What a wonderful week in Secondary! Yet again, I had the pleasure of visiting a number of classrooms in a variety of subject disciplines to experience the learning journeys of our Bromsgrove students. I was extremely impressed with the depth and breadth of knowledge that I saw, coupled with the sheer enjoyment and delight from students as they embarked upon many different pathways to expand their understanding. One striking element was the growth of independence and confidence amongst our student body; from the youngest in Year 7 all the way through to our most senior students in Year 13. The creative and collaborative environments that permeate our school are wonderful to experience and students are producing such individualised, beautiful and precise work in all subjects, from Art to Science. There was also a UKMT Maths Challenge for our Senior students and they were most definitely challenged to perform at their best! On Friday, we introduced the Big House Quiz, with all form groups taking part through the wonder of technology simultaneously. The winners this time were Mr Lee’s Year 7 form in Edwards, so a huge congratulations to all members of this tutor group. We are all looking forward to the next quiz and seeing who wins!

Congratulations to Lucky (Year 13) who has secured a place at Blue Mountains University in Sydney, Australia to study Hospitality and Hotel Management. She has also secured a scholarship from the university, who have told Lucky that they believe she “will be a wonderful ambassador for the school and possess the potential to become one of the hospitality leaders of tomorrow.”
Congratulations to Lucky and we wish her the very very best!

On Sunday night the house was buzzing with students who had not seen each other for a week, and it was great to see so many parents dropping by to say hello to the boarding staff on the way through. So far this term, we have now started our evening tutoring due to now having the full boarding team. On Thursday, we also hosted an excellent Halloween party, involving a buffet dinner, movies, dressing-up and karaoke. The weekend trip to Flow House was probably one of our most popular trips so far, with two busloads of students, accompanied by Mr Minh and some of the teaching staff, enjoying a day of surfing and surfing lessons followed by dinner at K Village. A big thank you to the prefect team for all of their ongoing hard work: this week we have started to redesign our behaviour policy within boarding, with the prefect team and student feedback.

At Bromsgrove, we are proud to value the learning of our teachers as much as we do the learning of our students. As a result, we have, this year, launched a cutting-edge, online platform through which all teachers will track their training, appraisal and professional development. With ‘BlueSky’, we have joined the world’s leading international schools in prioritising staff development, and every teacher is now able to develop and grow in response to personalised targets and an individual development plan, much like we offer to our children. In addition, this week saw the launch of the BIST ‘Aspiring Leaders’ programme, with many teachers having subscribed to join either the ‘Aspiring Middle Leaders’ course, led by Mrs Young and Ms Bennett, or the ‘Aspiring Senior Leaders’ course, led by me and Dr Moore. These courses will take place over four workshops throughout the year, and it was fantastic to be able to work with a team of such amazing, future leaders. As with BlueSky, it was also great to be able to develop our teachers in such an effective way – not only for their own benefit, but also for the benefit of all your children.

The first week after the holiday in Secondary flew by, packed full of exciting lessons, sports and house activities. Our newly appointed Sports Captains were hard at work with Mr Gater, organising the dodgeball tournament that took place at lunchtime and the House Captains were busy organising and co-ordinating the Halloween event which took place on Friday. A number of students completed fantastic ELOs and ILTs over the holiday and their teachers asked them to show me their work. I was very impressed with the quality and the creativity of all the pieces I saw, particularly a very imaginative and humorous board game created by Lobster in Year 7 for his English ELO. The week ended with a very scary amount of costumes and Halloween activities – we had ghosts galore! The Birds display in the Library was eye-catching and the ‘pumpkin’ carving also displayed our Bromsgrove students’ artistic talents.

On Monday, the Early Years campus was buzzing with activity as all the children took part in their Super Start to introduce the topic of Adventurers and Explorers. It was a great day, with children completing treasure hunts, making maps and binoculars, becoming travel agents, making passports and even exploring space. On Windsor Park, our Super Start was on Tuesday. It was an action packed day with a wide variety of activities. The Year 2s made a raft out of balloons, clingfilm and water bottles and tried to cross the swimming pool. This resulted in many wet children (and teachers). The Year 3s launched rockets, combining Design Technology and Science to varying degrees of success. The Year 4s had an Egyptian-themed Scavenger Hunt around the school, using their knowledge of hieroglyphics to work out the puzzles and find the prize.The Year 5 classroom became Dr Who’s tardis, and finally the Year 6s were dropped off at an unknown location and had to navigate their way back to school only to find an alien invasion had occurred and the field was full of crop circles and strange substances to investigate. Our week finished with Halloween Celebrations. The fun-filled day included story sessions and drama activities based on ghostly goings-on as well as a House costume competition. What a Super Start to our topic and the term!

Nano (Year 7) won the Gold Prize in the Bangkok Round of the Yamaha Thailand Music Festival 2016. Nano will now be the representative of Bangkok to compete in the Yamaha Thailand Music Festival Championship round in 2016. Congratulations, Nano, on a fantastic achievement!

On the morning of Tuesday 10th November, Bromsgrove International School Thailand (BIST) will be hosting 17 UK universities for a small university fair. This is an excellent opportunity for students to meet representatives from top institutions and ask questions about higher education in an intimate setting; as such all students in Years 11, 12 and 13 will be in attendance.

The universities attending are:
1. Aston University
2. Bangor University
3. University of Bristol
4. Kingston University
5. University of Liverpool
6. Liverpool Hope University
7. Queen Mary University of London
8. University of Reading
9. The University of Sheffield
10. University of Surrey
11. Durham University
12. Keele University
13. Queen’s University Belfast
14. University of Leeds
15. University of Dundee
16. University of Glasglow
17. University of Aberdeen

Date Team Opposition Venue Start Time
10/29/15 U13 Boys BKK Prep BKK Prep 3.00pm
Snr Girls Volleyball BIST 3.30pm
10/30/15 Snr Girls BKK Prep BIST 3.00pm
10/31/15 U15 Boys Tournament Concordian 8.45 – 13.30
U15 Girls Tournament Charter 8.45 – 13.30
11/2/15 U15 Girls Wells BIST 3.30pm
11/3/15 Snr Girls Volleyball Wells BIST 3.30pm
Snr Boys Football Ascot Ascot 3.30pm
11/5/15 Snr Girls BCIS BCIS 3.00pm
11/6/15 Snr Girls Volleyball Concordian Concordian 3.30pm
11/9/15 Snr Girls KIS BIST 3.30pm
11/10/15 U15 Girls BCIS BCIS 3.00pm
11/11/15 U13 Girls Sukhumvit 107
St. Andrews		 Sukhumvit 107
St. Andrews		 3.00pm
11/14/15 Snr Boys Tournament Wells 8.45 – 13.30
Snr Girls Tournament TBC 8.45 – 13.30
11/16/15 U15 Girls KIS BIST 3.30pm
11/27/15 Primary Athletics Tournament SIS All day
12/8/15 Secondary Athletics Tournament KMITL All day