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Day and Boarding school for ages 2 – 18.

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Messages from our Heads – Week 5

From Mr. Brian Irving, Head of Secondary

 a-Brian_0002This week the students were as shocked as I was to hear that already we had passed the 12% mark of the year! It seems like only yesterday that we returned from the long summer holiday ready to begin another academic year. Tempus fugit.

Our current focus is on absence and lateness- both factors which can seriously damage the progress made and ultimate level of achievement made by our young people, so I urge all parents to help us help your children by getting them to school on time, every day. I shall be sending every family a letter outlining our new procedures and sanctions, in Secondary, for our persistent offenders.

Thursday was our annual Wai Kru ceremony a very humbling event and one of the highlights of the academic year.

Friday this week is a long weekend. Students are back in school on Monday 28th September.
Have a learning filled week.
Brian

From Mrs. Rachel Perkins, Head of Primary

a-Rachel_0002Dear Parent, as we come to the end of yet another busy week in Early Years and Primary we celebrated our teachers and teaching assistants in our annual Wai Kru ceremony.


It was a very humbling experience to receive such lovely flowers and good wishes from the children. Many of the staff particularly from the UK have never experienced this ceremony and they all told me what a wonderful event it was and how pleased they are to teach in such a wonderful and thoughtful school environment.


Please let me take this opportunity to wish you a lovely long weekend with your family.

with best wishes
Rachel

It’s Cool to be in School; plans in place to deal with absence and lateness

12042839_968696369838621_8909726282888931366_nStudents who do not come to school are, not surprisingly, not very successful at school. That is why in countries throughout the world it is a serious problem if children do not go to school. In England, at the moment, an attendance of less than 85% will see your child referred to the authority in charge of education. If a parent is found to be supporting their child in not going to school, then it is against the law. And there are only two ways in which a child is allowed to miss school. They are if the child is too ill to attend or if the parents have got permission from the school beforehand.


Lateness is a similar problem. Though we are sympathetic at the school to those students who have to get up very early in the morning to get to school, we cannot support it. By being late, a student not only misses the essential part of a lesson (the beginning), they also disrupt the other students when they go into class.


I have heard some comments from parents that they are happy for their children to be late for school or even miss school if it makes their children happy. I’m afraid this is a rather short-term view of happiness. I might choose to stay in bed tomorrow, which might make me feel very happy… but I won’t be happy when I get into work and realise the amount of work that I have to catch up. Students can very quickly get into a situation where they have lost control of their learning.
The school cares about your child. We want to give them the best possible chance in life – to achieve their potential and to realise their dreams. That is why we are going to get tougher on absence and lateness. Those who are late are going to be in detention more often. Those who are absent for more than 10% of the school year will be subject to review. If their absence has affected their education seriously, they may be asked to repeat the year.

By Mr Charles Barrow, Deputy Head Secondary

Friendly Competition or Bitter Rivalry? Psychology of the House System

Written by By Mo Suwanwela, Year 13 Psychology Student

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Mo, Year 13, applies ‘social identity theory’ to her experience of the four different Houses

Social identity theory describes a human need to belong to a group. The groups we belong to help us figure out who we are and fulfills our basic need for self-esteem. This theory can be applied to The Regent’s House System. In our House group we are able to achieve positive self-esteem, such as receiving House points, which contributes to our self-esteem, while at the same time we support each other and work together in events such as sports day and swimming gala where we express favoritism towards in-groups by cheering on our House and trying our best to beat the other Houses.

Social identity theory describes how we categorize people in groups, identify with the group we belong to, and compare our group to others. These processes are called categorization, identification, and social comparison. This also happens in our House system. Firstly, categorization is used to divide people into 4 groups: the blue sharks, yellow tigers, green crocodiles and red dragons. In House events people are put into these groups to work together; the identification aspect is in choosing to become a part of the group. This is highly evident when a house wins an event such as Sports Day, Loy Krathong or when there are pizzas involved, people are more likely to identify themselves with their House, for example by wearing House colours. Much like Cialdini’s experiment to investigate the tendency to associate one’s self publicly with successful others, in which students tended to wear the jersey of their university’s sports team after they won a big match, students want to associate themselves with their House colour more when we have beaten the other Houses. Social comparison, on the other hand, is the idea of separating in-group members to out-group members, the division between ‘us’ and ‘them’, and trying to be better than the other Houses. Students would cheer for participants within their own House even if they didn’t know any of the competitors.

