Dusit September Newsletter Public

10/12/2021

10/12/2021

Upcoming Events October 

11th - 15th Please note that

Message from the Head of School Dear Dusit Community,

We are already a month into the school year and it has been wonderful to see how the children have responded to the challenge of starting a new year moved to later in the year when group and meeting their new teachers and peers online. It is fair to say that our whole Dusit community have been displaying our Dusit Values of we can celebrate fully as a D e te r m i n a ti o n , U n d e r s ta n d i n g , Success, Independence and Teamwork - a huge thank you to community. everyone as I am aware that this is not easy for any of us!

International Week will be





13th - School Day

18th—22nd Half Term Break

*Please note that we will review the government guidance regarding social distancing, COVID19 and watch to see if there are any spikes in local case transmissions .

The Health & Safety of our community, whilst always important, has taken centre stage over the past 19 months as Thailand, and the world, continues to grapple with the ever evolving Covid-19 Pandemic.

We continue to respond to government guidance and have adapted our proposal to reopen the school in line with information from both ISAT, OPEC and the MoE. Our proposal has been read by the Health Office and so now we wait for news of an inspection which will move us closer to being able to reopen the school and welcome back our students.

As we move towards reopening after what has been without doubt the worst wave of Covid-19, we understand that many parents will still feel concern and worry about sending their children back to school. This is understandable and every family needs to make the decision which is right for them.

On the next page we have addressed some common questions in the hope that we can allay some of your concerns about returning to school.

Mr Paul and I will hold a live Q&A session once we have been given the green light to reopen.

Until then, have a relaxing weekend!

Caroline Ratcliffe

10/12/2021

Health and Safety Question and Answer About Reopening the school Are teachers vaccinated? 

100% of our class based staff, teachers, TAs and classroom maids have been vaccinated.

Are non-classroom based teachers and non-teaching staff vaccinated? 

98% of our non-classroom based teachers and non-teaching staff are vaccinated.

What about the Parent community vaccination rate? 

From the information provided in the Dusit Community Covid Risk Categorisation Survey we can tell you that, Most Dusit Parents are fully vaccinated. 

The remaining parents have 1 jab or are awaiting an appointment.



A large proportion of extended family or staff living or working in the family home are also fully or partially vaccinated.



90% of you considered your family to be Tier 4 : Minor Risk.



None of our community considered themselves to be Tier 1 : High Risk.

What will be the Health & Safety measures for when school reopens?



This is not the first time we have had to reopen after a lockdown. Many of the Health & Safety measures are already in place and our community has worked together previously to make sure that these guidelines are followed.



At a minimum we will be strictly following all government guidelines and you will see in the documents shared below that we have updated our Health & Safety measures and they are stricter than after previous lockdowns.



We will continue to keep abreast of the updates provided by the WHO & CDC.

10/12/2021

Health and Safety Will school provide lunch and will students eat in the canteen? 

We will work with our new catering provider, FoodHouse, to provide a restricted menu served in lunch boxes so that both snack and lunch can be eaten in classrooms.

Will I be allowed to drop my Nursery, KG or Reception child off at their classroom? 

No parents are allowed access to the school campus as per guidance from ISAT.

How will I pick my child up from school? 

All parents will need to use the Kids Up App.



It is important that you, or the person picking up your child, know how to use the Kids Up App. 

Parents need to consider their location to the pickup point, when using the App, and the time it will take their child to travel from the classroom to the pickup point.



Your child will be in a strict class social bubble all day so students will not be able to sit waiting to be picked up outside.



It is important that both you and your child arrive at the pickup point as close to the same time as possible.

What if I do not want to send my child back to school? 

We understand that some of you may want to keep your child at home for the time being. Once we have assessed the numbers of students looking to return or stay online, we will provide the best possible hybrid teaching model so that all students are able to access their learning whether at school or online at home.

10/12/2021

Health and Safety Will we have to vaccinate our child?

Currently there are no government guidelines for vaccinating children under the age of 12yrs. This may however change in the future.

As a school we cannot and will not mandate that students must be vaccinated to come on campus unless directed so by the MOE and MOPH. As a school we cannot and will not show preferential treatment to students because of their vaccination status.

