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Over and under, over and under sixteen thousand times

The line of children playing tunnel ball stretches to the horizon.

Andrew Ingram, Primary School Teacher
Over and under, over and under sixteen thousand times. This was the Regent’s Primary School’s attempt at securing a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

On Thursday May 3rd, 2012, 125 primary school children ranging in age from 8 to 11 attempted to break the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest game of Tunnel Ball.

Tunnel ball “athletes” anxiously watch as the ball makes it way towards them.

The record attempt day was only a small part of the whole process. 23 children from a number of different age groups took responsibility for the organising of the event, which included contacting media outlets, promoting the event around school and preparing the location for the event.

Mind, a year 5 student who took part and helped organise the attempt said, “I never knew how much hard work it took to organise an event on this scale; everyone involved should be very proud.”

No, it’s not Songkran; it’s a teacher making sure the students don’t overheat.

Regent’s Primary were attempting to beat the previous record, set in 2008 by St Columba School in Australia, of 120 children.

The school reached out to local businesses and companies to help make the event a success. The Pullman Hotel, Pattaya, continued to support the area’s local children with a very generous donation of drinks in order to help combat the heat and ensure that the children were hydrated throughout their attempt, which lasted well over 6 hours.

The whole event was a part of the Regent’s Primary’s ‘Round Square Week’, where children throughout the school have an opportunity to challenge themselves and develop life skills linked to the 6 Round Square IDEALS.

Once it reaches the end, a youngster makes a mad dash back to the front of the line.

One of the teachers involved in leading the event, Colm Rowan, claimed the event was not only beneficial to the children organising it but everyone who was connected with the school: “Adults and children must have high expectations of what they can achieve within life and within school. Challenging the children to break a World Record, whether they are successful or not, will show that with a combination of determination and hard work any goal can be attained. Only those who reach for the stars will eventually become one.”

Although the game is a playground favourite, to enter the Guinness Book of World Records a strict procedure must be followed to prove the event was successful. The school also needed to have individuals from the local community present to verify the attempt had been successful. The pupils and staff at the Regent’s will have to wait for up to 8 weeks until they find out whether or not the attempt has been successful and whether they can claim their place in the history of World Records.

Hip, hip, hooray! We did it!


Super-talented musicians impress at Garden’s Spring Concert

Students excitingly joining in the Scottish dance being accompanied by the school Ceilidh Band.

Mark Beales
Garden’s super-talented musicians impressed a packed audience with their Spring Concert.

The GIS Spring Concert and Ceilidh was held in the main hall and began with the school choir singing HM’s the King’s Anthem, followed by a performance by the Yr 10 IGCSE Music group of ‘Soul Limbo’ (better known as the BBC’s cricket theme). After the orchestra performed a Basse Dance and Gopak, the flute group staged an intricate jazz medley.

The popular ukulele band plays an impressive three-chord megamix of songs from different decades.

Several Yr 7s then played ‘Water Come To Me Eye’, and then the school’s jazz band made their debut with ‘Town With an Ocean View’.
The popular ukulele band played an impressive three-chord megamix of songs from different decades, and then the Yr 8 group reminded everyone of the school’s sell-out musical Mama Mia, with their version of Super Trouper, which was sung by Praw.

The first half ended with the choir returning to the stage for two more songs - Lullaby and Cee Lo Green’s hit Forget You.

Mr. Andrew Gordon leads the Scottish dance.

After the break, the hall was transformed into a dance room. The Ceilidh Band then led several traditional dances, with senior students stepping in with several performances to give dancers a well-earned rest.
Well done to the Music Department, the performers and everyone who helped make the evening such a success.

The splendid rendition of HM’s the King’s Anthem by the school choir.


Growing, tasting and learning all about food at St Andrews School

Alex learns to plant rice in our Thai lesson.

Jane Thompson, Early Years Coordinator, St Andrews International School
The children in Reception (5 year olds) are really enjoying their unit: ‘Food’. In the classroom there are some new exciting role-play areas. There is a European-style restaurant and a Thai beach restaurant with mats and a variety of local Thai cooking pots.

The children have answered questions in the ‘Entry Interview’, demonstrating a good understanding about what are healthy foods and unhealthy foods. Our next steps will be to learn more about the different foods groups and find out where food comes from. We will be inviting our parents into class to help us share knowledge and taste some favourite foods from our different home countries.

The children are enjoying being ‘risk-takers’, tasting different foods and saying which they like best. They have recorded their preferences on whole class and individual charts which is developing their ability to represent and record information in a variety of ways.

In their Thai lesson the children were very excited to plant rice which after only one week has already begun to sprout!

There have also been many creative art opportunities as the children studied the different beautiful shapes and patterns found on the fruits and vegetables of Thailand. The unit will culminate with the children’s creativity being shown off to parents and other students at the Early Years Art Exhibition.

