Rugby School Thailand eNewsletter

Matters of Principal

This week Mr Grindlay talks about the self-sacrifice and leadership that is required to be part of a royal family, and he challenges our students to see how they can be positive contributors in the community in which they live.

Whole School Reminders

SCHOOL PHOTOS
Please find an outline below of how to order your child’s School photo:

Photo sample packs will be sent home with your child on 20^thJune;
Parents can either place their order in School from 20^th– 22^nd June (Admin Reception Area), alternatively orders can be placed online. The deadline for online orders is 27^th June;
Photos will be ready for collection in School from 18^thJuly onwards (Admin Reception Area), or
Photos can be delivered at home (there will be a small delivery charge to parents). Orders will be delivered from 18^th July onwards.

WISDOM FIT
A reminder that this is your last chance to sign up for our June Promotion!

If you are interested, please get in touch:

033141800 #4520 (working hour 08.00-18.00 hrs.)
wisdomfit22@gmail.com / Phatarinee@rugbyschool.ac.th
https://bit.ly/3O2Zi1l, or scan the QR Code to Line@ Wisdom Fit

Whole School News

Boarding Week

It's Boarding Week! And it has been our busiest week in the RST boarding community! Thailand's busiest, largest and fastest growing boarding School has opened its doors far and wide for fun, frolics and fiddle-dee-dees for the whole community.

Stay tuned next week for lots more details of all the events that took place, but in the meantime, remember: RST boarding offers complete flexibility for young people and families. Board with us for as many nights of the week as you wish, at a discount price; you can even board with us over Exeat weekends and half terms. Enjoy the campus, its amazing spaces and all boarding has to offer, with the flexibility to choose your boarding options for your family - a bespoke service to fit your needs!

To find out more please get in touch with admssions@rugbyschool.ac.th

Music

A number of our students across the School have enjoyed success in their music journey this year:

Congratulations to Piano who has made it to the final round of the Rockschool Thailand (RSL) music competition 2022 in the ‘Senior’ category, and to her sister Donut, who made it to the final in the ‘Junior’ category. The final is scheduled to take place in Bangkok at the College of Music Bansomdejchaopraya Rajabhat University, on Sunday, 19^th June;
Rute has also enjoyed great success in his musical journey at RST this year, and is currently preparing to sing with the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra (RBSO) in their 'Search for Talent Concert' at the Thailand Cultural Centre at the end of July;

Best of luck to these budding singers!

Alvin, Y7, has been awarded Runner–up in the COBIS virtual Music Competition 2022. He entered the ‘Middle School Piano’ competition and came second out of many entrants. Many congratulations to Alvin!

Safeguarding Training

Safeguarding continues to be one of our most important areas of staff training.

Here, you can see Kru Natt, one of our Designated Safeguarding Leads, delivering this training to our cleaning staff in Thai this month.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, we have maintained our safeguarding standards, training an impressive 337 staff across the School. This is a 421% increase in trained staff between 2019 and today, thanks to our amazing safeguarding team!

As we move into the next academic year, we will continue to strive to increase the regularity and inclusivity of our training programmes.

Cambridge Professional Development Qualifications

We would like to congratulate Carolyn Pearce and Tom Spreyer for becoming accredited Programme Leaders for the Cambridge Professional Development Qualifications (PDQ) in Teaching and Learning, and Educational Leadership respectively. The process of becoming accredited is a long and arduous one, requiring months of work and patience.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank Paul Woodward for all his efforts as our pioneering Programme Leader this year. The PDQ exists at RST because of his drive over the last 18 months, and sets us apart as only a handful of Schools in the region can offer it.

'Whole Me Weekly' Update

At RST we aim to develop a progressive and modern programme that meets the students where they are at in their lives, and adds value to their progress through inclusive experiences and discussion both academically, socially and pastorally.