Health & Safety Documents: H&S Info for Reopening School T1 2021-2022 Covid Categorising Risk of Infection Dusit Covid Emergency Response Plan T1 2021-2022 Nursery Parent Reopening Information T1 2021-2022

KG & Reception Parent Reopening Information T1 2021-2022 KS1 Parent Reopening Information T1 2021-2022 KS2 Reopening Information T1 2021-2022

10/12/2021

Health and Safety We hope the above information is of use and has managed to answer most of the questions you may have about reopening school for face to face learning.

Once we have approval to open school, we will hold a virtual Q&A where we can support parents with any other questions you may have.

As always, you are welcome to contact the following staff should you have any further questions or concerns.

Ms. Caroline our head of school (caroline.ra@standrews-schools.com) or Mr. Paul, our Health & Safety Coordinator (paul.ri@standrews-schools.com)

One final note; We can only control the Health & Safety of our students whilst they are on campus. As a parent community, you trust us to do our best to look after and safeguard your child's health whilst they are at school. As a school community, it is important that we continue to safeguard ourselves and each other and continue to follow the government guidelines outside of school. By doing so, we can continue to provide a safe environment for our children and

reduce the risk of Covid-19 being spread amongst our school community.

We sincerely thank you for your continued support during this time and look forward to inviting you all back onto Dusit campus as soon as is practicably possible.

10/12/2021

Nursery Wow, Nursery! What an incredible start you have all made to the year. You have all shown so many of our Dusit values already, and the Nursery team and I can’t wait to see what you will achieve next. Since coming back we have been exploring fairytales. We’ve already jumped into the story; The Enormous Turnip, and then moved onto Mr. Sam’s favourite; The Three Little Pigs. We have had a great time exploring the different characters and stories through painting and drawing, story maps and even yoga. The children have followed instructions to make their own play dough and reused lots of old boxes, foil, pots and cardboard tubes to make houses for the 3 little pigs and a small world farm for the farmer and his enormous turnip. We have also used cushions, chairs, blankets

and pillows to create our own role play house.

10/12/2021

Nursery During our Circle Time Zooms we have been building up a bank of different songs, actions and dances. The children have been bringing some of their favourite toys and fancy dress costumes to show their friends and teachers.

We’ve joined in some scavenger hunts. We’ve practised our mark making skills by drawing in sand. We’ve played some listening games to help develop our phonics skills. We’ve even been painting together. All of your teachers in Nursery are so impressed with how adaptable and resilient you have been. We are going to have the most amazing adventures together over the coming year. What a fabulous start, Nursery!

10/12/2021

Kindergarten This term, KG has been working on our ‘We are gardeners’ project. We started by creating our own garden centre where we collected all the tools we needed to do gardening; a plant pot, soil, a watering can and a lot more! We even used some ‘Magic writing’ to add price tags to the items in our garden centre.

10/12/2021

Kindergarten We have read ‘Jasper’s Beanstalk’ where the children watched Jasper planting his own bean. This encouraged us to do a little gardening ourselves. We planted beans and just like Jasper, we had to be very patient for them to start growing.

We learnt how to look after our plants by making sure they have enough space,

sunlight and water to grow. By mixing salt, water and flour, we created our own salt dough to make a plant pot. We enjoyed taking care of our little beanstalks and watching them grow. We not only used our green fingers to do our gardening, but have also done lots of flower art and even made our very own flower perfume!

10/12/2021

Kindergarten

10/12/2021

Reception The Reception classes have entered our new school year online with enthusiasm and many, many smiling faces. We were very excited to meet all our new friends and can’t wait to see all of them, in person, when school opens up again. Thank you to our parents for helping your child have such a smooth start by having them ready on time, prepared to begin our Zooms. Our days are busy with many different classes and lots of ‘zooming’ here and there, but our families have adapted quickly.

10/12/2021

Reception We began the school year by introducing ourselves and sharing our family members. We used our maths skills to total up how many in each of our families and learned how to represent that number in different ways. We talked about many of our favourites including; favourite toys, favourite foods and favourite things to do. We can see that our children are all very proud of their families. We used our speaking and listening skills so beautifully as we learned what makes each family special. What a great start…home and family is where it all begins.

10/12/2021

Reception Our first topic is Under the Sea and we began ‘swimmingly’. We started by learning about the sea animals that represent our class names; the Dolphins, the Sharks and the Whales. We have been learning interesting facts about our sea animals and have read several stories about them, both fiction and non-fiction.

