On Sunday 27 September 2015, BIST fielded a number of golfers in The Bangkok Cup. The first event in this competition was hosted by Harrow International School at Riverdeal Golf Club.
Bromsgrove sent a team of 7 golfers to take part in this tournament, and gained some outstanding results.

Tanapat Pichaikool (Peng) – Year 11: Winner in class A boys (score 69 – 3 under par) and Gross score winner. Peng has now won this two years in a row.

Nicha Vorrasanpisut (Eng) – Year 10: 4th place in class B girls.Overall: In the overall team event, Bromsgrove managed a very impressive 3rd place.
The Bromsgrove team was made up of seven of our brightest golf stars; Peng; Boat; Eng; Jump; Dream; Ja; and Timer.

The next Bangkok cup event takes place at Green Valley Golf Club on Sunday 11 October 2015, hosted by ASB.
Mr Attasit Idsuwan
Golf Coordinator

Congratulations to Jamie and Sakura (Head Boy and Head Girl), MinHeo and Jazzy (Deputy Head Boy and Deputy Head Girl), Harry (Chair of the Wellbeing Committee) and Weilli (Chair of the Learning Committee). These children form the Primary Student Executive and we look forward to working with them to ensure that student voice is the cornerstone of the outstanding education we offer at BIST.

This week we have seen another great selection of activities on offer in boarding: in addition to the regular offerings, we have offered baking, paper craft, Muay Thai, Squash, origami, fitness and circuit training and indoor games, and, on Thursday, all of the boarders attended the excellent Polio Points concert. On Friday we took one busload of students to Fashion Island for a chance to do some shopping. On Saturday, the trip to Safariworld was great fun for all those that attended, despite the rain! I am pleased to announce that, based on feedback from parents, students and staff, I have been working closely with Epicure, our catering company, to improve the selection of food on offer in the evenings and at weekends. We now have a greater selection of signature dishes, and boarders can now vote on an extra special dish that will be served on Sunday evening, with this week seeing the return of the very popular sushi dishes! This week we have also had a couple of birthdays in the house. If parents request,we can always arrange a special event or cake: just speak to any of the boarding staff if you would like any help or would like us to pass on a special gift. Next Friday evening, we will be going on a trip to Airsoft, and will also be offering a trip to Asiatique on Saturday. I hope that, after the open day, lots of the boarders will be signing up to the regular Sport and Spa session on Wednesday night after school. Over the week, we will also be asking the students for feedback on boarding so far this term to see where we can further improve and what they like the best from boarding. This year and beyond, we are aiming to take in much more regular feedback from parents and students about boarding to see how we can improve. Outside of these times, however, please do feed back to us if you have any comments about boarding at Bromsgrove. The Line @bistbo group is growing steadily in numbers, with 80 members on the group receiving regular updates on what is going on in boarding on a daily basis. Please do join the group if you haven’t done so already.

This week was one to celebrate in the Arts at Bromsgrove. To start with, Ms Reeks and her team oversaw the hotly contested heats for this year’s Bromsgrove’s Got Talent, and the finalists have now been announced. Each finalist will be mentored for the next fortnight, before the finals after school on Thursday 15 October – a date for all your diaries! Then, on Thursday, over 100 staff, students and visitors enjoyed what will hopefully be the first of many, annual Polio Points Rock Concerts. Morning Four, a band consisting of students Shrewsbury and ISB, alongside Bromsgrove’s own Thomas on drums, who have already performed in prestigious venues around the country, wowed audiences with an hour’s set, full of original songs, and equally original covers. The concert also showed off quite what our fantastic auditorium is capable of, in the hands of our fantastic Arts Faculty and Admin teams. And, of course, the concert proved that music can, indeed, save lives, as the tickets sold funded 167 vaccines against Polio for children around the world. Finally, the week concluded with our choir participating in the high-profile Bangkok International Choir Festival at ISB, with Miss Alice, Ms Frisbie and Mr Meadows Taylor accompanying our very best choristers to sing against and alongside the best in Bangkok. A special congratulations to Nond and Anna, whose performances were especially impressive. If this is what we can achieve in the Arts at Bromsgrove in one week, imagine what we can achieve in the year ahead!

Morning Four, the leading band to come out of Bangkok’s prestigious Rockademy music school, came to Bromsgrove this week, to headline the 1st, annual Polio Points Rock Concert.

