Spotlight on Primary Newsletter - March 2019

Spotlight on Primary

St. Andrews International School Green Valley

March 2019

Looking Back at Term 2 What another action packed and very successful term we’ve had!

As we approach the end of term, I am sure we are all feeling very proud of everything that we have achieved. Some of the many highlights have been our: success at the Tournament of the Minds competition; our many sporting victories; the fantastic Lamda results and the numerous charity fundraising events that have been organized by island community leaders. Throughout this newsletter you will see photos of students who are risk takers, creative thinkers and problem solvers. Students who are balanced and try their best in all areas, as well as students who care for others and clearly want to lead action and help make the world a better place.

These skills and attributes are as important as academic success and it is great to see how many of our students get involved and clearly make progress in these areas.

Thank you parents for all your support this term and I wish you a very happy Songkran holiday!

Best wishes Michelle Taylor

ช่างเป็ นเทอมที่เต็มเปี่ ยมไปด้ วยกิจกรรมและความสาเร็จอย่างมากมาย! ในขณะที่เทอมนี ้กาลังจะจบลง ดิฉันมัน่ ใจว่าพวกเราทุกคนรู้สกึ ภาคภูมิใจมากกับผลงานที่ได้ ทาผ่านมาทุกเรื่อง ดังตัวอย่างที่เป็ นไฮล์ ไลท์ เช่น ความสาเร็จจากการ แข่งขันในเชิงความคิด หรือ เทอนาเมนท์ออฟมายด์ ชัยชณะหลายครัง้ ในการแข่งกีฬาต่างๆ ผลสอบของการแสดงละครหรือลัมด้ า และงานต่างๆ ที่จัดขึ ้นยดยหัวหน้ า ของกลุม่ ไอร์ แลนด์ คอมมูนิตี ้ เพื่อระดมเงินสาหรับการกุศล เป็ นต้ น ในวารสารฉบับนี ้ตลอดทังฉบั ้ บ พวกเราจะได้ เห็นรูปภาพที่เด็กๆ เป็ นคนกล้ าแสดงออก เป็ นผู้มี ความคิดสร้ างสรรค์ ผู้ชว่ ยแก้ ไขปั ญหา เด็กๆ ที่มีความพอดีหรือมีสมดุลย์ในตัวเอง และใส่ความพยายามเต็มที่ในทุกด้ าน รวมทังเด็ ้ กๆ ที่ ใส่ใจดูแลผู้อื่นและแสดง ความต้ องการชัดเจนในการเป็ นผู้นาในการลงมือทาเพื่อช่วยให้ ยลกนี ้ดีขึ ้นยดยรวม ทักษะและคุณสมบัติเหล่านี ้มีความสาคัญเท่ากับความสาเร็จด้ านการเรียนรู้เชิง วิชาการ และ เป็ นเรื่องที่น่าดีใจยิ่งนักทีเ่ ด็กๆ ของเราร่วมมือร่วมใจเข้ ามามีสว่ นร่วมและพัฒนาตนอย่างเห็นได้ ชดั ในด้ านนี ้ ดิฉันขอขอบคุณผู้ปกครองทุกคนที่ให้ ความช่วยเหลือทุกด้ านในเทอมนี ้ และขอส่งความปรารถนาดีมายังทุกคนให้ มีความสุขเต็มเปี่ ยมในวันหยุด สงกรานต์ปีนี ้ ! ด้ วยความปรารถนาดีเสมอ มิเชล เทเลอร์

Progress in Primary At St. Andrews we are committed to ensuring that all of our students make progress in all areas. Teachers have regular pupil progress meetings where they discuss and document which students may need further support or challenge in certain areas as well as the students who may need to work harder and require further motivation to reach their potential. Teachers then discuss targets for improvement with students and these targets are reviewed regularly. Below are those students who have made outstanding progress in a particular subject or area and have undoubtedly worked exceptionally hard to achieve this. Well done!

