High School: Back to School!

High School: Back to School! I hope you have all had a relaxing break and are ready for a busy second half of the term. On Monday morning, we received exciting news about reopening! Also, it was an absolute pleasure to welcome approximately 40 Year 11 students to take their IGCSE Maths Mock Exams. Finally, we have our first University Updates from the Class of 2022!

I hope you have all had a relaxing break and are ready for a busy second half of the term. On Monday morning, we received exciting news about reopening! Also, it was an absolute pleasure to welcome approximately 40 Year 11 students to take their IGCSE Maths Mock Exams. Finally, we have our first University Updates from the Class of 2022! 

Back to School!

I hope that you have all had a relaxing and enjoyable half-term, and are ready for a very busy second half of the term.

While we had all hoped to be welcoming some Year Groups back into school this morning, we had still not had confirmation from the MOE, OPEC or the BMA that we were able to physically reopen the school, so began the second half of the term through the VSE.

Earlier today, however, we received the very exciting news that we should be able to reopen the school on Monday 25th October. We are awaiting the final details of this decision, and will inform you all as soon as this is confirmed, including the details of which Year Groups will return to school each day.

With responses for over 90% of High School students, we are very pleased to be expecting approximately 80% of High School students back in school as soon as we are able to reopen, but we do need responses for all students to be able to create our Seating Plans for all High School classes, an important part of our plans to reopen the school as safely as possible for everyone. Please can all parents ensure that both our Returning to School survey and any changes to your family’s vaccination status are updated on our Health App. 

It was a real pleasure to welcome approximately 40 Year 11 students into school this afternoon, to take the first of their IGCSE Maths Mock Exams. It was great to have students back in school and, while some of the students were slightly nervous about their Maths exam, great to see how happy they all were to be back in school, looking forward to being back in school more permanently very soon.

Our Year 11 students will begin their IB Diploma Programme information sessions in this week’s Academic Development lesson, before presentations for parents on the IBDP and our Senior Studies programme next week and on our Year 9 Options process the following week.

This year’s cycle of Grade Reports and Parent/Student/Teacher Meetings continues this week, with Year 11 and 13 students, who received their Term 1 Grade Reports before half-term, having their first Parent/Student/Teacher Meetings of the year this week. Please see the Calendar below for the dates of all the Grade Reports and Parent/Student/Teacher Meetings this term.

University Update:

As our Year 11 students begin their IB Diploma Programme information sessions, our Year 13 students are making their plans for their lives beyond St Andrews.

Congratulations to Jiya and Nicky in Year 13 who have just received the Class of 2022’s first university offers, from universities in the UK.

Jiya has received offers to study International Political Economy at the City University, London and Economics, Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick and Nicky has received an offer to study Mechanical Engineering/Mechatronics, with an Industrial Placement Year, at the University of Southampton.

As last year, I will be including regular University Updates in each week’s Newsletters, with last year’s Year 13 students receiving almost 350 offers from over 100 different universities in 19 different countries.

By now I hope that you have all taken the opportunity to review our High School Back to School: September 2021 slides. While many of our processes and guidelines will be very similar to when we reopened in June 2020, August 2020 and February 2021, having the vast majority of teachers and staff, and a significant number of High School students, vaccinated, will make a significant additional contribution to ensuring that the school is as safe as possible for all of us when we reopen.

As always, the Virtual School Experience (VSE) will also continue across all Year Groups to accommodate those families who decide they would rather keep their children at home at this time, with lesson details for every lesson shared via Moodle and students also involved in lessons, via Google Meet etc., as much as possible.

Please remember that all the school's live Google Calendars can be seen via Moodle: calendar.standrews.ac.th.