Term 1 - 15th September
Matters of Principal
Whole School Reminders
17th, 18th & 19th SEPTEMBER - EXEAT
School will be closed for Exeat on Monday, 19 September and will resume on Tuesday, 20 September at 08:00 am.
GOOGLE REVIEW
Please take a few minutes to leave us a review on Google. It helps prospective families learn more about life at RST: https://tinyurl.com/2wn52pey
Whole School News
SUPPORT FOR LEARNING
Why are fine motor skills important?
They are essential for performing everyday tasks and helping you express academic and artistic strengths. We want to support your child's learning (and play) so that they can be the best version of themselves, which is why we've been working on a series of informative videos.
No matter what your age is, we hope you enjoy watching the different ways that people at RST are using and improving their fine motor skills, and that we can inspire you to take part too!
Please reach out to the Support for Learning team if you have questions.
Senior News
Announcements and Reminders
OPERATION SMILE
The Operation Smile schools’ outreach manager, Dean Madeira, spoke to RST-MAD students about the charitable work that they do in Thailand. An example of this is their medical mission in Mae Hong Son next week, which will see the participation of four XX students, Leon, Lulu, Ohm and Boo.
Mr Madeira spoke about the nature of this mission, the overall cost - 3 million THB- and the work that our students will do there. He answered several sensible questions about his work, for example how he has been personally affected by the experiences of children who have received free life-altering surgery. He was also presented with 1,500 baht by the girls of Rupert Brooke as a donation towards the Dhammagiri Orphanage in Mae Hong Son.
Dates for Your Diary
19th – 22nd SEPTEMBER
RST MAD field trip to Mae Hong Song
23rd – 25th SEPTEMBER
Year 11 (D Block) Geography Field trip
26th – 30th SEPTEMBER
Year 9 (F Block) Residential
Brain Day
In Senior this week, we've had 'Brain Day'. This fascinating one-day introductory tutorial on neuroscience, led by our guest speaker Dr Guy Sutton, has helped our students explore the brain; from its basic anatomy, and how it is stimulated and imaged, to brain damage, criminal behaviour and 'the shattered mind'.
Our Sixth Form students even got to dissect a sheep brain, and they learnt about the different structures such as the cortex and corpus callosum.
It was an incredibly memorable experience for all!
Senior Orchestra
Senior Orchestra has had a wonderful start to the year and has really expanded in size, with over 40 players from Year 7 to XX. Meeting each Friday, we have been rehearsing for the Princess' visit as well as starting to prepare for the upcoming Winter Gala in December.
The Whole Me Programme
Our F Block students focused on the concept of ‘empathy’ during our Whole Me Session this week to learn more about themselves, their emotions and how to see events from different perspectives. The session culminated in each student completing a personal and reflective ‘Empathy Map’ based on what they ‘Feel’, ‘Think’, ‘Say’ and ‘Do’ whenever they experience a positive or negative emotion.
Learning
DRAMA
F Block have been using freeze frames as well as spontaneous and prepared improvisation in drama this week to develop their devised performances. Here they are in action:
D Block IGCSE drama students recorded their first piece of coursework on Thursday morning. Having studied and rehearsed their pieces over the holiday, they performed extracts from That Face, Lord of the Flies and Art.
Here they are in rehearsals:
IGCSE drama students worked so hard to create their performance for the Princess's visit. Here, they are finding ways to incorporate elements of The Whole Person, The Whole Point into their abstract movement sequences.
BUSINESS STUDIES
LXX business students have been exploring market positioning, creating their own market maps for a variety of different markets, then deciding where they would place their own business in that market given the chance (pictured).
In Economics, XX students have been focusing on behavioural economics - deciding what factors influence our decision-making ability, and discovering that we may not be as rational as we think!
