Rugby School Thailand eNewsletter

Whole School

Announcements

WELCOME BACK
Welcome back to School! We're thrilled to have you back with us, ready to embark on a new journey of learning and discovery. This academic year promises exciting opportunities, new friendships, and the chance to expand your horizons. Let's make it a year filled with knowledge, growth, and memorable moments.

NEW STAFF - WHOLE SCHOOL

Mr David Escolar Ballesteros - Head of Aquatics
David is originally from Madrid, Spain, where he completed his degree in Physical Activity and Sport Science with a specialisation in swimming and a postgraduate certificate in education. He has more than 10 years experience as a swimming coach and teacher. David was FINA Swimming Coach in Thanyapura/UWC Phuket where we prepared swimmers for the 2016 Olympics in Rio. More recently he has worked as Head of Aquatics at Harrow International School Bangkok.

Mr Andrew Bloink - Swimming Coach (curriculum lead)
Andrew is the new Swimming Curriculum Lead at RST. He is originally from Kentucky, USA and holds a degree in Exercise Science and Physical Education with 15+ years in teaching and coaching. He has been living and working in Thailand for 8 years.

Dr. Puripat - Head of Piano
We're excited to welcome the new Head of Piano (whole School) to the RST Music Department. Dr. Puripat, with extensive international studies, including the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a PhD from Arizona State University, brings a wealth of experience and a passion for teaching piano. His global performances and competition wins highlight his expertise. We're thrilled to have him join us in the upcoming academic year, building upon the strong piano program developed by K. Kwan over the past 4 years.

Reminders

RSTPA COOKING CLASSES
The RSTPA Cooking Classes will take place again this term and the first one will be based on Italy. Our first class will start at 08:15 on Monday, 4^th September in the Food Tech Room in the Veraphan Building (Prep School). All classes have a small charge of 300 THB to cover the cost of the ingredients. We will have a maximum of 24 places, so if you are interested, please reserve your place via QR code or via irbis2002@bk.ru. We look forward to seeing our budding bakers back!

SECOND-HAND UNIFORM SALE
Our RSTPA will be running their ever-popular Second Hand Uniform Sale on Thursday, 31^st August. Please drop off any clean and unnamed uniform to the Green Room on Tuesday, 29^th August 15:30 – 17:30. You will be given a voucher to swap with the uniform in the sale on Thursday, 31^st August 15:30 – 17:30 in the Green Room. Items will also be for sale for those who would prefer to purchase uniforms and all money raised will go towards our School's charities for this year.

RSTPA CHARITY GOLF DAY
RST is delighted to invite golfers of all abilities to the RST Charity Golf Day on Sunday, 29^thOctober.
It promises to be a brilliant day at Siam Country Club's Waterside course, which is one of Thailand's very best courses.

Senior

Announcements

WELCOME BACK
Welcome back to all returning families and a big welcome to all new families to the School. We had a brilliant first day as students forged new friendships and took part in the 'It's a knockout event'. On the second day, students are all in lessons, getting to know their teachers and engaging in making a positive start to the year ahead.

A-LEVEL RESULTS
The Class of 2023 had their A-level results last week. These results are a culmination of two years of hard work in Sixth Form (Year 12 and 13). For this year's group, these were their first major examinations due to their IGCSEs being disrupted because of the pandemic. The year group showed great resilience and performed brilliantly with half the grades being an A* or A grade, an increase on the year before. As a whole, 87% of grades were an A*-C.

Thanks to these brilliant results and the hard work of our higher education team, Ms Cecil and Mr Markes, students have mostly made their first-choice University. We have a diverse range of placements with students going to study Mathematics at Cambridge, Finance at London School of Economics (LSE), Human Sciences at University College London (UCL), Astro Physics at St Andrew's University and many more including prestigious medical courses in Thailand. Some students are applying to Australia and these offers will come through shortly to students.

Well done to the Class of 2023, we look forward to following their stories over the coming years.

NEW STAFF
Please click on the link below for details of the new staff who join us in Senior:

New Staff Profiles

Reminders

Next week is a Week B for students.

