February 2017

Your choice. Their future. Our family. โรงเรียนนานาชาติการ์เด้นอีสเทิร์นซีบอร์ดบ้านฉาง February 2017
SPORTS DAYS
Find us at:
Website: w w w .gardenrayong.com
Twitter: w w w .tw itter.com/ gisrayong
Facebook: w w w .facebook.com/ pages/ Garden -International-School-Rayong-Thailand/128699487157809
Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/gardenrayongthailand
Accredited by
Affiliated to
1

From Mrs Hawtree: Principal
Dear GIS Community,
In last month’s newsletter I shared with you some of the key developments planned for this and subsequent years, and I
explained that we are in the process of putting together a detailed 3-year development plan. I hope you had chance to
look through these and are as excited as we are about the changes ahead which will make GIS an even better holistic
educational environment for our students.
As I also mentioned, we place very high importance on maintaining low staff turnover and recruiting high quality teachers.
Since last month’s newsletter, I have spent some time in freezing cold London, and have now completed our
overseas teacher recruitment for next year. I am delighted to tell you how pleased I am with the calibre of the new staff
who will be joining us. We had very strong fields for all of the posts advertised, and it was hugely gratifying that, in every
single instance, our first choice candidate accepted my offer of a post. Contracts are now being finalised and signed, and
I hope that, by April, I will be able to share with you details of all our new teachers for August.
A word on PE kit – we are currently in the process of a PE kit redesign ready for August 2017, and as such supplies of
the old kit are running a little low in some sizes. If your child needs a new PE kit, and none is available in their size, we
will allow them to wear their House kit for the remainder of this year. We are intending to involve students in the
redesign, as it is they who will be wearing the new kit, so we feel it will be good if they have some say in the choice.
Next month looks like another busy one, leading up to Songkran, with a huge number of sporting events (including our
hosting of the U13 FOBISIA Games), a variety of educational trips, the issuing of Reports/Grade Cards, as well as the
much-anticipated Primary Production and MAD Night, to name but a few of the exciting and diverse activities available to
GIS students. And of course, for an international community such as ours, one of the highlights of the year is our International
Week, which runs from Mon 6 March – Sat 11 March. This week is an extravaganza of international culture, food,
costumes and learning, and culminates in our fantastic International Day on Saturday 11 March – we hope to see many
of you joining us for this wonderful event, celebrating our school’s internationalism.
Mrs Dinah Hawtree
Principal
Many thanks to our generous GIS sponsors:
Platinum
Aditya Birla
Encounter Church
Indorama
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Upcoming Events
Whole School
March 3: World Wildlife Day
March 8: International Women’s Day (whole school assembly, period 7)
Saturday March 11: International Day (9am-1pm)
March 20: House T-Shirt Day
March 21: Elimination of Racial Discrimination Day
March 31: Songkran celebrations, end of Term 2
April 1-17: holidays. Term 3 starts on Tuesday April 18 (Day 6)
Primary
March 14: Year 1 to 6 Reports issues
March 15: Parent Conferences for Year 1 to 6
March 17: Primary Has Talent, heat 2
March 22: Songkran Assembly, 2.20pm
March 24: Reception trip to see trains
March 27: Foundation Term 2 Reports issued
March 28-29: Foundation Parent Conferences
March 28-30 : Primary Production (Years 3 to 6)
Secondary
March 3: IB2 Group 2 deadline for Written Assignments and Orals
March 3: IB1 Extended Essay workshop
March 4: Model United Nations’ trip to Regents Pattaya
March 4: Eco Challenge (period 8)
March 9: IB2 Group 1 deadline for Written Tasks
March 10: IB2 Chemistry and Business Management IA deadlines
March 10: IB Taster Day for all Year 11 students
March 14: IGCSE and IB Information Evenings, from 6pm in the Main Hall
March 21: Assembly, period 7
March 16-19: FOBISIA U13 Games, hosted by GIS
March 20: Year 9 students return their IGCSE subject choices
March 20: IGCSE ESL oral assessments
March 22: MAD (Music, Arts, Drama) Night
March 25: Model United Nations’ trip to ISE
March 27-31: IB1, 1st meeting with Extended Essay Supervisor
March 27-29: PSHE collapsed mornings for Years 7, 8 and 9 respectively
March 29: IB2 — final deadline for all Internal Assessment
March 31: Grade Cards issued
March 31: Assembly, period 2
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Head to our Facebook page for the latest news on
what’s been happening at GIS. This month, you
can read about:
www.facebook.com/gardeninternationalschool
You can also watch our latest videos about what’s
been happening at GIS by going here:
www.youtube.com/user/gardenrayongthailand
Follow us on Instagram! Find us at
garden_international_school or search for
#gistitans
Check out our Pinterest page and see the dozens
of photos showcasing life at GIS.
Follow our tweets on Twitter!
https://www.twitter.com/gisrayong
See our snaps and stories on Snapchat!
Our username is gisthailand
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From Mr Walsh: Head of Primary
Dear Parents and Carers,
Thank you for a great show of support for many of the events
that have happened in February, many of which are covered in
this newsletter. As a teacher, it is often interesting to consider the
correlation between parental support and achievement and wellbeing
of the children. We have many supportive parents within
our community, and this, coupled with a lovely school and a
great staff, leads to students achieving on all sorts of levels.
Core Values
When discussing the importance
of February’s Core
Value, Knowledgeable, the
children made some astute
and sensible suggestions as
to why it is important to be
knowledgeable:
As the temperature is increasing, so is the need to remind parents
that all students should have a hat in school. Students from
Early Years to Year 5 should wear a school hat, Year 6 are
allowed any kind of hat as long as it protects them from the sun.
Please can parents also make sure that their children have a
clean water bottle in school every day. There are plenty of water
points for refilling bottles and hydrated children are healthier,
happier children. On the issue of health and safety, I would like
to thank all parents, students and particularly cleaning and
maintenance staff and the school nurse for keeping the number
of communicable diseases down to an absolute minimum during
this season.
Primary Student Council
Each class elected new Primary Student Council members for
Term 2. These new members had their first meeting at the start
of February. The students engaged well in discussions and
shared good ideas on behalf of their classes. The Council decided
that the theme of the whole-school mufti day which will be careers
(the date is to be confirmed). Students can come to school
dressed as any career or job they like. A donation of 50 baht that
day will go to one of the school’s linked charities.

PRIMARY
BOOK DAY
Wednesday February 22 was
Book Day in Primary and
Foundation at GIS. The
theme, decided by the Primary
Student Council as well as the
teachers, was Endangered
Animals. Well done to all of
the students (and parents!)
who made the effort to dress
up; you looked great.
During the day we read lots of
animal stories and also
learned the difference between
endangered and dangerous.
The Year 1 classes started a
story each, then the story
moved through the classes
being extended every time.
We ended up with two marvelous
stories, The Elephant and
the Tiger, and The Triumphant
Elephant both performed
amazingly well by Year 6.
What a great day!
FRIENDS OF GARDEN PARENT REPRESENTATIVES
Several of the Primary classes have parent representatives now. If you are the parent of a child in one of the
Foundation classes, or Year 1, 4 or 6 and are interested in getting more involved with the school community,
please contact one of the teachers in those years, or Mr Walsh.
6

PRIMARY BOOK PARADE
7

Trips
YEAR 5 BEACH TRIP
On Tuesday February 7, Year 5 visited Phala Beach to explore and investigate
our local environment. Our first stop was the pier. We looked at
how the area is being used and discovered that there are many fishermen
in the area who rely on the ocean to live. We spoke with some
people who were fishing on the pier and did our best not to scare the
fish away.
After the pier we went over to the beach and had a walk
around. We observed that one end of the beach was much
cleaner than the other. We also discussed the strengths of
the area and then commented on some of the threats facing
the environment.
Before leaving to come back to school, we stopped for an ice
cream at one of the shops on the beach and cooled ourselves
down after our walk in the sun.
What a great way to spend a morning learning!
Trip to the Royal Navy Weather Station
Year 3 had a fantastic time visiting The
Royal Thai Navy Weather Station in Sattahip.
They were amazed to see all the
equipment they had been learning about
in action. They even saw a wind vane as
tall as themselves!
Their favourite part of the visit was blowing
the weather balloons up and carrying
them to the roof. The children released
them into the sky and watched them
soar high. They also tracked them using a
telescope.
8

RECEPTION / YEAR 1 & 2
SPORTS DAY
Foundation & Primary Sports Days
The Foundation and Primary Sports Days took
place over two days.
On day 1, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 all participated
in a variety of active field events on the
new Secondary hard court. The students had a
great time and displayed some very good skills
and abilities - all with big smiles on their faces!
Some of our Year 6 students were helpers and
they did a good job with explaining and running
the events, as well as supporting and motivating
the younger students.
After a break it was the track events. All students
took part in races and were cheered on by their
classmates, house-mates, teachers and parents.
Thank you to all of the parents who turned up for
this active community event, it was great to see so
many of you there.
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The Year 3 - 6 sports day was also
highly enjoyable. At the start Mr Walsh
said that it was about fun, fitness,
teamwork and competition and it surely
ticked all of those boxes! The school
houses (Eagle, Cobra, Tiger and
Gecko) could earn points over 3
events. Firstly, there were field events
in the morning involving javelin, high
jump, chest throw and many more.
Next were the track events involving
relay, sprint and shuttle relays. Finally
came the afternoon fun sports events,
joined by Year 1 and 2. These were
indeed fun, and also very competitive.
Many spectators almost lost their voices
cheering during the sack races,
football relays and tug-of-war contests!
The scores after the three events
were:
1st Place - Cobra
2nd Place - Tiger
3rd Place - Gecko
4th Place - Eagle
We are very proud of all of the Primary
students who showed great sporting
attitudes, as well as fantastic energy,
skill, determination and endurance.
A very big thank you goes to Mr Amuchou
and Khun Ball for organising this
year's enjoyable sports day events.
10

PRIMARY PRODUCTION COMING SOON!
Primary is proud and excited to present this year's musical 'Porridge', a detective
story in which Jack Spratt has been contacted by Goldie Lox to help her
find Ma Hubbard's kidnapped cow, Marigold.
With a host of other familiar fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters involved,
the show promises to entertain all ages.
Year 5 and 6 students have been working very hard to memorise lines, learn
songs and perfect dance routines. Together with our choir, made up of all the
children in Years 3 through 6, you don't want to miss this year's Primary Production
of 'Porridge'.
It will be performed on Thursday March 30 in the Main Hall at 7pm.
Tickets are free and will be available in mid-March.
SOCIAL MEDIA
You can find out more about all of the trips and events by going to our Facebook page.
To keep up with the learning as it happens, please see the class blogs.
Kind Regards,
Matt Walsh (Head of Primary)
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12

From our Head Boy and Girl
HAND TO HAND
COLLECTS DONATIONS
ENJOY OUR EVENTS!
Welcome back to another half term filled with activities, events
and lots of fun. We hope you had a good half term break and
have re-energised yourselves for the half-term ahead.
Since the start of this half-term we had the Maslenitsa event,
which is a celebration of the end of winter in Russia. GIS
celebrated this through trying to say Russian tongue twisters,
seeing which teacher could do the most push ups and eating lots
of pancakes.
Following our recent collection
of items for the Hand to Hand
Foundation in Pattaya, the
grateful group came to collect
the hundreds of items.
Pictured above is Margie from
Hand to Hand with two IB2 students.
This initiative was
launched by our Global Action
Committee—there will be similar
drives very soon to help out
chosen charities.
The school launched a new
Global Action Committee with a
whole school assembly. This
included a talk from the Hand to
Hand Foundation in Pattaya,
which helps impoverished children
and their families.
Maslenitsa is the first of the events planned for the half-term
ahead, other events include World Wildlife Day, International
Women’s Day, International Day and M.A.D night. This half-term
is filled with various and vibrant events for students at GIS; we
hope that you take part in these events and enjoy them to their
fullest.
As for the IGCSE and IB students these next few months are very
important for them and we wish them they best as they work hard
to achieve the grades they deserve.
Remember to keep working hard at your studies and also enjoy
the events planned for this half term.
Quote of the month: “ Education is the most powerful
weapon you can use to change the world” Nelson Mandela
Several students were so
moved by what they heard,
they decided they wanted to
help and collect items. A weeklong
drive was launched and
resulted in many, many boxesfull
of items for Hand to Hand,
one of the school’s chosen
charities for this year.
Head Boy – Jignil
Head Girl – Shilpi

We have some great school blogs to tell you about life at GIS. Click
on the links below to see what’s been going on!
PRIMARY BLOGS
Early Years http://earlyyears.gardenrayong.com/
Nursery http://nursery.gardenrayong.com/
Reception http://reception.gardenrayong.com/
Year 1 http://year1.gardenrayong.com/
Year 2 http://year2.gardenrayong.com/
Year 3 http://year3.gardenrayong.com/
Year 4 http://year4.gardenrayong.com/
Year 5 http://year5.gardenrayong.com/
Year 6 http://year6.gardenrayong.com/
ESL Blog: http://primaryels.gardenrayong.com
SECONDARY BLOGS
Year 7-9
IGCSE
IB
http://year7to9.gardenrayong.com/
http://gisigcse.gardenrayong.com/
http://ib.gardenrayong.com/
WHOLE SCHOOL BLOGS
Extra-curricular Sport
Extra-curricular Music
http://gissport.gardenrayong.com/
http://gismusicblog.gardenrayong.com/
Extra-curricular Drama http://gisdrama.gardenrayong.com/
Library
http://library.gardenrayong.com/
Community Programmes http://communityprogrammes.gardenrayong.com/
Community Service
Friends of Garden
Boarding
http://gisserviceprojects.gardenrayong.com/
http://friendsofgarden.gardenrayong.com/
http://gisboarding.gardenrayong.com/

15

From Mr Share: Head of Secondary
Dear parents,
It is a good time to reflect on how sport is important to all areas of the school.
Recent Sports Days and the upcoming FOBISIA meeting being held at GIS are a chance to showcase how
we are very proud we are of the quality and breadth of the provision of sporting activities at GIS. You may
not be aware of the importance of sport to our community and its impact on your child’s development. Staff
at GIS are given regular feedback on results from the PE department and the coaches come from all areas
of our faculties. We publish our results to all students and we rightly celebrate our wins, but also recognise
that when we are not winning we analyse what we did well and how we could develop. People often overlook
the benefits of good-quality sport provision at school and do not see how much it complements our
Core Values.
Physical literacy is the act of running, jumping, catching and throwing, of which all Primary school students
are expected to graduate with from Year 6. Research has shown that, at all ages where schools have
good PE provision, SATs results, attendance records and behaviour tend to improve. Young people’s
participation in sport improves their numeracy scores by 8% on average above non-participants. It is well
known that there is the need for exercise as part of a healthy lifestyle, but our sport provision dovetails with
a child’s learning about values and developing attitude.
Pupils are challenged to be independent and constantly practising to improve. Students are provided with
personal targets to achieve personal bests and also have to work collaboratively as part of a team. Our
coaches in PE or in the sports teams ask pupils to reflect and analyse on performance. The physical and
mental challenge of trying an array of sports or competing with peers and in front of crowds, builds character
and helps focus students.
The flourishing nature of our PE lessons, clubs and teams gives students access to a range of opportunities
to perform at many levels. Our sports provision helps build the idea of community amongst students,
staff and parents who come to watch and support. It is great to see so many parents at so many events.
We all appreciate the support and it is a great chance to interact and celebrate a student’s willingness to
compete, improve and succeed. Sport is something students and parents from all cultures should embrace
as part of a child’s development.
Regards
Mr Share
Head of Secondary
headsec@gardenrayong.com

MASLENITSA COMES
TO GIS
Russia's Maslenitsa Festival was
celebrated at Garden International
School (GIS).
Some of the school's Russian students
came up with the idea of celebrating
the festival, which marks
the end of winter and the start of
spring.
Russian pancakes were sold during
break and lunch, raising 800 baht
for the Baan Kruu Boonchoo special
school in Sattahip. There was
also an assembly where students
learned about the history of Maslenitsa,
then took part in a Russian
tongue-twister challenge and a
push-up competition. Well done to
the students who arranged the
school's very first 'Russian Day'.
17

TALENT SHOW
Sharp dance moves, soaring vocals and even juggling ensured the Secondary
Talent Show was a huge hit. Organised by Creativity Prefect Tara, the acts performed
to a packed audience of Secondary students.
During the break, while judges decided on the winners, Mr Carr entertained the audience
with a juggling masterclass. After some tough deliberations, the winners were an all-girl
trio who sang a mash-up of Sugar, Love Me Like You Do and See You Again. In second
place was a duet who performed Two is Better Than One and in third spot was another 18 allgirl
trio who sang Ride.

We continue to celebrate all the countries represented at GIS by flying a different nation’s
flag each week. Here are the countries that have recently been recognised at the
front of the school. These are organised by our Head Girl and Humanities’ Prefect,
Shilpi.

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21

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IDEAS FOR STAYING
SAFE ONLINE
Here’s our monthly report of what our IB students
are doing for Creativity, Activity, Service
(CAS).
IB students prepared a morning of activities for
Year 7 to 9 students to show them how to stay
safe online. The Information Technology in a
Global Society (ITGS) students planned various
activities as part of the younger students’
Personal, Social, Health and Education (PSHE)
mornings. Here’s a round-up of what they did.
Year 7
We started the day with an ice breaker - ‘Who is
your favourite celebrity?’ Then we introduced the
learning objectives and discovered what they already
knew with a little quiz. In period 2 we assigned
different scenarios to 6 groups of students
to create a skit and act it out. Overall I feel that the
Year 7s enjoyed this activity and the end result
from each group was creative. In period 3 we
watched some videos and students had to answer
questions. There was a brief discussion about the
video and questions at the end.
In period 4 we introduced them to Elisa Robinson,
someone lots of the students were talking to actively
on Instagram. However, Elisa Robinson was
actually a fraudulent profile we created (with permission)
on Instagram to emphasise the dangers
of talking to strangers online.
When we informed them that we were in fact Elisa
they were in a state of complete disbelief! So
much so that we had to show proof that we had full
access to the account. We ended the day with a
poster-making session — the best posters will be
displayed in ICT1. Overall I felt that the day was a
total success because the students seemed to get
all the main points; this can be seen in the details
they put into their e-safety posters.
Mangpo
Year 8
Tara and I prepared an E-Safety lesson for the Year
8s’ PSHE collapsed morning. We looked at several
aspects of e-safety such as netiquette, internet profiles,
phishing and spamming, as well as internet
addiction.
Students took part in various activities ranging from
skits to interactive Kahoot quizzes. We were surprised
to see the skill that was shown by the students
in the various activities, especially the skits as
they were given a limited amount of time.
Overall, this was a great learning experience for both
of us as we got to experience what teachers deal
with on a daily basis, and it is not easy by any
means!
Shomit
Year 9
This was an exciting and hectic day filled with lots of
activities to teach students about Terms and Conditions,
Geotagging, Sexting and the Darknet.
Starting off with a “Think, Know, Question” activity,
all 48 students explored their knowledge of words
like stigma, intellectual property, digital tattoo, and
more. They then played Kahoot quizzes in two different
groups and we discussed the issues surrounding
Geotagging and Sexting.
Later, all the students were introduced to the Darknet
by watching a thrilling documentary -
“Cybercrime with Ben Hammersly” - which allowed
the students to visualize how the darknet works and
what it contains.
An important lesson was learnt later, when the Year
9 students found out that they had agreed to be
‘slaves’ of the IB students by signing a fake Terms
and Conditions sheet. Afterwards, humourous skits
mimicking real life situations about all the topics
were acted out before students reflected on what
they learned throughout the day by making a poster.
Narisa
23

TOP 10 ONLINE SAFETY TIPS
(by IB1 students)
Remember to keep the location services (GPS) on any
smartphone, tablet, lap-top etc., turned off most of the time.
This prevents people from tracking your movements and finding
out where you are.
Before agreeing to anything, look through the key clauses of
the Terms and Conditions. You don’t need to read the whole
document - just get an understanding by skim reading.
Sexting can have a negative effect on one’s future by leaving
a Digital Tattoo. For example pictures or messages could resurface
just when a person is applying for job applications or
even universities. This could result in them not getting in.
Think twice before using the Dark Net. People trade in illegal
products such as drugs, weapons etc. there and because of
this your computer could be bombarded with harmful viruses.
Cyberbullying is real. If a person feels this is happening to
them they should report it to a trusted adult, for example their
parents or a teacher, or even tell their friends. Just getting
support could help a person.
Remember if you delete something from your social media,
that image or status is not really deleted, which then creates a
digital tattoo, or footprint. So be careful what you post for the
world to see.
Be cautious of people online. Remember some people are not
who they say they are and even pictures can be fake. Teenagers
and pre-teens, if they are going to talk to a stranger online,
should remember to never give out any personal information.
Even though users cannot sometimes see each other, remember
to treat everyone online as you would like to be treated in
real life. People online tend to have different personalities than
how they are in reality. Just because you are behind a screen
does not mean that a person should turn into a barbarian.
This one is for parents or guardian of teenagers and pre-teens
regarding their social media. Most social media apps or sites
do have age restrictions (often 13 years old) so do regulate
what they post.
Internet addiction is a real thing. Remember there is a world
beyond a small rectangular screen. What is the better option:
liking someone’s post about how much fun they had at the
beach or actually going to the beach to experience it for yourself?
24

House Council
SPORTS’ SNACKS HELP STUDENT COUNCIL
Well done to the House Council, which ran its own drinks and snacks stall at the Secondary Sports Day.
This helped students with their organisational, skills, raised funds for the Student Council and also helped a
lot of tired students who had been running or jumping!
VALENTINE’S SURPRISE FOR
LOCAL CHARITY
Students and staff raised money for a local charity
after buying hundreds of Valentine’s gifts.
In total, 5660 baht was raised for the Khun
Boonchoo special school near Ban Chang, which is
one of GIS’s chosen charities for this year.
Prefects arranged for roses, chocolates and even
serenades and memes to be delivered.
IB1 students helped deliver hundreds of orders for Valentine’s Day!

Sport
SECONDARY SPORTS DAY
The final day before the half-term break saw students leap, throw and hop to earn House points as
part of Secondary Sports Day.
After leading for most of the day, Cobra was just beaten by Tiger, who sneaked ahead in the points’ tally to be
named overall winners. This year’s events had some great new features, including a version of the Harry Potter
game Quidditch, the egg-and-spoon race and table tennis challenges.
Many thanks to the PE department (and our Maintenance team) for arranging such a great day. You can see
many of the events on our Snapchat account and on YouTube.
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SECONDARY
SPORTS DAY
2017
Garden International School
Your choice. Their future. Our family.
Find us at:
Website: www.gardenrayong.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Garden-International-School-Rayong-Thailand/128699487157809
Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/gardenrayongthailand
Twitter:
www.twitter.com/gisrayong
Accredited by
Affiliated to
27