As a whole, the business department has been busy planning a number of engaging business activities for the upcoming half term, giving students the opportunity to gain real-life experience of the business concepts they learn in class. This includes Mr May supporting students in Bangkok for the Equity Partnership Scheme, Mr Kelly organising an exciting trip for students in the next term and Mrs Rees kickstarting the tuck shop project and Christmas fair activities, so watch this space...
MANDARIN
E Block Mandarin Chinese First Language students have shown excellent work in prose writing. They enjoy reading their peers' writing and reflecting with good comments in class. They are also sharing their ideas about "The measurement of friendship 理想中的朋友具备什么样的特性" in presentation with their classmates.
Whilst Chinese Foreign Language students in E Block learnt vocabulary relating to shopping:
ART
E block students have begun their GCSE Art & Design course with enthusiasm. It's been fabulous to see more boys opting for the course this year too! They have been working in their sketchbooks learning how to present information to gain marks, related to the four assessment objectives. This week they have developed their ‘painting skins learning’ to extend their knowledge of skin tones, using acrylic paint.
It's fantastic to see how students' skills progress through the years. In this video you can see an XX student painting one of her coursework pieces:
BIOLOGY
In Biology this week, E block students have been looking at researching a particular specialised cell, and then they presented their findings to the rest of the group. There were a total of 9 different specialised cells.
Last week, the LXX were testing for different biological molecules such as reducing sugars, lipids and proteins, using varying chemical testing from different samples.
A real connection between Biology and Chemistry carrying out these tests:
Prep News
Announcements & Reminders
RECYCLING RESOURCE ROOM
The Recycling Resource Room is almost ready for business, the Eco Team has been hard at work during their break times. In the meantime, please check out our website to see what items we have available and what we are collecting or not collecting. The inventory is being updated daily.
LEGO HOUSE COMPETITION
(organised by the Beauclerc House Captains)
The Lego house competition has 2 categories: 'School' and 'Coolest Machine'. You can enter one or both categories. Your task is to build a Lego model that you feel represents the category name. Take some photos of your model, and a photo of you holding your model, to show that you built it. Submit the photos to the correct assignment on Google Classroom - scan the QR code below to join.
Four people from each House will be chosen as finalists to represent their House in a live final that will take place during School time.
Deadline for entries: 21st September
DESIGN INNOVATION COMPETITION
Dates for your Diary
MONDAY 19th SEPTEMBER – SCHOOL IS CLOSED FOR EXEAT
SATURDAY 24th SEPTEMBER – FOOTBALL
U13A Boys Football V Pattaya Inter FC @RST
Meet at the WEC at 08:30. Pick-up at 10:30.
Parents may come and watch the match.
Year 3 Maths
This week, Year 3 students have been practising their ‘versatility’ and ‘thinkers’ skills in maths. As part of our ‘Maths Mastery’ curriculum, students have been exploring flexible partitioning using concrete, pictorial and abstract representations. We’re so impressed with how well our students have completed the challenges we’ve set so far.
English
INTERACTIVE DISPLAY BOARDS
In the Prep English Department, we continue to develop a culture of thinking where we encourage our students to be active participants in their learning. Creating a high challenge, low threat learning environment, is one of our top priorities – learning spaces where children feel safe to think, explore, challenge, innovate and problem-solve. One of our recent initiatives was to create interactive display boards where the students are given the opportunity to manipulate the content based on their own ideas. Featured: Mr Stoker supervises a group of Year 5 students as they group images according to their literary features.
MORE “NOISE” IN THE LIBRARY?
Traditionally speaking, libraries are places of calm and quiet. In the Prep English Department, we believe they should also be learning environments where students can share stories, discuss the books they’re reading and recommend texts to their peers. In keeping with our visible thinking theme, we are aiming to create more of a book-club vibe in our library – opportunities for our students to share and discuss. This also helps our English teachers to gauge better how our students understand the content they read.
