High School: A Great St Andrews’ International Day

I hope that you have all had an enjoyable and relaxing half-term, and are ready for a very busy seven weeks. As you can see from the Calendar below, which shows just the next two weeks, there is a huge amount happening in the High School between now and the Christmas holiday.

We ended the first half of the term with a fantastic High School International Day, a great celebration of world citizenship and our global community. As well as all the different Year Groups’ activities, we came together as a global community at break, lunch and in our Assemblies. The Student Journalist ECA students have described these parts of what was a wonderful day.

During Break on International Day, there were surprise performances by STA students. For the first performance, all of the Year 7 students sang Akeelie, an African song related to Year 7’s theme for this year’s International Day activities. The next performance was a traditional dance performance from the Philippines by students from many Year Groups. After the performance by the Filipinos, there was a dance performance by a group of Year 13 students, dancing to an Indian medley. They were (mostly) wearing traditional Indian clothes and the dance performance, performed by students from many countries, was truly Indian. Then, the STA Junior Varsity Dance Team performed to a song called Finesse by Bruno Mars ft. Cardi B. They showed lots of amazing techniques of ballet and gymnastics. For the final performance, the STA Varsity Dance Team showed another amazing and skilled dance performance. Break was a time for people to understand each others’ countries cultures and songs and the audience all enjoyed the performances. Thank you and well done to all students who involved in these lovely performances!

Isabell (Year 7) and Oan (Year 12)

On the High School International Day, the parents of the students decided so generously to cook the food for the students, teachers and staff. The area consisted of 24 table and food from Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, the Philippines, Poland, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey and the USA.

Year 7 and 8 students were the lucky first customers, and their mouths were watering seeing the quality and quantity of the food on the different tables. “It is the best food in school”, said Kiersten, a Year 7 student.

This year’s International Day lunch was spectacular, as it is every year, and took a lot of the parents’ effort and time to make. We would like to thank all the parents - everyone in the school loved it.

Anakin (Year 7) and Ella (Year 8)

The day ended with two Assemblies:

Our International Day Assemblies began with 52 flags from different countries waving in rhythm, uniting all the students from these countries into one school: St Andrews! After the flag waving came the harmonic choir, led by Mr Nathan, tuning together into one voice. Their African singing and dancing really got the audience excited. Julie and Agam, both from Year 9, were awarded with certificates for winning the Poetry and Photography Competitions. Julie’s poem was filled with excitement and made the audience’s eyes sparkle and Agam’s photograph had a lot of impression and mood. To finish the absolutely enjoyable assembly, students from each Tutor Group were selected for their most awe-striking costumes. Standing on the stage confidently showing off their costumes, the judges picked the best costume from each Year Group. Every costume was astonishing, from carefully chosen T-shirts to sparkling dresses representing their culture.

Our International Day Assemblies were astounding, especially getting to wear our country’s costume and sharing our culture, and theirs, with students from other countries. I am sure that everyone is already looking forward towards next year’s International Day Assembly!

Ayumi and Kiersten (Year 7)

As I said in the Assemblies, it was a truly Great St Andrews International Day, and I would again like to thank all the students, teachers and, especially, the parents for their contributions, both on the day and in preparation - you can see photos of many of the parents in action on our Facebook page.

This week we begin this term’s Parent/Student/Teacher Meetings, with Years 10, 11, 12 and 13 having their Parent/Student/Teacher Meetings during this week and next, and the Option Choices processes for Years 9 and 11 students.

I look forward to seeing you at these events, and hope that you all have a great second half of term!

Roo Stenning
Head of High School