reviewed the School uniform and made some small changes, both to allow a better quality, and to provide a more continuous uniform running through the three sections of the School.

The new uniform will be available from August 2022, but we will have a transition period where the old uniform items will still be acceptable for the next academic year.

Please click on the link below for more information on the changes:

School Uniform Changes

HOME CLOTHES DAY
We will have a non-uniform day on 16^th June to raise money for Childline Thailand. Please see below for more details on how you can support this great NGO:

SENIOR DINING HALL PROJECT
The senior dining hall project is well underway: foundations are in, columns have been installed, and the concrete floor slab is just about to be poured. The next phase will see the joists go up and the roof go on, in readiness of the precast concrete walls that will give the building its shape.

The new dining hall is an exciting addition to the RST estates portfolio, and will help to support a ‘whole School approach’ to timetabling, through a larger seating and eating capacity at lunch time. A real step forward!

A STAFF 'ARTY PARTY'
Last weekend, a group of staff spent the afternoon making and creating in the Senior Art studios, with Ms Pardoe guiding them on various techniques. Just as we'd encourage our students to step outside their comfort zone and try new things, so too were these aspiring staff artists!

They were given a choice of painting or clay work and asked to be spontaneous, free and creative with their medium. The main aim was to have fun! While not everyone was prepared to call their work 'finished', we are hoping there will be an opportunity next academic year to run another staff art lesson.

THE WHOLE ME PROGRAMME
Please click below for an update on our 'Whole Me Programme':

The Whole Me Weekly

Senior News

Announcements and Reminders

WHOLE ME PROGRAMME
Our Whole Me Programme RSE (Relationships and Sex Education) plan is designed to empower young people with the correct information at the correct time. While some aspects of this programme might be challenging for us as parents, the more we can overcome our nervousness around terms such as, for example, ‘genitals’, the more confident our children will be in telling us if something is wrong.

There is overwhelming evidence that teaching young people the correct names for body parts reduces the chances of being sexually abused. Our curriculum is a devised Curriculum, the UK National RSE Statutory Curriculum, and the Thailand Ministry of Education as sources, adapted for our specific School culture.

We encourage parents to have conversations about these topics at home before the lessons, answer any questions from their children honestly, and keep checking in with your child about topics, such as puberty, regularly. In order to develop this area further we would value your honest and confidential feedback, and would be grateful if you could please complete the short survey, below:

RSE Survey

CONGRATULATIONS OHM
We are delighted to share the incredible news that Ohm (LXX) passed the selection and test of POSN (The Promotion of Academic Olympiad and Development of Science Education Foundation under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Galyani Vadhana Krom Luang Naradhiwas Rajanagarindra).

Ohm is in the top ten students (out of 450) who will join the Asian Science Camp 2022, Hybrid System (onsite and online) in Korea and Chulalongkorn University on 24^th – 30^th July.

SENIOR ART EXHIBITION
We invite visitors to our joint Art exhibition of Prep and Senior Art.

Senior art will be exhibited by our 13 GCSE and 5 A-Level students and can be viewed throughout Speech Day on Saturday, 18^th June.

Boarding Week: Senior

Between Monday, 6^th and Friday, 10^th June, RST is holding its first ‘RST Boarding Week’. This is a celebration of our award winning boarding and a chance for students who currently aren’t boarding to enjoy a sleepover night, free of charge!

Your son/daughter will enjoy supper, plenty of fun activities, a chance to relax with their friends, and the chance to experience the boarding routine for themselves. All they need to do is pack for one night and enjoy! They would join us immediately after the end of the School day and stay overnight in our care.

What do you need to do?
If your daughter/son is currently a day student in Year 9 (F Block), Year 10 (E Block) or Year 12 (LXX), and would enjoy a fun sleepover with friends, just complete this short Google Form to request a place . Spaces will be allocated on a 'first come first serve' basis, so do hurry! You will need to complete the Google Form by Monday, 30^th May.

We would also love you to drop into the boarding houses yourselves, to meet with boarding staff and to enjoy some refreshments, on Friday, 10^th June at 3pm. This will be a great opportunity to learn more about boarding, to enjoy a tour of the houses and to ask any questions you may have of the staff and also the boarders themselves too.