Saul - Nursery

Billy - KG

Irish - Reception

Saul has made incredible progress in all areas since Term 1.

He now joins in all activities and enjoys interacting with all his friends.

Billy has made fantastic progress this term and can now recognise all his phonic sounds. Great effort Billy.

Irish has made incredible progress this term with his writing. Great effort Irish!

Porjai - Year 1

Justin - Year 2

James - Year 3

Porjai is now writing with confidence and has made fantastic progress since Term 1.

Well done Porjai!

Justin has been working very hard to improve and as a result has made so much progress in all areas this term. Fantastic effort Justin!

James has made so much progress with his spelling this term and is using more new words in his writing.

Keep it up James!

Kao Nine – Year 4

William - Year 5

Fanta - Year 6

Kao Nine has made great progress in all areas, especially in his writing and arithmetic. Keep up the hard work Kao Nine!

William has made fantastic progress in Maths and is so committed to improving in all areas. Great effort William!

Fantastic has made exceptional progress in Maths this term and is much more confident to try more challenging problems. Well done Fanta!

Amazing Attainment in Primary Many of our students excel in a particular area and we would like to recognise their talent, but also the hard work that goes into ensuring that they continue to improve in these areas and challenge themselves.

Below are some of our students who are achieving high results and work very hard to achieve this.

Trin – Nursery

Kayla – KG

BM - Reception

Trin is now talking confidently in English and is learning and using new words every day. Well done Trin!

Kayla can write her name, knows all her letters and can read basic sounds. Well done Kayla!

BM is reading very confidently for a reception student. We are very proud of you BM.

Jasmine – Year 1

Bike - Year 2

Oam – Year 3

Jasmine is working so hard in Maths and did very well in her last assessment. Great work Jasmine!

Bike is working hard and producing fantastic work in all areas. What a great term 2 you’ve had Bike- well done!

All of Oam’s work this term has been excellent. She works hard and always tries her best too. We are proud of you Oam.

Namtan – Year 4

Erica – Year 5

Jaa - Year 6

Namtan is doing so well in all areas, particularly her Maths and writing. Keep up the hard work Namtan and well done!

Erica is producing some fantastic work in her literacy lessons and is becoming a talented writer.

Well done Erica!

Jaa scored full marks in his latest Maths assessment as a result of his hard work. Excellent work Jaa!

Primary Enrichment Day– hands-on learning!

Often some of the best learning takes place outside of the normal curriculum and we definitely saw evidence of this during our first primary Enrichment Day. Students were given various exciting challenges in their island community groups which tested their resilience, problem solving skills and ability to work effectively as part of a team.

The theme of the day was how to survive being stranded on a deserted island. Students had to build rafts out of plastic bottles which would help them escape the island. They also had to build shelters and work out an effective way to transport water supplies, as well as create SOS messages that could be seen by passing planes. They designed flags for their island community to be used on their rafts and created healthy, high energy meals out of limited supplies.

After lunch we then launched the rafts at the swimming pool and various races were held to determine which island community had the most stamina and resilience to finally get off the deserted island. By the end of the day a great feeling of pride and achievement swept across the school for having worked so hard as a team to tackle all the challenges and obstacles . We can't wait to start planning the next Enrichment Day for term three and many students are already giving us lots of ideas.

Chinese New Year Celebrations In Primary, we celebrated Chinese New Year with a variety of performances from our students studying Mandarin, both from Secondary and Primary.

Our Y5/6 students explained the meaning behind the Chinese calendar and how the animals came to be chosen, our Secondary students performed a traditional dance and we had a fantastic Kung Fu demonstration. We finished off by the Years 5-7 singing the Chinese New Year song.

Coming together like this really shows what an internationally-minded school we are. Happy Year of the Pig!

Valentines Disco 2019!