During our afternoon Zooms, we have been making a variety of ocean crafts, learning poems and singing songs about the sea. It is fascinating just how many unusual sea creatures are living in the ocean!

We plan to plan cover as many areas of the Early Years curriculum online as we

can, so you will see sessions devoted to speaking and listening, maths, building self-confidence, understanding the world and much more. Our Phonics program has just this week officially begun and you will be hearing more details about that soon.

.

10/12/2021

Reception We are happy to say that the Reception students are already quite the experts at handling technology and have also becoming very familiar with our daily routines. They are learning to speak up clearly, use their listening ears and take

turns too, which can be a little tricky when you just can’t wait to say something.

Well done, Reception! .

10/12/2021

Year 1 What a brilliant start to the year we have had in Year 1. Despite the school closures and online learning our pupils have arrived smiling and eager to get started!

Our English lessons have been focusing on traditional tales, looking at the Three Billy Goats Gruff and Goldilocks - we have used our drama skills to act out the stories as well as writing some fantastic sentences to show our understanding of the stories.

10/12/2021

Year 1 In Maths we have been exploring place value and consolidating our numbers to ten. We have enjoyed treasure hunts, number games and tricky challenges during this topic, developing our mathematical understanding and confidence.

In science we have been learning all about our bodies and senses and have seen some beautiful pieces of work from this!

There have been some great submissions to google classroom of children really enjoying their learning, we are all so proud of you all!

10/12/2021

Year 2 The past month has flown past with our Lonely Beast story continuing to drive our learning. We have worked incredibly hard to write a diary entry in our role as the beast and we even created beautiful poetry about the jellyfish the Beast encounters.

10/12/2021

Year 2 We have been creating our very own mythical beasts in art, studying maps of mythical animals and learning about animals in science. Cross curriculum learning is the best! The Year 2 students have taken to online

learning like ducks to water and continue to impress and surpass expectations. They are truly remarkable learners and every day of learning is filled with progress and energy.

10/12/2021

Year 2

10/12/2021

Year 3 In Year 3, we have had a fabulous start to the year with our online learning!

Our focus in Maths has been all about recapping our skip counting skills in 1s and 10s and learning how to count in 100s. We have then had a lot of practise and fun in understanding Place Value of 3 digit numbers through the use of Base 10s, counters and Place Value grids.

In Topic, we have been introduced to how volcanoes are formed. Year 3 have worked very hard on expanding their technical vocabulary about volcanic eruptions through a wide range of activities including matching the labels to the pictures, filling in the blanks and sharing their ideas during class discussions.

Our PSHE lessons have helped us identify our strengths, appreciate our friends’ achievements and set sensible goals for the year.

10/12/2021

Year 3 Together in English, we have been uncovering the mystery of the St Andrews beast! This mischievous dragon has been spotted in and around the school and we have been busy using exciting adjectives and our senses to describe the creature. We look forward to you seeing our upcoming wanted posters very

soon.

In Science, we have been exploring the topic of ‘Rocks’ and we have begun with the importance of soil. So far we have discussed the components of soil, the long, natural process of soil creation and the environmental concern of soil erosion. We look forward to introducing igneous rocks into the curriculum next and tying in our learning of volcanoes.

We are very proud of what the Year 3 children have achieved so far and we are excited about what’s to come!

10/12/2021

Year 4 We could not be more impressed by the way that the pupils in Year 4 have started this year. We have jumped straight into the wonderful and enchanting world of Arthur and The Golden Rope, a fascinating story of the unlikeliest hero’s journey into the land of the Viking gods.

The pupils in Year 4 have been using powerful vocabulary, expanded noun phrases and adverbs to explore the events of the story and they have already produced some truly impressive writing. We have explored the thoughts and feelings of Arthur, written poems to describe the wonderful adventures books can take us on and written diary entries based on the day that Arthur’s village was attacked by the ferocious and wicked wolf.

We cannot wait to watch the pupils in Year 4 develop and grow as writers over the next year. I wonder what they will write next?

10/12/2021

Year 4 The pupils in Year 4 have been using powerful vocabulary, expanded noun phrases and adverbs to explore the events of the story and they have already produced some truly impressive writing. We have explored the thoughts and feelings of Arthur, written poems to describe the wonderful adventures books can take us on and written diary entries based on the day that Arthur’s village was attacked by the ferocious and wicked wolf.