BLOOD BROTHERS AUDITIONS
Our School play this year is the fantastic Blood Brothers. Auditions take place on Monday from 4pm. Please see the Head of Drama, Mr Furness, if you have any questions.

Dates for Your Diary

12^th SEPTEMBER: Parents' coffee morning in the Senior Dining Hall from 8am - 9am.

14^th SEPTEMBER: E-Block Social - from 5pm

27^th SEPTEMBER: D-Block residential (return Friday, 29^th September)

3^rd OCTOBER: Senior Sports Day

Highlight of the Week

IT'S A KNOCKOUT
The It's a Knockout! event marked the start of the academic year and promoted integration among senior students of all years. The event was a resounding success, fostering a sense of unity and camaraderie. Students from different years came together to participate in various fun-filled activities, resulting in the creation of cherished memories for everyone involved. Well done to all the students who participated with tremendous enthusiasm, and a special shout-out to the student leaders from XX for their excellent efforts!

Announcements

WELCOME TO OUR NEW PREP STAFF

Ms Emily Hutchenson
Emily Hutchinson is our new Prep Teaching Assistant. She comes from the UK where she worked in mental health & well-being with young people and completed her MSc this year. She is really excited to be involved in Outdoor Education with the Prep students too!

Mr Philip Cain
Pip Cain is joining RST as Head of Music in Prep. He has a wealth of experience teaching music to children of all ages and is looking forward to working with the RST students, staff and families to continue developing a love of music.

Miss Evelyn Buckley
Evelyn is really looking forward to spending the next year at RST. She is here as a gap student, and she has just completed her A-Levels. She is originally from Liverpool, but for the last two years she studied at Rugby School England as a boarder. She is really interested in reading, creating, and history, so she hopes to do something with these interests during her time here.

Mrs Hannah Pool
Hannah has joined RST as a Year 4 Form Teacher and Year 5 Maths Teacher. She has moved to Thailand with her husband Chris and two small children, Ella (3) who will be joining Nursery, and Freddie (1). This will be her tenth year of teaching and she has experience working across UK State and Prep Schools in Year groups 1-6, as well as international tutoring experience. In her spare time, she enjoys hikes with her family, swimming, running and being outdoors. The family are all extremely excited to be joining the RST family and are looking forward to meeting everyone.

Ms Angela Chan
A graduate of Singapore National Institute of Education with a Diploma in
Education and subsequently a Bachelor with Merit in Chinese Language Education from the Singapore University of Social Sciences, Ms Chan has been teaching Mandarin since 2005. Before joining Rugby School Thailand, she taught in Singapore government schools and she was the examiner and marker of the major Primary School Leaving Examination in Singapore. She then went on to teach in an international school located in Bangkok as a Mandarin Specialist. In her spare time, Angela enjoys travelling and spending time with her family.

Mr Wouter van der Walt
Wouter van der Walt is an educator originally from South Africa. After teaching in Colombia for 3 incredible years, he set his compass for Rugby School Thailand, where he will be blending his joy for sports and the great outdoors into his geography and humanities classes. He has a Masters in Geography and GIS and a PGCE. He hopes to spark curiosity within students and to facilitate a learning environment that leads to personal growth, open-mindedness and a desire for lifelong learning.

Rhiannon Mansfield
Rhiannon also joins us from Rugby School UK and will be primarily working alongside our Y3 and Y4 classes.

Reminders

IMPORTANT DATES
Please find a document of important dates for the first half of this term. Our SchoolZine calendar will also be useful for checking events.

Important Dates Terms 1A

PARENT HANDBOOK
Click the link below to access are updated Prep Parent Handbook

Parent Handbook

COLLECTIONS TIMES
A reminder that our collection times this year are as follows:
- 15:55 (no bus) Early Leave for those who will not do activities
- 17:00 Early Leave (Bus Takers)
- 17:35 Normal End of the Day

Parents cannot collect between 17:05 and 17:35.

