Rugby School Thailand eNewsletter

Matters of Principal

This week Mr Grindlay talks about the importance of our legacy.

Whole School Reminders

ATK TEST RESULTS
A reminder to submit your ATK test result every Sunday and Wednesday. Please submit your results using the following links:

Pre-Prep ATK Google Form
Prep & Senior School ATK Google Form

EXEAT
Exeat begins at 15.30 on Friday, 11 March.

DOWNLOAD THE SCHOOLZINE APP
As mentioned in last week's letter, please download the Schoolzine app. The app will allow us to send helpful reminders through push notifications to your mobile phone and will also enable you to easily access key information, such as ATK test submission forms, the Parent Portal, individual School calendars, etc. all in one place.

RST GYM MEMBERSHIP SURVEY
Please remember to complete the survey by 31 March.

Whole School News

World Book Day

Pre-Prep
We had a lovely day of colourful and creative costumes, including from those of you currently learning remotely at home. The parades were wonderful and a great way to see everyone’s favourite book characters. Our classes studied various authors:

Pre-Nursery: Laura Wall
Nursery: Lucy Cousins
Reception: Julia Donaldson
Year 1: Eric Carle
Year 2: Roald Dahl

Prep
Magic cast its curious spell over the Prep School yesterday, as they celebrated World Book Day. It all began with a Shakespearean poetry flashmob before students took part in a range of incredible activities, such as spell writing, map creation, story box construction, bean bag reading and magical codebreaking. Prep students enjoyed celebrating 'World Book Day'!

Senior
Each house in Senior School was given ten wrapped books that had cryptic clues about it written on the front. Students were encouraged to take a risk and choose a book that appealed to them. Students were also gifted bookmarks with favourite quotes from staff.

Through our secondhand book sales and student donations, we raised over 10 000 THb from across the whole School for the Hand to Hand Foundation and Take Care Kids; we will also donate any remaining books to them. Thank you all for your kind donations!

All in all, much fun was had across the School.

Congratulations to the RST winners whose work has been selected to represent our School as part of the worldwide COBIS art competition 2022:

Key stage 1 winner: Daisy (2W)
Key stage 2 winners: Gail (6D), Mathilde (6D), Avrora (6D)
Key stage 3 winners: Ah Ra (F block), Patricia (8P), Vida (8E)
Key stage 4 winners: Marwin (E block), Lily (D block), Buggy (D block)

The theme the students were given this year was ‘Looking Ahead’ and students chose to represent their thoughts, feelings and ideas in many different creative ways and media. We were impressed by students’ ability to approach the theme in such a mature and diverse manner!

Senior News

Announcements & Reminders

We are very proud of our Senior School Director of Music, Mr Costin, whose music was featured on UK BBC Radio 3's classical breakfast show last week.

You can listen to it here (featured at 2 hours, 2 seconds).

Important Dates

Tuesday 8th, and Thursday 10th March: inter-House girls’ football and boys’ basketball competitions

Senior Assembly

In our Senior School Assembly this week, we presented this year’s Head Girl and Head Boy, Cherry T and Alex F, as well as the School Levee (student leaders), Milly H, Alex R, Tan T and Mook O, with their Levee ties.

It was good to hear Cherry and Alex address the School and talk about how important it is to be kind, to treat everyone with respect and to be inclusive of others. We also heard from Mr May, Head of Sixth Form, with a summary of the successes of our top year and the fantastic university offers that they have had.

Lunchtime Piano Concert

Students from Year 7 to D Block performed a wide range of exceptional Piano music from our Head of Keyboard, Khun Kwan. Repertoire included Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt and Gershwin. Highlights can be viewed in our video.

This is the second of many new concerts in the MDA Building; the next concert is scheduled for 16th March in the Black Box and will showcase some of our RST Ensembles such as the Senior Choir, Orchestra and Bands.

Mr.Furness, Senior Music Teacher

F Block ‘Sugar and Spice’ Oversized Sculpture project

F Block artists have now completed their oversize sculptures inspired by the soft sculptures of Claes Oldenburg, and ice cream paintings of Joel Penkman.

Students worked together in small groups using materials such as card, wire, and varied techniques which were challenging! Last week we displayed all the sculptures together and students peer-assessed each other. After reviewing how working collaboratively in groups of 3-4 went, they will demonstrate critical understanding and offer advice maturely, and suggest points of success to each other. The bright colours and the realistic nature of this exhibition have made a fantastic impact as students, staff and visitors walk through and around them, as they head through the senior building.

Ms Anita Pardoe & Mrs Vicki Salter

Congratulations to our 17 Senior students who successfully completed the qualifying adventurous journey over the weekend in the mountains of Pak Chong, Khao Yai.

This is an extra special achievement as the students began the award two years ago, however their adventurous journey was repeatedly postponed due to Covid.

Congratulations to Tank (LXX) who took part in the Sebring International Raceway and the Homestead Miami Speedway, held in the USA over half term. These races prepare new Formula drivers mentally and physically so that they are able to achieve better results during the Formula 4 Championship season.

Tank received a special mention for his ‘defensive moves’, which were the fastest on the circuit and for ‘always having good starts and picking-up positions’.

Well done Tank!

Saturday Sport

This Saturday is jam packed with sporting opportunities for our students. A huge variety of activities are on offer including badminton, dodgeball, recreational volleyball and basketball. Students will also have a chance to workout in the fitness suite and have a free swim in one of our amazing pools.

Prep News

Important Dates

Sport and Enrichment - Saturday, 5 March:

08:30 - U11 & U13 Boys Football v Pattaya Inter @RST
08:30 - U12 & U13 A/B Girls Football v Lions FC & Piing Academy
09:45-12:00 - Saturday Enrichment Programme:
- Y3-4 Inventing Flying Machines
- Y5 Papier Maché
- Y6 Fusion Cooking
- Y7-8 Laser Tag

Team Building at the Outdoor Education Centre:

Monday, 7 March: Year 3
Tuesday, 8 March: Year 4
Wednesday, 9 March: Year 5

The RST Factor

The House Music Competition is coming up very soon and we would like as many students as possible to take part. It doesn't matter what standard students are; they will compete with people who are the same level, rather than in their year groups.

Please scan the QR code to sign up. It takes you to a Google Form that will explain everything you need to know about entering as a soloist.

Key dates:
Monday, 7th March, 8.15am – Deadline for entry
w/c Monday, 14th March – Auditions
Friday, 18th March – Grand Final

Miss Andrews

Team Building

Over the next two weeks, each year group in the Prep School will be having a resilience-increasing, collaboration-boosting, versatility-testing morning at the Outdoor Education Centre, led by Mr Hitchmough our school Director of Camps.

These should be excellent fun. Your child will need to ensure that they have with them: a Water bottle, Insect spray, Suncream and their Hat (W.I.S.H) for the day.

The Importance of Reading

Over the past few weeks, Mr Watson has been presenting to our parents about the importance of reading. If you were unable to make his presentation, you can watch the recording here.

Pre-Prep News

A big thank you to everyone for your support this week, especially our dedicated and flexible Pre-Prep team; they've pulled together and helped in all areas of staffing due to the impact of Covid.

Announcements & Reminders

ATK TESTING
Nasal testing is proving to be a slightly more reliable form of ATK test and as such, I would like to recommend that those of you with older children move to this test. I appreciate that for the much younger children this test is not particularly easy to administer, and as such the saliva test will be fine to continue with.

It remains important that anyone with symptoms remains at home even if the initial ATK test shows negative. Key symptoms to watch out for are a sore throat, headache, cough and fever although not necessarily all of these will be present.

ACTIVITIES IN TERM 3
Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 parents: please complete the survey for activities in Term 3

PANTS ARE PRIVATE
Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 had the 'Pants are Private' Assembly this week. This is based on the NSPCC presentation and helps explain why we keep our private parts private.

Please see the link to the presentation, below:

Pants_are_Private_NSPCC_.pdf

Important Dates

Tuesday 8th March:
8:30-9:00am - Parent Workshop Monster Phonics for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2
Thursday 17th March:
2:30pm - BIG TALK in the Pre-Prep Assembly Hall on handwriting and fine motor development

(Please ATK test before coming into School)

Pre-Nursery Swimming

The Pre-Nursery children take to their swimming lessons like fish to water! So many splashes, smiles and laughter can be seen throughout their weekly lesson.

Reception Bears

Our Reception children love our messy play trays. This week they have been recreating the story 'Sharing a Shell' and creating their own potions based on the story 'Room on a Broom' in celebration of World Book Day.

Year 1 Fireman visit

Year 1 have been learning about the Great Fire of London and were surprised to find their cardboard houses on fire in the Pre-prep carpark!

Luckily the local firemen came to help put out the fire! They taught us lots about fire safety and how we can keep safe in an emergency.

Year 1 and Year 2 Sport

In Year 1 and Year 2 this week the children have had great fun playing dodgeball tag. They have also been improving their passing in football.

Pancake Day: Year 2

Year 2 Intensive English made pancakes as it was Pancake day this week. They learnt the names of the ingredients and the method for making the pancakes, but the best bit of course, was eating the pancakes!

Boarding Life

Each week boarders enjoy a variety of fun activities! Including Giant 'sidewalk chalk' games, making rockets, playing 'Disco' Golf, playing rounders, and visiting the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary.

RST (MAD) visit to Bangpu Recreation Centre

RST (Make a Difference) MAD worked alongside students from Shrewsbury and Regents International Schools to set and tie mangrove saplings at the Bangpu Recreation Centre. Our dozen mangrovewarriors worked for two hours in the sweltering heat, battling with the mud and mosquitoes, to each plant between 30 and 40 mangrove saplings to help the rangers towards their target of planting 250 000 saplings by June 2022.

We are incredibly proud of our students who sweated and toiled, but never once complained.

Last week our Prep students took to the field for our long awaited Sports Days. Competing for their Houses in a broad range of athletics events from sprinting to endurance running, throwing to jumping, and sack racing to skipping!

Great fun was had by all with all our students displaying amazing team spirit, effort and sportsmanship.

Please click here to see more action shots and sporting highlights.

Senior Badminton & Football

Last Friday our Senior badminton and football teams travelled to Bangkok to play the International Community School (ICS) for the first time. It was an amazing experience with some very competitive matches across the two sports.

It was also the first competitive match for our badminton team in 2 years and our girl junior varsity team won 3 sets to 2. Overall, the games were tight and everyone had a great time.

We look forward to hosting ICS for a return match in the future.