Being separated into different House teams arguably creates prejudice and hostility between the Houses, which I have experienced first hand. My close friends and I are usually very supportive of each other when we play team sports together or are assigned to do challenging tasks, but when we are scattered across different Houses, everyone becomes more competitive, which is understandable. However as House events progresses throughout the year, the competition can take the best out of people. Although there were no sabotages or serious intent to hurt one another, friendly insults become more uncomfortable and starts to hold more meaning, and this can provoke more conflict in our friendship outside of the House group context. After events would be finished, students would compare themselves through the performance of their House for weeks on end and occasionally mentioning their win in an argument to prove any point they make and that they are superior to everyone else because of their status in the House ranking; but luckily like all things in school the rivalry will blow over and eventually everyone would be back to normal.

Regent’s Buddy Reading Scheme

The Regent’s International School, Bangkok is famous for its friendly, inclusive atmosphere where all of the students are willing to help each other out. Especially when learning English! This month, our Year 12 students are spearheading the Buddy Reading Scheme to assist some of their younger counterparts with literacy skills. What better way to meet new friends than over a good book?

In a comfortable, relaxed setting, students can foster a love of reading together whilst helping to further their knowledge of both the teaching and learning process. Whether their assistance is through translation, explaining difficult words, or by asking comprehension questions; our Y12s are dedicated to helping their buddies become more confident with reading.

Our new IB cohort definitely have to be commended for giving up their time to such a worthwhile cause.

PE… On the bounce!

IMG_20150903_143529_HDR-1Taking inspiration from a number of schools worldwide the PE Department have invested in 12 new chairs… in the form of gym balls! With the intent to challenge, engage and inspire our students the PE classroom has replaced their standard chairs with the big silver balls.

The arrival of the space age chairs has been welcomed by students and teachers alike. Students have found sitting on the gym balls more comfortable though some have found it quite challenging as they require you to engage your core in order to stay balanced.

Our end goal is for students to become fitter whilst learning and to improve concentration levels in the classroom.

If you get a chance, pop in to Room 417 and have a go yourselves!

Messages from the Head of Primary and Head of Secondary

Heads

From Mrs. Rachel Perkins, Head of Primary:

Dear Parent,

this week we hosted our first Parents Group meeting of the year and I was delighted to welcome over 40 parents to join our group.

It was a pleasure to see returning parents and also many new faces. In my presentation I shared the new initiative this term, the up and coming events and the parent workshops we are planning.

I also shared the developments since our last meeting and the parents were very pleased to hear of the additional sports coaching, the new library, extra Mandarin classes, new Tuck Shop management and the new Computing room. The parents and I then had a very productive question and answer session and the ideas that were shared will definitely support school improvement.

Our next Parent Group meeting with take place on the 4th of November, please feel free to come along and join the discussion and help us to make the school a wonderful environment for the whole school community.

With best wishes,
Rachel

From Mr. Brian Irving, Head of Secondary

It was my pleasure to speak to a group of Year 4, 5 and 6 parents about our Secondary School: what we do and how and why we do it. I mentioned how proud I was on a daily basis of our Secondary School: students and staff alike. My colleagues Mr Barrow and Ms Roberts also spoke about their specific roles, especially for new Year 7 students. The brief presentation was followed by a guided, and by all accounts, very professional tour of the school by some of our Year 8 students.

At the end of the tour, all of the parents commented on how well they had been guided by our younger students, how well they spoke and how polite and welcoming the students had been. Yet again, another reason to feel pride in what we do here at the Regent’s International Secondary School.

Have a learning-filled week.

Warmest regards,

Brian

A busy first few weeks in Boarding

We have almost been back a month now and what a busy start we have had! Our boarders have settled into new routines and have been making the most of the extensive activities programme that has been set up our GAP staff. At the moment football has been a very popular evening activity choice, and the boys are currently preparing for a match against Ascot School. We are also arranging an evening of Sports against the Regent’s School staff on the 9th October, followed by a BBQ! The whole house also attended the school’s 20th anniversary celebrations at the Thai Cultural Centre, which was a great night out enjoying the many musical talents of our school.

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The captains and vice captains of Boys’ and Girls’ Boarding

Weekend trips continue to provide boarders with the chance to get out of the house to experience something new. Wakeboarding, the zoo, ice skating, the mall, karaoke, and bowling have all been offered so far. Staff have also been coming into the house on Wednesday evenings to offer activities such as jewellery making, cooking, and drawing.

We would like to offer our congratulations to Chad Lee and Lita Theng who have been selected as Captains of Boarders, and to Rajan Roka and Akari Tokuchi who will be Vice Captains of Boarders. They will be acting as a voice for their fellow boarders and liaising with staff to improve the boarding experience. We wish them the best of luck in their new roles, and are confident they will do the house proud!

by Mr. Gavin Terry, Head of Boarding

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