FLEXIBLE LEARNING SPACES
In the Prep English Department, we understand that individuals learn in different ways. We continue to develop our flexible learning spaces so that our students have choices depending on their individual learning styles. This facilitates opportunities for collaboration and allows our students to create comfortable learning spaces which generate the best opportunities for success.
Year 4 Reading
Year 4 students have been diving into the world of reading. We have been focusing on understanding our different phonemes and gaining confidence when sounding out new words. This week, students in 4F focused on the ‘b’ and ‘bb’ phonemes and they discovered many words that use these speech sounds.
House Gimkit Assembly
Friday saw our third House event of the Term. All students entered Gimkit Draw, which involved the Prep School playing a massive game of Pictionary via the iPads. In each assembly, a student would be selected at random to draw an "object" on their iPad, which all students could see on the big screen. Students would then have to type in their guesses until they guessed correctly. This proved to be a big hit with students and staff! A great and fun way to finish the week off.
Mandarin
Year 5 Mandarin language B students have been learning vocabulary that covers ‘daily activities’ and ‘days of the week’, through vocabulary games and charades:
Whilst Year 6 Mandarin language B students have been learning vocabulary that covers ‘hobbies’ and ‘intensifiers’, through vocabulary games and charades:
Library
This week in Library lessons, all Prep classes watched this short ‘RST Book Club video’ from some of our teachers. Sharing a love of reading, and helping children find a 'best fit book', is one of our priorities in our weekly Library lessons.
Children can draw on a range of themes and genres that interest them, then, find a book in their zone of proximal development (which means the challenge level is just right for them). Watch out for new RST Book Club episodes (featuring teachers and students) in the future:
Pre-Prep News
Announcements and Reminders
LOST PROPERTY
A polite reminder to please name all your child's belongings as this will help get lost property back to you. Each Friday we will put lost property out at the gate in the morning but it is much easier to return if it is clearly named with a white pen or sticker.
Dates for Your Diary
TUESDAY 20th SEPTEMBER (8:30AM)
KS1 (Year 1 and 2) Reading Workshop in the Pre-Prep Assembly Hall
THURSDAY 22nd SEPTEMBER – WAI KRU DAY
Celebrated in School with the children and teachers
MONDAY 26th SEPTEMBER:
Healthy Eating Week Begins
Year 1 Bikes to School – scooters are also allowed. Please don’t forget your helmets
TUESDAY 4th OCTOBER – PARENT WORKSHOP
08:30am
Independence and Routines for EYFS parents
FRIDAY 7th OCTOBER – PARENT/TEACHER SETTLING IN MEETINGS
3:00 pm- 6.15pm
MONDAY 10th OCTOBER – CARING KOALA DAY
THURSDAY 13th – SUNDAY 23rd OCTOBER – HALF TERM BREAK
Exploring Eagle Day
Last Friday was our first ‘Learner Profile Day’ of the year, and we began with EXPLORING EAGLE.
Classes talked about what it meant to be an explorer and how they could be explorers at School. There were lots of children exploring the School, investigating different things. We saw binoculars and magnifying glasses and children being adventurous all around the campus.
In the assembly at the end of the day, we all learnt about Christopher Columbus who was a real explorer. If you are an ‘Exploring Eagle’, you
- show curiosity about objects, events and people around you;
- want to find out about the world around you;
- like to take part in new activities;
- like to investigate new things.
Bike to School Week
Year Two students have had lots of fun this week, they were allowed to bring their bikes to school to help celebrate ‘Bike to School’ week. They were all wearing safety helmets and followed cycling etiquette around the track. This helped us stay fit and healthy.
Year 1
Every Wednesday, Miss Wendy goes on adventurous scavenger hunts with a group of Year1 children. This week, the scavenger hunt theme was "My senses'. Children searched for objects with different colours, something that made a noise, soft and rough objects, and things that we can eat.
Year 2 Dolphins
The Dolphins class have been enjoying their ‘Talk for Writing’ sessions, learning about information reports. We have been using story mapping, role-plays, and imitative actions to help embed the vocabulary and features of a report about ‘crocodiles’.
