STMARKS NEWSLETTER 8 (30 SEPTEMBER 2022)

NEW LEARNING PROTOCOL FOR SECONDARY STUDENTS

We thank you for the support of our school community with the COVID measures of the school. This has enabled us to try and find the right balance between education and health and safety for our students. As you may be aware, the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration has announced a series of measures in line with the reclassification of COVID-19 as an “infectious disease under watch” as Thailand officially moves into a post-pandemic era from Saturday, 1 October. 

We would like to inform parents that starting Monday, 3 October, we will no longer require our Secondary (Year 7-12) students be kept in their respective classrooms during their learning at school.  Instead, the learning mode in Secondary will be returned to the pre-pandemic level where:

1. Students will move from class to class throughout the day depending on the subject period they have.
2. Students will not be required to stay in one classroom only.
3. Students will have their snack and lunch in the canteen.
4. Students are allowed to interact among different grade levels among secondary students only.
5. Wearing masks is still encouraged when on campus, but teachers may use their discretion when not in close contact with students. On the occasions when removing the mask will help with teaching, our teacher may decide on this option.  

We thank you for your continuing support, as our students gradually return to the usual school routine. This will benefit everyone, especially the students.

IMPORTANT SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT MEETING

Please be reminded of an important school development meeting for parents of Kindergarten to Year 10.  Parents can choose to attend one of the following meeting sessions below:

 Monday, October 3                        8.30 - 9.45 am

 Tuesday, October 4                        8.30 - 9.45 am

Thursday, October 6                      8.30 - 9.45 am 

In this meeting, parents will be given general information regarding our Srinakarin campus development, facilities, food services, timeline in the transitioning process of moving our students, logistic plan between the 2 schools, or accreditation and partnership with Western Australian Government and Cambridge Assessment International Education, where we will be the official examination centre for both the ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank), as well as the Cambridge IGCSE program.  In addition, we will be discussing the financial options that we will be offering to significantly provide a cost-saving option for students studying at St. Mark’s. 

To book your attendance, please click here. 

CHANGES TO CAMBRIDGE IGCSE SYLLABUS FOR MATHEMATICS (COURSE CODE 0580)

Cambridge International is introducing some exciting improvements to the Cambridge IGCSE assessment for Mathematics from 2025. Thanks to the improved structure and simplified language, the syllabuses are clearer to teach and simpler to learn, giving all learners the best opportunity to succeed.

To find out more about the new syllabus please check out the following link:
https://www.cambridgeinternational.org/Images/662466-2025-2027-syllabus.pdf

COVID-19 UPDATE: ATK TESTING

The Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration has announced a series of measures in line with the reclassification of COVID-19 as an “infectious disease under watch”, as Thailand officially moves into a post-pandemic era from Saturday, 1 October.  Starting from Monday, 3 October, students will be expected to conduct ATK test twice per week – every Monday and Thursday.

AWARD OF EXCELLENCE BREAKFAST (FRIDAY, 30 SEPTEMBER)

On Friday, 30 September, we held our first Award of Excellence Breakfast for this semester.  The event is aimed at recognising our students for their exemplary character. 

Award winners were invited to join our special breakfast prepared for them in recognising their good behaviour.

Keep up the good work!

KINDERGARTEN MATHS : NUMBER "7"

It is very important for teachers to be able to focus on activities that catch our students' interest in learning. Classroom learning becomes something children look forward to when students learn through play.  This enables students to relate to what they have learnt and help them remember for a long time.

In this week's Maths class, our teacher introduced the number " 7 " and allowed students to familarise with this number by showing them pictures and cartoons. After that, the teacher sang a Nursery rhyme and played games of LOOK AND FIND and JUST TO COUNT, so that they are acquainted with the number 7 and remember it.  Parents may be pleased to know that our Kindy can now count and write from 1 to 7 with confidence!

PREP MANDARIN: WHAT CAN YOU FIND IN THE SKY?

The Tri-lingual education program in St. Mark's focuses on students learning to speak, read and write in 3 languages, namely English, Mandarin and Thai. 

This week, our teacher gave a Chinese radical " 亻" and asked students to say out Chinese characters that contain this radical. Through this activity, the students are able to recall and review the knowledge they have learned previously. 

During the lesson, our teacher combined positional words and existential sentences together and asked students to describe what is in the sky. This interactive, real-life learning allows students to quickly memorise the words of the lesson. Students also practised writing these Chinese characters during this lesson.

YEAR 4 THAI : TO LISTEN AND WRITE

Students practised their listening and writing skills in this week's Thai class.

Each student needed to complete a dictation exercise, in which the teacher spoke the word, and the student completed the spelling on the whiteboard. They also used the word to make a sentence. When students encountered difficulties, the teacher would give prompts. 

After that, students needed to make sentences according to the given words. The students who finished first would raise their hands to signal to the teacher and receive the teacher's comments and feedback. 

Through a lot of intensive training, this class cultivates students' listening comprehension and writing skills in Thai. In the process of being the audience of other classmates, the students also gradually acquire knowledge of the language.

YEAR 6 ART : LIGHT AND SHADOW OF SKETCH

A still life is a drawing or painting that focuses on stationary objects, typically household objects, flowers, or fruits.  In still life, students get to practise shape and form, and transform a normal object into the subject of their art.

In this week's Y6 art class, the teacher showed the students a real vase and asked them to draw it by sketching it from their own perspectives. Obviously, everyone saw it from different angles. The teacher patiently guided each student to draw shadow effects by changing angles, touching the paper with a pencil and using the eraser to rub with different strengths.

Afterwards, the teacher showed a picture of an hourglass and used it to teach the students how to analyse light and shadow to draw a good sketch.