St Andrews Dusit Newsletter November

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Upcoming Events December •

17th End of Term 1

Message from the Head of School Dear Dusit Community,

It has been an absolute delight to have the children back on-site these past few weeks! As you may be aware, I only joined Dusit in August. So until recently, I had only known the school during on-line learning — • 10th Term 2 start the campus was a much quieter place back then! It is a genuine pleasure to be able to walk around the *Please note that we will review the school throughout the day. The place feels alive with government guidance regarding laughter and excited voices. Everyone is definitely social distancing, COVID-19 and happy to back!

January

watch to see if there are any spikes The children settled quickly into face-to-face lessons in local case transmissions. and have maturely responded to our health and safety measures. They are all now used to the temperature-checking, use of hand sanitiser and bubble restrictions.

Throughout the newsletter, the teachers have commented on how eager and curious their classes have been within lessons. They have displayed a thirst for learning and staff are loving teaching them.

From a personal point of view, I would like to thank the community for making me feel so welcome. I have taught in a number of different schools and countries throughout my career, yet I knew there was a special atmosphere the moment that I arrived at Dusit. It is a genuinely caring, inclusive environment where everyone intends for children to be happy about coming to school. I fully appreciate the dedicated staff, supportive parents and lovely children.

I look forward to working closely with Ms Caroline and helping the school to grow. Please feel free to contact me regarding any academic or pastoral queries: smcelhinney@standrews-schools.com

Stephen McElhinney

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Happy Loy Krathong!

On Friday 19th November, the Dusit community came together virtually to celebrate Loy Krathong and it was so lovely to see everyone wearing their beautiful Thai outfits. The school started the day by coming together for an assembly, which was superbly led by Kawaoon and Kao-Mark. Following this, the

children spent time in their classrooms making krathongs - using natural and sustainable materials to remind us all to be environmentally conscious - and taking part in traditional Thai dancing. As part of the festival, the children have been learning about the history of Loy Krathong and how important it is. Due to our health and safety measures, we didn’t float our krathongs in the swimming pool this year. However, the children took their krathongs home to float with their family. It was a wonderful day!

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Loy Krathong

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Nursery This half-term, Nursery’s learning journey has taken them to a magical toyshop where we have been reading and listening to lots of stories, acting out and role-playing in our own toy shop. We have even been constructing and building our own toys using junk modelling resources. Some children have chosen to make boats and then explored floating and sinking. Other children have chosen to use different toys such as cars, trucks, balls and rollers to create different marks by pushing and pulling them through paint. Everyone has been so happy to be back in school, exploring the setting and the new EY outdoors area, as well as making lots of new friends.

Our library sessions with Miss Lisa are instilling a love of books and reading in us all.

Our music lessons with Mr. Chad have encouraged us to explore musical instruments and how sounds can be changed. Mandarin lessons with Mr. Luke have introduced new cultures to a lot of the children, and our PE lessons with Kru. Somkiat have had us moving our bodies in lots of different ways.

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Nursery

The children are all settling into school so well. They have shown how adaptable and resilient they are when facing new challenges. We are so excited for the lead up to Christmas where our Toy Shop will gradually transform into Santa’s workshop. We will continue to explore different toys and carry on building, painting, drawing and creating.

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Kindergarten We have had a lovely few weeks welcoming back all of the students in KG. Our little learners are quickly becoming independent and curious, as well as starting to settle into the routines of the classroom. They have enjoyed making new friends and learning how to play and share with each other. We have had some special visitors to the classroom this term - caterpillars! It has been so much fun observing them, helping to clean them out and some children were even brave enough to hold them. Now, we are waiting patiently for them to turn into cocoons and then butterflies. Here are some photos of our caterpillar-themed learning, including shape printing, play dough and butterfly painting.

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Kindergarten

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Kindergarten

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Reception Reception has had a wonderful few weeks being back in school! We have had lots of fun reconnecting with our friends and getting back to what we do best - learning! Our topic this term is ‘Festivals of Light’, encompassing Halloween, Diwali, Bonfire Night and Loy Krathong. We enjoyed dressing up as ghosts, making rangoli patterns, creating shape rockets and crafting some very special krathongs. The children have been so grown-up following our special rules that keep our friends safe at school and have adjusted well to new routines. Here are some photos of us having a fantastic time together!