This week, the children were learning to verbally craft sentences explaining the body features and habitat of a crocodile. Some students even role-played as hungry crocodiles to help illustrate the sentences to their audience!
Intensive English
In Mr Roger's Intensive English Class, we have been learning about ‘Homes’, ‘Rooms’ and ‘Furniture’, which has linked nicely with our other focus on ‘Shapes and Colours’. The children really enjoyed making "their homes".
Makaton Signing
This week we are learning the signs for the Nursery class animals: Parrot, Bear and Owl.
Thank you to Rhino class for helping us make the video:
Mandarin
Year 1 and Year 2 students are learning basic Chinese characters through games (Charades) and creative Chinese characters design:
Useful Links
Enrichment and Sport
SATURDAY FOOTBALL
RST football in action for the first time this season. Thank you to our hosts Harrow, ISB and Bangkok Patana Schools:
YEAR 3/4 CROSS COUNTRY CLUB
Two Year 10 students (Carlos and Elliot) are helping our Year 3 and 4 students with training during their cross-country sessions. This week they focused on ‘pacing’ and ‘sprint finishes’. It's so lovely to see how our Year 10 students are supporting our Year 3 and 4s!
BAKING CLUB
Years 7 & 8 students have been enjoying 'Baking Club' this term. So far, they have made chocolate chip cookies, flap jack, scones and brownies:
CROSS COUNTRY
The Year 5-8 cross-country students are getting fitter every week! Students ran distances ranging from 4 – 6km on trails (with many hills). Students showed so much resilience and finished with a hill challenge to finish the session.
NATURE DETECTIVES
This week during activities, ‘Nature Detectives’ had an opportunity to get outside and explore the sound of rain, animals that come out in the rain and raindrops! Snails were EXTREMELY exciting to see too.
Boarding Life
Rupert Brooke and School House Senior boarders enjoyed a Saturday night movie together after a busy morning of enrichment activities and an afternoon at the shopping mall.
This week, Rupert Brooke and School House boarders were busy preparing for an afternoon tea party to celebrate the Queen of the United Kingdom's life, following the sad news of her passing last week.
The School House boys were in charge of interior design and produced lots of fabulous British-style bunting and pictures of the Queen to decorate the walls of School House.
The Rupert Brooke girls were in charge of baking and made some delicious scones and cupcakes, which we all enjoyed with a cup of tea.
It was a wonderful celebration and afternoon tea fit for royalty:
Young enthusiastic bakers were also hard at work over in Marshall House this weekend, where the full boarders divided into teams for a 'Great British Bake Off'. Zulin nominated himself as the judge and had the arduous task of tasting each of the sweet treats that had been created!
He crowned Ayla and Mr Stoker the winners for their gooey chocolate chip cookies; Minmin and Mrs Stoker's fudgy brownie waffles, and Kaimook and Atom's vanilla sponge followed closely behind.
As well as having lots of fun on campus, with baking, beading, a movie night, and time playing outside, the Marshall House boarders also ventured out and about. They played cards and drank milkshakes at a local diner on Friday afternoon and they had a fierce Laser Battle on Sunday, followed by ice-creams and time running around in Harborland.
School house students are very excited about the Princess’ visit tomorrow. Here they can be seen cleaning their shoes in preparation for the princess's visit tomorrow:
School House E Block have been practising their pool and table tennis skills this week in hope of beating our Tutor champion, Mr Douglas. They have enjoyed sampling the new supper menu, with roast meat and vegetables being a particular favourite:
Communication and collaboration were essential for the team games that Miss Arnold and Mrs VK organised for the Year 5-6 boarders this week:
RSTeam Spotlight
Get to know the people who make RST great by learning more about them and their roles.
This week's spotlight is on Stephanie Ricketts - Head of Chemistry in Senior: