Community News

Rebuild and renew: support after the Thailand floods

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:28:52 +0700

The recent floods in Thailand led to the devastating loss of homes and lives throughout the country. To help with the rebuilding process Shrewsbury will be partnering a school in Ayutthaya that was inundated by flood water for two months.

Wat Krai primary school’s 128 pupils was closed on 9th September, when waters began to rise. The flood waters within the school reached 3 metres, destroying almost all of the school’s resources, electrics and classrooms.

Mark Verde, Chair of the Charity Committee, and Kongkan Vorachitsushanant, Personal Assistant to the Head of Junior School, visited Wat Krai on 13th December. After meeting the students and Principal, and seeing the dire need to repair the damage done, it was decided that Shrewsbury would partner with the school to help them renovate their facilities.

Beginning in Term 2, the Shrewsbury community will work to raise funds to help with the reconstruction of Wat Krai school. The initial priorities will include rewiring the whole school to provide them with an electricity supply and rebuilding the canteen, toilets and ground floor kindergarten classrooms. The whole school will need to be redecorated and stocks of books, stationary, educational resources and playground equipment will need to be bought before moving on to rebuilding the library and gardens.

We hope that, in the coming months, the charitable spirit of Shrewsbury will come out in full force, and we will all work together to restore and renew Wat Krai primary school.

To see photos from Mr Verde and Khun A’s visit, click here

To read about how Shrewsbury staff helped in the immediate aftermath of the flooding, click here

Readathon brings whole school together

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:30:34 +0700

On Wednesday May 4th the whole school came together to hold our first readathon.

Senior school students were paired up with junior school students and together they shared books and enjoyed each other’s company.

The atmosphere across the school was wonderful. After the event the children from 3DJ made the following comments Thien – “I want to do it again because my partner really looked after me.” Uefa – “Benz from Year 8 told me what the hard words meant.” Josh – “Porsch was really kind and asked me lots of questions.”

Gundam from 1BC said: “That was sooooo cool ! When can we do it again?”

And year 8 student Joyce sent this message to her reading partner Leo (3CF) – “I really enjoyed reading with you yesterday , keep reading and you will continue to improve. I hope you had fun because I did.”

The money raised at this event will help our ongoing support towards the Japanese earthquake disaster. Our Japanese families are in close discussions with the mayor of the region where the most devastation occurred and in August they will take the money we have raised and personally hand it across to a specific project that we can support.

Gallery

Students explore the power of reading

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 16:19:32 +0700

Our book week event - Fully Booked - was a huge success, with students all over the school celebrating the fun and power of reading.

With everything from games and competitions to storytelling, special assemblies and author visits, there was something for everyone to enjoy.

Junior students did some amazing creative work based on the book or author they were studying, much of which will be going up on special display at the Junior entrance to the library.

We were also thrilled that we were able to celebrate reading in languages other than English. It was really exciting that we could have some fun storytelling in all the languages taught at our school, and have three Thai children’s authors visiting the school on Monday. Many thanks for the support of staff in the Thai Studies and MFL departments.

Our other author who came to visit, Janice Santikarn, was a big hit with students from EY1 to Year 4. As well as doing retellings of her stories such as The Little Blue Tuk Tuk, in the three days she was here she also gave older students some great ideas and techniques for their own creative writing.

Our favourite day of Fully Booked came on Friday, when students and teachers throughout the Junior School dressed up as their favourite book character and took part in a parade. Our fancy dress winners in each group were; Eric in EY2LS, dressed as the Owl from The Gruffalo; Anuv in 1CW, dressed as the Cat in the Hat; Kula in 2KD, dressed as the Gingerbread Man from Shrek; Sonika in 3MF, dressed as the teacup from Beauty and the Beast; Georgia in 4SR, dressed as the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland, Winston in 5HF, dressed as Wally from Where’s Wally; Gigi in 6SW, dressed as Sponge Bob Squarepants; and finally our winning teacher was Mr Gardiner from Year 1, also dressed as the Mad Hatter (we hear he did get a bit of help from the costumes wardrobe in the Drama department!).

We also now have a winner for the Crossword – congratulations to Keaisha from 7DC, who was (despite many entries) one of only three students to get all the answers right! Ms Thwaites will soon be announcing the winner of the book review competition, and the winning bookmark designs will be chosen on Monday by an art/library team of Ms Hughes, Ms Proctor, Ms Ple and Ms Koog.

We hope you all enjoyed being Fully Booked as much as we did in the library, and that it’s given you the bug to keep on reading in the future.

For a gallery of pictures, click here

School community rallies to support Japan

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:06:35 +0700

Shrewsbury International School has been quick to respond to the recent disasters in Japan and has already raised over 275,000Baht. Keen to find a focus for its fundraising efforts, the school is working closely with the Japanese families in the school to find a suitable project.
They hope to mirror their previous efforts in China, where they established a scholarship fund at Mianzhu Middle School following the floods three years ago, by finding a school rebuilding project to support. The families have already been in contact with local mayors to find an appropriate school to work with, and Shrewsbury International School Bangkok hopes to deliver the funds in person at the end of August.
A number of specific fundraising efforts have already been put in place, with donation boxes located around the school and a hugely successful House bake sale raising money for the Japan Relief Fund. Postcards with messages of support are being sold in the school for students to write their own additional support messages on and send to the Japanese Embassy. The school has also agreed to donate 25,000Baht from the 150,000Baht raised during Busking Week, which was held on 7th- 11th March. The combined total raised so far is thus more than 275,000Baht.
The school hopes to significantly increase this total with more events planned over the school holidays and next term. Four teachers from Shrewsbury International School will be leading the “Miyagi Expedition” over the school holiday. They are raising sponsorship money to take the Shrewsbury Bear “Miyagi” to Annapurna Base Camp, where they will plant a number of flags in recognition of the many nationalities they represent. On their return they will share a diary and photos of their expedition with the rest of the school. They have also been asked to return with a mystery prize for the staff raffle. The raffle, to be held on Friday 22nd April, will include a number of different prizes provided by staff from the places they visit over the Songkran Holiday. The tickets will be sold to raise money for the Japan Relief Fund. Friday 22nd April will also mark World Earth Day in the school, when students will be asked to wear green and white in recognition of the day and to give 100Baht in support of the Japanese people.
The Junior School has decided to host a Readathon on May 4th where students from Year 13 will visit Junior School classrooms to read to the students and be read to by them. The students are already equipped with their sponsorship forms and busy gathering support for their efforts.
A Fun Run is also to be held in June to bring all the staff, students and parents of the school together in an event dedicated to raising funds for the School’s project in Japan. Students have been asked to design bandanas to be sold at the event to raise more money.
The considerable and dedicated effort being made by the students, parents and staff of the School to raise money for the Japan Relief Fund reflects the importance of supporting all nationalities in our highly international community.

Family Games Night

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 16:27:19 +0700

The Family Games Night organised by Shrewsbury Parents Association (SPA) was a stunning success. There was delicious dinner, a great show, lots of fun but challenging games and some great line dancing!

For the picture gallery, click here

For the list of raffle winners, click here