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Monday, June 28th 2010
Year 6 Film Assembly The Year 6 students have been working hard in small groups making films this term. In their class assembly, the whole primary school and lots of parents enjoyed their presentation of the different stories they had created as short films. There were films featuring aliens landing at our school, football adventures and even a little dog being sneaked into a classroom. Everyone enjoyed their short films. Well done to Year 6 and their teachers.
Final Music Concert On Wednesday after school there was the final music concert of the year. There were some great performances by all the children who took part. Thank you to the Music teachers, Mr. Matt and Mr. John, for organizing this event.
House Basketball The House Basketball last week had some great games inside the gym with some fierce completion from the U13 and U15 age groups playing for their Houses. There were lots of students supporting their house teams cheering on the players. The U13 competition was won by Karen, and the U15 competition was won by Akha. Lahu won overall. Congratulations to all the players.
Thank you to all children who were involved in this competition - it was a really great event and certainly has grown into a great tradition for the end of term and one of the final high scoring House competitions which could greatly affect the House Championship winners this year.
Teachers Appreciation Lunch The PTG hosted an Indian meal last Friday to say thank you to all the teaching and administration staff for all their hard work this academic year. This tradition was set up three years ago and is a lovely surprise for the teachers, assistants and administration staff who enjoyed Indian food in the Drama Studio cooked by the Indian Hut restaurant. A big thank you to the PTG.
The close competitive atmosphere reflects this year’s final stages in the overall House Championship competition with very few points between the Houses.
House Dance Competition Last Friday the end of lunch bell rang early at 1.00pm and the whole school assembled quickly into the gym with parents and teachers. Over the last term children had been practicing their dances which were to represent their Houses in the annual dance competition. The standard was the highest we have ever had with five finalists from each areas of the school. There was a real air of anticipation at the start with key stage 1 children showing their great routines. The whole school cheered each performance and it was very hard for the judges to decide which performance was the best. The tension heightened throughout the competition with dance routines becoming more energetic and creative. The final winning House was Akha.
This Final Week This week is another busy one. The curriculum will run through to Friday, the school closing at 2.30pm. There will be the final House competitions: firstly, a house jelly eating competition on Wednesday lunchtime which should prove to be an exciting, funny affair. Then on Thursday the last competition is the House Music Competition when, after lots of auditions from a wide range of children, the finalists will perform in front of the whole school.
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This will provide the final points to be awarded to the Houses before the final count is made to find which House is our Champions for this academic year, to be announced on Friday in the final assembly of the year. This will start at 8.30 am in the Gym. On Friday, our year book will be given out to all our children in the school. I have had a look at the final drafts and it certainly is a great memory of all the celebrations, trips, competitions and class curriculum activities that have taken place this year. Everyone will hopefully go home with this Year Book on Friday. This year we are saying good bye to five teachers: Mr Adam Pape Mr Neil Stoneham Mr Nicholas Rowdene Mr David Heschel Ms Lulu Mann
PTG NEWS Dear Parents, On Friday the PTG hosted the Teacher Appreciation lunch and we would like to thank the Restaurant, Indian Hut, for providing a delicious Indian meal, which was enjoyed by Teachers and Support staff. If you have any uniforms you would like to donate to the PTG Second Hand uniform Sale, please refer to the poster in this newsletter for details. We hope everyone has an enjoyable and safe summer break and we look forward to seeing you in the new school year. Thanks,
Your PTG committee