On the afternoon of Friday 8th February, there was a buzz of excitement for the Primary Valentine's disco as the DJs pumped out the tunes, the children danced away the afternoon, took part in fun games and tucked into delicious snacks. Thanks to all the organisers and the parent support.

LAMDA results are excellent Many of our talented students entered the LAMDA exams this year.

Taking up opportunities likes this helps to build confidence in public speaking and acting. They are seen as a foundation that will help students when applying to schools, colleges, universities and drama/dance schools in the future. This year we are very excited to have students as young as Year 1 taking part.

SASS Drama Festival hosted by Green Valley This term, Green Valley hosted the 2019 SASS Drama Festival. During the festival, students from the group of St. Andrews Schools worked together in mixed teams to create a ‘play in a day’, harnessing creative thinking and devising skills.

The students rehearsed throughout the day before finally performing a 40 minute production of 'The Jungle Book', including costumes, music and props. Well done to all involved - the day was a great success!

Maths Magic enthralled students What better way to improve your maths skills than through a live maths magic show? This term our Primary students were entertained by our visiting mathematician, Andrew Jeffreys, who performed lots of incredible tricks that use the wonderful world of maths. Students were enthralled by the disappearing shapes and numbers and the amazing card tricks that also tested the students’ problem solving and maths reasoning skills. The students all came out of the shows buzzing about maths and saying how cool it was.

Visiting Artist show links between art mood and colour Year 2 students were very fortunate to have Bangkok artist Paron Mead come and run an amazing workshop showing the link between art, mood and colour! After school Paron delivered a lecture to our parents on the importance of fostering creativity in our children. He came with a wealth of insight and top tips for nurturing and encouraging creativity and discussed how being creative is about the exploration process and getting things wrong and making mistakes are essential to the creative process.

Science Fair goes off with a bang!

The 8th St Andrews Green Valley Science Fair went off with a bang as 160 students from across the Eastern Seaboard and Bangkok gathered to compete in the areas largest academic event. In teams of four, students battled through a variety of challenges earning points to become ‘Science Fair’ champions. Head scratching quizzes, baffling breakouts and awesome engineering projects kept students on their toes throughout the day.

Although everybody had fun, the highlight of the day was undoubtedly the ‘Catapult’ challenge that saw a Year 6 team from ISC launch a tennis ball over 100m! Thanks to everybody that came along, our kind sponsors (COGNITA & PTG) and of course the awesome maintenance team that makes putting on an event like this possible.

Tournament of Minds team go to finals This year we took a record 20 primary students to the Tournament of Minds, competing against other top international schools from Thailand and Asia. They performed their presentations for their long term challenges in their chosen disciplines of STEM, Social Sciences, Language and Literature and the Arts, and also faced spontaneous challenges which can be very unpredictable and tricky. They all showed fantastic creative thinking, problem solving and collaboration - huge congratulations to each team!

A special mention goes to our Primary Social Science team won their challenges and are invited to the finals in Australia.

Find out more about the Tournament of Minds here: https://www.tom.edu.au

Early Years Gruffalo Open Morning We had so much fun at our Early Years open morning with lots of shrieks of delight and laughter as children followed Ms Lauren around the playground as she read the ‘Gruffalo' story. Along the way they met A Fox! An Owl! A Snake! And finally in the woods they met the Gruffalo!

On top of this the children also got involved in many activities: face-painting, head bands, cup cakes and the morning culminated with their very own Gruffalo hunt in the Nursery playground. It was a fantastic event with lots of visitors, including children and staff from Hand to Hand, and a chance for our parents to join in the fun.

Early Years Wheels Day The Early Years children were buzzing with excitement at the Wheels Day event and couldn't wait to get on their bikes and whizz round the course. Mr Harrison led the way and tested out the stations including the bike wash, fuel station, first aid, driving test centre and repair tent. There were squeals of delight as Mr Harrison was drenched in the bike wash tent! This is one of the children's favourite events this term and a great opportunity for them to learn about road safety as well as develop their physical skills and coordination whilst testing out their wheels.

