Congratulations to our Hip Hop and Jazz Dance Companies, who won 1st and 2nd place respectively in their categories at Friday’s TISAC So You Think You Can Dance Competition.
Our (I)GCSE and Senior Studies Options processes are a great example of how we meet “all the needs of the individual learner”, through both the range of subjects available and our flexible approach to building our Option Blocks around the subject combinations of the students.
On Tuesday last week, we hosted an Options Parents’ Information Evening for parents of Year 9 students, which followed a Senior Studies Information Evening for parents of Year 11 students the previous week.
The slides for these events have already been shared with parents in these Year Groups, but are available here for parents of other Year Groups whose sons/daughters will be going through this process in the future:
Year 9 Options Parents Information Evening
Key Stage 4 Curriculum Handbook
Senior Studies Information Evening
Tomorrow we will be celebrating Loy Krathong.
For those new to Thailand, Loy Krathong is an annual tradition in Thai culture and at our school. During this special day, we organise a number of fun and exciting activities for our students, with the entire STA community dressed in Thai traditional clothing.
Students take part in making their own krathongs out of banana tree trunks and leaves, then decorate them with flowers, candles, and joss sticks. A wish or prayer is usually made before the krathongs are then set afloat on the river under the light of a full moon.
This week we feature the remaining Senior Studies Media Team’s reports on our recent International Day:
International Day is designed to celebrate the importance of different cultures and origins from multifarious countries around the world as a truly memorable experience for all individuals involved. On international day, students and teachers perform dances and sing many songs to audiences.
The Break performances showed breathtaking choreographies performed by various Year Groups, drawing the attention of viewers and immersing them in acknowledging the importance of International Day.
“Different nationalities are represented through ethnicity, attire and nourishing foods,” according to one of the Year 7 students. International day shows respect and kindness to all the countries all around the world. They also represent their country and religion by serving us their unique food from their countries; Mango sticky rice (Thailand), sushi (Japanese), chicken and waffles (America), quesadillas (Mexico), Coconut milk rice (India).
Groups of Year 7 students from St. Andrews International School, Bangkok participated in a range of activities surrounding the topic of rocket science to further enhance their knowledge of the world around them during International Day. Some of their challenges included setting out to design and create water rockets, gliders, and rocket launchers.
The activities in Year 7 students’ rocket science ventures included building rocket launchers, gliders, and water rockets, which were tested in a competition between the students when they had completed their models. One of the students created their water rocket by “compressing water into a litre bottle to create pressure in the bottle and cause it to shoot upwards (really high and far)”, while gliders were given a narrower head to maximise the distance travelled. Finally, rocket launchers were designed for the sole purpose of demonstrating how a rocket launches in real life time.
Reporters: Pauline (Sf), Inka (Se) and Hyewon (Sh)
Additional reporting by: Maya (7a), Meth (7g), Mu (7i) and Xing Xing (7b)
During this year’s International Day at St. Andrews, students in Year 9 explored the areas of Drama, Music and Dance. The significance of the arts in who we are as individuals has a huge relevance in how we present ourselves. This year the main theme in cultural exploration was Dia de Los Muerto, the Day of the Dead. The Day of the Dead is a holiday that involves families and friends gathering together, out of respect and remembrance for their deceased families and friends.
In Drama, Year 9 students prepared a performance based on the Mexican holiday and the mythology that inspires it. The soundtrack for the performance was also composed by Year 9 students working with the Music Department, all to form a multi-disciplinary collaboration. Students unanimously reported feeling both stimulated and creatively challenged.
In the Dance portion of the Arts programme during this all-inclusive day, students learned and rehearsed a traditional Mexican dance called El Jarabe Tapatío, the Hat Dance. This dance consists of particular footwork and collaboration with one's peers, to work towards the end goal of having a seamless performance which they can present to friends and family. According to the students, the dance was “physically challenging” but “fun”, as it gave them more freedom to investigate other aspects of different cultures around the world.
Overall, International Day was full of exciting new activities, pushing Year 9 to try things out of their comfort zone, whilst also gaining a better understanding of another culture.
Reporters: Andrea (Sg), Darcy (Sf) and Uma (Sp)
The STA High School community is well-known for celebrating international cultures inclusively. This article is about the Year 10 and Year 11 activities that allowed students to understand and embrace the differences within our community. By investigating and researching different countries, students were exposed to different cultures and learnt more about the identity of different nationalities in the St Andrews community.
The Year 10s were split into Houses and assigned a country based on its economical state. Afterwards, they were sent to different classrooms with other countries in similar economical states. The goal was to make as much money as possible. Each group had to work hard to create shapes and sell them for cash. Items and materials were also traded for cash.
In Year 11, different Tutor Groups were allocated specific countries and had to research their allocated country’s culture, economical state, social situation, traditions, and more.
The Trading Game was a great learning experience for all the students and teachers, allowing them to gain a deeper understanding of different cultures. Even though students did not get to represent and talk about their own country, giving them the opportunity to research and represent another country allowed them to be more open-minded. International day is extremely important to the STA community as it allows for all our pupils to be comfortable with their own culture and identity whilst learning new knowledge. The Trading Game allowed students to develop knowledge of other cultures from their own. One of the staff members, Ms. Liz, reflected, “The most special thing about International Day is everybody comes together and celebrates everyone else’s culture.”
Reporters: Ananya (Sg), Natalie, (Sn) and Sasha (Si)
Additional reporting by: Sali Diawara (Sl), Giorgia Urari (Sn), Jerrie (Y10)
You can view all the School's live Google Calendars, and add our calendars to your personal Google Calendar, via Moodle.
Mr Roo
Head of High School
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!