Friday collection time is 15:30

PLAYGROUND
Please note that the playground cannot be used by families until after 17:35. The use of the playground is at your own risk and will not be supervised by RST staff.

Dates for your Diary

26^th AUGUST:
- 08:45 – 10:00 Session 1 of the Saturday Enrichment Programme (SEP)
- 10:15-11:45 Session 2 SEP

28^th AUGUST:
- 08:15 – 09:15 Digital Learning Workshop in the Veraphan Theatre

29^th AUGUST:
- 08:00 – 09:00 Digital Drop-in at Scrummies
- 15:30 – 17:30 Second-hand Uniform Drop-off in the Green Room

30^th AUGUST: 08:00 – 09:00 Digital Drop-in at Scrummies

31^st AUGUST: 15:30 – 17:30 Second-hand Uniform Swap / Sale in the Green Room

1^st SEPTEMBER: 08:15 EAL Presentation in the EAL Department (Veraphan Building)

2^nd SEPTEMBER:
- 08:45 – 10:00 Session 1 of the Saturday Enrichment Programme (SEP) - Sign-up on SOCS
- 10:15 – 11:45 Session 2 SEP
- U9 Football @NIST (letter sent to relevant families)
- U13 Girls Basketball v Chonburi Sport School

Pre-Prep

Announcements

WELCOME BACK
A huge welcome back to another School year. I heard a big sigh of relief and saw many happy parents this morning as you all got to drop your children off at School after the long holidays. It is always lovely to welcome you all back and to welcome our new families joining RST.

For some children, the transition from home life to School life will take some time, especially for those who are starting School for the first time. We have our settling-in procedures for our youngest children and if we need to, we will operate this for other children too. We ask that parents support the advice given by the teachers, who have been doing this for many years. Tears are a natural part of the process (from children and parents) and together we will make the next few weeks go as smoothly as possible.

Year 1 and 2 should be able to come to School and into class by themselves from Monday. SMT will be at the gate for support.

We welcome you all to another year at Pre-Prep, where learning begins but never ends.

RST PARENT ASSOCIATION
Our parent representatives for each year group will be emailed out to you over the next few days.

DOWNLOADING APPS
If anyone needs help with logging into apps (SCHOOLZINE, ISAMS, TAPESTRY etc.) please do contact the Pre-Prep office. Tapestry login information will be shared we have received your signed agreements.

STAFFING UPDATE
Please click on the link below to welcome our new staff, and for some other updates regarding existing staff:

Staffing Update

IMPORTANT DATES FOR THE TERM
Please click the link below to view important dates

Key Dates for Term 1

Reminders

UNIFORM
Please remember to name ALL items of clothing and property including HATS, WATER BOTTLES and SHOES. These should be labelled with your child's nickname.

We do have lost property boxes located in The Oval - near the MEET THE TEAM noticeboard. Lost items that are named will be returned to the children.

NO shaved patterns in hair please; if your child has this from the summer please do let it grow out. Girls with long hair should have their hair tied up.

PRE-PREP PARENT HANDBOOK
Please click the link below to view a copy of the parent handbook

Parent Handbook

Dates for Your Diary

29^th AUGUST (8:30am): Year 2 Curriculum meeting in your child's classroom
Parents to attend to learn more about the curriculum

30^th AUGUST (8:30am): Year 1 Curriculum meeting in your child's classroom
Parents to attend to learn more about the curriculum

31^st AUGUST (8:30am): Reception Curriculum meeting in your child's classroom
Parents to attend to learn more about the curriculum

5^th SEPTEMBER (8:30 – 9:00am): TAPESTRY Workshop for new parents in Pre-Nursery, Nursery and Reception

6^th SEPTEMBER (8:30am): Nursery Curriculum meeting in your child's classroom
Parents to attend to learn more about the curriculum

Useful Links

Learner Profiles

Boarding

It’s been all go in Marshall House over the summer break, with painting and decorating to give our Prep boarding house a whole new look! From cosy corners, calm zones, feature walls, a cinema room and more, the house is full of life and colour… and lots of boarders who seem delighted to be back!