Term 2 - 3 March
Matters of Principal
Whole School News
Announcements
AUTOMATED ACCESS POINTS
You may have noticed that new access points have been installed at the Senior and Prep entrances. These access points will be activated soon, which means that parents will need to have their RST ID cards activated by either the admin or IT teams to access the site during permitted times.
To help with this process, the IT and admin teams will be stationed at the main entrance from Tuesday, 7th March for two weeks. They will be available to assist you between 08:00 – 08:30 or 16:20 – 18:00.
If your card has not been activated, you will not be able to enter the site to pick up your child once the gates are fully operational.
DRIVING SAFELY ON SCHOOL PREMISES
We would like to remind you of the importance of driving safely on School premises. As the safety of our students is our top priority, we kindly request that you adhere to the following guidelines:
- Always drive at a safe speed and be aware of your surroundings, including pedestrians and other vehicles;
- Follow the designated drop-off and pick-up areas and avoid stopping or parking in undesignated areas;
- Do not use your mobile phone while driving on School premises.
We appreciate your cooperation in keeping our School premises safe for everyone. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
International Day
On the last day of half term, the Pre-prep, Prep, and Senior students celebrated International Day with a range of exciting activities that reflected the cultural diversity of the School community.
The students looked fantastic in their costumes, the performances were outstanding and included students from across all the age ranges, a wide variety of activities were enjoyed, and finally, the food market at the end of the day was incredible. Huge credit goes to the staff and students, who put in a lot of effort to make the day a success but also to all the parents who contributed to the food market by bringing in an enormous amount of food from around the world. We couldn't have achieved such a successful event without the amazing collaboration, versatility and resilience from everyone.
Overall, the International Day celebrations were a great success, promoting cross-cultural understanding and appreciation among students, staff, and parents alike.
PRE-PREP
The children in Pre-Prep were excited to share their native languages, cultures and home countries with their teachers and friends. During the morning, they took part in the Pre-Prep International Day parade - a huge thank you to all of our parents and family members who helped them with their traditional dress, bright colours and exciting costumes. During the afternoon, the children in Reception and KS1 were very excited to visit our International Day food market, where they learnt about different foods from around the world, as well as famous people and places, flags and new words from other languages. KS1 also took part in a joint activity with the Prep children in Year 3 and 4, creating amazing projects to showcase different facts about their home countries.
What an amazing day!
PREP
Prep students put on an amazing array of performances for parents, and they enjoyed sampling the wonderful food from around the world
SENIOR
F Block students lead cultural activities in Prep, based on traditional games from a chosen country. They showed tremendous leadership skills and they all had great fun.
World Book Day
RST students celebrated World Book Day with great enthusiasm across all three sections of the School, encouraging students of all ages to develop a love for literature and reading.
PRE-PREP
The Pre-Prep children had a great day celebrating World Book Day. There were so many wonderful costumes which children enjoyed showing off during the parade, being cheered on by their friends and families. Each year group focused on a different children's author and classrooms were busy with activities, games and guest readers to help promote a love of reading.
PREP
Prep students celebrated World Book Day by learning about positive change makers. The theme was 'People Who Changed the World for the Better', which led to discussions about leadership, change, inspiration, equality, and positive impact. The diverse costumes included Naturalists, Scientists, Humanitarians, Activists, Sportspeople, Performing and Visual Artists, Nobel Prize Winners, and Historical Figures.
Our assembly highlighted the power of reading to learn about these outstanding individuals and become change makers ourselves.
Why do our Prep teachers love to read? We asked them in this video:
SENIOR
Senior students enjoyed dressing up as their favourite characters:
Life Lessons with Ajahn Jayasaro
We were delighted to welcome Ajahn Jayasaro to the Senior School to share his thoughts on areas we can all benefit from reflecting on. The talk discussed the importance of having criteria for choosing friends and asking whether our friends improve us as a person and bring out the qualities we want in ourselves. He encouraged everyone to find the space for regular reflection on whether we are living the life we wish and shaping ourselves into what we want to be.