Justin explores the oven gloves in the pretend kitchen.

Calliope works out how to use the role-play till.

Children investigate fruit shapes and record ideas.

Jenny counts and records her set of fruits.


Dusit Thani College finds success in Pattaya

A school chef prepares to show off the cooking demonstration room.

Manoon Makpol
With nearly 800 hotels and guesthouses within its boundaries, Pattaya has proven to be a successful location for Dusit Thani College.
Nearly a year after opening on Sukhumvit Road near Mini Siam, the hotel-management school opened in June 2011 by hotel operator Dusit International now has dozens of students in each of its three degree-level programs.
At a May 3 open house, college administrators showed off its three buildings, which include lecture classrooms, a demonstration kitchen, practical kitchen, bakery, bartending room, practical restaurant, student canteen, library, and language laboratory. Reporters also baked cookies.
A satellite of Bangkok’s Dusit Thani College, the Pattaya branch offers three degree programs: Bachelor of Business Administration in Hotel and Resort Management, Bachelor of Business Administration in Culinary Arts, and Bachelor of Business Administration in MICE and Events Management.
The college has 30-40 in each of its programs, hailing from Thailand as well as China, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, the Philippines, South Korea and the United States.
At the branch’s opening last year, Dusit International CEO Chanin Donavanik said the company chose Pattaya, “Because of the existence of many international hotel chains, including our two properties located here, Dusit Thani Pattaya and dusitD2 baraquda. This is a distinct advantage that will provide our students with great opportunity for training and working in the field.”

A modern classroom where student chefs learn the tricks of the trade.

Students gain their textbook knowledge in modern classrooms.


Our CAS Project and Organic Farming

Regent’s visitors at Adams Organic farm.

Hugh Jenkins
At the start of Year 12 a few of us decided that we would like to become involved in the Gold Fish Garden that was just starting up. Myself, Boss Sutheeissariyakun and Harry Mun thought we could make our participation in the garden an after-school activity; our CAS project for the year as the garden offered us opportunities to be Creative, do Action and also be of Service.

We started in the first term and have learnt a lot about setting up a vegetable garden in school! We have found that it’s rather hard work being a gardener and that there are quite a lot of vegetables that are very delicious to the numerous bugs and pests that infiltrate the garden.

We’ve had some success with herbs such as dill and basil and our first crop of tomatoes was also plentiful. Our chilli plants are going well but the garlic and eggplant are not. It’s important that we try and stay organic as we believe that food which is grown without having been sprayed with pesticides, or even ‘organic’ pesticides, is better for us.

We heard through Regent’s Eco Committee of an organic farm in Nakhon Ratchasima province that was supplying vegetables to an international school in Bangkok. A visit was planned and Boss and I, along with two teachers and three Thai admin staff, left early last Saturday for the five hour journey to the farm.

The business is called Adams Organic and we were fortunate to be able to meet with one of the managers, Tim Chung, whose family owns the business. We met Tim and his wife at a restaurant about 11km from the farm where we were told the history of the farm.

Adams Organic has been established for 2 years though the farm has been around for over 10 years growing organic vegetable seeds prior to fresh vegetable production. The parent company, Adams Enterprises Ltd., has been operating in Thailand as a vegetable seeds producer since the 1980s. It was started by Tim’s grandfather, and now is looked after by Tim’s uncle.

The mission of Adams Organic is to promote the organic lifestyle to the public as well as promoting organic/sustainable farming practice to local farmers. The farm we visited is about 70 rai in total but we were told that at the moment they may only be utilizing half of the fields for production.

We set off in our minibus with Tim and his wife to the farm and were met by Khun Sopon who is the local manager of the farm. He gave us a very extensive tour of the farm, showing us the processes they use to grow the seedlings in their greenhouses as well as composting and measures and tips on how to keep insects and other pests away from the plants.

There were about 10-15 workers doing the field work and another 10 or so helping with the cleaning and packing of vegetables. At this farm they were growing butternut squash, varieties of tomatoes and lettuces. We also saw the workers packing cabbages that had been brought from one of their farms in Laos.

Adams Organic vegetables are sold in Pattaya at Foodland but also in other supermarkets in Bangkok. We had a very enjoyable and interesting day and hope we can implement some of the ideas we learnt and the advice we were given at Adams Organic, in the Gold Fish Garden. On our way home we were able to stop at Chokchai Farm for some delicious ice cream!


HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]

Over and under, over and under sixteen thousand times

Super-talented musicians impress at Garden’s Spring Concert

Growing, tasting and learning all about food at St Andrews School

Dusit Thani College finds success in Pattaya

Our CAS Project and Organic Farming

 

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