I would like to thank them for all their hard work and efforts over the time they have been with us. Three other teachers will not be leaving but moving to our new Dusit campus which will have classes from Nursery to Year 2 when it opens in August 2010. Mr Alistair Downs Miss Lisa Mrs Zandra White These teachers have made a great contribution to our school at Sukhumvit 71. I know that their efforts and hard work will make our new campus a centre of excellence for Early Years and Key Stage 1 education in the near future. A special mention must be made of Miss Zandra’s contribution to St Andrews International school because she was one of the original teachers who set up our school in 1998. Zandra has been an inspiration to many children still in the school who have gone through her Year 2 classes over the past years. I know she will make a great contribution using her expertise and knowledge to get the Dusit Campus off on a sound footing. Finally I would like to say thank you for your support this year. It has not been an easy one for anyone and I hope all our families have a great holiday wherever they are going in the world. To the families leaving our community I wish you all the best in the future challenges you face either back in your home country or in the next place in the world you will be calling home. Paul Schofield Head of School
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Dusit News Our St Andrews International School at Sukhumvit Soi 71 is a centre of excellence for the education of Early Years and Key Stage 1 children. This high level of expertise will be at the heart of our new Dusit Campus and have the full range of all the support services and programmes we offer especially in Learning support, EAL and languages. If you have friends who live close to this area of the city and they are interested in an international education for their children the Dusit Campus would be a fantastic place to start. From August we will have classes from Nursery through to Year 2
Dusit News
Nursery Teacher Miss Catriona This week we went ‘orange.’ Lots of enquiry and learning. We made some orange ice lollies, carefully pouring the juice into the moulds. We took these to the kitchen and put them in the freezer. Next day, just before swimming, we ate them in the garden together. Next week we are having our first outing. We will travel by bus to St. Andrews Soi 71 to see their Early Years production, ‘Dumbo The Dinosaur’. We will have play time with the nursery there and share a snack with them. Catriona
This campus is located close to the junction of Sawankhaloke Road and Rachawithi Road near the Victory monument. There is a map showing the exact location of the new campus on our web site www.standrews.ac.th. If you have the time and would like to visit our new site please contact Adeline:- 02 668 6231. Email: dusitcampus@standrews.ac.th
Catriona
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KG “Graduation” On Friday afternoon, KG had a “Goodbye to KG” party. Sadly, 2 of our students are leaving a week early so we have started our farewells a little earlier than everyone else. Well we have all made it to the end of another school year and next year will bring with it lots of exciting changes. The children in Early Years and KS1 had a successful class swap last week and I think some of them were very disappointed to come back into their old year groups. The new teachers Mr Scott, Ms Sarah, Ms Jane, Mr Russel and Ms Catriona all provided letters with information for the teachers to read out so they have begun gaining familiarity with the new faces already. As the size of KS1 increases we are changing our morning routine to accommodate all the children. The first day back the children will line up in their class lines and we will be down to collect the children but after this we will be opening the classrooms up at 8:00am. Each morning you and your child can come into the class at 8:00am. Each class will have an activity or activities laid out which you and your child can do for the first 15 minutes of the morning. At 8:15am, the teachers will signal the start of the school day. This change aims to allow the children to come into school in a calm fashion and be ready for work at 8:15am when we will be having our new phonics session.
The children recited a poem all about things that we know and sang “So Long to You My Friends”. Then we gave out certificates and memory books full of photos from over the year. And then we ate! Thanks to all of the parents for providing lots of party food! Ms Lisa
‘Dumble the Dinosaur’ But this year is not over yet and we have some exciting events this week. The EY’s have been practicing hard for ‘Dumble the Dinosaur’. KS1 get the sneak preview on Tuesday and parents will be watching it on Wedsnesday, 9.30 am., Drama Studio. I can’t wait!
Golden books and Topic folders The children have been working hard all year and would like to show you their work. On Friday from 1:00pm onwards the children from KS1 and Reception Lions would like to invite you to come and see your child’s work. When you have come in and your child has shown you their work, you will be able to take them home and start your summer holidays!
Important Calendar Dates Wed. 30th June
Dumble The Dinosaur Early Years Musical Play 9.30 am., Drama Studio
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Farewells The last thing then to do is to say goodbye. Mr Alistair, Miss Lisa and Ms Zandra are leaving us to go and work at the new Dusit campus. They will be missed around Sukhumvit 71 but hopefully will come back and visit us. We need to give Ms Zandra a special mention as she has been working here at St Andrews for many years and will be especially missed around the place.
