New International School of Thailand

A warm welcome to Year 5 @ NIST

Ye a r 5
Newsletter 1
A new school year brings new challenges and exciting changes
to NIST. The Year 5 Team would like to share some important
information with you. Communication is going to be a very big Monday
part of what we do this year. There are so many ways to learn 16th August 2010
more about what we are working on through the class blogs,
School portal, email, Veracross and newsletters. You will learn
more about some of these newer forms of communication over
time. Each of these serve a different purpose and we are confi-
dent that you should always find what you are looking for.

There will be a Back to School Night on Tuesday 24th August.

Times and exact locations are yet to be decided. Once these
The Year 5 Team
arrangements have been confirmed we shall pass the informa-
tion on to you. This is a great
way to meet and greet your Jane Cooper
classroom teacher. During this Year Coordinator
time you will learn more about jcooper@nist.ac.th
Year 5 expectations and the
programs we teach.
Kate Kitsos
If you have any questions or kkitsos@nist.ac.th
concerns please email your
child’s classroom teacher. We
Mondira Mukherjee
do hope that we can all learn
and work together to achieve mmukherjee@nist.ac.th
the best for your child.
Heather Rich
hrich@nist.ac.th
The Year 5 Team is looking forward to a
wonderful year which will see the students: Chad Walsh
cwalsh@nist.ac.th
 become increasingly focused and independent learners
 become more aware of the importance of organization and Patsy Littlewood
good time management Learning Support
 meet challenges in a positive and thoughtful manner plittlewood@nist.ac.th
 be excited by the learning experiences they are involved in
 work together and be caring and considerate of their Bill Vosko
friends and classmates ESL Teacher
wvosko@nist.ac.th

Miss Pooh
Academic Assistant
 Parent Handbook
You should have received a
copy of the Elementary
School Parent Handbook
which contains lots of useful
information. We would like
to highlight a few key areas:
Page 23 - Birthdays
Please note that we
are happy to celebrate
birthdays through
prior organization of a
suitable time with individual class
teachers.
Something which is easy to share,
such as cupcakes or brownies, are
welcomed. Cakes which need to be
cut are difficult for class teachers to
organize.
School Arrival and Departure
Page 22 and Page 25
We do appreciate that traffic in
Bangkok is always busy . However, Similarly, it is impor-
can you please try to ensure that tant that children are
your child is in school before the collected promptly
start of school bell rings. We do un- after school or ECA’s.
derstand that occasionally there are
situations which are beyond our
control but regular lateness makes
it difficult for your child, and the PE and Swimming Queries
rest of their class.
Page 35
Homeroom time is a time which sets
the scene for the day, homework
may be marked, notices read out
and activities may commence. If
children regularly arrive late it af-
fects their organizational routine
and they may miss key information.

Communication and Homework

Page 24 - Communication
Please contact class
teachers directly if
you have any con-
cerns. Please re-
member that be-
tween 7.25am and
2.30pm our priority
is teaching our classes and we have
limited time until after this period.
Please be patient and may we as-
sure you that we will respond to
emails as soon as we possibly can.
Similarly if you wish to speak di-
rectly to a teacher it is always ap-
preciated if an appointment is
arranged.
If you are not able to resolve
matters please contact the Year
Coordinator.
Most initial communication between
parents and teachers will be via a
school diary, the Blog or email. The
new Veracross system can be logged
onto through the NIST Portal and
parents are asked to ensure that
their contact details are kept up-to-
date.
Pages 29-30 - Homework
Please could you monitor that your
child completes all homework set
carefully. Some tasks may specifi-
cally ask for your input but much of
the work set should be done inde-
pendently or with guidance if needed.
In Year 5 we expect that students
will:
 read for 15-20 mins each day
 complete 20 minutes of home-
room assignments
 complete 20 mins of World
Language assignments
This is obviously only
a guide as students
will take differing
lengths of time to
complete tasks.

Uniform and Lost Property

Page 42 - Uniform
Please could you assist your child in
coming to school wearing the appro-
priate uniform each day.
Footwear is an area which needs
regular re-enforcement. Students
should wear shoes or trainers which
are predominantly black or white.
Sandals and crocs are not permit-
ted. School jumpers and jackets are
now available in the uniform shop permanent pen, laundry marker or
for the cooler months. appropriate name labels.
Page 32 - Lost Property If your child does lose any items it is
important that they ask their class
During the year there is an amazing
teacher and that they visit the lost
amount of lost property collected,
property department in the base-
most of which does not have names
ment of the new secondary building.
and is never collected.
Please can we ask that you check
that all of your child’s uniform and
belongings are clearly named in