Cubs Playgroup Our Cubs have been having a blast this term, with the last session themed around Eric Carle's book, "The Very Busy Spider". Children made spider's webs, sang songs and ate healthy snacks. Our Cubs parent and toddler group is back on Tuesday 5th March from 9am11am we looking forward to seeing you there!

World Book Day– a global connection of students St. Andrews Green Valley celebrated World Book Day by enjoying reading whilst wearing pyjamas and drinking hot chocolate!

The children enjoyed sharing their favourite books and stories with one another. It was so lovely to see our older and younger students sharing their love of reading and story-telling.

During our celebrations for World Book day we were able to connect Year Three with other classes within the Cognita group as part of the 'Cognita Calling' event. First, we connected to Sathorn in Bangkok who shared their favourite story of the year so far. After that we went further afield to connect with Duncome School in the UK. Students had just started school for the morning when we called!

Little Lunchtime Concert showcases musical talents A big thank you to all our amazing performers who entertained us all at the Little Lunchtime Concert!

Singers, dancers, rock, reggae, classical and much more - a great showcase for our musical talent at St Andrews Green Valley. Thank you to all the parents and staff who came to support the event and the parent support group for the delicious snacks.

GV Sport: Early Years & Primary Sports Days At SAVG we are proud to be able to offer our students so many opportunities to have fun with and compete in sport. These are just a few of the highlights from our Sports Days this term.

Community Service Action @GV St. Andrews is committed to Community Service and we actively encourage students to take meaningful action in their local community. This year, each Island Community has identified a charity or community to support. The students have discussed the different ways they can help and have been promoting their action around school.

Chang Ban Chak Mak School

Phuket

We visited Ban Chak Mak school to talk to them about what they need.

They would like their Early Years building painted so we are going to fundraise with a lunchtime movie and then use the money to buy paint.

If you have toys, you can also donate them for the school.

Baan Kru Boonch and the Phuket Island Community leaders have decided to host an art activity together where GV students and their children work together.

Baan Kru Boonch

We are going to raise money to buy canvases, paint brushes and paint. We will host a bake sale. You can also donate canvases, paint brushes and paint.

Samui

The plan is to create a scheduled transport service for persons with disabilities of all ages. They would like to purchase a used van and modify the van for wheelchair access. They need money for registration and insurance for the van and to hire a full- time driver.

Breaking Barriers

Samet Hand to Hand

A Dunk Tank will be open on 3rd April, as well as cookies being made for everyone to buy!

Samet has asked Hand to Hand what is it they need most to support their charity. They would love to have any donations of books, clothes and toys.

There are donation boxes around the school and the Island Community leaders will visit Hand to Hand to take them.

Amazing Activities ensure students are balanced Our activities at St. Andrews include arts and crafts, cooking, gardening, STEAM, design and technology, robotics and drama. These activities not only allow students to follow their interests or take a risk in trying something new, but also offer challenge to students in a safe non-competitive environment. This prepares them to be more confident in opportunities throughout the year.

Gardening

Making Skimboards

Outdoor Cooking

Sewing

STEAM Challenges

New Activities for Term 3

The sign up for term three activities is now live. Please use the link in this week’s Parent What’s On email to sign up!

Parents Corner Parents Corner is a page containing hints, tips, strategies and local reviews that may be of interest to you. We would love parent contributions so please send any to Laura Kerr lkerr@standrews-schools.com or pop in and see me.

E Safety Special The Momo Challenge - Lessons from a hoax The original reports were that Momo was a challenge game linked to social media apps in which a gruesome face asked children to do increasingly upsetting challenges, including self harm and harming others. There were many lessons to be learnt for parents, educators and even professional services such as the UK police, in light of the recent media coverage of the Momo challenge.

The first lesson. Check your sources.

The Momo Challenge is a hoax.

