NIST News - 26 September 2014

Pinktober is coming! Next Wed. will bring one of the biggest events of the first semester, and we hope to see many of you at the school supporting a worthy cause. Additionally, please be reminded that next Thursday, 2 October will be an early release day, and NIST will be closed on Friday, 3 October for our scheduled in-service day. We are entering a busy time of the year, so please check the upcoming events and don't forget to buy your tickets for Supernova: The Musical.

WHOLE SCHOOL

Reminder: Early Release Day on Thursday, 2 October

Next Thursday, 2 October will be an early release day at NIST. This year we have scheduled these days next to long weekends or holidays in order to make it possible for any families who want to travel to have more time to do so. Because the early release days are used for teachers' professional learning, ECAs will not run on each of the early release days. Please be aware that students will finish school at 1:15 PM next Thursday and will be expected to leave school as soon as possible after this.

Kick-off Pinktober on 1 October at NIST!

On Wednesday 1 October, NIPTA & the PE Department will be hosting Pinktober at NIST.

Students, you can wear a pink shirt or accessories with your uniform shorts, and please don’t forget to donate 20 Thai baht to the fund. For those who have school photos that day, please don’t forget to bring your full uniform to school!

Parents, we need your help! It would be great if you could join in the fun and support this worthy cause by wearing pink, donating cupcakes and making a donation, too!

Pinktober is an annual event to raise awareness of women’s health screening and to raise funds for preventative health checks for our own NIST support staff.

NIPTA will be selling pink ribbons and various pink accessories in the morning as the students arrive at school, and will be holding a cupcake sale during the secondary & elementary morning breaks. We would love our parents to donate cupcakes to the sale. Please do let us know if you can help in any way.

Cupcakes can be dropped off at the new food design kitchen in the CAB. If you’d like to stay and help, please contact nipta.nist@gmail.com.

Dreams for the Future: NIST's Inaugural Art Auction

Express yourself through the medium of your choice and help our community build the new World Languages Centre and Elementary Library! No matter who you are in the NIST community, the NIST Development Department and art team invite you to send in your art piece--whether a sculpture, photo, painting, mixed media or even food creation--to be auctioned off during the school's first art auction. You can complete this mission individually or collaboratively. Submissions should align with the theme Dreams for the Future and can be in any medium or size. 
Email photos of your piece to Jenny Tiefel by 17 November and bring it to the 4th floor of the CAB on 24 November. The auction will take place on Wednesday, 26 November from 5:00 - 8:00 PM.

Cancer Support Group for NIST Parents and Staff

A cancer support group for the NIST community will launch next month! Please join us the second Wednesday of each month as we discuss how this disease affects us as patients, survivors and caregivers. In October, we'll use John Green's novel The Fault in Our Stars as a springboard for our conversation. 

• Time: 7:00 - 9:00 PM, Wednesday, 8 October 2014 
• Venue: Bistro 33, 22 Soi Sukhumvit 33 (no-host food and beverage) 
• RSVP or find out more: Please contact Kristen (090-676-0174)
  

Well-known Artist to Visit NIST

Pamela Irving (http://pamelairving.com.au), an Australian visual artist specialising in bronze, ceramic and mosaic sculptures, printmaking, and copper etchings, will be visiting NIST. We are lucky enough to have her come and work with some of staff and students. We will be creating a mosaic for the front of school. To help us complete this project, we are sending out a call out for unwanted crockery (cups, plates or tiles). They will be broken into smaller pieces to become part of our mosaic. Please drop off any items in Ms. Jules' room (Housai, 2nd floor, CAB)

Supernova: The Musical

Help support an original musical, written and produced by the NIST Music Department. Tickets go on general sale from Monday morning in front of the ATM.SHOW DATES

• Tuesday, 14 October, 7:00 PM
• Wednesday, 15 October, 3:00 PM (Matinee)
• Thursday, 16 October, 7:00 PM

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Year 4 Camp Parent Information Night

On Tuesday, 30 September, a meeting will be held for parents of year 4 students to provide information about the upcoming camp. It will take place at 4:30 PM in the NIST Theatre. You may contact Graham Wardle for additional details.

