The entire STA community reflected on how we can challenge ourselves on International Women's Day. Wonderful IGCSE and IB music pieces. Unique NAE Virtual Young Musician Competition 2021 performances. The STA golfers brought their ‘A’ game to the St Andrews Golf Invitational Tournament. And finally, this Friday is unique as we have Inset (training) day teacher and staff day.
The amazing energy and enthusiasm from last week’s return to school after the half term break definitely appears to have carried over into this week. Today featured celebrations across both campuses for International Women’s Day, a day highlighting the importance of women throughout history while also acknowledging the many obstacles still facing them, especially in regards to gender bias within our society.
I felt very privileged, indeed, to be able to attend a High School music concert by our Year 11 and 13 students who were performing pieces to be included in their final IGCSE or IB examination coursework. Along with some very talented Year 8 and Year 10 students, the various bands and ensembles gave their all in a breathtaking musical exhibition spanning across history and genres. I would like to congratulate every single one of these students, as well as their teachers, for the amazing performances they shared with all in attendance. I am confident that all their hard work and talent will shine through in their upcoming final examinations.
This leads me into the awards for the NAE Virtual Young Musician of the Year. This was a global competition where 1,300 students from across the family of 61 NAE schools took part. There were over 100 hours of performances for the judges to watch and select standouts for categories across a range of age groups and instruments. To give every performance their due required 4 weeks of judging in this extensive global competition.
Children from our school did exceptionally well. In the Primary School the following four students won or were runners up in their particular section.
In the High School there were three winners
Congratulations to all of our winners and runners up and to everyone who took part in this global competition.
Sports Competitions
All our sports activities are running well across the schools with many children and young athletes involved. It is great that this term we will be able to start playing in competitions with their internationals schools following the strict COVID 19 guidelines that have been laid down for these activities. Unfortunately to start with parents will not be able to attend these fixtures and tournaments but wherever possible they will be streamed live through our communication channels. It is hoped that in the near future if the present situation regarding the COVID-19 infection rates in Thailand remaining low parents will be able to attend in the future.
STA Golf Invitational 2021
On Sunday 7th March we hosted the first STA Invitational Golf Tournament inviting over 90 students from schools across Bangkok. The competition was played at Subhapruek Golf Course with STA entering 12 students ranging from Year 3 to Year 11.
It was a fantastic event with all students playing well and enjoying themselves. Some wonderful golf was played with note to Anisa who scored an amazing 76, Leely scoring 78 and Mond 79.
We had successful students in taking prizes. These were:
It was wonderful to see a number of our Primary School students (Preme, Perth, Peak and Kuzey) playing in their first ISGT event.
Thank you, as always, to the wonderful support from our parents at this event. It is always well noted by the organisers and other schools how supportive and enthusiastic you are.
On Friday the school will be closed for students and only be open for our teachers and administration staff. They will be undertaking a day of training some of which will be focused on the very important issue of data protection throughout all our activities in school. There are a whole range of other activities being undertaken to ensure both our administration and teaching staff are equipped with the most up to date ways to manage their responsibilities in school.
Decisions for next academic year.
An email went home last week to every family asking them to the school to know what their intentions are for the education of their children for next academic year. It is essential that we gain a clear picture of who is staying and who may be leaving so we can ensure that we draw up the correct number of classes in primary school and ensure that enough specialist courses are available to our students in High School. It will be most appreciated if you could fill in the response on this questionnaire so we can use this information to help us plan for next academic year.
Autism Awareness Day
On Friday April 2nd we will acknowledge World Autism Awareness Day. This day highlights the need to appreciate, understand, support and improve the quality of life of those with Autism so that they can lead full and meaningful lives as an integral part of society.
Worldwide, the theme for this event is to wear a flash of blue. Our students, staff and families can acknowledge this day by wearing a ‘Flash of blue for Autism’, whether that be a hat, scarf, or other accessory. Our STARS and Embracing Differences will be selling custom made wristbands for 60 Baht to our school community with all proceeds going towards our school special needs programs.
Across the week, class teachers will be supported by specialist staff to run a lesson on the basic facts of Autism and how we as a community can acknowledge, engage and relate to people with Autism Spectrum Disorders. There will also be opportunities for our students with Autism to showcase their talents so stay tuned for further details!
School Calendar 2020-21
For your convenience, you can find the updated school calendar for 2020-2021 here.We have published a revised school calendar where Tuesday, 6th April will become a school holiday, while Wednesday 26th May (Visakha Bucha Day) will be a normal school day.
I hope everyone one a great start to this half term.
For parents with enquiries, please contact support@standrews.ac.th. Or call the Primary School at +66 2 381-2387-8 or the High School at +66 2 056-9555.
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.