Monday 6^th, June: F Block (Year 9) Sleepover (6pm onwards)
Tuesday 7^th June: E Block (Year 10) Sleepover (6pm onwards)
Thursday 9^th June: LXX (Year 12) Sleepover (6pm onwards)
Friday 10^th June: Parents’ Open House (3 – 4pm)

RST Make a Difference (RSTMAD)

Four senior representatives of the Make a Difference (MAD) Team visited three local charities on Monday as part of their final 'donations trip' for the academic year and donated a total of 38,000THB to 3 different charities:

Hope for Strays – 10,000THB
Falko Duwe – 10,000THB
Renewal of an annual care sponsorship for 8-year-old Jedah from Baan Jing Jai (to pay for another year's education) – 18,000THB

Thank you Rung, Eiji, Tetsuo and Lulu for your incredible work.

Please contact the Make A Difference Team at rstmad@rugbyschool.ac.th if you are interested in supporting any of these charities further.

Even though our Senior School Library has quite a lot of growing still to do, the quality of the books that currently stock its shelves could rival other libraries many times its size! Part of the growth plan for the library is a dedicated ‘Reading Programme’ which all students will be able to use to help them select books that pique their interest and improve their overall English language abilities.

Mrs Collacott and the Senior English department, have begun the painstaking process of labelling each and every book to match specific reading levels that will be launched to students next year. Watch this space!

Music Awards

We would like to celebrate with the following Senior students, who recently achieved some remarkable results in Music:

Pictured:
Xander M (F Block, Town House) - Grade 5 Music Theory with Distinction
Jane Y (F Block, Tudor House) - Grade 5 Piano and Grade 5 Music Theory
Rebecca R (E Block, Tudor House) - Grade 4 Violin with Merit
Painuan B (E Block, Tudor House) - Grade 5 Flute
Owen Y (D Block, Town House) - Grade 7 Piano with Distinction

Not Pictured:
Peter S (F Block, Town House) - Grade 5 Piano with Merit
Andrie O (E Block, Town House) - Grade 3 Piano

Prep News

Announcements & Reminders

STUDENT ASSESSMENTS
During the week commencing 6^th June, all our students will be sitting assessments in their classes. They will follow their normal timetable and all preparation will be done in School.

We would like to stress that students and parents should not worry about this, as these assessments happen regularly throughout the year. The results will be shared in the end of term reports.

ENRICHMENT WEEK
From 20^th – 22^nd June, all our students will participate in our ‘Enrichment Week’. Your children will take part in 6 activities to reflect the 6 Learner profile characteristics.

The activities are:
Thinkers – students will have to think carefully about how to use the materials given to them to safely cross the School lake;
Resilience – students will go on a hike around the nearby area, before cooling off with a pool party;
Versatile – students will do a wide variety of activities at the Outdoor Education Centre;
Reflective – students will carefully consider what they have learnt and the work of others to create a ‘Big Art’ project;
Globally Minded – students will visit the ‘Sanctuary of Truth’ to find out more about world religion and global beliefs;
Communicators & Collaborators – students will work together on a range of team building exercises around School campus.

For these days your child will need to bring into School their swimming kit, sun cream, hat and water bottle. For their visit to the ‘Sanctuary of Truth’ they may bring in 100 baht to spend there.

We look forward to continuing to develop the Whole Person here at RST and hope that our Learner Profile week will be both fun and extremely rewarding for all our students.

TRANSITION MEETINGS
Last week, we welcomed our Year 3 parents into School to meet the Head of Prep and the Year 4 team for next year. Parents were informed about some changes for Year 4, were reminded about key information regarding the School, and had the opportunity to meet their parent representative. It was lovely to see our parents together!

We have transition presentations for all year groups scheduled over the next few weeks; please keep an eye on the Prep calendar and ‘Dates for your Diary’ reminders. We look forward to seeing you soon.

Dates for your Diary

28^th MAY – FOOTBALL (07:00 – 15:00)
U11A and U11B Boys Football @Patana

28^th MAY – RUGBY (08:00 – 09:30)
U9, U11 & U13 Rugby Training

28^th MAY – SATURDAY SPORT (08:00 – 09:30)
Y3-8 Basketball, Badminton & Rugby.

