Our counselling department has expanded in size and now provides many services to both the Primary School and High School.
We hope that you had a good summer and that your children are getting used to their new surroundings and happy to be back at school where they can interact with their peers again. The focus of our June Counselling Corner was on transitions and at this time we are thinking particularly of the Year 7 students who are now in high school and of the new students, whether they come from a school in Bangkok or from another country. We welcome them to St Andrews and hope that they are adjusting well. If you have concerns, do let the school know by contacting your child’s tutor, the Head of Year or one of the counsellors.
Our counselling department is particularly pleased about the move to the new school as we now have a great set up, a proper reception area and more office space. You will find us on the Office floor in the Blue building.
Bevin Clark (bevin.cl@standrews.ac.th is the Careers and University advisor. Amy Bonehill (amy.bo@standrews.ac.th) is in charge of personal counselling and is assisted by Simone Courso (simone.co@standrews.ac.th) who will come in twice a week (Tuesdays and Wednesdays). Lauren Hoontrakul (lauren.ho@standrews.ac.th) is doing an internship under Amy’s supervision. Students can come to the counselling office before and after school, and at lunchtime but at times we also see them during a class.
As you know we have had a sad beginning to the school year with the passing of Mr Simon. It was a shock to many of us, students, staff, and parents. It will take a while for some of us to process this reality. As a school we have tried to return to our routines while offering support for students who need it and allowing them to express their feelings whenever these come up. The counsellors are in touch with teachers and will see students who need more personal attention.
As Mr Roo said in his earlier message to parents grief is very personal. There is no right and wrong. Some students will talk about their feelings, others won’t. Some will display strong emotions and will cry, others will withdraw or be quiet. Some will want to be with friends or relatives, some will want to be on their own. Grief can also come up at unexpected times, sometimes weeks or years from the actual death of the person we lost. For parents it can be a challenge to witness their son or daughter’s grief and they might now always know how to handle it. If you are concerned about your child’s reaction do not hesitate to contact us. In the meantime we are sharing some links that we find useful:
On another, more uplifting note, we look forward to seeing some of you at Coach Alessandra’s workshops. Please email amy.bo@standrews.ac.th if you are interested in attending this Friday’s ‘Mindful Way to Conscious Parenting’ Part II. The course runs for six weeks @8.15 on Fridays in the Exam Room on the top floor of the R Building of Primary School.
Amy, Simone and Lauren are also preparing some workshops for parents of high school students. The first one will take place on the 27th of September at 8:15 am and the topic is Social Media and Your Teen. We will be giving students a survey to find out which social media apps they are using and will share the results with you. Kindly mark this date in your calendars.
We would like to wish you and your children a successful school year.
With the goal of providing meaningful help to the flood victims in the northern regions of Thailand, our entire community at St Andrews Bangkok came together to raise funds and donations for the affected families. In the span of a few short weeks, added to donations of food and clothing, we managed to raise an astounding total of 386,676.50 THB in donation funds. To all students, teachers, parents, and staff who participated in our efforts and contributed to this cause—thank you!
Last Friday, the STA Primary campus was transformed into a celebration of all things maths! The day was packed with engaging, hands-on activities across all year groups, making maths truly come alive for our students.
Senior student at St Andrews Bangkok, Pun (Year 13), devises an innovative solution for effective waste management. Recently, he completed an ambitious project: an AI-powered waste sorting system. After much research and testing, he got the system to work and put the model to use in one of our rooms at school!
Physics students from St Andrews Bangkok made quite an impression at the Beamline for Schools (BL4S) competition and won the Best Outreach Award for their brilliant work. BL4S is a prestigious global physics contest organised by CERN (the European Laboratory for Particle Physics in Geneva, Switzerland) and DESY (the German Electron Synchrotron in Hamburg, Germany), inviting High School students worldwide to propose detailed experiments to be conducted at a particle accelerator beamline. While our students did not win the main prize of conducting their experiment in Geneva, they still stood out and were recognised from an entry of over 400 teams.