10/12/2021

Year 4 We cannot wait to watch the pupils in Year 4 develop and grow as writers over the next year. I wonder what they will write next?

10/12/2021

Year 5 Year 5 have had a wonderful start to the year after a much needed rest during their holidays. We are now back in action and ready to begin our first year in Upper Key Stage 2! We are so excited about our new teacher Mr Tim and can not wait to meet him in person soon.

In Reading we have started our new book ‘The Great Kapok Tree’ and we have been talking about how it is important to respect others and the nature around us. Last year we saw wildfires spread throughout the world so this year we will be looking at how we, as citizens of the world, can help in small ways to ensure the safety of all animals.

10/12/2021

Year 5 In our English lessons, we have begun looking at ‘Jemmy Button’, a fascinating and beautifully illustrated story about a boy who lives on an unknown island. He is swiftly taken away to a country abroad by a group of strange visitors and is shown things he has never seen. We are focusing on expressing ourselves, asking interesting questions and recapping some vital key stage 2 grammar. We can not wait for you to see our debates coming up!

We have only just started our Science this term where we have started with a bang by dissecting some hibiscus flowers. We were able to separate the female and male organs and make videos on Flip Grid of this! We have also started looking at zoos in our Topic lessons, thinking about our favourite animals and where their natural habitats are. We will be delving into what it might feel like to be moved away from this and what we can do to stop this in Thailand.

10/12/2021

Year 6 Year 6 Eagles have hit the ground running and jumped straight into our learning with energy and enthusiasm. Mr. Joel is new to St. Andrew’s Dusit and can’t wait to meet all the students in person!

In English, we are reading ‘Varmints’ by Helen Ward, a story about creatures living in a beautiful pastoral land who find their world abruptly changed before their eyes. We have used ideas from the book to create a range of writing, from free verse poetry to diary entries. We will continue to use the dilemma and issues in the book to write persuasive essays.

10/12/2021

Year 6 In Maths, we are learning about number and place value. We can read, write and represent numbers up to 10,000,000, as well as comparing, ordering and rounding them. We also worked in teams to solve investigations where we’ve applied our knowledge of place value with puzzles such as numbers written in foreign languages and coded 100 squares!

In Science, we have learned about Linnaeus and his system for classifying living creatures according to their properties. We worked in teams to look at a range of creatures, from animals to fungi to monera. We researched their classification paths and learned about the function of their Latin names. In Topic with Mr.

Steve, we are looking at zoos, what our favourite animals are and their natural habitats. We will discuss the ways in which animals are forced to leave their habitats and how we can stop this in Thailand.

10/12/2021

Year 6 We have also made some artwork on our class animal, the eagle. We researched some facts about our class country, Japan, and used these two themes to come up with some ideas on how to decorate our new classroom.

10/12/2021

Art During the first week of home learning, kids had to create and decorate their Art book cover with their names.

In Year 1, students have used and mixed colours to create quality artwork based around the artists Rothko and Mondrian. They have practised with primary and secondary colours to create their own version of abstract masterpieces and have shown real confidence and creativity.

Year 2 are focusing on their topic about beasts and we’ve started practising drawing animals in different ways, to record quick sketches and to follow a step by step guide based on simple shapes. They are also working on animal texture and will create a collage.

10/12/2021

Art Gorillas and Lemurs have successfully imagined and sketched dragons with different abilities, diet and habitat. Then, they used their drawing to form their dragon in 3 dimensions. Next step will be to start painting volcanoes.

Year 4 artworks are linked to their topic about Vikings. They aim high in sketching

their northern longship and adding the animal head emblem of their choice.

They are now practising assemblage techniques to build their own boat.

Kingfishers and Owls have been learning and practising about perspective drawing. They have shown understanding and creativity to explore habitats of their international countries: Nigeria and Argentina.

10/12/2021

Art Eagles are practising art skills around tessellation and pattern. Also linked to their international country, Japan, they have used this skill to decorate a Kimono.

Well done KS1 and KS2 for showing so much enthusiasm and creativity in Art during this start of the academic year!

Mrs. Emilie

10/12/2021

French Welcome to your Dusit French class !

We have been pleased to welcome new French students into different year groups. They’ve started to learn to introduce themselves in French and practise

greetings with curiosity and resilience.

