Primary School Sport: Young Flames burn bright

We have a lot of opportunities coming up across many sports from this week. On Wednesday we have 2 schools coming to play basketball against our teams.  Then on Saturday, we have the BISAC basketball tournaments where 60 of our basketballers will test their skills against some really strong opposition. Also this week some of our Dancers go to their first competition of the year for their TISAC dance comp. 

Please feel free to come and support all the St Andrews International School Bangkok teams. 

The next 7 weeks are extremely busy with so much on from tennis, swimming, gymnastics, football and basketball. Please look at the dates to and free up your calendars for these great opportunities of weekend sport. As usual, we will be trying to include as many children as we can and give them the experience of representing STA. 

To stay on top of all the action, I strongly encourage you to regularly review the Primary School Sports Fixtures Google Calendar, which can also be found along with all school calendars at calendar.standrews.ac.th.

Keep in touch

Please stay up-to-date by joining our STA Flames & Marlins Facebook group for parents and students who are part of our Sport Programme.

Parents may post to this group and it’s been great to see some of your photos of our kids in action!

Term 1 Sports Fixtures/Competition and Tournament

• 30 Oct - U11 Girls TISAC Basketball vs SATH @ STA, 1 pm tip off, 12.40 m meet

• 30 Oct - U11 Boys & Girls Friendly vs Patana @ STA, 3 pm tip off

• 31 Oct - BISP Soccer 7s Parent Meeting, 4 pm start, PE department

• 1 Nov - TISAC dance Competition

• 2 Nov - BISAC End of Season U11 (Girl A & Boys A) Basketball Tournament - RIS)

• 4 Nov - U11 Boys Football Friendly A and B teams vs PREP @ Soccer Pro, 3.15 pm kick off

• 5 Nov - U11 Boys TISAC vs DUS @ STA, 1 pm Tip off, 12.40 pm meet

• 6 Nov - U11 Girls TISAC Basketball vs PREP @ PREP, midday leave

• 7 Nov - U11 Girls Football Friendly A and B teams vs PREP (A), 2.45 pm leave

• 9/10 Nov - IBS Swim Festival

• 11 Nov - U11 boys football (A, B,C teams) vs Patana @ Patana, 2.15pm leave

• 12 Nov - U11 Girls & U9 Girls vs Patana @ Soccer Pro, 3.15pm kick off

• 14 Nov - NAE Games Parents meeting, 4 pm start, PE department

• 14 Nov - Red Ball Friendly Vs BPS & Nist

• 14 Nov - U11 Boys TISAC Basketball vs ASCOT @ ASCOT, midday leave, 1 pm tip off

• 16 Nov - HIS football Cup - U11 Boys (A team) U11 Girls (A team) U9 Boys (A team) and Girls (A & B team)

• 16 Nov - Orange Ball Tennis - BPS

• 18 Nov - U9 boys football (A, B,C teams) vs Patana @ Patana, 2.15pm leave

• 21-24 Nov - BISP Football tournament 

• 23 Nov - Swim Bull Dog Cup - PREP

• 29 Nov - U11 TISAC Basketball Tournaments

• 30 Nov - Gymnastics- Bambi Games TCCS

• 30 Nov - STA Swim Champs

• 30 Nov/1 Dec - Gymnastics FOBISIA Games- BPS

• 1 Dec - U8 Red Ball Tennis - ISB

• 6 - 9 Dec - NAE Games, Vietnam 

Girls Sport

When I joined STA 6 years ago we had around 30-40 girls playing sports. We had swimming, basketball and football, plus we had the FOBISIA Games for the select few. This year the opportunities available for girls to be involved in a number of sports from tennis, badminton, dance, gymnastics, football, basketball, swimming and Teeball are incredible. The number of girls now involved in our sports programme is something I am so proud of and something the PE are continually looking to build on. This year is the first year we are taking our U9 & U11 girls to BISP Soccer 7s. Two years ago we only had 3 girls in our gymnastics teams, this year we have over 80. The numbers continue to grow across all sports. If you would like your daughter to be involved in any of the STA school sports please email Mr Damon. 

