Principal's Blog

Since the start of term, we have enjoyed some wonderful cross-campus events for all ages including the Year 5 residential to Khao Yai, a Greek themed day, Last Night of the Proms, a talk on endangered species from Freeland Foundation Bangkok, the Big Sing with Ex Cathedra.

This week has seen a continuation of this collaboration in full gusto. Year 6 had a joint World War 2 day hosted at City where they took part in a carousel of activities which ended with a great British wartime sing-a-long.

Our house system connects us horizontally across the campuses. House football matches took place at Riverside for all the children in Year 5 & 6 - a great opportunity for children to come together in their respective houses and compete in teams.

As part of the Neilson Hayes Bangkok Literacy Festival, Year 1 & 2 from both campuses met the well-known author and illustrator Mike Currato. Mike introduced the children to Elliot the Elephant and brought to life his beautifully crafted books. After being inspired by Mike’s stories, the children used their imaginations to write their own.

We will enjoy more cross-campus links before the holidays, including the sharing of our Christmas production, a special ‘Christmas Day’ at Riverside for Year 1, and playdates in EY2. 

Next week, the teaching staff from Riverside will join us at City Campus to have planning meetings to discuss next term’s topic-based curriculum and further embed our strengths within Shrewsbury. #WeAreShrewsbury

We began our week celebrating Loy Krathong. The whole school community, children, parents and staff all dressed in traditional attire filling the playground with sparkle and colour.

Loy Krathong is one of the most beautiful festivals we celebrate here in Thailand. It is when respect is shown to the goddess of water by releasing  lotus-shaped rafts, decorated with candles, incense and flowers onto the water.

This year our younger children performed  traditional elegant Thai dances. I was extremely proud of their professionalism and style on stage. The older children presented eco- friendly krathongs which they linked so well to our value of the month 'Environmental Awareness’.

Year 5 have been away all week on a residential trip to Khao Yai with their friends from our Riverside Campus. They have had a fabulous time surrounded by nature being creative in the outdoors with a particular  focus on one of my favourite artists, Goldsworthy. They have enjoyed treks in the National Park, fun team building activities, campfires and marshmallows to end the day…...memories that will last a lifetime.

Our new value for November is ‘Environmental Awareness’. It was a real pleasure for this to be  introduced to the children by Steven R. Swinburne. Steve is the author of many popular children's books about the environment and how we can protect and care for our world.

He was such a motivating speaker and the children, staff and parents enjoyed hearing about his family, where he lives and how he finds inspiration for his stories. We were lucky enough to be shown a photograph of his home surrounded by snow drifts - a far cry from our climate here in Bangkok!

Many members of the City Campus community attended ‘the ‘Last Night of the Proms’ concert at our Riverside campus last night; a truly spectacular evening. The theme was ‘Circus and Celebrations’ which was diverse and exotic, with musical treats including, ‘Entry of the Gladiators’, ‘Send in the Clowns’, City Campus favourite ‘ A Million Dreams’, ‘Superman Returns’ as well as the traditional 'Pomp and Circumstance' and 'Jerusalem'.

It was wonderful to see and hear our outstanding musicians perform, a real credit to our committed music department and the Shrewsbury community. Bundit Ungrangsee was our special guest, returning for the second year to conduct the orchestra in his unique passionate style.

It has been absolutely wonderful this week to have Ex Cathedra working with us once again. Ex Cathedra are a leading British choir who have been partnering with Shrewsbury Bangkok for over 12 years.

It is the week I look forward to the most...... we sing, we sing and we sing some more! The energy and enthusiasm for singing is fired up enough for the whole community (children, teachers, parents and even our Governors were involved this year!) to keep singing until the following year....

The Ex Cathedra musicians complemented City Campus for developing such an amazing singing culture within the school across all year groups. In addition, they believe we have the most enthusiastic singing staff team they have encountered; strongly recommending we harness this talent and have a staff choir…..watch this space!

Music and the performing arts are fundamental to developing and nurturing the confidence and creativity in everyone. This is why they are at the heart of all we do here at Shrewsbury.

Even though this week has just been 4 days in school, we have been incredibly busy. We enjoyed Year 2’s Pirate day; our inter-house cross-country competition where Schweitzer House ran their way to victory; exceptionally positive individual parent meetings; colourful Diwali celebrations; our official launch of DEC (Design Engineer Construct!Ⓡ); cross-campus partnership meetings with Riverside, and a successful Year 3 bake sale to raise money to save the tigers.........