With Shrewsbury’s Bobbi Kimble on guitar and vocals, ISB’s Riccardo Barletta on Bass, and Bromsgrove’s own Thomas Savage on drums, the band has performed across the country for the last year or so, including at Jimlai, Big Mountain, Music in the Park and our own Opening Ceremony for the BIST Performing Arts Centre.

This was their first full concert, and they amazed an audience of over 100 students, teachers and visitors with an hour’s set full of covers of songs from Muse to Blink 182, Green Day to Taylor Swift, an ‘unplugged’, acoustic segment, and even three of their own original tracks. The concert also showcased the fantastic sound and lighting facilities available within our state-of-the-art Performing Arts Centre, possibly one of the most professional school Arts venues in the country.

Congratulations to the students involved, and thanks to all the staff who made it possible, and to Rockademy, with whom we hope to collaborate widely in the future. With only two weeks left until Bromsgrove’s Got Talent, and with the school choir currently competing at the Bangkok Choir Festival at ISB, the standard of music at Bromsgrove has never been better!

Click here to see more photos

The BIST basketball teams have exploded into life in the TISAC (Thailand International Schools Activity Conference) competition over the last two weeks, and what a great start to the season. We have entered 6 teams into various leagues and while two of our girls teams have yet to start competitive games, our other teams are all underway and winning!

At U13 and U15 we have had very close games with the lead in each game changing many times before the BIST teams have taken control in the later stages of the games. Whilst it is hard to single out students Bank in the U13’s and Karn in the U15’s have made outstanding contributions to the teams so far.

Our senior boys have been involved in two very competitive and physical games and again we have been able to stretch our lead in the latter stages of games. The senior boys team is shaping up to be a very strong team, with Peter Ball and Ben Cox having had stand out performances in their first two games.

With seven games played and six wins, we are fast becoming the school to be feared in basketball and I look forward to seeing our girls teams following suit over the next few weeks.

I look forward to seeing many of you on the sidelines over the coming weeks.

Every year, our students distinguish themselves in their public examinations, regularly featuring in the list of Thailand’s top students.

We have now appointed the new Student Voice committees across both the Primary and Secondary Schools, including our new Head Boy, Pat Wichitwechkarn and our new Head Girl, Jade Taylor. Well done to them both, and to all our Student Voice representatives: exciting changes and developments are in store with these students at the helm…

Bromsgrove International School Thailand

It has been an extremely busy few weeks at school since my last update. Over the last 18 months, we have increasingly developed our Student Voice across the school, and last week we appointed the new Student Voice committees across both the Primary and Secondary School, including our new Head Boy, Pat Wichitwechkarn and our new Head Girl, Jade Taylor. Well done to them both and I am sure they will be fantastic in their new roles this academic year. I would like to thank all the students who took the time to apply and interview for the student voice roles across the school – it takes energy and determination to do this and I was very impressed with the number of students who wanted to put themselves forward.

The new BIST sports academies, run by our outside provider, One Sport, continue to go from strength to strength on the WP campus with over 30 participants taking part in the football and swimming each week. One Sport have told me that the swimming academy is now wait-listed, so, if you wish to sign up for Term 2, please do not delay in putting your child’s name down. I am in discussions with One Sport with regards to launching a weekend Football and Basketball academy later this term, and I will update parents when this has been finalised,

It has been a real pleasure for me as Head of School to be able to drop into every classroom over the past two weeks to see what Learning and Teaching has been going on across the school. The word I will use to describe what takes place in our classrooms this year is ‘wow’. The quality of Learning and Teaching is outstanding, and I can honestly say, as your Head of School, that I do not think you will find a higher quality of teaching staff in any other international school in Thailand. We are planning to have open days later this year so parents too can see for themselves what their children are learning in classes – more information to follow.

At last, the first of the BIST sports teams have sprung into action in the TISAC competition. We have six basketball ball teams competing and what a fantastic start to the season with 2 wins from 2 games! On Tuesday, our U15 boys basketball team travelled to Concordian School to play their well-drilled team. Despite a very slow start to the first quarter, the team finished very well to secure a 25-23 win. This was a really good team performance, with Kong and Niphon instrumental in our comeback from an 8 point deficit. Our senior boys team then had their first game on Wednesday, away at Bangkok Christian International School, and were very impressive in a 75-65 win. Despite the score, this was a close game for 3 quarters, but, in the final session, the experience and ability of Peter Ball and Ben Cox was too much for BCIS. With another five basketball fixtures this week, I look forward to being able to report back on more successes next week.