Click on the link below for this week's update:

Whole Me Weekly

Senior News

Announcements and Reminders

NEW HEADS OF YEAR
We have appointed new Heads of Year to look after your child’s progress. They will take up their new positions in August:

Mr Adam Hayne – 9 (F Block) ahayne@rugbyschool.ac.th
Mrs Vicki Salter – 10 (E Block) vsalter@rugbyschool.ac.th
Mr Andy Maguire (also Head of FED) 11 (D Block) amaguire@rugbyschool.ac.th
Mrs Carolyn Pearce 12 (LXX) cpearce@rugbyschool.ac.th
Mr Lee May (also Head of Sixth Form) 13 (XX) lmay@rugbyschool.ac.th

The strategic reasons for this move are many and include bringing greater clarity for you as parents, allowing more opportunity for targeted age and stage monitoring/intervention and increasing academic ownership of the year groups. Essentially, the Heads of Year monitor the overall progress of students and will be a key point of contact, after your child’s Tutor and/or Boarding Houseparent of course. The biggest difference is that the Head of Year will be solely charged with looking after and supporting one year group only, thereby being able to guide you and your child through the pattern and rhythm of that particular year.

Pastoral care of all boarders remains with the Boarding Houseparents.

There will also be new members of staff running our four day Houses. They are:

Sheriff - Mr Andres Moreno
Southfield - Miss Jasmine Olds
Town House - Mr Nate Chisholm
Tudor - Mr Danny Furness

JUNIOR PHYSICS CHALLENGE
Luke, Phoenix, Prem and Kazuaki from E block, and Oscar, Elliot, Pat, Joey and Xander from F block all achieved a Gold award in the recent British Physics Olympiad Junior Physics Challenge.

A huge congratulations to you!

F BLOCK ART SHOWCASE
We are delighted to invite you to the F Block Arts Showcase on Tuesday 14th June at 4.30 pm in the Black Box theatre:

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).

SATURDAY SPORT

MasterChef Club

Our popular MasterChef club is a great way for Senior students to learn recipes that prepare them for the independence of university life ahead. Last term, Khun Natt invited various guest chefs in to teach the budding young cooks a variety of global cuisine!

Here, you can see photos of them learning Japanese Okonomiyaki with the mother of one of our Year 9 boarders, who kindly translated during the session. It was great fun and the end result was delicious!

Doumo arigatou gozaimasu! どうもありがとうございます。

We can't wait to see what other international homemade cuisines we can teach next academic year!

Learning

MATHS
Mr Miller's LXX A Level Maths class learned about experimental and theoretical probabilities by repeatedly dropping a 1cm radius circular disc onto a 4x4cm square grid and recording the outcomes. By looking at how many times the coin landed on a line and on a corner, they saw how the experimental results compared to the theory and used these real life random processes to calculate an approximation for the mathematical constant pi.

Students in the class are Rung, Val, Tetsuo, Albert, Krit, Charlie and Grahame.

BIOLOGY
The LXX have now completed their AS level external exams and have gently eased back into A level content by taking a look at ‘Photosynthesis’. Students worked in two groups: one group looked at the structure of the chloroplast, whilst the other group looked at the fundamentals of photosynthesis. Both groups created posters and presented their findings to each other:

DRAMA
F Block students have been working hard during drama lessons to prepare for their Arts Showcase (Tuesday, 14^th June, 4.30pm in the Black Box). We hope to see you there!

CHEMISTRY
This week, students of E3 completed a practical where they evaluated the use of flower petals, rhubarb and red cabbage, as indicators.

PSYCHOLOGY
As part of their lesson on ‘Reliability and Validity’ in Psychology, LXX students were tasked to build a Lego model in 15 minutes without seeing the model first, by only using instructions from their partners.

ENGLISH
Our E Block English students are currently studying Yann Martel's award-winning novel, 'Life of Pi'. One of the central themes of the novel is how human beings are able to make meaningful connections between seemingly different events, objects, and beliefs.

In order to explore this theme more fully, students analysed and made connections between two poems, 'Invictus' by William Ernest Henly and 'The Tyger' by William Blake:

ART
F block art students produced a mixed media print by utilising the raised surfaces of drain covers, benches, lockers, and the backs of chairs to monoprint for their end-of-year assessment. Inspiration came from textile artist Jeanne Williamson and can be viewed by parents in the F Block Arts Showcase at 4.30pm Tuesday, 14^th June. We look forward to seeing you all there.

