Letter from Head of Primary

At this time of year, I always love looking back and reflecting on what we have achieved in the primary school. This year we have continued to face a number of challenges and obstacles because of the pandemic and I am sure you will agree with me that at times it has not been easy. However, like previous years, we have met these challenges with determination, resilience and positivity. Now at the end of term 3, the school is once more a bustling hive of activity and the calendar is full of learning journeys, school trips and special events. I am so happy that we can finally invite parents into school and the children can share their learning and experiences with them. I am therefore confident that we are now back on track and can look to the future with a renewed sense of optimism and excitement.

There are a couple of areas that I am particularly proud of this year and deserve special mention. Firstly, we have continued to focus on health and wellbeing and successfully achieved the International Wellbeing Award for the school’s excellence in this area. Our children have a much deeper understanding of the importance of a healthy and balanced lifestyle and how this is the basis for success in all areas. I am so pleased that, after so long learning from behind a screen, our children are spending much more time learning outdoors and taking part in outdoor activities such as forest school, mountain biking and our assembly walks. Research shows that children who have more opportunities and time to explore and learn outdoors demonstrate better physical and emotional wellbeing and thrive in all areas.

This year we have also worked hard towards achieving the Green School Gold-level award and have seen many new environmental projects introduced around the school. Our Primary Eco Councillors have continued to do an excellent job educating us on the importance of caring for and protecting our local and global environment. We now have our ownGgreen Valley Eco Code, which will help keep our focus on important issues such as recycling, sustainable living and saving energy. Our Eco Schools programme has also helped children develop their leadership skills, make environmentally sound decisions and have the confidence and belief that they can make longlasting change in the world.

I hope you will agree with me that during this final term we have managed to bounce back from the difficulties and challenges we have faced and we should all be very proud of this. We have worked hard as a community to re-establish all the events and experiences that we have missed and are so important to all of us. Despite spending almost half of the school year online, Primary children have had the opportunity to successfully complete LAMDA exams; perform in drama productions and music concerts; invite their parents into school for learning journeys; compete in our primary invitational games sports event and friendly sports fixtures against other schools. We have also seen the reintroduction of whole school events such as World Book Day and Earth Day. However, the highlight for me was our International Day, as it was the first time in three years we could all truly come together as a community. This day really showed us that as a community, we are stronger than ever and St Andrew’s future looks very bright when we work and join together in this way.

Thank you so much for all your support this year. I hope you have a lovely summer break and I look forward to seeing you all again in August.

Best wishes,

As the year draws to a close it is traditional to reflect upon the success that we have achieved. This however has not been a traditional year so my reflections are about our non traditional successes.

We `began the year online after delaying the start of the school year by 2 weeks. We stayed online for the first 12 weeks of term 1 and then returned to school in “bubbles”. We were the first school in Rayong to be allowed to return to school and we did this successfully with very few Covid cases penetrating our defenses.

Our major successes were resilience, flexibility, adaptability and a sense of humour. When faced with challenges that are often beyond our control, we soon learned that the best thing to do is to control what we can control. I am very proud of the way that our entire school community met each challenge thrown at us with positivity and determination. No challenge was too difficult and, even though it often took extra effort and a great deal of lateral thinking, we always found a way.

By term 2 things gradually began to return to normal. We began to play sports fixtures, there was also a drama production and LAMDA monologues. By term 3 we were once again enjoying swimming galas, school trips and different festivals such as International Day. Our movement back towards normality has been controlled and gradual but also continuous.

For all the challenges that Covid has thrown at us, we have learnt valuable lessons. We have become more skilled with technology and have learned a great deal from being online. We have also learned how valuable face-to-face interactions are and the value of ensuring that we stay in touch with others, not just through technology but through personal interactions.

We now move forward towards the 2022 – 2023 school year with optimism and a renewed sense of energy that things are getting better. It is clear that we have turned the corner and we are returning to more normal times. For the new school year we will return stronger and better equipped to face the challenges that lay ahead.

Congratulations to all of our students, staff and parents on showing great resilience and making 2021 – 2022 another very successful school year!