All School eNews

25th Annual Bangkok International Choir Festival (BICF) Gala

CONCERT: 25th annual Bangkok International Choir Festival (BICF) Gala Concert will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 5, in the Chevron Theatre. This year’s festival will feature choirs from sixteen international schools under the direction of guest conductors, Dinah Helgeson and John Baker.  A cake reception follows the concert and admission is free. Hope to see you there!

by Anthony A. Giles, Director of Arts & Community Activities 
anthonyg@isb.ac.th

 

First Friday with Andy

The next “First Friday with Andy” will take place on Friday 4th October at 8:00am in the Orange Room (near the admissions office).

“First Friday with Andy” is an open forum for parents to meet informally with the Head of School and address any topics of interest or concern. No signing up is necessary; simply come and participate if you are free and interested.

Dr. Andrew Davies, Head of School
andrewd@isb.ac.th

Air Quality Management

Dear ISB Community.

We understand there are many questions related to how ISB is addressing the indoor and outdoor pollution at ISB.  

Since last year, we have been working hard on the management of air quality and have developed a systematic approach to our specific situation. We adopted strategies taken from China and other regions around the world and worked closely with Harrow International School, NIST, Shrewsbury, and Bangkok Patana to devise best practices for the Bangkok area. 

Below is a summary of what has and what will be happening in the near future.

• Last year we developed Air Quality Guidelines in partnership with other area Bangkok schools.
• Outside, we have installed a high quality Thermal Fisher ADR 1500 air quality monitor which pushes the air quality (PM2.5) and other data to our web-site.
• We have 2 other branded monitors that enable us to spot check our outdoor data and compare our readings with other schools in Bangkok using like-for-like equipment.
• For indoor air purification, last year we tested various types of equipment and came to the conclusion that a positive pressure filtration systems is the best solution for overall air quality. We then installed and tested two different types of systems in our ES world language classrooms and decided on the best one.
• This summer, the preferred Environment Assured, positive pressure system was installed in the PK/Kindergarten area for (phase 1).  https://www.environment-assured.com/
• During the October break, the rest of the ES classrooms will have the same positive pressure systems installed (phase 2).
• We will continue installing units through the rest of the school, with completion planned within this school year (phase 3).
• The new health clinic had a positive pressure filtration system installed during its construction.
• Large spaces such as gyms, and libraries currently have positive pressure systems running, and we will soon be upgrading the filters.
• Air quality in every space with an air purification system (and some without) is measured with indoor measuring devices and monitored online from the Risk Management office.
• The total board approved budget this year for installing the positive pressure filtration systems in all classrooms is THB 25 million.
• The facility master plan will take into consideration that more indoor spaces will be needed due to air quality and the heat index. As a result, auxiliary gyms are planned to be enclosed when they are renovated. The timing of this depends on the implementation of the masterplan.

All efforts above are with the sole purpose of providing a safe and healthy environment for students, staff and community.  If we all can work together by educating ourselves on the current ISB Air Quality Guidelines, and monitoring the outdoor conditions, we will help provide a healthier ISB campus.

If you would like to discuss this in more detail, please let me know or feel free to stop by.

by Mark Hevland, Director of Risk Management
markh@isb.ac.th

 

October Board of Trustees Changed to 8 October

Dear ISB Community Members,

The Board of Trustees meeting scheduled for 15th October has been changed to Tuesday 8th October at 6:00pm in MPB3.

BOT Agenda 8 October 2019

IASAS Championships – Season 1 

The Super IASAS is quickly approaching. ISM, who are celebrating their 100th year, are hosting all of the season one championships in Manila, October 10-12, 2019. ISB are sending 83 delegates, including our cross country, soccer, and volleyball teams to the Philippines for what is shaping up to be one of the most memorable events in IASAS history. 

You can follow all of the action, live streaming, results, and more via the official tournament website: iasas.ismanila..org

Alternatively, you can download the official tournament app on your mobile device by visiting the App/Play store and searching for “IASAS”.

We will also be live streaming many of the Thursday and Friday games in the cafeteria. Don’t miss a minute of the action, and show your support for our Mighty Panthers!

By Derrick Quinet, derrickq@isb.ac.th
Athletic Director

 

Raising Multilinguals Parent Workshop: Unlocking the World with a Family Language Plan

On Thursday, October 17, 2019, from 7:45 to 9:15 a.m. in MPB 1, ISB EAL and Native Language faculty and administrators will offer a workshop for parents from all divisions (ES, MS, HS) about maintaining students’ native languages while they also study in English at ISB. This will be similar to the Raising Multilinguals workshop offered in prior years, and is especially useful for new families.

At this workshop, faculty and administrators will:

• Present reasons to maintain native language, based on research
• Describe language classes and resources available at ISB
• Discuss the importance of making a family language plan

Faculty will also lead small group discussions of how to nurture particular languages, how to support multilingual development at home, and how to make a language plan work.

Please join us! Parents of students in PreK through Grade 12 are welcome. For further information, please email: nativelanguage@isb.ac.th

 

Looking for Registered Nurses, EMTs, and Medical practitioners

Calling all registered nurses, EMTs, and medical practitioners.  ISB is currently looking for trained professionals to support the ISB health clinic. Our team of five Thai registered nurses support ISB in so many ways. They staff the newly renovated health clinic all regular school days from 7:00am – 8:00pm, Monday through Friday, as well as on Saturdays from 8:00am – 5:00pm.  The team also covers ISB events on Sunday along with some student trips.

We are seeking additional support to assist us when needed with: single day coverage, event support, and short term coverage when a clinic nurse is supporting a trip or away.  All clinic support members would be supervised by a Thai nurse at all times.

If you are interested in supporting the clinic, please contact June D’Mello juned@isb.ac.th and or  Khun Usa Somboon usomboon@isb.ac.th