During this part of the year, students are building towards examinations and the messages around using meditation as a method to reduce stress and anxiety are particularly apt for us all.
Childline Visit
This week, Childline visited RST and delivered ‘Whole Me’ sessions to our Senior and Prep students. This was a valuable educational experience for our students, and we are grateful to Childline for their time and expertise.
During their visit, we presented them with a donation of 56,560THB. This money was raised by our School community at the end of last term, and we are proud to have been able to contribute to such a worthy cause.
Senior News
Announcements & Reminders
BOOK AMNESTY, SENIOR LIBRARY
We need our books back!
The Senior Library is in the middle of updating its inventory in preparation to launch our new online library management system, Follett Destiny, which will allow staff and students to search and put a hold for library books online.
Many books in the library are missing and we would like you to help us bring them home. Throughout March, the Senior library is holding an amnesty with anonymous drop-off. This means you won’t need to speak to a librarian, you can just drop the overdue books into the library return shelves – with no fine to pay, no matter how overdue they are. Returned items will then be logged back onto the system and replaced on the shelves for other library users to enjoy.
TRIP TO SPAIN 11th – 19th OCTOBER 2023
Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to enjoy an immersive Spanish experience, with plenty of sightseeing included! We will visit Madrid, Malaga, Sevilla and Granada. Open to Spanish students from Y7-XX.
Please get in touch with Ms Figueroa nfigueroa@rugbyschool.ac.th if you would like more details of the itinerary and if you are interested in signin up.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY WORKSHOP
Following on from the series of successful visits from global universities, RST hosted a workshop with Columbia University (US), this week.
For more than 250 years, Columbia has been a leader in global higher education. An Ivy League university, it is the oldest university in the state of New York, and the fifth oldest in the United States. At its core is "the commitment to attract and engage the best minds in pursuit of greater human understanding, pioneering new discoveries and service to society".
Amanda B. Carlson and Zelon E. Crawford from Columbia's School of Professional Studies talked to RST students and parents about the keys to making a successful US university application. In particular, the synergy between RST's ethos: "The Whole Person. The Whole Point" and the US holistic admission process was highlighted. The audience was also introduced to Columbia's pre-college programmes, which offers students the opportunity to experience studying college level courses, lead by world-class experts, and university life, through both residential and online programmes.
F BLOCK SUBJECT OPTIONS
F Block is an exciting time for students as they start to pick their option subjects for E Block (Year 10). Students have agency in the subjects they wish to take and can start to curate their educational journey. All students will study mathematics, science, and English. Students then get to pick up to four option subjects. On Monday, Heads of department and sixth form subject ambassadors spoke with F Block students to provide advice about each subject.
SENIOR REFRESH
Students enjoyed seeing updated displays in the Performing Arts Centre and the Science centre. A mural, and thought-provoking quotes, have been added to the walls to inspire students as they walk around our campus.
Dates for your Diary
8th MARCH: Experience Senior
We are looking forward to welcoming Year 8 students to the Senior School for a music and drama workshop. Year 8 students are already frequent visitors to the Senior School with Art and some Science lessons being taught in Senior.
This is to support students in their transition to the Senior School next year and information events will be run for parents in the near future.
Head's Distinction
This week, I welcomed a number of students for a Head's Distinction. Ms Coetzer nominated Harper, Pam, Si-Eun, Don, and Lyara for an excellent piece of Gothic writing that built incredible suspense. Ferry, Bene, and Namhom were nominated for producing excellent videos in mathematics explaining different concepts. Lulu was nominated for the incredible determination and organisation needed to run the RST MAD valentines cookies that raised money to support local charities.
Learning
SPANISH
This week, E Block students presented the weather forecast for different Spanish speaking countries. They did this confidently in Spanish, without any notes to help them.
ART
F Block students have researched the British mixed media artist, Ian Murphy. He travels the world and records different environments, often working in his sketchbook as he travels. He is known for his powerful, tonal drawings and atmospheric paintings of architectural places.
We have documented our School environment and observed the buildings around us using photography and perspective to assist our pen drawings. F Block students are now familiar with Ian Murphy's technique of using layered tissue paper and paint to create a rustic-crazed surface to draw upon. Here are some of their work as they start out with their drawings.