Parents

It is great that more parents are supporting our teams across different sports. The Primary PE and Swim Department teachers and coaches really appreciate parent involvement. The Code of Conduct below is a reminder of the expectations we have of our STA parents at sporting events. If you are unhappy with any situation at a sporting event, please come to see me or email me to book a meeting. Please note that it is unacceptable to confront a teacher/coach during a tournament or a game. The PE and Swim department look forward to seeing you at the next tournament/fixture.

Outside of School Sport

Well done to Palm who won his category at the BMW Junior Golf Camp at Springfield Village Golf.

Tennis

Last week our primary students Olivia, Ten Ten, Sophia and Nine Nine participated in a local tennis tournament. Congratulations to Sophia who was the champions in girls singles orange ball category B, Olivia was the runner up in the girls singles orange ball category A. Ten Ten played brilliantly to finish 4th place in his group. Well done to Nine Nine for his excellent effort and second place finish in his category.

Our tennis coaches were extremely busy over the break attending the ITF Worldwide Coaches Conference. It is so important to continually look to improve and we are lucky to have a great group of tennis coaches who do a brilliant job with our young children at STA.  Coach Pair had the opportunity to meet and learn from Grand Slam winner Mary Pierce and Asia Games gold medalist Li Chen.

Swimming 

It will be a very busy November with ISB SwimFest coming up on 9-10 November followed by the Bulldog Cup swim meet at Prep on Saturday 23 November. Our very own STA Swim Champs will take place on Saturday, 30 November.

Kindly be aware that the deadline to submit the form for STA Swim Champs will be on 30 October. More information regarding the Bulldog Cup will be released soon.

Weekend Sports Program

This year St Andrews International School Bangkok have looked at ways to give more variety for our children at our weekend sports program. Below are the timings of the different sports on offer. Please sign up on Moodle for this opportunity or contact Mr Damon.

Nord Anglia Games

One of our overseas trips during Term 1 is the NAE Games (Dec 6-9), which is a 2-day tournament combining basketball and tee-ball. This year we travel to Vietnam for 4 days. It is a great, fun tournament for the children and the PE look forward to taking the 20 children from Year 5 & 6 on the trip. Children have now been confirmed and also children have been put on a waiting list in case a place becomes available. 

*The Parents meeting is on the 14th November in the PE department. 

BISP Soccer 7s

The first overseas trip of the year is at the BISP Soccer 7s (Nov 21-24). This is a 4 day football trip where we stay on Surin Beach at the Novotel Hotel. The tournament is the biggest school football tournament in Asia and is one of our favourite trips. Children have now been confirmed and also children have been put on a waiting list in case a place becomes available. 

*The Parents meeting is on the 31st October in the PE department. 

Sporting Conferences

We appreciate that you are often hearing different acronyms - TISAC, BISAC, FOBISIA - that we are involved in but may not know much about them. We hope that the following overview will therefore be useful.

We are currently members of four conferences or organisations:

TISAC: Thailand International Schools Activities Conference

We have been members for many years. This has 16 schools involved which vary in size from small to very large. Currently, we mostly enter Blaze teams in TISAC. There are leagues and tournaments in several sports from U9-U19 and next year, TISAC will also start its own multi-sport Games for Primary children.

BISAC: Bangkok International Schools Athletic Conference

This is our first year in BISAC. The 12-school membership includes the largest international schools in Bangkok in leagues and tournaments across many sports, from U9-U19, split into four seasons through the year. BISAC schools also run invitational tournaments.

FOBISIA: Federation of British International Schools in Asia

This has three major multi-sport Games per year (Primary, U13 and U15) that take place in Phuket against other schools across Asia. There are also single-sport events in Tennis, Golf, Swimming and more, which take place across Asia and provide some amazing travel opportunities.

NAE: Nord Anglia Education

We are part of the South East Asia division and meet for a U11 multi-sport Games once a year. Our schools take it in turn to host the NAE Games.

In addition, we are part of the wider circuit regionally which means we are invited to a whole range of other events across Thailand. 

Currently, we are able to offer STA students opportunities through these conferences in Football, Basketball, Swimming, Tennis, Badminton, Golf, Teeball, Track and Field, Triathlon, Cross Country.

If you have any questions about these conferences, please don’t hesitate to contact Mr Damon (damon.se@standrews.ac.th).