This means that there was no evidence that the challenge existed and there was no evidence that any child was harmed by the 'game'. Because we have an instant desire to protect children from dangers, even the UK police distributed guidance to schools, and many schools in turn ran assemblies warning of the dangers of Momo. Meanwhile, parents all over the world shared the stories on social media and talked to their children about it, some also showing pictures. However, the 'game' did not actually exist. Some evidence based NGO's have criticised the media's reporting of Momo as irresponsible, as due to the explosion, there is now 'copycats' embedding the Momo visuals in to YouTube videos.

So wait a minute, The Momo Challenge isn't real?

There is no evidence that Momo was a social media based challenge that communicates with children giving them instructions to harm themselves or others. However, the images are scary and many children around the world who have seen the pictures or heard the stories are now worried about the issue. There are also now copycat apps using the Momo name and images available on Itunes and Google Play, there are also lots of Youtube videos about the phenomenon.

So what can we do at home?

1. There is no need to show children the Momo images, as this may scare them.

2. Instead, talk to your children about what they would do if they read, watched or heard something which made them feel uncomfortable online. Create a mini plan, and talk through the steps, so they will confidently know what to do if something did happen.

3. We can use events like these to remind us that it is essential to check the settings of our ipads, phones and laptops to make sure that children can only access appropriate content for children.

4. Always listen out if your child is on Youtube, and you can make sure they only watch official children's channels. This reduces the likelihood of them coming across inappropriate content on unofficial channels continuous play.

5. Turn off auto-play on Youtube or video apps.

6. If you would like practical support to change your technologies settings, please see Miss Laura or Miss Rachel.

Parent help and support @GV At St. Andrews we are very lucky to have parents who are willing to give up their time to help in the primary school. The way that our parents help include: listening to children read in English and in Thai/ Mother languages, getting involved with a primary activity, helping in the library and/or helping organise events within the school.

Below are our upcoming PYP Units of Inquiry. We are looking for parents and/or community members who may be able to help support these units by sharing their expertise. Even if your child isn’t in the year group, if you think you could offer something, please let us know!

You can either talk to the class teachers direct or speak to Rachel Mustovic, our PYP Coordinator (email: pypcoordinator@standrews-schools.com).

Year Nursery

Kindergarten

Reception

Central Idea Colour, Shapes and Numbers

Stories around the world can help people to learn

Materials can be categorised, manipulated and changed through art

Year 1

The sea provides sea creatures with what they need to live

Year 2

Habitats have unique features which living things are dependent on.

Year 3

Humans make choices that have an impact on other living things.

Year 4

Understanding ours and others rights and responsibilities shapes our community.

Year 5

Innovation, planning and product development contribute to running a successful business.

Year 6

PYP Exhibition: #GenerationIB

Information for Parents We now have several different ways of keeping parents updated with our latest news and events:

Seesaw Gives you regular updates and samples of work from the classroom.

Contact your child’s teacher for information on how to link to your child’s account.

Firefly Online Learning Platform This not only provides parents with curriculum and general school information but also has Class Pages with weekly updates and news.

Facebook Follow us /StAndrewsGV

Twitter Follow us @primarygv

LINE Stay in touch by joining GV School News or GV Parent Sport

Upcoming Events April 1-2

Visiting author Karin Littlewood

April 1

Year 1-2 Swimming Gala

April 2

Year 3-6 Swimming Gala

April 5

Kindergarten Swimming Gala

April 5

Reception Swimming Gala

April 5

Parent Workshop: Increasing the level of child interaction

April 5

Songkran Celebrations

April 8-21

End of Term 2 Break

May 2

Year 2 Trip to Flowerland

May 6

Public Holiday (last day of HM King Coronation)

May 8-12

Primary FOBISIA Games

May 8

Year 1 trip to the Turtle Sanctuary

May 20

Public Holiday (Visaka Bucha Day)