Prep News
Announcements & Reminders
AUDREY GUITAR SUCCESS
We are pleased to announce that Audrey has achieved the second highest mark in Thailand for her Trinity College London Classical Guitar Grade 1 examination in 2022. For this achievement, Audrey will receive the Trinity Award 2022, an award given by a local Trinity representative in recognition of the candidate's exceptional performance in their examination.
Congratulations Audrey!
SINGING SUCCESS
More music success and this time in singing, where Prague, Emiya and Emmet have all recently achieved awards with their vocal performances. Prague won 1st prize, Emiya 2nd and Emmet 5th in the Hong Kong International Youth Performance Art Festival.
Congratulations on their wonderful successes!
Dates for your Diary
4th MARCH:
U9/U11 Primary 7s @Harrow, BKK
Y8 Play Rehearsal (08:40-12:00)
6th MARCH: School Closed - Thai Public Holiday
7th MARCH: Year 4 Parent Teacher Meeting (16:00-18:00)
8th MARCH:
World Maths Day - House Maths Relays
Year 8 Experience the Senior School
9th MARCH:
Year 4 Parent Teacher Meeting (16:00-18:00)
U15 Boys Basketball v STA GC
10th MARCH: House Humanities Competition
11th MARCH: U9 Football Festival @RST
11th – 13th MARCH: U13 FOBISIA Games
House Competition Alert!
Design and build a device to launch a water balloon the furthest!
Make a video of your launcher working and clearly show how far you have launched the water balloon.
Attach your video to the assignment for your house in the competition google classroom. That's it!
Classroom code: intonxm
The deadline is Wednesday 29th March.... and......the best entries will be selected to compete in a live launch event during the last week of term at School so make sure you keep your device safe.
GOOD LUCK and HAVE FUN!
Art Update
STREET ART COMPETITION
Last term, Year 7 students went on a Street Art Extravaganza to Bangkok. Not only did we see the work of the inspirational, world-renowned street artist Banksy at the Museum of Contemporary Art, we toured the murals of Talad Noi and the galleries at Warehouse 30 and Rivercity. We saw original art by local famous artists such as Alex Face and Bonus TMC, and documented the day in photographs and videos for our own websites.
After the Bangkok trip, Year 7 students were challenged to write the best review. My top 5 were these:
Winner: Amelie. Amelie’s detailed critiques show a high level of thoughtfulness and I like her introduction to the artist.
Top 5 reviews: Kaofang's review is a well-rounded, visual account of the trip; Charlie's work is excellently presented and I like the use of artist quotes; Heidi’s site shows great photos of street art around Bangkok; and Ivy includes a lovely range of MOCA artwork reviews.
STENCIL ART
Now, we are creating our own monoprint stencil art, which you’ll be able to see at the end of year exhibition on 28th June. Here are some work-in-progress shots:
DIGITAL PORTFOLIOS
All Prep students (in Year 4 and above) use their Digital Portfolios (Google websites) to record their progress in subjects such as Art and DT. If you would like to see how we use digital portfolios, here are some great examples: Joy (Year 5) uses hers brilliantly to track her progress and showcase her talents with the topic of Indian landscapes, as does Yuko (Year 7) with a traditional drawing project.
Pre-Prep News
Announcements and Reminders
CAR PARK
This is a friendly reminder about the car park as we have received several complaints about how parents are using it:
- Please drive slowly, both in the car park, and the School area;
- The area outside the Pre-Prep building is for drop-off only. You cannot park there, and security will ask you to move if you do;
- Please keep the zebra crossings clear so that pedestrians can use them safely.
To ensure the safety of our children, we ask everyone to cooperate with, and support, our security team in their duties.
RECOMMENDED READING LIST KS1
At RST we stand firmly behind the ethos of “The Whole Person The Whole Point”. Nurturing a love of reading in our Key Stage 1 children lays the foundation for a lifelong passion for learning and imagination. As they explore the magic of books, they broaden their knowledge, develop critical thinking skills, and discover new worlds. Encouraging a love of reading at this young age sets the stage for success in their academic and personal lives.
