High School: Coronavirus updates

Another week of monitoring the situation, in school, in Thailand and beyond.

Each day last week we temperature checked all students, teachers, parents and visitors as they arrived at the school, and we were very happy not to have even one person record a temperature in these checks.

On Friday last week, Dr Peter T Guerin, the Regional Medical Officer from the US Embassy Bangkok, visited St Andrews on Friday last week to give a presentation about COVID-19 (Coronavirus) and answer questions from our community. Please see Mr Paul’s Head’s Lines section of this Newsletter for a link to a video of the event.

As you can see, his list Prevention measures (above) was very similar to those that we have been sharing for the last four weeks. 

During last week we were also exploring the possibilities of restarting Sports fixtures, with other schools which are following similar restrictions, and temperature checks, to ourselves, and BISAC fixtures will restart this week.

On Friday, we heard that all TISAC fixtures and tournaments have been cancelled for Term 2. Please see Mr Adam’s High School Sport section for more information.

On Friday, the WHO published their latest Situation Report, including the graph above. The situation in Thailand appears to currently be stable, with only three new cases reported since Saturday 8th February.

In that Situation Report, WHO Thailand are very clear that “health screening and surveillance systems in Thailand – at points of entry into the country as well as nationwide - are robust and capable of tracking suspected cases quickly, allowing health authorities to implement protocols to ensure isolation, contact tracing, testing and treatment of symptoms”. 

Sunday’s Ministry of Public Health Situation Update shows that now 21 of the 35 confirmed cases in Thailand have recovered and been discharged, with only 14 still in hospital. The MOPH also release a News Release yesterday, which said:

“Today marks the 50th day that Thailand began implementing surveillance measures to prevent COVID-19. Thailand started screening travelers from disease transmission areas on 3 January 2020. At that time, there was no report of human-to-human transmission. The public can be confident in the disease surveillance and control system in Thailand. Until now, the MOPH has been implementing intense measures. Thailand is the first country to start screening at the airport for direct flights from transmission areas. Thus, Thailand was the first country that detected the first confirmed case outside the People's Republic of China.”

As you know from yesterday’s e-mail, yesterday afternoon, while I was writing this Newsletter, the Ministry of Education issued a directive to all schools in Thailand regarding COVID-19:

The directive states that any families who have been to China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore or Japan must place themselves in 14 days of voluntary quarantine from their date of return to Thailand.

 Any member of our school community who has been to one of the areas listed above should therefore stay away from school until they have completed this 14 days of quarantine (based on the day they arrived back in the country). If your child has not travelled to these areas, but a close family member has, they should also be included in the quarantine.

Please let your son/daughter’s Tutor know if your son/daughter will be missing school due to this quarantine. They will then work with your son/daughter’s teachers to ensure that more detailed information about each lesson is shared with those students not in school via Moodle.

We will continue to work closely with the appropriate health and education authorities to monitor the situation and make decisions about the best steps to take concerning the school, keeping you updated with any new information as it becomes available.

Roo Stenning (roo.st@standrews.ac.th)
Head of High School

Residential Roundup: Part 3

While one group of Year 12 was on the Year 12 Residential to Udon Thani, described in last week’s Newsletter, another group of Year 12 students visited Siem Reap:

The first year taking Year 12 students to Siem Reap was a great success. The students not only gained experiences for their CAS program, they also had fun, learnt about local communities and culture, built new friendships, ate some delicious food and saw some of the tourist highlights in and around Siem Reap.

During the week we visited Angkor Wat, helped the local village with rice processing and broom making, planted trees in the Community Forest Project, played football against the local school, collected trash on the way to a hillside temple, saw the largest reclining Buddah carved into a single rock in South East Asia, taught the children some dance moves and how to toast marshmallows on a stick, amazed by Phare Circus, ate some delicious Khmer food and saw how traditional crafts were made at Artisan D’Angkor!

Despite all the fantastic activities, the biggest highlights for me as their Head of Year were the students! They were so good at getting involved, especially playing with the children in the village we were staying with. Well done to all of them!

Platt and Pamela have written short paragraphs about their experiences below.

Mr Rich (Head of Year 12)

“During our Residential we had the opportunity to stay in the village. The locals were kind enough to let us stay in their houses, so we saw their daily life. We also learnt the differences between our two cultures, for example, when we saw a beetle we were scared of it but the local just took it on his hand and threw it away. It made us see the privileges we have and appreciate them better.”

Pamela, 12Sm

“The reason I decided to go on this Residential in the first place was for the purpose of learning new things, obtaining new experiences, exploring the cultures of the neighbouring countries and perhaps take some time away from our regular and demanding school curriculum. But, it was totally different from what I had in mind. Yes, we actually did all the things I’ve described above, but in the end it was a whole lot more. I wasn’t expecting the fact that I would be connecting to my friends, speaking to new people, getting out of my comfort zone and most importantly, being able to see the other side of myself and reflect upon how little I gave time for myself to enjoy life.

This Residential was the best way for me to start 2020, being able to realize my flaws and improve. Being able to meet and make new and close friends. Being able to feel more comfortable around people because I got to connect to them. Being able to respect myself and have more confidence in my decisions.

It wasn’t just any trip or a vacation. It didn’t feel like I was going with my friends and teachers. It felt as if we were a family and it was one of the most trips I have enjoyed to this day. I think I can say this without hesitation, that the Year 12 Siem Reap Residential was the best Residential I have been on ever since I became a part of the St Andrews Community and that I would have totally regretted it if I had decided to not to go.”

Warid (Plat), 12Sp

Switzerland Snow Sports Expedition

During half-term a group of STA teachers and students from Years 7-11 travelled to the stunning Alps in Switzerland on the Nord Anglia Global Campus Snow Sports Expedition. They had the opportunity to participate in a range of winter sports activities including skiing, snowboarding, snow-shoeing, sledging and cross-country skiing.

St Andrews shared the beautiful Nord Anglia lodge with students and teachers from the Prague British International School where they enjoyed many hot chocolates after a busy day on the mountain. For some students, this was their first trip to Europe and a wonderful opportunity to experience a different culture and of course some Swiss delicacies.