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GIS students celebrate record IGCSE scores
Mark Beales
Photos by Ritche Guisona
Results of Garden International School’s International General Certificate
of Secondary Education (IGCSE) international tests, given to 16 year olds,
are the best ever!
Students from Garden International School (GIS) are celebrating after
achieving an incredible batch of results. Out of 223 examination entries, 86
percent achieved an A*-C grade. That is far higher than the UK average.
GIS’s superb Sarah gained 8
IGCSE, including 6 A*s.
Among the high-flyers this year were Yeshwant, Pratiman
and Sarah. Yeshwant achieved an impressive 10 A*/Cs, Pratiman gained 9 A*/Cs
while Sarah was awarded 8 A*/Cs, with six of those being A*. Another
student, Yuto, gained nine A*-C grades while seven others were awarded 8
A*-C passes.
These results come just weeks after GIS’s International Baccalaureate (IB)
results, which saw Ben Bartlett achieve the school’s best-ever score of 44
out of 45 points.
Most of the IGCSE students will now remain at GIS and join its successful
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP), the world’s leading
pre-university course.
Not only was the Year 11 group successful, several Year 10 students were so
good they took a Mathematics IGCSE a year early - and passed.
Garden’s IGCSE Co-ordinator Chris Stokes said, “These are an incredible set
of results. They reflect both the hard-work and dedication of our students
and also the high standards among the teaching staff.
Yuto achieved nine IGCSE
passes.
“We are thrilled that our students have done so well and
achieved results that are truly exceptional. We are also delighted that so
many will be staying on to take the IB course.”
Several subjects had 100 percent pass rates: Geography, Thai Language,
English World Literature, Music, Design and Technology, ICT, Mandarin, PE,
Spanish and Additional Maths.
Last year in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, 59 percent of all students
got 5 A*-C passes at GCSE. The equivalent at GIS this year is more than 92
per cent.
Garden, which is the only school in the area to be fully accredited by the
Council of International Schools (CIS), has been offering IGCSEs since 1996.
Its results have consistently been higher than the average UK grades.
For more on GIS, visit
www.gardenrayong.com.
GIS’s star student Yeshwant
gained an amazing 10 IGCSEs.
GIS student Pratiman is
celebrating after securing 9 IGCSE passes.
.We did it! Students from GIS
got the school’s best-ever IGCSE results.
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A non-stop Summer of Improvements at the
Regent’s School Pattaya
Oscar and Elijah, originally from
London, test out the school’s new pirate ship climbing apparatus.
Tim Eaton
Some schools use the summer vacation as a time to unwind, but at The
Regent’s School Pattaya the months of July and August are proving to be anything
but relaxing for the school’s Estates Management Team after it embarked on an
ambitious set of improvements to the facilities there.
Most striking of these improvements has been the construction of a new Primary
School playground, complete with pirate ship climbing apparatus imported from
Europe, a new mini basketball and soccer court, and a cluster of timber shelters
to shade children from the sun. The entire playground is being coated in a
protective surface.
In the girls’ boarding house, an architect-led team has set about completely
transforming one section of the residential accommodation, inspired by the
standard of boarding facilities at the prestigious Collège Champittet in
Switzerland, sister school to The Regent’s. This first section is serving as a
trial, with the intention of extending the improvements to the rest of the
girls’ and boys’ accommodation over the next few years.
On the sports front, the school’s pitches are all being upgraded to provide a
finer quality of grass surface, the changing rooms have been extended and the
sports hall itself is being refurbished. Both the Primary and Secondary School
Music Departments have been redecorated in recognition of the growing popularity
of the subject amongst children of all ages, and every classroom and corridor in
the primary school is being repainted over the next two weeks to create an
attractive and welcoming environment for the pupils and staff.
The School’s Bursar, Kirsty Paiboontanasin, commented: “So much of what the
Estates Management Team does takes place behind the scenes, so parents, pupils
and staff have little idea that improvements have been made. It’s really
satisfying to spend the summer undertaking projects which will be instantly
recognizable when the school community re turns towards the end of August.”
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Jesters Journal: Caring
for needy kids since 1998
Jesters Care for Kids Charity Drive 2013, Sponsored
by Glencore International and Canadian Jackalope Open
Jesters Erle, Norm and Bill stand
with the group of recipients for the monthly rice distribution in July at the
Nongprue Municipality. We also donated the wheelchair to Nui in the center.
Lewis Underwood
Our main focus is on our annual September events now, which are nearly
upon us. Yet, at the same time, we continue our fund-raising for the benefit of
underprivileged kids, who need shelter free of abuse, scholarships for school
and special learning for the handicapped. If you are interested in helping,
please read on.
Our Jesters
Children’s Fair is at The Regent’s School 16 days from now!
Our fair is just over two weeks from now, and it is important for us to
reiterate that we have changed our venue to The Regent’s School Pattaya.
Specifically, the site for the fair will be on the grassy oval amid the spacious
grounds of the school on Sunday, September 8th, starting at 10 a.m. Shuttle
buses will be available from Central Pattaya in the vicinity of the Father Ray
Foundation on Sukhumvit Highway.
For those interested in booking fair stalls, please act soon as they are going
quickly. If you want one, the 1500 baht fee can be remitted to: Fountain of Life
Center, Krung Thai Bank, Pattaya Klang, account no. 227-1-36586-4, KRTHTHBK.
Once you have done this, please send an email to:
[email protected].