Please click here for our list of recommended reads for Key Stage 1 children.
PRE-PREP SCHOOL COUNCIL UPDATE
The children in the Pre-Prep School Council are busy this month helping their friends and teachers become more conscious about saving energy; particularly electricity. They have set the classes a challenge to reduce the amount of electricity they use by turning off the classroom lights and air conditioning and putting the TVs on standby.
Every School day during the month of March, the School Council will check each class during morning play to see how well the classes remember to do these simple things.
Let's see how much energy we can save!
BIG TALK ON DIGITAL BABYSITTING
On Tuesday, Pre-Prep invited parents to discuss the topic of Digital Babysitting. Miss Kathy and Mr Sethi discussed the effects of device usage on children's development and relationships. Attendees filled out a quick and anonymous form about device usage at home. The link on the presentation is still live and collecting responses, so please do scan the QR if you would like to contribute to the data already collected.
A follow-up workshop will be held in Term 3 to help parents and carers with activities for children of different ages to help them move away from choosing a device.
Please click on the link below if you would like to access this week's presentation:
Dates for Your Diary
6th MARCH: School Closed
8th MARCH:
Year 2 Coffee Morning 8:30am
World Maths Day – celebrated in-house
15th MARCH: Pre-Nursery Coffee Morning 8:30am
16th MARCH: Come and See (8:00 – 9:00am)
Visit your child's classroom to see what they have been learning about
Nursery Parrots
Last term, the Nursery Parrot class was busy finding out all about the people who work in our community. We met the chef, the cleaning team, the security guards and Nurse Koy.
In class, we enjoyed pretending to be doctors and nurses. We took care of our 'sick' friends and helped them to feel better. We practised using lots of English words to find out what had happened to our friends and to reassure them they would feel better soon. Parrot class are amazing Caring Koalas!
Nursery Field Trip
This week, we visited Mulberry Farm as part of our new topic, 'Down in the Garden'. We were very excited to ride on the School bus, and everyone sat so well with their seatbelts on.
At the farm, we met K. Deng, the fruit farmer. He showed us what colour mulberries to pick: black for sweet and red for sour. We had fun picking and eating lots and lots of organic mulberries. We filled up our baskets (or our tummies) with yummy mulberries. Then it was time for a picnic snack before heading back to School on the bus.
Everyone behaved beautifully on the trip. The children listened carefully and were excited to try new things.
What a lovely day!
Reception Giraffes
The Giraffe class were very excited to return back to School on Monday to find a large nest had been discovered by the Eco Garden. The Giraffes were quick to investigate, taking the ipads to record their findings.
This prompted a lot of discussion about where the eggs came from, some ideas were chocolate eggs from the easter bunny, a unicorn and a Dinosaur! We then looked around the garden to find more clues. We came to the decision that it must have been a Dinosaur to introduce our new topic, 'In the Past'. We can't wait to discover more things about dinosaurs.
Year 1 Elephants
This week, we have been using only cardboard and paper to create a village. The students were teamwork tigers, working together to create different buildings and structures in their villages.
Year 2
Year 2 had a very busy first week back after the half-term holiday.
In maths, they started to learn about time. We learned what "o'clock," "quarter past," and "half past" meant.We also played a fun outdoor game of "What time is it, Mr. Wolf?"
In topic, we learnt about airplanes and how they fly. We then made and designed different aircraft and tested how well they flew.
We were also real Proud Peacocks and Creative Chameleons this week as we created some water colour splotch birds.
Great work, Year 2!
Makaton Signing
This week, we have been learning the signs for 'yesterday', 'today' and 'tomorrow'.
A huge thank you to Chimpanzee class for their help making the video.
Happy signing!
Thai
Reception students gained knowledge about the Thai letters อ and ฮ. They have learnt the distinction between these two letters, and can locate and identify them. They also had fun colouring them in.
In Year 1, students have been introduced to the Thai word สระไอ. They learnt about the pronunciation and usage of the word, and engaged in activities such as games, reading, and crafting that related to สระไอ.
