Foundation Stage & Key Stage 1: ECO BEASTs and Tigers on the prowl

Foundation Stage & Key Stage 1: ECO BEASTs and Tigers on the prowl Primary School students at St Andrews International School Bangkok had the opportunity to meet staff from WWF and learn about the plight of tigers in the world...Our ECO BEASTs and Sustainability Market helped children think about how we can live in a more sustainable way and kicked off Sustainability Week which is taking place all this week.

Primary School students at St Andrews International School Bangkok had the opportunity to meet staff from WWF and learn about the plight of tigers in the world...Our ECO BEASTs and Sustainability Market helped children think about how we can live in a more sustainable way and kicked off Sustainability Week which is taking place all this week.

Last week was very exciting as Primary School launched their new topics, we hosted our first ECO-Beasts day, welcomed WWF Thailand and held Mindful Self-Compassion workshop for parents.

The children were obviously excited to be back with their friends on Monday morning and you could feel the buzz as they arrived in school and caught up with each other’s news. They quickly settled into classes and met a few new friends.

Tiger Conservation Day - Friday 11 January

Anyone visiting school on Friday would have been surprised by the sight of hundreds of tigers joined by rangers from WWF Thailand, all gathering together to find out more about the plight of tigers in Thailand and what we can do to raise awareness and help support efforts to protect them. The children had the opportunity to work with the rangers and look at an exhibition in the small music quad.

This was an exciting launch to Sustainability Week which begins today.

Thank you to everyone who sent in a donation to this worthy cause.

Eco-BEASTs and Sustainability and Well-being Market

Many of you visited last Thursday’s Eco-BEASTs Well-being Market that followed the Eco-Beast’s conference.

Sixteen schools, including ourselves, were represented by teams of student delegates at this inaugural conference. Throughout the day, the students were able to take part in a range of workshops which either gave them information about the problems of pollution and non-sustainable living, or showed them some solutions to living a more sustainable life. The day was rounded off with the children having the chance to create an action plan for their school to either begin or continue their journey to becoming more sustainable and doing their bit for the future of our planet.  

Though mainly aimed at KS2 students, many of the ideas presented at the conference will be shared in class by KS1 teachers during Sustainability Week.

This event grew into something much bigger than was originally intended due to the overwhelming interest of schools and organizations interested in taking part. Well done to Ms Helen who helped organise this event.  Also, well done to the students who took on leadership roles and helped make the day so successful. A big thank you to our Estates Department too who worked so hard behind the scenes to make this event such a success.  Photographs of the event can be found in the KS2 section of the newsletter.

You can click on the links below to find out more about each of the workshop providers that came along on the day.

Courageous Kitchen - Good food education

Permaculture Thailand - Organic farming

Precious Plastic - Upcycling plastic into useful household items

Soap Opera - Making your own soap

Scholars of Sustenance - food waste

Style seal - Air pollution. Will be selling high quality masks

Super Bee Me - A replacement for plastic wrappers made out of beeswax

Plastic Free NIST - Selling bamboo straws

Bambew - Selling sustainable straws

Eco bricks Thailand - Waste management and upcycling

Trash Hero - a Community action project

Refill Station - How to shop smart

Kayaking for Chao Phraya - Cleaning up the waterways in Thailand

Air - Pollution

Closely related to this topic is the current crisis of poor air quality that Bangkok is facing.

We currently have six air quality monitors around the Primary School that provide us with ‘live’ data and give us a picture of air quality in the different areas of campus and also inside the buildings. We also have filters fitted to each aircon unit in school.

During this period of poor air quality we will restrict outdoor free flow play for EYFS students, reduce or cancel breaks for KS1 and KS2 students and do less intense activities in PE and ECAs. (We do not cancel sports ECAs unless readings are over 200, but it is of course the choice of families to withdraw the children until the conditions improve.)

We keep an especially close eye on younger students and those students with asthma, or other medical conditions, and who are more sensitive to air pollution.  

If in doubt we keep children inside and take the opportunity to run around later in the day if conditions improve.

Moodle Workshop for New Parents

To support new families especially, Mr Keith, our Director of Learning Technologies, will be running a workshop for parents to explain Moodle, our online learning platform. This meeting will be held on Thursday 17 January at 7.45 a.m. in the Library Classroom. It will last around 30 minutes and will explain how to navigate around the system. There will also be members of the senior team at the meeting to answer any general questions.

The meeting is of course open to anyone who would like to find out more about using Moodle.

Dates for your Diary

Tuesday 15 and 22 January	KS1 and KS2 Parent Consultation Afternoons
Thursday 17 January 8.30 - 9.00 a.m. Library Classroom	Moodle Workshop for New Parents