Prep News

Announcements & Reminders

WATER SURVIVAL SKILLS
Next week, 13^th – 17^th June, our students will be focusing on survival skills in the water during their swimming lessons. Along with learning the key skills of swimming, personal survival is another essential life skill. Please click on the link below for more information on the items of clothing Prep students will need to bring with them:

Water Survival Skills

HOUSE MUSIC COMPETITION
Students should wear their House tops on Monday for their House Music Competition.

Please note that this is a student-only event.

LIBRARY BOOKS
A reminder to return all School library books as soon as possible. Any damaged or unreturned books will incur a charge.

SCHOOL SECRETARY POSITION
We are looking for a new Thai/English bilingual secretary in Prep to take over from Khun Lha, when she very sadly leaves us at the end of this term. If you are interested in this role, please contact Khun Usa - usa@rugbyschool.ac.th

TRANSITION PRESENTATIONS
This week the Year 5 to Year 6 and the Year 6 to Year 7 Transition Presentations took place. If you were unable to attend these events, you can access the presentations through the links.

Dates for your Diary

TRANSITION PRESENTATION TO PARENTS IN THE VEERAPHAN THEATRE (17:00 – 17:30)
15^th June: Y2 to Y3
16^th June: Y7 to Y8

11^th JUNE – SATURDAY ENRICHMENT (09:45 - 12:00)
Y3-4 DIY Papier Maché
Y6-8 Obstacle Course Challenge
Y5-8 Watersports

15^th JUNE: YEAR 8 EXPERIENCE SENIOR BOARDING EVENT

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

18^th JUNE - U12 FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT FINAL (08:30 - 10:30)
Team members have been emailed separately

18^th JUNE SATURDAY ENRICHMENT (09:45 - 12:00)
Y3-4 Sand Art;
Y3-4 Stop-mo-go
Y5-6 Karaoke Games;
Y5-8 Mountain Biking;
Y7-8 Code Breaking

Please sign-up on SOCS by Tuesday 14^th June

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

Year 3 Maths

Year 3 have had a wonderful time making their own pair of balancing scales as an introduction to the topic of ‘weight’. They collaborated brilliantly to ensure that their empty scales were balanced, before using them with bottle tops.

Science

Year 3 students have been learning all about light this term. They were tasked with the challenge of collaborating to create their own kaleidoscopes during science this week:

Year 5 students were challenged to separate a mixture of rock salt. They had to communicate and collaborate with their partners to figure out how to achieve two separate piles, one of pure salt and one of dirt and grit. All Year 5s successfully accomplished their mission!

During English, Year 4 students have been learning about the ancient Indian parable of the ‘Blind Men and the Elephant’. This parable later became well known in Europe, thanks to 19^th century American poet, John Godfrey Saxe.

It is a story of a group of blind men who have never met an elephant. Each one learns and imagines what the elephant is like by touching a different part of its body, but only one part. Each person then describes the elephant based on their limited experience and then argues about the others' opinions! Parables and fables are stories which teach us lessons. The moral of this story is to not jump to a conclusion before exploring the whole thing.

We have used this poem as a way to unpack the concept of facts versus opinion. It is an excellent prompt for developing our persuasive language skills and our ‘Learner Profile’ attributes of: globally-minded, thinking, reflective, versatile, collaborative and communicative.

Artwork by Theepob, Alies, Evan and Mililin.

Pre-Prep News

Announcements and Reminders

TRANSITION INFORMATION
All current children will be experiencing transition activities and talks over the next few days. On 15^th June we will have a MOVING UP MORNING where the children will visit their new year group. They will meet some of their teachers and if the teachers are not yet at the School, they will watch a welcome video from the teachers. We are preparing them for their next step in the learning journey!

ACTIVITIES
The last activity day will be Monday, 20^th June as we have various summer shows taking place on the 21^st and 23^rdJune. There will be no activity porgramme on Tuesday, 21^st or Wednesday, 22^nd June.

School finishes on Thursday 23^rd June at 12 noon.

LIBRARY BOOKS
We will be collecting all library books in from Friday, 10^th June so that we can do a stock take. Please check at home and return any books you find, on Monday.