Year 2 and year 4 have been reviewed to introduce themselves and they are practising counting numbers to be able to tell time in French really soon! It was so lovely to see them enjoying their lessons and showing determination and success in their work.

10/12/2021

French In year 6 this academic year, we are focusing on A2 level and have started by working on the topic Traveling and have had a focus on nationalities and country names to be able to give and to understand information about peoples.

Congratulations everyone for your hard work and your positive energy, I am looking forward to seeing you progressing this term.

Mrs. Emilie

10/12/2021

Mandarin In Mandarin lessons there has been lots of excellent work taking place throughout the whole school. In KG and Reception, the children have been singing songs linked to vocabulary and curriculum objectives. In Year 1, the children have been practising greetings and Year 2 have been learning to say the colours. In Year 3,

the children have been learning to read Pinyin. Year 4 have been learning about hobbies while Year 5 have been learning to describe items using adjectives. Year 6 are learning directional vocabulary.

10/12/2021

Outdoor Education We are in week 2 of our first mini project, Dusit Grows Watercress Eggheads. Week 2 is the ‘Do’ part in our ‘Plan, Do, Review’ 3 week cycle.

It has been a lot of fun working with students to make and seed their eggheads.

Although quite a simple task, for many students the tricky part is the observation of growth and how they choose to record and share their observations.

10/12/2021

Wai Kru Wai Kru ceremony, also known as "Teachers' Appreciation Day" in Thailand is where students take the day to honour and pay respect to their teachers. This year, due to the pandemic situation, students were still able to show their respect and love for their teachers through our online ceremony. It was another great

opportunity to see our students and teachers gather together. We are looking forward to reconnecting as a strong community again at St. Andrews Dusit when we are allowed to reopen.

10/12/2021

Wai Kru

10/12/2021

House Captains On behalf of the entire school and myself, a massive well done to everybody that applied to be a House Captain this year. Your speeches were excellent and your ideas for improving the school moving forward were very much appreciated!

Some of the highlights from the speeches included, the use of the Dusit Values, food banks and other charity ideas, creating a greener community, more school community days and alternative school events based on deepening our understanding of the world.

Mrs. Caroline, Mr. Joel, Mr. Allen, Miss. Lisa and I discussed all of the presentations, and how fantastic they were, in great depth. You all certainly made the task of selecting just two students for each House so difficult! After careful deliberation, the House Captains this year will be:

10/12/2021

House Captains

10/12/2021

Playtime Leaders We were so impressed with the other students that we will be asking them to take part in the ‘Play Leaders’ formal certification award which will begin when we are back in school. These children are:

Year 5 - Vinnie, Nina, Peach and Tami

Year 6 - Lily, Lynn and Singtoh

We look forward to seeing all of these children making positive contributions to the school this year and cannot wait to see what they achieve!

10/12/2021

Global Be Well Day A message from Ms. Georgia: As the Well-Being Co-Ordinator at St Andrews Dusit, I will be working with our Wellbeing Action Group and the school this year. I will aim to help improve opportunities for our students and staff which will impact their well-being.

During Global Be Well Day 2021, we will have improved our understanding of how to connect with others, how to give to others and how we can set goals to do meaningful things for ourselves. We will have continued our journey to understanding how to be comfortable, healthy and happy.

I hope you take time to connect with others and yourself. Set yourself a goal to do for the year AND find a way you can give back to your community.

Click to see video

10/12/2021

Global Be Well Day Every year, Global Be Well Day is celebrated in Cognita schools around the world to remind our communities about the importance of wellbeing. To be at our best, we must 'Be Well' in ourselves - both mentally and physically.

Our wellbeing approach is shaped by our Be Well Charter, which explains what wellbeing really means and the mental and physical factors that influence it.

Previous Global Be Well Day events have focused primarily on the physical contributors of Sleep, Diet and Exercise. This year, we’ve worked with the global organization, Empathy Week, to create resources to help students explore the mental contributors of Connecting, Doing and Giving. “Empathy is the ability to hold and create space for someone else to express themselves as they truly are.”

We will be continuing to share these resources and create an understanding around these areas throughout the year at Dusit.

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

Anne Frank

10/12/2021

Global Be Well Day

10/12/2021

Superstars of the Month

10/12/2021

Superstars of the Month