As we come to the end of this busy week and indeed to the end to a wonderful first half term, a well-earned holiday for everyone is about to begin. I have seen many of our children visit the library this week, stocking up with books to enjoy and relax with. I intend to follow their lead and do the same. It is important we take time to relax and look after ourselves.

I am very excited (although a little cautious, I have to say) to be heading back to Koh Tao for the first time since I spent a few months there 25 years ago.  At that time the only way one could travel to the island was by an overnight fisherman's boat, and the only accommodation was a simple hut on the beach...how times have changed. 

This time I will be making new memories; my son is enrolled at a diving school and will learn at the exact same dive sites as I did all those years ago. We will be able to enjoy some diving together, providing I haven’t lost my nerve!

I hope you have the opportunity to enjoy family time, read, relax and make wonderful memories this holiday!

This week we had a very informative Tea and Topics event focusing on something we all need to engage with: ‘Parenting in the Digital World’. Simon Aves (Director of ICT at Riverside) and James Knight (Digital Literacy Lead in the Junior School at Riverside) presented this session for parents at City Campus. 

I’d like to share some of the top tips I took away with me:

• We need to create new family rituals for the connected world.
• It is important to discuss your family protocols, rules and help children master digital manners as young as possible to instill appropriate, safe and good habits related to the use of devices/screens/technologies.
• As parents, it is paramount that we need to be good role models,  our children copy what we do..... we must set firm expectations as a family. Remember every family is unique and you must decide what is best for your family.
• There is a balance to be had as there is much creativity to be gained from the use of technology. It is vital that children learn how to become creators, not just consumers of digital technology. 
• Try and find ways to show your child the positive way to engage online. Learn and engage together. Get involved ... embrace technological activities that have a family component .
• Try to ensure you have enough family activities without technology. Set aside specific times at home when no one (parents included) uses technology. 

I challenge you to have a device-free Sunday this weekend, take some quality time as a family and enjoy the real world (with no ‘pings’ interrupting…..)

We have a new value to focus on this month, ‘Being Proactive’. In my assembly, I asked us to think about: “Am I a soda kid or a water kid?” Do we explode like a bottle of fizzy drink when we are shaken? Or do we calmly but proactively work out problems when they arise? We’ve had many conversations over lunch with our children this week - they want to be ‘water kids’ - a great start to the month.

We were delighted to convene our new team of class reps for 2019-2020. Some of our pioneers joined myself, Ms Betts and our year group leaders for afternoon tea and plenty of positive knowledge sharing and planning for the year ahead. Our reps are an integral and very important part of the Shrewsbury community. They do an incredible job which enhances our provision and opportunities for all children.

Tomorrow is our Harvest Festival Farmers Market - we look forward to seeing you here at City Campus - a warm welcome (and lots of delicious food and Harvest-themed activities) awaits...

It is always so refreshing and positive to start each new academic year with the Thai Wai Kru ceremony where the children show their gratitude and respect to their teachers. 

 “Wai” is the way to show respect by putting palms together and the word “Kru” means teacher.

Teacher representatives were presented with beautiful flowers and the meaning of each was explained to us:
 
 “ดอกเข็ม” Ixora means intelligence;
 “ดอกมะเขือ” Eggplant flower means kindness;
“หญ้าแพรก” Bermuda grass means patient;
  “ข้าวตอก” Popped rice means good manners;
 “ธูป” Incense Stick means successful;
 “เทียน” Candle means shine.

As the children thanked their teachers for preparing their minds and hearts, children also know to show respect to their first and lifelong teachers - their parents.

Happy Wai Kru everyone!

We have been focusing on peace to mark International Peace Day, which takes place annually on 21 September.

Year 6 began our week with an outstanding assembly showcasing their learning. Our students told us about the importance of combating climate change as a way to protect and promote peace throughout our world. 

We ended our week with a whole school moment of reflection. We explored the meaning of peace through poetry and song. Our choirs sounded so beautiful, their voices capturing a real sense of calmness and a true belief that our children are the future of the world, as the lyrics that were sung so sincerely suggest. We are confident that our children will indeed go out into the world and make a difference. 

The main focus for our new parents coffee mornings this week was a clear message about  reading. 

The most important gift you can give your child is to surround them with books and make time to read for pleasure everyday. Read in English and/or your home language - picture books, fiction, non fiction, graphic novels, poetry, recipes, instructions, your own stories…….the list is endless.

Children copy those around them so always have a book on the go yourself; model that love and enjoyment, show that you value reading.

“Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world.” – Napoléon Bonaparte