High School: Wai Kru and the OU

Updates on two great events that have taken place in the last five days - our first Wai Kru Ceremony at St Andrews International School Bangkok and a visit from the Oxford Union - written by students in the new Student Journalist Team ECA.

High School ECAs began today, and the reports below, about last week’s Wai Kru Ceremony and today’s visit from the Oxford Union Debating team, were written by students in the new Student Journalists ECA. Look out for more reports, and photos, from them in future weeks…

Roo Stenning
Head of High School

Last Thursday morning, St Andrews High School held our first Wai Kru Ceremony. Wai Kru is a traditional celebration in Thailand to show appreciation and respect to teachers, held on a Thursday close to the start of the academic year. The ceremony began with Matrix and Sand explaining the Wai Kru Ceremony with information about the significance of the flowers used in the phuang malai garlands before Nina chanted the traditional Pajera, which included the line “I also pay my respect to teachers with great admiration and humility in my heart, I feel eternally in debt to them”.

The main parts of the ceremony were the presentation of garlands to teachers, shown on the left, and Tutors, shown on the right, by student representatives with other teachers receiving their garlands later in the day. These garlands show our respect and appreciation towards teachers and tutors because they improve our skills and share their education and knowledge with us.

Teachers were moved, impressed and proud by the students’ thoughts and feelings towards them, and our first Wai Kru Ceremony brought smiles to the faces of both teachers and students.

Written by Anakin (7e), Ayumi (7c), Clara (8g), Flan (7e), Isabell (7c) and Kiersten (7c) - Student Journalist Team

Earlier today, Year 12 took part in a debate workshop with students from the Oxford Union Debating Team. In the first half of the session Year 12 were divided into groups, where we were taught the basics of debating - how to structure arguments effectively, and speak with passion and eloquence - before we began to discuss the motion of the debate: “Individual apathy is the greatest threat to our climate”.

The Oxford students inspired us, sharing their experience in public speaking. After discussing points that could be used for the debate, four speakers were selected to speak for the proposition, and four for the opposition, to take part in the final debate in the Theatre. The rest of Year 12 were involved in the audience by raising Points of Information throughout. After winning a majority vote from the Year Group, the opposition team were victorious - Congratulations to Destiny (Sd), Putter (Sk), Piyush (Sm) and Manon (Sm)! Well done to all of Year 12 who took part in this amazing opportunity with the Oxford Union. Here we can see Michelle (Sg) engaging in a discussion with one of the guests from Oxford, Marwin (Sf) and Zakk (Sh) in action during the debate and a group shot of the speakers and the visiting Oxford students.

This event was organised by OxfordAQA, a joint venture between AQA (a UK exam board) and Oxford University Press.

Written by Oan (Sb) and Angel (Sc) - Student Journalist Team