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Up, up and away at St Andrews
It’s a
success, the hovercraft is moving!
Nick Frost, Science
Teacher, St Andrews International School
Up, up and away! Well not in a balloon nor very high but
we did use wind, sort of… As part of the year 10 science course we studied a
unit on forces and decided to try our hand at making hovercrafts.
There was a lot of skepticism as to the possibility of
our success but the year 10 proved themselves and lifted off and hovered
down the corridor of the secondary block. They were so successful that one
of them was even seen to lift Mr. Williams’ fine physique with ease. A lot
of fun was had and the students hopefully learned something about forces as
well!
Students at St Andrews School get out and about and research village life
Learning
the ropes in the outdoor education facility at the school.
St
Andrews students experience life in a Thai School classroom.
Gary Foster, Year 2
Teacher, St Andrews
Int’l School
In Year 2, the children have been learning about the
buildings and services that are important to village life. They have enjoyed
their visits to the village of Ban Chark Mark, where they have been able to
compare the buildings and services in the village to where they live. One of
the boys in 2G, for example, was surprised that the village had laundry
facilities but didn’t have a bank.
On one of our visits to Ban Chark Mark, we visited the
Chinese temple and the Thai temple and we came to realise how important the
temples are to the people of the village. Luckily for us, there was a monk
at the Thai temple who was able to answer all of our questions. The boys
were shocked that you can become a novice monk when you are only 8 years
old. The girls were surprised that monks have to follow 227 rules. That’s a
lot of rules to remember!
Another of our visits to Ban Chark Mark took us to the
local school. There, we studied alongside the Thai children in their
classes. In some ways, the school was similar to St. Andrews. The children
wore a uniform and had P.E lessons outside. However, there were some
differences. For example, the children worked on low tables with no chairs
and the classrooms did not have air-conditioning. Several times during a
lesson that 2P attended, a volleyball came flying through an open window. In
Ban Chark Mark, even Literacy lessons can be dangerous!
In the final week of the half term, we welcomed a group
of students from the Thai school to St. Andrews. The Year 2 children did a
great job at hosting the visitors, especially our Thai-speaking children
whose translations were the key to a successful visit. The children got to
join in with sporting, musical and Valentine’s Day activities and the
afternoon was enjoyed by everyone who took part.
The children were able to learn a lot from the visits to
Ban Chark Mark and through their interaction with the children from the Thai
school. They can certainly identify buildings and services that are
important to village life and were able to compare and contrast the lives of
the people in the village to their own lives in Thailand.
Students
research about the local temple.
The Thai
students are curious about their visitors.
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Enriching the minds of young students
A
future ‘Larry King’ with his interviewee.
Derek Franklin
Students from Year 7, 8 and 9 at The Regents School
recently visited the Redemptorist Vocational School for People with
Disabilities as part of the schools ‘Enrichment Programme’.
The aim of the visit was for the young students to
interview the students with disabilities about their life. Prior to
arriving at the Sukhumvit campus the interviewers had devised a set of
questions which would enable them to gain as much information as
possible from the students with disabilities.
Questions were asked about life before coming to the
school in Pattaya, the reasons they have a disability, how they live
with their disability and how they are treated by the rest of society.
Many of the answers given by the students with
disabilities surprised the students from The Regents School as it gave
them an insight of living a different life to what they themselves are
leading.
Whilst one group of students acted as the
interviewers, another group will produce a short film of the visit
whilst a third set of students will arrange the music for the film.
The Regents School has named Father Ray Foundation as
one of its local ‘community partners’, taking an active roll in
supporting the local charity who are currently caring for and educating
over 850 children and students with disabilities.
Since the Vocational School for People with
Disabilities opened its doors to students in the mid 1980’s, more than
2400 students have graduated, and the school has been so successful that
a sister school is planned in the northern city of Nong Khai.
More information can be found at www.fr-ray.org or email
[email protected].
Not
all the questions were serious.
The
young students learned a lot about people who are living with a
disability.
Students from both schools enjoyed spending time together.
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Regent’s International Day 2011
The Regent’s
International Fashion Show.
Daniel Ahn, Year 11 student -
Assistant Pillar Leader for Internationalism
On Saturday, February 19, International Day 2011 was
held in the Regent’s School Pattaya. Students, parents, staff and more
than 300 children from our community partners joined together and
enjoyed this great annual event. The event started off with the World
Cup football tournament being held in the gym with eighteen different
countries participating. The final was eventually won for the first time
by Bhutan beating a very competitive and unlucky Team Armenia.
As the World Cup Football was in progress in the gym,
the two female MCs of the day, Julia and Gerda, warmly welcomed everyone
who came to International Day, especially Khun Mechai and the Mechai
Patana School our special guests.
