STMARKS NEWSLETTER 12 (1 JULY 2022)

ECA SELECTION FOR SEMESTER 1 (2022-2023)

The Extra-Curricular Activities (ECA) registration for Semester 1 is now available through the form below:

We would like parents or guardians of Primary and Secondary students to indicate which ECAs you wish to enroll your child/children in for Semester 1 of the 2022-2023 school year. This will assist us in ensuring that every student will be taken care of for the ECAs. 

https://form.jotform.com/221580281767460

Kindly fill out the form by Friday, 8 July.

GRADUATES

Congratulations to our 2021-2022 Graduates!

Each year, our students are capable of achieving scores among the top in various standardised international assessments. This year is a phenomenal year for St. Mark's as our students received "6 Top in Thailand Awards" for IGCSE and A-LEVEL.

Not only do our graduates receive offers to study in Top Universities around the world, but a good percentage of them also secured scholarships and placements in prestigious universities worldwide.

On this note, we are pleased to announce that Tsinghua University, which is the #1 university in China has offered one of our students with a scholarship program to further his education in the field of Engineering, recognising this student as one of the most outstanding scholars to apply to this prestigious program.

EDUCATIONAL ALLIANCE WITH CHINESE INSTITUTION

On 10 June 2022, St. Mark's International School had the pleasure of welcoming Mr. Zhao Mingguang, Executive Dean, College of Overseas Chinese and The Open University of Fujian China, and his team for a preliminary meeting to discuss the possibilities for educational collaborations in several areas, including curriculum implementation and St. Mark's students' exchange.

PRIMARY ART EXHIBITION

Our Primary students showcased their creativity by exhibiting various artworks they have made over the past school year. The exhibition was held during 8-9 June as a part of their Year-End Activities. It's truly impressive to see the works of our future artists.

PRIMARY & SECONDARY LAST DAY OF SCHOOL ACTIVITY: SOAP-MAKING

During the last week of school, our teacher gave lessons on how to make soap to a group of primary and secondary students. This easy process involves melting glycerin, adding fragrances and colours, and pouring the liquid soap into a mould.

A soap so cute, it brightens up your mood!

SECONDARY LAST DAY OF SCHOOL ACTIVITY: COOKING CHINESE DUMPLINGS

Secondary students took part in an activity where they had a chance to make scrumptious dumplings. Teachers prepared the ingredients and taught the students how to fold them into their perfect shapes. Our students then later enjoyed munching their own delicious treats. 

LIFE TALK

Throughout this academic year, secondary students have been meeting every Thursday morning during our Life Talk program.  The purpose of this lesson is to instill values and character in our young adolescents.  We shared with our students' life lessons from various real-life experiences in the hope to instill virtues in our students so that they will make good life decisions and not fall for temptations.  At other times, we focused on team-building activities and sharing ideas on various life experiences students had.  We look forward to meeting new groups of students and continuing this character development program in the new academic year.           

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL ACTIVITIES

In the spirit of emerging slowly from the pandemic and wanting the students to have an enjoyable afternoon on their last day of this academic year, our teachers have prepared different class activities for our students to enjoy as we have mentioned above.  Last but not least, our teachers and students were involved in water fights, relay games, movie marathons, musical chairs, etc. 

It was truly a fun day for everyone and this marks a memorable ending to this academic year. 

Looking forward to seeing everyone back at school on August 8.

PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCE

On Friday, 10 June, parents met our teachers onsite once again to discuss and understand what their child is learning at school and their progress both academically and social-emotionally. Teachers have shared some advice with parents on what they can do to support their child's learning.

CONSTRUCTION SITE VISIT

On Wednesday, 22 June, a group of St. Mark's teachers had the opportunity to visit the Srinakarin Campus construction site.  Construction began about 10 months ago on 15 July 2021 and to date has progressed rapidly to Level 5.  It was an exciting moment for everyone since it was the first time for our teachers to visit our new school building. During the visit, teachers were given opportunities to walk and inspect different parts of the school building, from the underground car parks to the school cafe and restaurant, parents' waiting room in Level 1, the Technology and Design Centre, and the School's Meeting Hall in Level 2, as well as the classrooms.  It is expected that the building will be finished by April next year, and once it is finished, the 8-storey building will be home to over 10,000 square metre of modern and futuristic educational space.

SUMMER SCHOOL THEME "FROM PASTURE TO PLATE"

This year's summer school theme is "From Pasture to Plate". The theme allows students to explore the process of food production, starting from the harvesting of raw materials, preparation, food processing, and finally presentation. Students are given opportunities to explore and participate in various fun-filled cooking activities, making food from different countries. In the activity shown in this video, our students enjoyed hands-on opportunity to make Krong Kreng Krob, a famous Thai dessert. 

HANDWRITING IS GOOD FOR YOUR BRAIN

New technology has many benefits such as helping us stay connected with each other and allowing us to quickly search for information. Unfortunately, with laptops and tablets becoming more popular, handwriting is slowly fading away.  You probably asked yourself, “Why do I need to know how to write when all I need is to press the keys on a computer or tablet?”  Well, research findings show that writing our letters by hand helps the brain learn. Writing by hand helps you to learn a set of symbols more easily and also helps you remember the information that you write down. Using a keyboard just does not help you with these tasks as much as writing by hand does.

Scientists are discovering that learning cursive (joined-up) is an important tool for cognitive development, particularly in training the brain to learn functional specialisation, that is, the capacity for optimal efficiency. In the case of learning cursive writing, the brain develops functional specialisation which integrates both sensation, movement control, and thinking. Brain imaging studies reveal that multiple areas of the brain become activated during the learning of cursive writing.

With the constant increase in computing over the last few years children are increasingly using typing as their means of communication, often, to the detriment of their fine-motor control.  Hence, when teaching cursive handwriting, there is a spill-over benefit for a variety of thinking skills. To write legible cursive, fine motor control is needed over the fingers. One has to pay attention and think more closely. Additionally, brain imaging studies show that cursive activates areas of the brain that do not participate in keyboarding.

Here at St. Mark’s, you will notice increased efforts with our Primary English Teachers to pursue a handwriting policy with renewed efforts on accurate cursive formation from day one. Please assist us where you can; your child’s initial efforts might look somewhat scruffy but the benefits to brain development are similar to what you get with learning to play a musical instrument. Since we all have access to pencil and paper, please encourage your child to pursue something not involving a mobile phone or computer where you can, in order to increase their fine-motor skills and switch on all parts of their brain.

https://neurosciencenews.com/hand-writing-smart-kids-17113/

With regard to this, we would ask each child in primary to spend maybe half an hour this holiday trying out their cursive handwriting skills.

If children could go to the school website and choose a current book from their current year and copy one or two pages as appropriate in their best handwriting we would be most grateful.

They can write it in their current or new school book or even on paper and pass it to their new English teacher in August.