Head's Lines: From Drama to Sport Updates, this week's been a busy one! Here's the latest: I have been very fortunate to be in attendance for a number of fantastic drama performances IGCSE and Aladdin. There was a great PTG Social in Ekkamai, International Week is just around the corner and an update on competitive sports fixtures.

Here's the latest: I have been very fortunate to be in attendance for a number of fantastic drama performances IGCSE and Aladdin. There was a great PTG Social in Ekkamai, International Week is just around the corner and an update on competitive sports fixtures. 

Two weeks ago our students at High School put on several fantastic performances of Aladdin. This high quality production was an amazing demonstration of what our young people, with the support of their teachers, can accomplish in a short span of time, despite a myriad of obstacles that could have easily shut down the whole endeavour. I would like to congratulate the whole cast, musicians and technical crew.

Last week I was also fortunate to be in attendance for the Scripted Performances of our Year 11 IGCSE Drama students. I watched in admiration and awe as the students’ carefully constructed interpretations of their selected play extracts demonstrated a wise-beyond-their-years understanding of the human condition and universal themes. The talent on display really highlighted the strength of our drama curriculum and production culture, and the students really made their teachers and their parents proud through their efforts.

PTG Social

Thank you to the Parent Teacher Group (PTG) for organising the first major social event of the year for our school community at the O’zkool Bar on Soi Ekkamai. The evening offered a nice opportunity for parents and teachers to meet up in a very warm, positive and fun atmosphere. The whole event was a welcome respite and chance to re-establish real face-to-face connections with new and returning members from across the whole gamut of the school community.

Sports

Thank you for all your helpful feedback regarding Nord Anglia Education’s decision to temporarily suspend all fixtures for its family of schools worldwide.

NAE Senior Leadership has just completed an assessment of how Southeast Asia, and Thailand in particular, have handled the ongoing pandemic. This review board considered the low COVID infection rate in our country and the stability of these numbers over time. The level of cooperation and compliance associated with the Thai Government's policy to re-open schools was also taken into account.

Following this review, St Andrews has received approval from the NAE Regional Team to resume sports fixtures and competitive activities with other international schools in Bangkok.

Thank you for your continued support and understanding.

International Day

Thank you to everyone who is working so hard to organise our International Days this year. The International Day assemblies at Primary School will take place on Wednesday and Thursday with the National Flags Parade. Each assembly will feature just two year groups and their parents.

• On Wednesday from 8:15 am the assembly will be for Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2).
• On Thursday, there will be two assemblies for Key Stage 2: Years 5 and 6 at 8:15 am in the Sports Hall and Years 3 and 4 at 10:30 am.

These assemblies allow us to celebrate the range of nationalities and cultures within our school, and as a visual representation of this diversity, everyone will be asked to come dressed in their national costumes or in colours representing their country.

For three days the Primary children will participate in a range of activities aimed at promoting understanding and awareness of the strength that comes from a diverse but united whole. These days will serve as great opportunities for everyone to find out more and celebrate the richness of the cultures we all come from.

On Friday 2nd October, there will be no opening assembly in order to allow more time for country representatives and parent helpers to set up the Sports Halls and ensure that everything is in place. Only parents who are helping at the country tables will be able to come to the International Food Hall.

Each year group and class coming through the International Food Hall will be carefully scheduled and allocated a specific time interval to explore all the tastes on offer. Children will be served the different foods they would like to try from each table. This arrangement will also facilitate a nice socially distanced gathering at what has always been a highlight of our International Day celebrations.

The High School International Day will be on Friday 9th October with the Food Hall this year much more spread out throughout the canteen with clearly marked entrance and exit points. Each year group will have their individual International Day assembly scheduled during the day. Also, each year group will be working in different curriculum areas where they will explore a whole range of global issues and problems through challenges and activities designed to discover more about these issues and how our international community can work together to address them. These activities across the school will certainly generate a huge amount of interest and inspire our High School student body to take action and enact solutions to the myriad of problems their generation will have to face.

Soi 20 Gate Closure

Unfortunately, we have continued to receive numerous and ever-growing complaints from our neighbours in Soi 20 with parents and particularly drivers ignoring the school’s request not drop off kids at this gate or park in these surrounding streets. Therefore, the Soi 20 Gate will have to be locked starting on Monday 5th October 2020. If you have been relying on this gate to drop off or pick up your children, please note that effective on Monday 5th October, this will no longer be possible.

School Calendar

Our school will follow the recently updated school calendar that has been shared with our school community and is available on our school website. We realise the Government has recently brought in some additional holidays in November and altered holiday dates in December. However, St Andrews will not be adding any additional holidays or making any further changes to the calendar. For your convenience, you can find the updated school calendar for 2020-2021 here.

For parents with enquiries about Primary School, please contact officeps@standrews.ac.th or Tel: +66 2 381-2387-8.

For parents with enquiries about High School, please contact officehs@standrews.ac.th or Tel: +66 2 056-9555.