ST. MARK'S INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL eNewsletter

NEW COVID-19 PROTOCOL TO BE IMPLEMENTED FROM MONDAY, 24 OCTOBER

Starting from Monday, 24 October students will conduct ATK testing once a week on every Monday. At the same time, we will adopt the following measures regarding COVID isolation and class closure:

For those students who have completed the COVID isolation period of 5 days and wish to return back to school, ATK testing in the morning of the returning day will be required.

For those students who are in isolation at home because of COVID, our school will try to facilitate by providing online lessons during the period of absence.

Thank you so much for all your support and for helping our students to move forward with their learning.

SRINAKARIN CAMPUS MEETING

In celebrating our 24^th Anniversary, which will coincide with the opening of our new campus on Srinakarin Road this August 2023, the management of St. Mark's held 3 parents' meetings during 3-6 October to officially announce our plan to move Primary and Secondary students to our Srinakarin Campus.

The campus will comprise a state-of-the-art 8-storey building equipped with an underground carpark, 2 gyms, two 60-seater computer labs, a movie theatre, 7 rooms for music practice, 3 science laboratories, a bright and modern library plus a 230-seater auditorium, a soccer field, running track, a large indoor multi-function sports hall for basketball, volleyball and badminton, are some of the facilities at the new campus.

During the meetings, we informed parents of the following:

1. St. Mark’s is the only school in Thailand to be licensed and accredited by the Government of Western Australia to deliver the ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank) / WACE (Western Australian Certificate of Education) for our senior high school. Our senior students who complete the Year 12 program will receive both certifications, which reflect their academic performance. The Council of University Presidents of Thailand has acknowledged the ATAR qualification to be comparable with the A-Level, IB, and AP program. This enables our senior students to have equivalent rights and privileges as those from other international qualification standards.

2. Construction is currently on target and the main building structure plus the indoor gymnasium are now complete. It is anticipated that the building will be fully operational by August 2023.

3. Our catering will be completely changing as we use the international company, Epicure (https://www.epicure.co.th) for our food services at the new school.

4. School fees for the upcoming 2023-2024 academic year.

MEETING WITH THE COUNCIL OF UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS OF THAILAND

On Monday, 26 September, Mr. Owen Grant, representative from the Government of Western Australia, together with 2 senior representatives from the Australian Embassy in Thailand, as well as senior members of St. Mark's International School management team, held an important meeting with the Council of University Presidents of Thailand. The objective of this meeting was to inform the Council about the Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR) qualification and how this qualification can be compared with other educational qualifications such as the A-Level and IB.

Mr. Owen presented the grade conversion table to the Council, which contains grades conversion rubrics between the ATAR, A-Level and IB program. It is a pleasure to inform that the Council has accepted this conversion standard and has promised to inform all the universities in Thailand of this significant addition.

The acceptance from the Council is beneficial to our students, since it will open a direct pathway for St. Mark's students to gain admission into Mahidol Medical School, provided the student attains the grades required for admission.

INTERNATIONAL DAY (Friday, 14 October)

Today, Friday, 14 October, we celebrated our International Day. Students arrived at school dressed up in their International Day costumes and with smiles on their faces. Each class offered a presentation representing their country of choice. Students danced, sing and act in front of everyone and showcased their talents. Everyone had a fun time learning about various countries' cultures, food, geography, and history. They played various types of games, danced to each country's music, and tasted food from different countries. Countries that are being represented this year are listed below:

Class Country Class Country

Kinder Chile Pre-Prep USA (Hawaii)

Prep Thailand Year 1 Germany

Year 2 Egypt Year 3 Bahrain

Year 4 USA (Cowboy Theme) Year 5 Turkey

Year 6 Japan Year 7 & 8 China

Year 9 France Year 10 Ireland

We are delighted to see each student enjoying today's program before taking their term break. We thank you for your continuous support and look forward to a wonderful International Day next year!

A full video of our International Day activity will be available next week.

When Will School Resume?

We will be observing one week’s holiday from 15 - 23 October. Our School will resume on Monday, 24 October. During the holiday, our school office hours will be from 8.30 am to 4.30 pm.

FORMER TEACHER'S VISIT

On 30 September, our former teacher, Mr. Anno, visited the school. Mr. Anno's last teaching post at St. Mark's was 3 years ago when he taught English to our Primary students. Students were generally delighted to see Mr. Anno; it brought back memories of their classes with him back then. Lots of small talk and laughs had been shared during his visit.

"It's really wonderful to meet my students again. Teachers and students gave me a warm welcome". "The students are almost the same height as me now. It was a great opportunity to meet everyone!" - Mr. Anno

As the saying goes, once a teacher, always a teacher. We're looking forward to seeing him again in the near future.

AWARD OF EXCELLENCE: 5 OCTOBER

We are delighted to announce the following students who received our Award of Excellence in Effort, Punctuality, and Kindness and Courtesy this week.

As a way of acknowledging our students' achievements, students will be given a special "Award of Excellence Breakfast" on Friday, 28 October.

Chayakorn - Year 1 (Kindness and Courtesy)

Usanisa - Year 2 (Effort)

Thanaporn - Year 2 (Effort)

Bantita - Year 2 (Effort)

Palat - Year 2 (Effort)

Chotiga - Year 2 (Effort)

Poonyavee - Year 2 (Effort)

Punnavich - Year 2 (Effort)

Narak - Year 2 (Effort)

Phetnava - Year 2 (Effort)

Nimman - Year 2 (Effort)

Rael - Year 2 (Effort)

Natsuda - Year 2 (Effort)

Lapat - Year 2 (Effort)

Renka - Year 2 (Effort)

Rinradee - Year 3 (Kindness and Courtesy)

Kananya - Year 3 (Kindness and Courtesy)

Nittha - Year 3 (Punctuality)

Benjamin - Year 11 (Kindness and Courtesy)

ROOKIE SWIMMING CHAMPION

St. Mark's would like to congratulate Nongnapat (Sky) from Year 3 for winning 4 golds and 1 silver medal from the Rookie Swimming Championship last Sunday, 9 October 2022.

Keep up the good work little champion!

EURASIAN SPELLING FINAL ROUND FINALIST 2022

St. Mark's is proud to announce that one of our Year 7 students, Punn will be representing Thailand for the upcoming Eurasian Spelling Bee Competition in Gdansk, Poland on November 4-6, 2022. Punn has bagged Gold medals from the preliminary and semifinal rounds of the competition.

St. Mark's family is wishing him all the luck!

SIMOC MATH OLYMPIAD 2022

A big congratulations to Rachata for winning Gold Award in the recent SIMOC Math Olympiad 2022. Rachata has also participated in various Math competitions in September 2022 including Asian Science and Mathematics Olympiad (ASMO )and American Mathematical Olympiad (AMO).

PRE-PREP TECHNOLOGY: RECOGNITION OF LETTERS "A" TO "E"

As an extension of the students’ learning using technology, Pre-Prep class had the joy of using the computer to play a game related to Phonics. The letters in focus were from A to E. The students were instructed to listen to the sound of the letters which appeared on their screen and recognise the capitalisation of those letters.

In practising for the weekly spelling, during the computer class, our teacher showed words containing the letter "e" and asked the students to type those words accurately in the MS Word document. This activity helped students to become familiar with the spelling of the words and at the same time, students had the opportunity to practice their typing skills.

YEAR 1 MATHS: ORDINAL NUMBER

In Year 1 Maths lesson this week, students were introduced to ordinal numbers and their abbreviations. The teacher asked our students to make corresponding marks on the whiteboard according to the words the teacher picked, in order to help students remember these new words.

Our teacher then taught the difference between counting from the left and counting from the right. It is important that they get this right. Afterwards, our teacher gave an opportunity for students to play a colouring game to help them consolidate their knowledge of ordinal numbers.

Remembering the abbreviated forms is useful. For "first, second, third" they have unique abbreviations, other abbreviations of ordinal numbers can simply add "th" after the cardinal number. Understanding ordinal numbers will not only help the students learn the positioning in Mathematics, but it will also help them to use it to sort out the logic of pos

YEAR 2 ART: CONSTRUCTING A VEHICLE

Art helps to cultivate concentration and patience, and its practice promotes creativity.

In Year 2 Art class this week, each student was given a piece of paper with the car's picture printed on it, and the teacher asked students to colour in any way they wished. Students were very interested because they could create things they liked, which helped to spark their passion for art.

Later, our teacher asked them to cut out the car picture and fold it into a 3-dimensional car model.

From a piece of paper to a colourful car model, students experienced the interest for art and the joy of creation.

YEAR 7 MANDARIN: REVISION GAME

There is an old saying in China, "reviewing the past helps one to understand the present''. During our Year 7 Mandarin class, students were given the opportunity to review what they have learnt after each lesson. By reviewing through various hands-on activities, students gained a deeper understanding of the concepts they have learnt.

During this review lesson, our teacher had divided students into 2 groups, and asked them to compete in a dictation game. The competition was intense and students had put in their best effort to recall what they had learnt in their previous lessons and put them to writing.

In the second part of the competition, our teacher asked the 2 groups to find the wrong Chinese characters in each of the sentences. Through this exercise, students were able to distinguish and understand the meaning of the Chinese characters, which look similar in their appearance.

YEAR 9 P.E: BASKETBALL

In order to shoot basketball with precision, Year 9 students took professional shooting posture training in physical education class this week.

When preparing to shoot, the forearm should be bent to nearly 90 degrees. When shooting, it needs to start from the sole of the foot to drive the muscles of the whole body to exert the force upward and forward on the basketball. Through spot shooting practice, students can experience the correct shooting posture, which can improve the shooting percentage.

Afterwards, they carried out running exercises that simulated the real arena, helping them to better understand the responsibilities of each role in the team and to exercise their ability to judge the situation in the competition.

YEAR 11 CHEMISTRY: ACID-BASE NEUTRALISATION TITRATION EXPERIMENT

In this week's Y11 chemistry class, the students conducted an acid-base neutralisation titration experiment. It used the principle of acid-base neutralisation reaction to measure the unknown substance concentration.

Phenolphthalein was added to the sodium hydroxide solution as an indicator, and titrated with hydrochloric acid. During the process, the beaker containing the sodium hydroxide solution needed to be shaken constantly to make it fully react. Until the phenolphthalein solution changes from red to colourless, the amount of hydrochloric acid used can be recorded. Finally, by using the chemical equation, they could calculate the concentration of the sodium hydroxide solution to be measured.

Through this experiment, the students have a deeper understanding of the acid-base neutralisation principle they have learned before, and let them recognise the practical problems that can be solved by this principle.

STMARKS NEWSLETTER 9 (14 OCTOBER 2022)