Next on the stage was an exciting school event, the
Battle of the Bands. Four enthusiastic bands, played by each of the
house colours, participated in this competition. All four bands were
rocking the stage, making the crowds excited and upbeat. It was really
hard to decide who was going to be the winner. However, the three
professional judges made a final decision that Yellow House band, who
played ‘It’s My Life’ by Bon Jovi, was the winner of Battle of the Bands
2011.
The
start of the flag walk around the oval.
While many visitors explored the 55 different rooms
around the school representing the countries of our school’s community
and collecting passport stamps the area under the clock tower was filled
with amazing traditional food. There were stalls all around the place;
filled with varieties of delicious food from more than 20 countries
which everyone had an opportunity to taste at very reasonable prices.
You also had the chance to taste amazing foods in each country rooms
around the Secondary building.
Many thanks must go to the wonderful Regent’s parents
and especially Marjolijn Bakker for their support and coordination of
the International Cafe every year. Altogether 140,000 baht was raised on
International Day to support ongoing Round Square community service
projects.
The World Stage was continuously busy throughout the
day. After the Battle of the Bands, the highlight of the day was the
country performances, with more than 20 individual country performances
taking place. Students put a great deal of effort into preparing for
these performances; each one was fascinating, creating an engrossed
audience as Thailand, Russia, England, Japan, Estonia, Armenia, etc.,
all took to the stage. I especially enjoyed the performance by Germany
and Korea where there was a combination of singing and taekwondo moves
being performed at the same time. I also enjoyed the break dancing
performed by the Abundant Life Home, one of our community partners who
also performed on the stage. The moves they performed engaged me to
watch until it was finished. Even the young kids from the home were able
to do some professional break dance moves!
After the country performances, the fashion show
continued on the stage. There were over 50 countries taking part, one
male and one female from each country, which participated in this
fashion show and all models looked fantastic and beautiful as they
walked elegantly on the stage. It was a great experience to be able to
observe, watch and enjoy what each country’s traditional costume looked
like.
The grand final event, the Parade of Nations,
followed right after the fashion show ended. It started off with every
country’s sign and flag bearers walking around the oval for one lap with
their fellow country men and women behind them. It looked amazing when
the sign and flag bearers and all the other people marched around the
oval. It also looked impressive and even terrific as people walked and
stopped under the tunnel of colourful country flags at the end.
The day ended with great excitement under the tunnel
of flags and with the MCs saying many thanks to everyone who had
participated and joined the International Day. Although everyone was
tired throughout the day, I saw a lot of smiles on people’s faces which
showed that they had enjoyed Regent’s International Day 2011.
The
colorful flag parade.
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Garden’s Aastha is a spelling sensation
A
delighted Aastha by her computer.
Mark Beales
Primary student Aastha Sawarkar took part in World
Spelling Day - and came 24th in the entire world!
Aastha is a student at Garden International School
(GIS) in Rayong. She took part in the online games and began well, with
a ranking of 72nd in the 4-7 years category. She then moved up to 68th,
then 39th and eventually reached 24th position with an accuracy level of
99.15 percent for the first 3 levels.
Her mother, Mrs Sawarkar said, “We enjoyed watching
her making such efforts and there is something she said which I was
surprised to hear - she said ‘I am not doing this for me, I want my
school to be top.’ She never said such a thing before and to be frank we
were proud of her and her statement brought a million smiles to our
faces.”
Aastha said, “I enjoyed doing the ‘World Spelling
Day’ and am looking forward to it next year, when I’m sure I can do much
better and see my school in the top 10.”
Students played at home and at school against other
students around the world in live spelling games. Each game lasted for
60 seconds and students could play up to 100 games, earning points for
their personal tally.
More than 50,000 schools took part in this year’s
event, answering more than 52 million questions!
Among the trickier words Aastha, 6, had to spell were
“scone, bled, snap” and “grid”. Well done to GIS’s spelling sensation
Aastha, who is in Year 2 and has been at GIS since 2008. Her class
teacher is Miss Lucy.
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Japanese youths visit Pattaya Orphanage
Masafumi Honda, manager of Omita Co., Ltd.,
along with the Japanese children, Anupab, a teacher in the
administration department, and students at the orphanage salute a fun
day.
Manoon Makpol
Japanese and Thai children exchanged a bit of culture
over lunch and football as a Bangkok company paid a visit to the Pattaya
Orphanage.
About 35 Japanese youths participated in the outing
organized by Omita Co. The company provided lunch for the orphans while
the kids exchanged stories with the 40 Thai orphans and challenged them
to a game of football.
Omita manager, Masafumi Honda said the experience
will be a memorable one for the Japanese youths, many who have nearly
completed their program in Thailand and are headed home. Further visits
are planned next year to Hua Hin and Khao Yai. In the past, youngsters
planted vegetables and swam in Kanchanaburi.
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