Year 2 students who are not Thai have been studying food. Specifically, they have learned the names of various Thai dishes and the Thai word for ‘stir-fry’, which is "pad". Examples of the dishes they have learnt include "khao pad moo" and "khao pad goong."
Useful Links
Enrichment & Sport
Sport
INTERNATIONAL RUGBY 10s
During half term, RST rugby players, Matty, Charlie, Ethan and Ryan played for the Han River Pirates from South Korea, with Coach Jerome.
All our boys had some outstanding moments and faced some tough and daunting matches, with players towering above them. They all scored tries and showed great match temperament. It was another great rugby experience for all.
USEFUL LINKS
For even more photos of our sporting events, please look on the SOCS sports website. Or follow us on our RST Instagram page: sport_rugbyschoolthailand
Enrichment
PRE-PREP EXPLORING AND ENGLISH ACTIVITY
This week, we visited Marshall House and had a great time playing Table-Tennis, Table-Football and lego as well as exploring the excellent facilities. The rooms were bright, the beds comfortable and the big bean bags were brilliant fun to climb.
Needless to say, a fun time was had by one and all!
PREP COOKING CLUB
In this week's Cooking Club, students learned to make Chinese dumplings. Not only did they learn a new skill, but they also had a lot of fun. As they meticulously folded and shaped the wontons, the children were able to bond, socialize, and work together as a team. Students took great pride in their creations, and they were excited to take their delicious food home. This lesson encouraged students to be globally-minded and they left feeling proud of their accomplishments.
PREP ADVENTURE EXPLORE SURVIVE (AES) ACTIVITY
Our AES Activity students put on their chef hats last week as they cooked themselves a delicious camp meal.
The older Year 5 and 6 students had to cook a two-course meal of toasted sandwiches and then pancakes. After careful instructions on how to use the camping stoves, they worked independently in groups to make their toasted sandwiches, followed by pancakes with banana and honey. The group was then treated to marshmallows and s'mores, which they toasted themselves.
The younger Year 3 and 4s made pancakes filled with bananas and topped with delicious Thai honey. They then put their fire-lighting skills to use again and lit a small campfire to toast some marshmallows and make delicious s'mores.
It is very exciting to see these two groups developing a real passion for the outdoors, and they are consistently showing us how versatile and resilient they are with each week's new activities.
Boarding Life
The Marshall House boarders had a fabulous toga making session with Mrs Fogden, preparing their costumes for World Book Day.
Boarders have continued the battle for supremacy in the Marshall House Table Football and Table Tennis competitions, creating lots of fun and laughter.
RSTeam Spotlight
Get to know our dedicated team of teachers and support staff who make our School great a little better, by learning more about them and their roles.
This week we focus on Khun Mai, PA to Head of Senior.
Community Offers & Events
HOLIDAY CAMPS
Are you a parent looking for a camp for your child during the April school holidays? If so, here are some sports camp options:
- 8th- 12th April: Sharpen your skills at a football or basketball camp;
- 17th – 21st April: Enhance your skills at a basketball, softball, or fitness camp.
The day camp option costs 7,500THB and includes lunch, dinner, and snacks. If you choose the boarding camp option, which includes accommodations at Rugby School Thailand, the cost is 17,500THB. There's even a special discount available for groups!
If you're interested in learning more or have any questions, please contact us via Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/wisdomacademythailand, call us at 099-289-6454, or email us at admin@wisdomacademythailand.com. We'll be happy to assist you further!
HOLIDAY CODING CAMP
Our holiday coding camps, provided by BSD Online, are still available for sign-up for a range of topics from Artificial Intelligence to game development. These are a great way to up-skill our children as well as help ensure a healthy screen time balance with the importance of WHAT our children are doing on-screen, not necessarily HOW LONG.
Please follow this link for more information: https://virtualclasses.bsd.education/rugby-school-thailand/
HOLIDAY INN- RST COMMUNITY DISCOUNTS
We’d like to thank our friends from the Holiday Inn, who are offering our RST Community preferential hotel rates and discounts in their restaurants for 2023:
