Rugby School Thailand eNewsletter

Matters of Principal

This week Mr Grindlay talks about the importance of giving yourself enough time to think and reflect, before acting.

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 today, Friday 11 March:

15:15 for Pre-Prep students
15:30 for Prep students
5:45 for Senior students

DOWNLOAD THE SCHOOLZINE APP
If you haven't done so already, please download the Schoolzine app so that we can send you helpful reminders through push notifications to your mobile phone. It 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.

Whole School News

International Women's Day

This week RST celebrated International Women’s Day on 8th March.

The day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women across the world.

The day allowed students to discuss women’s equality, breaking harmful stereotypes, and recognising the injustice imposed upon women in the modern world.

A starting point for this was for students to learn about the core values of International Women's Day such as Justice, Dignity, Hope, and Equality.

Chanya (LXX) has produced the video below to bring awareness of 'Equality' to the community:

Our wonderful teachers also put together an interesting and informative assembly for our students:

Rupert Brooke boarders wore purple masks; they can be seen here crossing their arms in the #breakthebias pose:

School House boarders celebrating International Women's Day by wearing purple masks with the name of a woman who inspires them, written on the front:

Ruby - our resident African Spurred Tortoise

We are delighted to share the good news that the Eco Garden team have found eggs in Ruby's pen!

The gardeners and Khun Phor are taking good care of them and we will keep you posted on any developments.

Congratulations Ruby!

Senior News

Announcements & Reminders

JANUARY EXAM RESULTS

A staggering 16 maximum UMS scores were achieved across all exams
41% of maths students scored A* unit grades (above 90 UMS)
60% of maths students scored A or A*
70% of year 12 business students scored the highest possible grade of an A in their first unit
One student scored full UMS (the maximum score available) on all 4 examinations in the series

A huge congratulations to our students, who have all worked incredibly hard!

HOUSE ART COMPETITION

We are looking forward to receiving the House Art Competition entries by Monday 14th March.

We have four guest judges, including Mr Ryan, who is HOD Art & Design at Rugby UK. There will be winning categories and the final house winner will receive the house trophy, and gain 80 points for their house.

SPECIALIST TECHNICAL RESOURCES

Our Senior School D&T teacher, Mr Woodward, has developed a new way of delivering IGCSE and A-level D&T coursework. As a result, students’ grades have risen noticeably, with some students achieving the highest grades!

Mr Woodward’s ‘Specialist Technical Principles’ has been so successful that it is now available to other teachers around the world through the TES (many of whom use it in their lessons) and it was licensed by Focus Education in the UK last year for use in their products for five years.

Mr Woodward was also featured in the latest edition of Design Practice, which you can read below:

The theory of Design and Technology

RSTMAD

The Make A Difference Team will be launching an appeal [day houses only] this week for household products, such as laundry detergent, toothpaste, babies’ nappies, bath towels, and even ATK test kits.

This appeal is in support of Tamar Centre, a safe haven in Pattaya for traumatised women, and their children. This appeal will run for two weeks, until 18th March. As in previous successful appeals, we are asking every student to make a small difference by supporting Tamar Centre.

Please read the below presentation for more information on how you can contribute.

Tamar Toiletries Appeal

Important Dates

14th March: Inter-House Cross Country / House art competition deadline

16th March: F Block boarders social

18th March: Boys basketball and girls football House finals

18th March: Levee Meeting

Learning

We have had a busy week of learning in the Senior School, here are some highlights:

PHYSICS

Our XX Physics students have been working on their required A level experiments this week. Here they are investigating factors which affect the efficiency of a transformer and they are also investigating the discharge of a capacitor.

PSYCHOLOGY

In Psychology this week XX students were learning about social facilitation, how individuals work together effectively in groups, and how to avoid social loafers! They were given 10 minutes to build a model of Wembley Stadium in groups using only paper, scissors and sellotape!

CHEMISTRY

The XX Chemistry students did an experiment this week that assessed the melting point of the aspirin they made the previous week.

BIOLOGY

Our LXX Biology classes have recently been looking at the main process of cell division, Mitosis. They modelled the different stages that are found in Mitosis using pipe cleaners and small poms-poms to help them to consolidate their learning.

DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

During D&T activity this week, some students continued to make their own laser engraved skateboards, whilst others worked on their resin poured tea light holder by turning a brass part using the centre lathe.

WHOLE ME PROGRAMME

As part of RSE (Relationships and Sex Education) curriculum in the new ‘Whole Me’ Programme, doctors and nurses from Bangkok Pattaya Hospital spoke to our D Block students regarding the importance of sexual health and physical wellbeing.

D BLOCK TASTER SESSIONS

D block students were able to attend some taster lessons in Psychology and Economics this week as part of their transition process into the Sixth Form. These sessions enable our students to experience these subjects first hand as they have not experienced these before, ensuring they are making the best choices for their final options.

Experience the Senior School

As part of Year 7 & 8's preparation for their move to the Senior part of the School, the students and their parents enjoyed a discovery afternoon, with presentations by Senior leaders and tours led by Sixth Form students.

Prep News

Announcements & Reminders

SATURDAY ENRICHMENT PROGRAMME
Don't forget to sign up through SOCS so that you don't miss out on the exciting activities we are offering!

On Saturday 19 March, we will be offering the following:

Year 3 Talent Show
Year 4 Puppetry
Year 5-6 Fun Video Production,
Year 7-8 Watersports (THB 400)
Year 8 Thai Herb Candle making

RST FACTOR
We are all really looking forward to our spectacular House Music Competition Finale, The RST Factor, on Friday 18 March.

All students should come into School in their House t-shirts, as they will be supporting and cheering on their Houses. We are really looking forward to seeing our musicians perform.

BASKETBALL
On Saturday 19th March, we are offering basketball for the girls in Years 5, 6, 7 & 8. Please meet in the CGA at 8:00am and pick-up from the Admin building at 9.30am.

Please email sbuck@rugbyschool.ac.th if you would like your daughter to attend

Important Dates

12 March (07:15): U9 5-a-side Football Festival @Bangkok Patana

14 – 17 March: Auditions for the RST Factor (House Music Competition)

Team Building at the Outdoor Education Centre:

14 March: Year 7
15 March: Year 8
16 March: Year 6

18 March (13:50): The Grand Finale of The RST Factor

19 March (07:15): U11A/B Boys & U11 Girls Patana Tigers Tournament @Bangkok Patana

Music

The Junior Orchestra rehearsed a difficult piece this week, which is something new and exciting for next term's concert! It is their very own version of 'Ode to Joy' by Beethoven.

Year 8 have been studying John Cage and a series of pieces called 'Prepared Piano', where you very carefully put objects in the piano so that it becomes a one man percussion machine! Great fun and a good laugh when they tried to play their "normal" piano pieces on it.

Team Building

The ultimate team-building experience: turning a few sticks and a bit of rope into a fully functioning bridge.

Our Year 3, 4 & 5 Prep students had to work closely with one another showing great communication, planning, patience, and of course, engineering skills to complete such an activity. We are so fortunate to have the Outdoor Education Centre as part of our School to create these valuable life experiences for our students.

Next week Yrs 6 -8 will be going down, don’t forget to send your child in with their hat, water bottle and suncream.

Today is 'Thinkers Day', which tied in nicely with our House General Knowledge quiz. In this video, Mr Howell asks some really thought-provoking questions, about the importance of thinking, to Mr Grindlay.

The Flawsome Creators

Students in Year 5 have been collaborating to create their own monthly newsletter, 'The
Flawsome Creators'.

Using their IT, design and writing skills, the students have already created three successful editions, which have been printed. The team are now busy planning big things for the future! You can view the March edition here:

Pre-Prep News

Announcements & Reminders

MONSTER PHONICS WORKSHOP
Thank you to everyone who attended the workshop this week. We plan to offer a further session in Term 3 looking at what each year group will focus on in their learning.

You can view the presentation below:

Monster Phonics

LEARNER PROFILE: CREATIVE CHAMELEON

Please view the video below that introduces our Creative Chameleon learner profile:

Important Dates

PARENT WORKSHOP ON SAFEGUARDING - Tuesday 22nd March (8:30am):
We will cover healthy lifestyles, discipline at home, social and emotional needs of children, guidance on improving safety in the home and much more. Please sign up here.

BIG TALK - Thursday 17th March:
The theme for this week is Handwriting and Fine Motor development. Join our specialist OT Mrs Fellows for some guidance and support to help your child with some tips for fine motor exercises that you can do at home too. Please sign up here if you are interested.

Nursery: Ants

Observing somebody’s job from a distance compared to doing it ourselves is a completely different story! As part of the topic ‘People in Our Community’, we have learnt about cleaners this week.

The Nursery children were eager to try different duties from washing the dishes to cleaning the windows. They now understand and appreciate all the hard work the cleaners do to take care of our School!

The Reception children love spending time in the library and are excited about visiting the library every week. Curling up with a book and sharing books with their friends are perfect ways to spend an afternoon!

Year 2: Frogs

Year 2 have been learning all about money! This week they had a fun trip to Scrummy café, where they had to choose what items they wanted from the menu, work out the total cost of their goods, and calculate how much change they would get.

They also continued to learn about transportation in our topic lesson, and were this week introduced to rockets. They enjoyed getting outside and learning all about how they fly by launching their own rockets as high as they could!

In Thai this week, Reception students learned about the Thai flag and had fun making their own Thai flags. They also learned about the letters ง and ย.

Year 1 students learned about the long vowel สระไอ and they hunted for สระไอ words.

Boarding Life

School House boarders played a competitive game of 'The Train to Ermington' last weekend.

It took 50 minutes to guess Mr Lindop's clue, but it was very funny and they got there in the end! They also stretched their legs with a fun game of 'Forty Forty'!

Rupert Brooke girls had fun this week rehearsing for their Inter House drama competition and enjoyed a lovely, social evening in Scrummy café.

A group of our Prep School boarders spent activity time learning how to make their own colourful fidget toys with messages of empowerment written on them! They each made some for themselves and some for Miss Bowyer to use in the SFL department.