This week is the last week of All After School Activities
Have a great holiday and we’ll see you in August! Mrs. Zoe
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Year 6 Bake Sale Results
It’s good to be back at my desk after a spell away in the UK. I have come back to a very busy time as all of the KS2 students are undergoing assessments and there are many school events taking place including House cricket and the Dance Competition. Many thanks to all of the teachers in KS2 for their hard work on the reports which went out on Friday. If parents have any queries arising from the reports, please feel free to contact the class teacher or myself.
Year 6 SATS Year 6 finished their SATs tests 2 weeks ago and the papers have been marked. The results are looking very good again this year but I will be able to give more details after the holidays. I just want to remind parents of the National Curriculum leveling system. Level 5 – above expectation for age Level 4 – at expectation for age Level 3 - below expectation for age
Yao Karen Lahu Akha
4,802 2,605 3,831 2,178 th
The Year 6 bake sale took place on 18 June. The total amount raised was 13,416 baht. The money will go to individual House charities. Well done to Year 6!
Year 6 Assembly Year 6 treated us to a very entertaining assembly on Friday. They showed a number of movies they had made using Movie Maker, all on a theme of St. Andrew’s School. We were entertained by the idea of aliens landing at St. Andrew’s and the school being terrorised by the Krisosaurus. I know that everyone thoroughly enjoyed it and there was much laughter from the audience. Well done again to Year 6. Good luck to all Year 6 students moving up to High School. You have been a pleasure to teach and we all wish you a very successful future.
Many thanks to all of the Year 6 teachers for the hard work they have put into the tests this year. We try to keep a balance at St. Andrews of giving time to prepare for the tests but enabling the children to benefit from the rich and broad curriculum that we offer them at the same time. I think we have this balance just about right. Children will be given their SATs results this week.
Dance Competition Well done to all of those KS2 students who took part in the dance competition on Friday. The standard from KS2 was very high indeed. It was great to see such a wide variety of dancing form modern Indian, Irish, hip hop and ballet/acrobatics. Congratulations to the KS2 winners and also to Winas in Year 6 who won the HS section with her sister Tawan. Thanks to Mrs. Leanne for organising the event.
Helen Kelly
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Having made camp for the night, we set about cooking our meals using gas camping stoves. Some of the students managed to create rather tasty and healthy dishes; I had no idea we had such culinary talent in Year 10!
Goodbye and thank you…. ….to the dedicated and talented teachers who leave St Andrew’s at the end of this week for new challenges and a new life elsewhere. Everyone in the High School would like to wish good luck to: Mr Adam, who is moving back to the UK with his family; Mr Neil, who is taking up a new post in Hong Kong; Mr David, who is returning to Guernsey; Mr Nick, who takes up a new role at Bromsgrove; and Ms Lulu, who is moving to Phuket.
Once the clearing up had been done, we had a chance to relax and cool down a bit whilst watching a movie together in the Drama Studio with the air-con blasting. Then we coated ourselves with insect repellant and retired to our tents with plenty of cold water. Some of the students managed to sleep in their tents for a while, but in the end, the lure of the air-con was just too great for most of us. Still, we all experienced camping and cooking outside, most of us for the first time, so we all agreed over breakfast that the challenge had been well-attempted considering the extreme heat.
Best wishes to them and have a safe and happy holiday to all our community. The rest of this Newsletter will be handed over to Mr David, High School learning Support Coordinator.
Camping Challenge Last week some of our Year 10 students and a few dedicated staff members endured searing heat and plagues of mosquitoes to spend a night camping out on the football field. This challenge is one of the last ones these students need to complete their Silver ASDAN Award, and since all school trips have been cancelled for the rest of this year, it had to be done at school.
Well done to all our ASDAN students, who are now very close to finishing this challenging award. Hopefully the next ASDAN course, which some of our current Year 8s and Year 9s will be starting in August with Mr. Mike, the new High School Learning Support Coordinator, will be able to complete this challenge during the cool season… David Herschel High School Learning Support Coordinator
After working hard all day at school on Thursday, the group walked to a nearby supermarket, where the students bought their own food to cook for dinner on a very tight budget. On returning to school, we had hoped that it would be a little cooler when we pitched our tents, but even in the shade it was very hot work.
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