Please email sbuck@rugbyschool.ac.th if you would like to join

28^th MAY – SATURDAY ENRICHMENT PROGRAMME (9:45- 12.00)
Y3-4 Karaoke Games
Y5-6 Drone Flying & Inventing Machines
Y5-8 Fun Cricket
Y7-8 Fusion Cooking

TRANSITION PRESENTATION TO PARENTS IN THE VERAPHAN THEATRE (17:00 – 17:30)
31^st May: Y4 to Y5
8^th June: Y5 to Y6
9^th June: Y6 to Y7
15^th June: Y2 to Y3
16^th June: Y7 to Y8

17^th JUNE – ART EXHIBITION AT THE COLLINGWOOD CENTRE
09:45 – 10:45 Y3-5 Parents may attend
11:45 – 12:45 Y6-8 Parents may attend

17^th JUNE – PREP CONCERT IN THE WEBB ELLIS CENTRE
10:45-11:45 All parents may attend

23^rd JUNE PREP SPEECH DAY IN THE WEBB ELLIS CENTRE
10:30-12:00 All parents may attend

23^rd JUNE YEAR 8 LEAVERS' LUNCH WITH FAMILIES
12:00-13:30 Year 8 students with their parents and siblings may attend

23^rd JUNE – END OF TERM
12:00 End of Term for Y3-7
13:30 End of term for Y8

Art Exhibition and Music Concert

Communicators & Collaborators Week

This week has been our ‘Communicators’ and ‘Collaborators’ week. We have focused on this Learner Profile characteristic to link with the Year 8 production ‘Shrek – The Musical’. In the video, you can hear all about the benefits of speaking different languages in an interview with Mr Howell and Mr Pye.

Swim Gala

It was wonderful to have parents cheering along at the Prep Swimming Gala last week, as we return to hosting our usual lively School events! Here are some highlights from the gala, including some awesome underwater action shots!

Mandarin

In the past few weeks, the Year 4 Chinese classes have been focusing on the topic of ‘My Dream Job’. They used a variety of fun activities and games to talk about what jobs their parents do, and what they themselves would like to do when they grow up.

Year 7 students have been learning to talk about where they live, to describe what is in their town and how to ask for, and give, directions to places.

Year 8 students have been learning to talk about the weather and to describe what they do depending on the weather.

Shrek - The Musical

After months of hard work and practice, Year 8 students have finally had the opportunity to perform Shrek to students and parents this week. Every single student has been absolutely outstanding - gaining confidence and fulfilling their roles (both acting and otherwise) with distinction.

I am extremely proud of their effort and I hope that all those who watched, enjoyed the performances. School productions are a great way to develop our students’ characters and many of the ‘Learner Profile’ characteristics were certainly visible throughout the preparations and performances. It has very much been a collaborative effort, with students, parents and staff all pulling together, lots of resilience was required to learn lines, and good communicative skills were demonstrated through the singing and acting. I would like to extend my sincerest thank you to all those involved.

Mr Adam Watson

As part of our transition programme, the Year 7 ‘Young Sports Leaders’ have been developing their ‘Leadership Skills’ this term by running sports sessions for our Year 2 students.

The Year 2 students have responded very positively indeed, and we have expanded the provision for more Year 2 students because of the success and response this half term. The Year 7s have been excellent, improving their communication, collaborating, organisational and problem solving skills.

It is very rewarding seeing their progress over the duration of the course; their confidence and ability to be proactive improves week-by-week.

Pre-Prep News

Dates for Your Diary

6^th JUNE PHOTO DAY
Ants, Parrots, Monkeys, Hedgehogs, Starfish, Turtles, Frogs and Cheetahs

Nursery children: please wear your grey shorts, blue shirts, yellow socks.
Reception children upwards: please wear PE kit with yellow socks and trainers

7^th JUNE PHOTO DAY
Elephants, Owls, Fish, Rabbits, Giraffes, Bears, Pandas, Butterflies

Pre-Nursery and Nursery children: please wear your grey shorts, blue shirts, yellow socks.
Reception children upwards: please wear PE kit with yellow socks and trainers

8^th JUNE – PARENT WORKSHOP FOR NURSERY PARENTS
Transitioning from Nursery to Reception

10^th JUNE
Year 2 Tour of Pre-Prep (Transition Journey)

14^th JUNE – PARENT WORKSHOP FOR RECEPTION PARENTS
Transitioning from Reception to Year 1

The Koala Way

The Koala Way represents our 5 rules for everyone to live, work and play safely together by. The 5 symbols and signs are linked to our ‘Learner Profile’ and helps to encourage positive behaviour, politeness and kindness in all we do, thereby developing a safe and caring community.

We teach the children the phrases and signs starting in Pre-Nursery, and all the teachers have these cards on their lanyards as visual reminders.

Ask your child if they know these from our poster!

Nursery Elephants

The nursery elephants have been learning about our favourite traditional tale, ‘The Gingerbread Man’. After listening to the story, we were inspired to make our own gingerbread cookies and also become a character from the story. The children used puppets and props to retell the story to their friends. We had fun participating in a wide range of activities related to our topic this week.