SECONDARY SCHOOL

Years 8-11 Week on the Wild Side Parent Information Evening

On Monday, 29 September a session will be held to provide information about the upcoming WOWS trips. This will take place from 7:30 to 8:30 PM in the NIST Theatre, and we encourage all parents of students in these year levels to attend in order learn more about the schedules, as well as the value of these learning experiences.

International Schools Clean Up the Reef Day

Working with other international schools, the NIST Ocean Marine Guardians service group instigated and participated in a Clean Up the Reef Day on Saturday, 13 September. A group of 50 from NIST were part of a larger group of 304 people who cleaned up a beach on Ko Sak Island off the coast of Pattaya. The group cleaned up several hundred kilos of trash and ferried it back to the boats to be disposed of properly in Pattaya. A smaller group from NIST intends to recycle some of the plastic into furniture, similar to this example. 

One major outcome of the day is that students realized the amount of plastic that finds it way into the oceans and became aware of the need to reduce the flow. The tragic result of this can be seen in the trailer for Midway, a film by Chris Jordan:

ECAs & SPORTS

Upcoming BISAC Volleyball & Soccer Tournaments

Come out to cheer on our U19 Girls Volleyball Team as we host the BISAC U19 Girls Volleyball Championship at NIST on 3 and 4 October. With ten schools competing, we expect the level of competition and excitement to be intense, and it would be wonderful to have a strong cheering section for our Falcon ladies! Additionally, the BISAC U19 Boys and Girls Soccer Tournament, and Boys Volleyball Tournament will be held on 2 and 4 October, with the former playing at Bangkok Patana and the volleyball action taking place at ICS. Our U19 Falcon girls and boys teams are the defending champions from last year, and we hope to see great results again. Good luck to all the team! The full schedules are available on the Secondary School Blog.

SEASAC Golf Team Try Outs

Try outs for the SEASAC golf team will take place on Sunday, 28 September at the Amata Spring Country Club. Good luck to all of our golfers who are aiming for a spot. The tee off time is approximately 1:00 PM and our golf coordinator, Mr. Deryck, is expecting a healthy turnout. Many thanks to Amata Spring for their continued hospitality and support of our Falcon golf programme.

NIST PARENT-TEACHER ASSOCIATION

Volunteers for Supernova

NIPTA is looking for volunteers to help backstage with makeup for the large cast of Supernova. This elementary school production will be staged on October 14 – 16. Volunteers will need to help put on makeup before the three shows, and also at a dress rehearsal and practice session. Please support our kids, as they put on a fantastic show. If you would like to help, please email ashvin.denise@gmail.com.

NIPTA Gourmet Cooking Club

We are turning PINK this month to support NIST and NIPTA’s Pinktober Day on 1 October to raise funds for breast cancer awareness and screening. Every year we ask the NIST community to donate cupcakes for sale – and this year we request your help once again. If you love baking cupcakes and decorating them or would like to learn how to and donate to a very worthy cause, please join us. It will be a great morning of fun cooking and decorating.

• WHEN: TUESDAY, 30 SEPTEMBER, 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
• WHERE: CAB, GROUND FLOOR, NEW KITCHEN FACILITIES
• RSVP: nipta.activities@gmail.com by Friday, 26 September.

Please note that ingredients and decorations will be purchased on your behalf and spaces are strictly limited. The cost is 300 baht per person, pre-paid, and all cupcakes will be donated for Pinktober fundraising!

Australian Parents’ Nite Out

Enjoy casual drinks with a great view alongside your fellow Aussies! Please join us for a relaxing evening and great conversation.

• WHEN: Friday, 26 September, 7:00 PM
• WHERE: Above 11, Sukhumvit Soi 11

World Batik Day

The Indonesian Country Group is hosting a Batik exhibition for students on 2 October in the CAB Atrium during the morning break. The exhibition will include a display of different batik styles, the history of batik, popular batik fashions and a batik-making demonstration.

Batik is a technique of manual wax-resistant dyeing applied to a cloth. There are many different styles of making batik in various countries, and Indonesian batik is well known throughout the world.

