High School: The Learning Rainforest Fieldbook

I hope that you have all had an enjoyable and relaxing half-term and are ready for a very busy seven weeks between now and the Christmas Holidays. You can see how busy the next three weeks are in the Calendar extract below.

The Learning Rainforest Fieldbook

In August 2018, we were fortunate to be visited by Tom Sherrington, an experienced Headteacher, both in the UK and internationally, who is now an educational consultant and author. When Tom visited he had only published one book, The Learning Rainforest: Great Teaching in Real Classrooms, and it was this that formed the basis of his workshop with our teachers and LSAs and his discussions with the Primary and High School Leadership Teams.

Since then, Tom has published two more books, with the most recent, The Learning Rainforest Fieldbook, including case studies of 30 schools from the UK and around the world, including St Andrews International School Bangkok.

I wrote two different Case Studies for the book, one on The IB Diploma Programme at St Andrews and one on The Arts at St Andrews, and Tom chose to include the former, along with profiles of three (now Year 13) students: Michelle, Ilesh and Charlotte.

You can read our whole chapter here, which both adds to my discussion of our IBDP results in a previous Newsletter and links to Tuesday’s Year 11 IB Diploma Programme Parents' Information Evening, but here is Tom’s conclusion to his introduction to the chapter:

“Together with the more detailed student profiles, this case study is a superb account of the richness, depth and rigour the IB offers, with arts right at the heart. Of course there are issues around government policies and school funding but all caveats aside, for me the IB remains the international gold standard for what a holistic curriculum can be. Roo has done an excellent job linking his thoughts to the Learning Rainforest – the connections are clear, both in spirit and in the detail. Reading this makes me want to go back to school and do the IB – probably at St Andrews! It’s a fabulous example of what ‘exploring the possibilities’ can mean.”

The Giving Tree Project - An appeal for gift donors and loose change

We are pleased to announce our Christmas charity appeal once again in support of Giving Tree, an organisation that organises donation gift bags for Karen children living in North Thailand Mountains (Tha Song Yang District). Each gift bag contains clothing, school supplies, a book and a toy which will help these less privileged children. 

The Giving Tree Project is an easy concept: 

1. Please register online: https://forms.gle/fZweynSQJJzQXxtQ6

2. You can decide to declare how many bags you want to donate before Thursday 31st October. 

3. After you have signed up you will receive an email with information about the child assigned to your family. This card describes the child who will receive the gift: their name, age, size, grade, information about their family, their favourite colour and the toy they are dreaming of! 

4. You then will have until Monday 18th November to purchase the items and bring them to school. Please ensure you clearly label anything donated with your family’s name and the child’s unique code. Your gifts will be transferred to a special Giving Tree bag by the CAS students.

5. The bags will be sent to the Karen villages, where each bag will be distributed individually to each child during a Christmas party, and the magic of Christmas will do the rest!

6. Although we fully understand the wonderful intentions, we kindly request that you keep the contents of your gift bag solely to the prescribed list below. Unfortunately, it can cause logistical issues around the packing of the bags while we like to ensure that each child receives the same. Lastly, we ask that you do not wrap the individual gifts, again for logistical purposes.  

What is a gift bag?

Approximate value: 1000 to 1500 Baht, containing: 

• Sweatshirt or fleece or jacket or anorak     

• T-shirt

• Book in Thai language

• 4 pens

• 4 pencils

• Rubber

• Ruler

• Sharpener

• Scissors

• Colour pencils

• Pencil case

• A specific gift (request is written on the child’s card)

• A small letter in Thai or English with a picture, if possible

CAS student fundraising will be sponsoring the cost of the transport to the villages and printing of bags through a coin collection. Your loose change would be greatly appreciated.

We rely on you and hope you will join this wonderful project and offer each child from different Karen villages a chance to have a wonderful Christmas!

If you have any questions, please email givingtree2019@standrews.ac.th.

Halloween Carnival

On Friday this week the Year 10 and 12 students participating in his year’s NAE GC Tanzania Expeditions have planned this year’s Halloween Carnival for students in Years 7-9. All proceeds will contribute to the funding of the service projects that the Year 10 and 12 students will be working on during their time in Tanzania.

While this event is planned by students, they are supported by, and the event will be supervised by, those teachers who are accompanying the students to Tanzania.

There are still a few tickets remaining. Please note that students attending the Halloween Carnival should leave school as usual at the end of the school day and return for the beginning of the Carnival at 6 pm and that students should be collected punctually at 9 pm.

Flu Vaccinations

St Andrews will be running its annual Flu Vaccinations next week, with the programme taking place at the Primary School on the afternoon on Friday 8th November. The programme, in collaboration with Samitivej Hospital, will, as usual, be open to all members of the STA Community, with High School students able to travel to the Primary School either with their parents or on Shuttle Buses after school.

In previous years, this programme has been very popular. To make sure that we order enough of the vaccine, please register using this Google Form. In addition please complete the relevant Medical Forms (Student Form, Family form) which students and adults will need to bring with them on the day of the vaccinations. The cost of each shot is 590 baht.

I look forward to seeing you at many of these events over the next few weeks.

Roo Stenning (roo.st@standrews.ac.th)
Head of High School

A reminder that all the school's Google Calendars can be seen via Moodle - http://calendar.standrews.ac.th/