Starfish class had a wonderful time exploring science and geography topics this week when we looked at clouds through 'cloud viewers' and went on a walk around the School grounds discussing the difference between 'human' and 'physical' geography. We observed the weather and discussed rain, water, ice and snow, exploring ice in the classroom.

Year 1's Trip to the Outdoor Education Centre

Lots of fun activities happened at Year 1’s trip to the Outdoor Education Centre! Students used maps to find their way through the trails, used compasses, drew maps using charcoal, found a half and quarter of sticks and played on the adventure playground!

The Year 2s went on a field trip to Legend Siam as a part of their student-led topic ‘Ancient Siam’. They are learning all about the history of Thailand and on our trip, they experienced traditional Muay Thai/Thai Boxing, made their own Thai kites and planted rice on a farm.

Our EYFS young musicians are diligently practising their music showcase for next week's video recording and our Year 1 concert. Whilst our Y2s are working hard with their performance in the Leavers' Assembly they are also learning how to write and read their own rhythm compositions.

During our session, the Pre-prep students all display ‘Concentrating Crocodiles’, ‘Persevering Penguins’ and ‘Teamwork Tigers’ characteristics and they are very much looking forward to showing it to their parents.

Useful Links

Learner Profiles

Enrichment and Sport

The Prep Enrichment programme was in full swing again last Saturday; highlights of last week's activities can be seen below. Students who have signed up for tomorrow's Enrichment sessions will enjoy Karaoke Games, Drone Flying & Inventing Machines, Fun Cricket and Fusion Cooking!

SAILING
Steady 6-8kt winds saw some excellent sailing on the Westlake last Saturday. Nine of our students practised their tacking and gybing skills, whilst enjoying some fun informal races.

TALENT SHOW
Students had a terrific session showcasing their skills and talents on stage in the Veeraphan Theatre:

OUTDOOR EDUCATION CENTRE
Who would have thought playing with sticks and ropes could keep these Prep students so engaged? They learned an effective ladder building knot and used it to make swings, ladders, and pulleys.

CROSS COUNTRY
This week, students ranging from year 3 to year 8 ran 5km in the tough jungle trails around campus, as part of the Prep Cross Country CCA. All the students did really well, climbing big hills and battling through the long grass.

CREATIVE MOVEMENT AND DANCE
During this week’s ‘Creative Movement and Dance Activity’ year 3 and 4 students were challenged to dance around a maze. The activity helps develop their body awareness, coordination, body control, balance, and confidence.

SATURDAY FOOTBALL
Last Saturday, we played host to 4 football academies and played 28 matches across 5 age groups. The RST teams scored 50 goals, won 15 games, drew 3 and lost 10.

There we some high-quality skills on display, and lots of fun was had by all.

Thank you to one of our Senior Students, Bunn, who captured some great action shots!

SUNDAY RUGBY
After a few weeks of rugby training in Prep, where our students learnt more about fundamental rugby skills in a fun and safe environment, we were invited by the Bangkok Lions Rugby Club for a fixture. 47 students from our U9s (year 3 & 4), U11s (year 5 & 6) and U13s (year 7 & 8) travelled to Bangkok early on Sunday morning to take part. Three competitive games were played and the coaches were very impressed with the students’ attitude and commitment.

Boarding Life

This time last week, we invited Year 7 students for a sleepover in Marshall House. The fun began with games down at the OEC, followed by a barbeque supper and an evening of everyone laughing and playing in the house. To round it all off everyone watched a movie with popcorn, before getting some much-needed sleep ready for Saturday's enrichment and sport.

Tonight, it’s the Year 6 students' turn to enjoy fun and festivities in Marshall House; we’ll post coverage of that next week!

Some of the Marshall House boarders got up with the birds this week and did a 5km run with Mr Dunn and Mrs Douglas!

Mr & Mrs Fogden created a fun new obstacle game for the Marshall House boarders, called "Guang's Game"! It was named in honour of Guang, who won last week's activity challenge.

We’ve been filming some of our boarders this week to get snippets of their favourite things about boarding life, ahead of our dedicated ‘Boarding Week’ from 6-10th June.

Rupert Brooke girls have been working really hard over the past few weeks for their GCSE and A-level exams, here are some photos of them enjoying some down time in the evenings relaxing with their friends and taking a break from the exam preparation!

Some of the Year 9 boarders in School House preparing for their end of term internal exams. Staff in the boarding houses are able to help and support boarders with their academic work every evening!