Grupo Latino

We are very happy to announce that the Grupo Latina had its first get-together lunch recently. As parents from Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Salvador, Spain, Italy and Portugal, we are all united by our wonderful languages: Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. We welcome any other families and teachers who are interested in meeting us, and for that we have a group email address where you can contact us: nistlatins@gmail.com. We will participate in the UN Day and Starry Nights, and soon we will announce a date for our first Group Latino Night Out. Join us! 

 

UPCOMING EVENTS

• 25-27 September: Bangkok International Strings Festival (contact Nicholas Trebesh for further details)
• 29 September: World Heart Day - a charity event conducted by Save the Blue Heart, a student group that aims to raise awareness of congenital heart failure among children
• 29 September: NIPTA - Year 3 Parent Coffee Morning (7:30 - 9:00 AM: The Hub Lounge)
• 29 September: Years 8-11 WOWS Parent Info Evening (see details under Secondary School)
• 30 September: NIPTA - Year 1 Parent Coffee Morning (7:30 - 9:00 AM: The Hub Lounge)
• 30 September: EY Parent Coffee Morning (8:30 - 9:00 AM: EY Centre)
• 30 September: NLCS: Nutrition for Elementary Students by Tara Conrad, M.S. in Clinical Nutrition (8:35 - 10:00 AM in Ratchapruek, 3rd floor, Elementary Building. Visit the Elementary School Blog for additional details or to sign up.)
• 30 September: Preparing for Post-Secondary Year 12 Parents (6:30 - 8:30 PM: contact Khun Thongkorn for additional details)
• 1 October: Pinktober (see details under Whole School)
• 1 October: NLCS: Parents New to the Number Framework by Deb Gibbs, Mathematics Consultant (2:00 - 3:30 PM in Ratchapruek, 3rd floor, Elementary Building. Visit the Elementary School Blog for additional details or to sign up.)
• 1 October: EY Family Picnic (4:00 - 6:00 PM: Contact Kate Lynch for additional details.)
• 1 October: East Africa by Bicycle - From Sudan to South Africa on Two Wheels (6:00 PM: Visit the blog for additional details.)
• 2-4 October: Learning 2.0 Conference (Visit the Professional Learning Hub for additional details.)
• 10 October: Diwali (student celebration)
• 29 October: Japanese Culture Day (student celebration)

Next Week in Sports

• 26-27 September: Panther Friendly U19 Soccer & Volleyball Tournaments at ISB
• 2 October: U15 Boys Rugby vs. BPS (2:00 PM at BPS)
• 2 October: U13 Girls Basketball vs. RIS (2:00 PM at RIS)
• 3 October: U19 Boys Soccer vs. BPS (3:00 PM at BPS)
• 3 October: U19 Girls Soccer vs. BPS (3:00 PM at BPS)
• 3 October: BISAC U19 Girls Volleyball (3:30 PM at NIST)
• 4 October (Sat.): BISAC U19 Girls Volleyball (8:00 AM at NIST)
• 5 October (Sun.): BISAC U19 Boys Soccer (8:00 AM at BPS)
• 5 October (Sun.): BISAC U19 Girls Soccer (8:00 AM at BPS)
• 5 October: (Sun.): BISAC U19 Boys Volleyball (8:00 AM at ICS)

 

SPONSORED CONTENT

Spacious Ruamjai Heights Condo Available for Rent

230 SQM condo available on Soi 15, 6th fl., in front of NIST. 3 bed/bath, 5 AC, 1 room/bath for maid, 2 living rooms, storage room, dining room, kitchen. Fully furnished ( 2 40" TVs, electric oven, micro oven, 2 refrigerators, washing machine, dish washer, etc.). 2 car parking, swimming pool, fitness room, sauna, etc. 270 degree big balcony in living room & all bedrooms. Near BTS Asok and Nana, Robinson, Terminal 21, Bumrungrad Hospital, Sukhumvit Interchange.

Rental fee: 50,000 baht per month. Contact Robert: 087-690-1168.

Cancer Care Charity Fun Run

 

Four Seasons hotel is sponsoring a charity run to be held on 1 November in order to raise awareness and funds for cancer research. We encourage members of the NIST community to visit their website and take part. Tickets are available by calling 02 126 8866 or by emailing cancercare.bangkok@fourseasons.com