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Reception

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Year 1 What an amazing time to be in Year 1!

We have been soaking up so much information and using our new skills with confidence in Year 1. After learning the features of instructions and how to use

bossy verbs, time connectives and adjectives, we followed the recipe for a ‘Disgusting Sandwich’. We let our imaginations run wild by creating our own disgusting ingredients, using interesting adjectives to describe them.

In the shared learning space, we have been completing the challenges with confidence. We created artistic depictions of the disgusting sandwich using paper, playdough and paint. We have been using mixing techniques to create new colours, embedding our maths skills and using our investigative skills independently in this area.

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Year 1 In maths, we have been focussing on finding the difference between two amounts. We have learnt how to ‘count on’ to find the difference, as well as calculating this using subtraction.

In science, we have been learning all about animal classes, using our knowledge to sort different animals into their groups. We have used book research, internet research and observations to support our learning in this area.

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Year 1

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Year 2 It has been fantastic welcoming all the Year 2 students back to class. The energy and enthusiasm has been palpable across the top floor of the KS1 building. With each class bubble rocking along!

Just like the Snail and Whale, Year 2 have been exploring the world through geography. We have been learning about the 7 different continents and 5 different oceans. We have explored warmer and cooler climates and learnt about the Equator, the Tropic of Capricorn and Tropic of Cancer. We looked at different countries in Asia and what affects their climate. We then carried out a comparison right here in Thailand. Looking at the similarities and differences between Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket. All the while, we have been refining

our geographical skills, learning to read and understand maps and note physical features of the land. The Snail wanted to explore the world and so do we!!

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Year 2 In science, we have been studying habitats within each climate zone. We named some of the most famous habitats and explained why animals can only live in places that they have adapted to. In art, we used clay to explore texture and shape to make 3D models of the animals that we have been learning about.

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Year 2 We have not only been explorers, but we have become news reporters. We examined the events that led to a whale being beached and gathered details of the dramatic event.

We then had to interview witnesses and hot-seated the

reaction of key characters. We collected quotes and kept them to use in our

news reports. We had to place events in sequential order and wrote several drafts. We helped each other to edit and improve each draft. Finally, after several days of hard work, our news reports were finally published.

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Year 2

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Year 3 Year 3 has made a fantastic start to this half-term with a smooth transition from online to face-to-face learning.

In English this term, the children have been introduced to their new text ‘The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.’ We have each played a part in a

variety of immersion activities such as making an emotions graph, assuming the roles or the characters from the book and even performing a role-play to familiarise ourselves with the story. This has really helped us to add detail to our sentences using expanded noun phrases, subordinating conjunctions and to apply new vocabulary that we have learnt in our own work. Going forward, we will begin our long and exciting journey to an innovative story of Mr. Morris Lessmore flying books.

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Year 3 In topic, keeping with our theme of flight, we have followed the lives and inventions of the Wright Brothers. We have learnt about what inspired them and written an account of the timeline for their inventions and flights. We have also focussed on the story of another famous aviator, Amelia Earhart, by creating a

storyboard of her life. We have been inspired by their passion and drive to succeed.

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Year 3 In other news, we have completed our journey with addition and subtraction and are now taking off into the realms of multiplication and division. Our PSHE lessons have been focussed on celebrating differences, where we have learnt to respect each other and value our differences. We have also had in-depth

discussions about bullying and the steps we could take to protect ourselves and our friends in such circumstances.

In science, we have been introduced to forces and magnets. We have learnt to identify and distinguish between the forces of push and pull. We have also conducted a fair test on the effect of a force on three different surfaces. Now, we are exploring magnets and magnetic materials by investigating a variety of

everyday objects and their attraction to magnets and making conclusions based on our recorded results. All of Year 3 have done an amazing job so far and you should be so proud of yourselves. Well done!

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Year 3

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Year 4 Over the last month, it has been a joy to see the Year 4 students back in class, eager and ready to learn.

During their topic and science lessons, Year 4 has been discovering the fascinating world of water cycles and climate change. By exploring the concept in both geography and science, they have been able to make links between the causes and effects of climate change.

In geography, the classes have been learning how evaporation, condensation and precipitation causes water to move around our beautiful planet and how this affects people’s lives. This culminated in our practical investigation where pupils observed how the Sun’s heat caused water to turn into water vapour,

which then condensed to form droplets. It was truly wonderful to listen to the conversations between pupils as they explored this phenomenon.