(Note: To date there is only one Thai food stall offering som tam and nothing
else. This means stall(s) offering local food should have a brisk business.)
Breaking news!
Our black and dark blue event shirts with our bold 16th annual logo are now
available at 350 baht for children and 380 baht for adults. If interested,
please go to: [email protected].
Jesters Gala Party Night follows the Fair 13 days later
The second event is our Gala Party Night, which is on Saturday, September 21st
at the Amari Orchid Pattaya. This sit-down buffet dinner affair, which includes
complementary wine/beer, entertainment, auctions and grand raffle drawings, has
been a hit with our supporters.
Tables are filling fast, so if you would like to book a place the cost is 2200
baht and our contact is: [email protected].
Ways you can still help now
* You can become a corporate or individual sponsor. This continues to be the
principal source of our fund-raising year round.
* You can buy grand raffle tickets ahead of our Gala Party Night, as well as
make bids on our current auction through our website.
* You can donate a case of canned beer to the Jesters Beer Tent. Your donation
will increase in value as the beer is sold on the day of the fair. Beer sales
typically cover the entire setup cost for the event. If interested, please go to
http://www.care4kids. info/events/childrens-fair.html.
Time is now moving at break neck speed towards September. After all it’s just
around the bend! If you would like to get on board, please visit us at
www.care4kids.info or www. facebook.com/jesterscare. forkids &
[email protected]
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Mushrooms galore with Pattaya Sports Club
The hut is in place.
William Macey
Most visitors to Pattaya will admit that Thai food is delicious.
However, food prepared in the villages is somewhat different to dishes that you
would find in restaurants in town, but just as appetizing and some of the
mushroom only dishes are very tasty. Children, in particular, love to eat
mushrooms, which was the subject of a telephone call to PSC from Noy of the
YWCA. She had been in contact with 4 local, remote schools around Pattaya and
wanted our help to finance mushroom ‘farms’. This was a totally new idea to me
and I asked her to explain what she had meant, after all, mushrooms must grow
somewhere.
Room for 3,000 spoors.
There are 11 main schools in Pattaya but 80 plus schools outside the city limits
which are smaller, maybe as small as 150 students, and are very often situated
in isolated areas. The children attending these schools come from poor families
in local villages very often having to walk many kilometres to and from school
every day, not being able to afford a bicycle or motorbike.
The object of the exercise is to build a shed, purchase a thousand or so
mushroom spoors and out pops the mushrooms on a daily basis. A very simple idea.
Very little care and attention is needed - just a little water each day and
within 3 or 4 days a flower-like bunch of mushrooms emerge. A thousand spoors
can yield around 300 kilos over a six month period. The first priority is to
include these in the children’s lunch, then use the rest to sell to the local
families, at a very low price, or to the local market (there is always a local
market in Thailand) raising much needed funds to buy items needed in the
education of the children and more spoors to grow more mushrooms.
The spoors are now in place.
The teachers that I met have said that the idea benefits the families. The
children love the taste of fresh mushrooms and have a sense of achievement
having taken care of them, watched them grow and are able pick them every day.
The financial reality to this exercise is such that, on a visit to one of the
schools, we were informed that during the first 2 weeks they had harvested
sufficient mushrooms to provide lunch for the children and to sell 50 kilos to
the local market.
Pattaya Sports Club are always happy to be involved with new ideas that help the
local community and eagerly await the comments from teachers and children alike
when everything is up and running.
The first crop.
Thank you PSC with a small gift.
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Pattaya Street Kids’ Support Project
helping kids in Baan Ton Rak
Don Ford, Treasurer / Trustee
Pattaya Street Kids’ Support Project (www.slum-kids.org) have been made
aware of the Baan Ton Rak project in Pattaya and our Charity Trustees agree that
this meets our criteria of being something we are able to support.
It is run by a young Buddhist couple who for fifteen years have been dedicated
to helping young people, and in so doing, protecting the environment for future
generations. They live in a simple dwelling, set on 14 rai of land (which
includes a lake) and they have taken in seven homeless children. However, it is
not just these children they help. Many more children come after school or at
the weekends and learn not just agricultural skills, but fishing, animal
husbandry, and life skills.
They plant rice, grow fruit and vegetables, fish, and try to be self-sustaining.
Clearly, this is not easy, and they are currently trying to raise funds to buy
the seed to plant rice.
This is a project that channels the sometimes destructive
energy of youth into areas which build character and provide alternatives to the
often antisocial behaviour born of boredom or envy. It allows children from the
slums to benefit from fresh air and honest labour. They learn the benefits of
being part of a team - and how to be independent. They learn how to share, be
tolerant of those they don’t understand and become useful and accepted members
of society - regardless of their background or history. No-one willing to help
is turned away.
This could be the prototype for programmes which could be tailored to benefit
schools, detention centres, orphanages, etc.
To enable the project to expand there is a need for extra accommodation and this
item consists of three secondhand market stalls (wire ‘cages’ supported by steel
stanchions) 30 M X 9 M, with tarpaulin cover. You will see these at all the more
established market areas in the city and they can cost millions of baht when
new. We have agreed to meet the cost of 70,000 B to buy, and 11,000 B to
disassemble and transport. A total of 81,000Baht (£1800)
Baan Ton Rak will use this as temporary accommodation to
allow them to take in other Children-at-Risk, or those who are willing to be
channelled into a new life when coming out of Youth Prison. They would be given
food, accommodation, skill-based training (agriculture or apprenticeships with
businesses in the community), and basic education.
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