PROUD PEACOCK
Introducing our final Learner Profile character – The Proud Peacock. The video below will give you a small taste of what characteristics our Pre-Prep children are learning from the ‘Proud Peacock’.

HALO
On Wednesday Pre-Prep witnessed an optical phenomenon known as a ‘halo’. Here are some of the children enjoying being mesmerised by the beauty of the halo as they observed it from The Oval. They called it the magic rainbow.

Dates for Your Diary

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

14^th JUNE – PARENT WORKSHOP FOR RECEPTION PARENTS
08:30am – Transitioning from Reception to Year 1

15^th JUNE – MOVING UP MORNING
Children only to attend

16^th JUNE – NON UNIFORM DAY

17^th JUNE – SELFIE ART DAY
Open to view with your child at either 08:00-08:30am or 3:00-3:30pm

21^st JUNE PARENT WORKSHOP
8:30am – How to help your child over the Summer holidays

21^st JUNE – YEAR 1 SUMMER SHOW
2:30pm in the Assembly Hall

22^nd JUNE – YEAR 2 LEAVER'S CONCERT
2:30pm in the Assembly Hall

23^rd JUNE CLASS PARTY DAY
School finishes at 12

Reception's Visit to the Dining Hall

On Thursday, the Reception classes visited the dining hall for their morning snack. This was to help get them ready for Year 1, when they will have their lunch in the dining hall.

We had a mini tour of the dining hall and found where the toilets were, and where we can wash our hands. We enjoyed looking at the pictures on the wall and watching the chefs in the kitchen prepare our lunch. We then lined up nicely to get our snack and walked carefully back to our tables to eat. We also learnt where to tidy up by ourselves when we have finished.

We enjoyed eating our snack in the dining hall and feel ready and excited to start in Year 1 soon!

It has been a hive of activity in the Bears class creative area this week, where the children have been ‘Creative Chameleons’ by carrying out some serious junk modelling! The children were first asked to design what they would like to make before going over to use various 'junk' to create their models. What fantastic results you all produced.

The Turtles have been very curious about how clouds move! This led to them asking many questions about wind! How does it move? Which direction does it move?

We were ‘Exploring Eagles’ using a range of materials to make a 'wind sock' to test the direction of the wind. It was a breezy day on Tuesday and the wind was coming from the west!

In PE this week, the Nursery children have been learning how to go 'under' and 'over' things:

Intensive English

This week, the students enjoyed dressing up and acting out the jobs they would like to do when they are older. Ethan was an excellent fireman and Hayoon a wonderful cook.

Thai

This week, Pre-prep students have had a very busy week learning Thai:

Reception (Thai) students learnt the letters พ and ฟ, and all about fruit and vegetables. Whilst Reception (Non-Thai) students learned all about ‘My family’. Both groups practised matching the vocabulary they learned to pictures:

Year 1 (Thai) students learnt about words with final consonants, specifically words that end with /w/ (แม่เกอว);
Year 1 (Non-Thai) learnt all about the 'Rooms in my house’. They practised using their newly learnt vocabulary by writing their own sentences:

Year 2 (Thai) studied the culture of the Northeast part of Thailand. They drew the god of water in Esan, ‘Nakee’. They also practised using the down tone and the falling tone in the three-class consonants:

Useful Links

Learner Profiles

Enrichment and Sport

STEM LEADERS
To gain a STEM Leaders Award, students must log four hours of leadership activity. Here you can see Iyara and Si Eun, who are in Year 8, delivering a STEM activity session to our Year 4 students. They are delivering this together, despite the fact that one of them is currently remote learning. These girls, and others doing the award, have demonstrated remarkable skills that include the expert use of technology, collaboration and of course, leadership. They have developed their confidence, knowledge and skills at the same time as working with our younger students.

Boarding Life

As we near the end of the year Rupert Brooke girls have been working with their tutors to reflect on the past academic year. Here are Rupert Brooke E Block girls working with their tutor, Mr Lynch, reflecting on what has gone well and areas to work on next year.

The D block girls in Rupert Brooke finished their GCSE exams yesterday. They have worked incredibly hard and enjoyed a well-deserved celebratory pizza this evening!