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Year 4 Our learning about the subject continued in our science lessons when pupils learnt about the fascinating greenhouse effect and the major contributing factors, in particular the impact burning fossil fuels has on greenhouse gases and our world's climate. Pupils collaborated to plan and design an investigation into

how the Sun’s rays are trapped by our atmosphere. They recorded their findings and drew conclusions based on their results. We were so proud of the inquisitive nature of our Year 4 budding scientists and look forward to investigating this further.

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Year 5 November has been such an eventful month with the students' valiant return to the school campus. They have quickly adapted back to learning in school. We have been so proud to see how safely and sensibly they uphold the rules. We have hit the ground running this month and seeing the children’s progress face-to -face has been incredibly encouraging.

In English, the Year 5 students have been casting their ideas into orbit for our ‘Planet Unknown’ story. They used their powers of imagination to visualise new uninhabitable places and even were able to innovate new ideas into their own version of the story.

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Year 5 Reading led the children through the story of ‘The Iron Man’ by Ted Hughes. The tale follows a huge, monstrous Iron Man who comes across a village. This stimulated the children into putting themselves in the shoes of the poor villagers that must deal with him. Should they hide, run or fight?

Maths saw the children tally up their knowledge of statistics by interpreting and drawing conclusions from their very own data collected about school lunches.

We have also started our all important multiplication and division module whereby the children will continue to master the art of the four operations.

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Year 5 In science, we have been gravitating towards the forces that govern our universe. The children have been conducting practical investigations and learning how to write these up formally. So far, they have discovered that air resistance plays an important role in how things fall towards the Earth and that, against intuition, objects of the same shape but different sizes, weights and mass still experience the same force of gravity and fall equally when dropped in equal condition

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Year 5 For our topic lessons this month, we have begun to design our robots capable of creating randomised drawings completely autonomously. These robots are otherwise known as ‘Scribble-Bots’. For this, the children have learnt about basic design principles, investigated the options available to them, studied simple series circuit formation, and then began to create their prototype Scribble-Bots.

For art, Year 5 has been focusing on abstract art and the kind of art that automated robots may be able to create. They enjoyed creating their hard-edge art in the style of John Dwyer McLaughlin and their Optical Illusion art (Op Art) of a ball floating off of the page!

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Year 6 In Mr. Joel's absence, I have been teaching Year 6 and what a terrific time I have had. The children have worked superbly and their behaviour around the school has been exemplary, helping set the tone for our younger students in the process.

In the classroom, we have had a lot of fun and the children have produced some great work in all of their topics. In maths, we have been adding and subtracting fractions, as well as simplifying them and converting improper to mixed fractions.

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Year 6 In English, we started the week by looking at the features of a newspaper before the planning began for the children to write their very own. We focused on the introduction paragraph and the use of the 5 W’s to make our starts more interesting to the reader. The children are now beginning to write their own robot- themed newspaper articles and these will be finished next week - from looking at the plans, they're going to be amazing.

In science, the children have begun their dragons den pitch for a new Christmas themed decoration using electrical circuits. The children have designed their product and will be working on their pitch, as well as the construction, of their product over the coming weeks and will be pitching to Mr. Joel soon.

It has been a pleasure working in the classroom again with this lovely collection of children. Mr. Joel is a very lucky teacher to have them.

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Music We’re back! Words can’t describe the excitement that can be felt around the school upon everyone’s return. Though it hasn’t been easy and there are many new protocols that we have to follow, we have been able to meet for “in-person” music lessons. With the addition of the outdoor music classroom, students have been able to experience live music lessons for the first time in months. Though our time apart was long, it is as if no time has passed as students quickly reacclimated to our in-person music lessons and loved being able to play classroom instruments again. Of course, they are sanitized after each lesson and each bubble has their own set of instruments to use.

With each lesson, the students’ enthusiasm to learn and create music grows and

grows. We are so excited to be back together and be able to create wonderful music. Hoping for the day when we can invite the entire Dusit community on campus and share all of the great things we are learning and doing in person.

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ECO INFO

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ECO INFO

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Superstars of the Month

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Superstars of the Month

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Superstars of the Month