Nurturing with nature

INSET: (from left) Philippa Mitchell gives some expert advice Brave young Frame gets to grips with a creepy-crawly

By contrast, a student at St. Stephen’s International School near Khao Yai national park will wake up to the delicious sound of nature stirring the fresh air and be in class shortly after breakfast. Of course, living in the countryside might not be everyone’s idea of fun but it certainly makes for a healthier experience than for those of us residing in the concrete jungle.

Originally called Universal School and founded in 1995 by the late Mr Kris Assakul, then head of the Ocean group of companies, the institution was designed to attract full-time boarding students whose busy parents wanted their children to learn in a clean environment without the hassles of city travel.

In the early years, problem behaviour amongst pupils and constant management upheaval lead to Universal having a less than desirable reputation. Later developments in strategy and new management, however, helped to turn the school around. A sister campus was opened in Bangkok in 1998 and Universal eventually became known as St. Stephens. Today, Assakul’s daughter, Ms Nusara Banyatpiyphod, in the Chairperson Executive and continues her father’s legacy.

Located just outside the north-eastern town of Pak Chong, St.Stephen’s Khao Yai has around one hundred students enrolled from grade 3 up to grade 12, all living on campus. The British national curriculum is followed with students taking IGCSE exams in grade 10 and A or AS Levels in grades 12.

As well as simply being a pleasant place to be, the national park serves as a valuable educational resource which most other schools have to travel miles to get to.

Khao Yai Principal, Kevin McGee

“One of the main advantages of being in this environment is that we are able to devote more time to learning,” notes Kevin McGee, Principal of the Khao Yai campus. “We can offer both afternoon and evening activities as well as residential life. Our students don’t lose time sitting in traffic, so potentially we can offer three or four more hours of extra learning per day, both physically and socially.”

Because of the small numbers, staff are able to work very closely with the students which creates a very personable atmosphere according to McGee. “We know them all personally,” he says, “and can quickly pick up any warning signs that things aren’t quite right. It’s much easier to monitor things like smoking and drugs, things which parents are very concerned about. It’s very safe.”

One of the main philosophies behind the curriculum at St. Stephen’s is ‘learning by doing’ and, with a stunning national park on their doorstep, that’s a viable proposition. Khao Yai is renowned for its spectacular forests and array of wildlife, so it’s no surprise that students spend a lot of time up there working on scientific and geographical projects. The park has even been used as an inspiration for an English writing project.

Geography teacher, James Calder

One educator who is more than happy to take his students for a trip on the wild side is geography teacher James Calder. “Since coming here, I think I’ve increased the number of field trips ridiculously,” he claims, “but I get so enthusiastic about taking each grade out, it sometimes gets quite hectic!”

Even so, Calder is aware that he enjoys something of a luxury as far as his job is concerned. “Geography is a science and needs to be practical,” he explains. “Simply reading about geography can just confuse you with all the language. You’ve got to get out into the field, see it, touch it, feel it. Here in Khao Yai we’ve got rivers, waterfalls, eco-systems, biodiversity, everything that really is geography all here in one place.”

And the students agree that having such a fountain of natural resources so close to home helps them to absorb information. 17 year-old Dee relates how field trips bring a geography topic to life. “We can imagine everything much easier by seeing it and we remember it all too,” she says.

A lesson in the wild

Human resources are just as important to the school as natural ones. Philippa Mitchell is an expert in environmental education and spent three years working with rangers in Khao Yai national park before coming to St. Stephen’s. She knows every inch of the park and possesses an exhaustive knowledge of local wildlife which comes in handy when educating the kids.

“Khao Yai has got some of the best habitats within a small area,” she explains, “and there are very good opportunities to see wildlife such as gibbons, squirrels, monkeys and elephants. There’s also high biodiversity and its very accessible with lots of other interesting things round the edge of the park as well.”

During our visit to St. Stephen’s, learning post was treated to a short trip into the forest accompanied by a bunch of curious elementary school students. We were encouraged to look for wildlife of every variety, from insects to barking deer, and it wasn’t long before the kids were up to their eyes in leeches and elephant dung which, in case you were wondering, is an excellent habitat for ants. Just being there made the experience much more tangible and exciting than looking at any photograph or CD ROM. With the genuine article a stone’s throw away, the possibilities are endless.

Brought in initially to offer expert guidance during field trips, Mitchell is currently developing the school’s ASK (Adventure, Study and Knowledge) programme. The aim is to provide outdoor education in the form of field trips and environmental studies and to make facilities at St. Stephen’s Khao Yai available to other schools, both local and international. “We are looking at the opportunity of curriculum-linked educational trips with connections to geography, science, maths and history,” says Mitchell. “What we offer at the moment are things we have already done with our own students. For example, we offer geography field trips, farm studies and tourism surveys as well as adventure activities like camping, trekking and hiking.”

For a student at St. Stephen’s in Khao Yai, there is more to the school experience than the surrounding environment. All students live and work at the school, so social opportunities are somewhat different from their counterparts in Bangkok.

15 year-old Anch finds his relative independence a challenge. “It makes us strong because we are away from parents,” he says. “We have to look after ourselves and try to study hard but there’s also more choice for afternoon activities, more sport. In Bangkok I had no time to play, only at the weekend.” There are, however, some limitations and living on campus means strict control from their teachers and ‘house parents’. “The teachers don’t like us to be free,” jokes Anch, “because otherwise they think we’ll do bad things!”

One of the major challenges for pastoral staff at Khao Yai is giving students the freedom to grow whilst ensuring they act responsibly. That isn’t such a problem with the smaller kids but with hormonally charged teenagers it can be a more difficult.

Director of Studies, Simon Saunders

According to Simon Saunders, Academic Director at SIS, the parents prefer that their offspring are constantly supervised. “This is their home and they need to relax,” he says, “but we also have to balance the demands of parents with the needs of any person growing up.”

The school day is structured to reflect this. Lessons and homework hour are followed by activity sessions which run up to early evening. The task of designing the sessions is that of Scotsman John O’Hara, Activities Director at SIS.

“We try to vary the programme as much we can and that means staff being able to offer different things,” he explains, adding that keeping the activities programme fresh and varied is an important consideration. “We are blessed with pretty good facilities so we can offer sports like softball, football, basketball, volleyball, swimming and a lot of local staff will run classes such as calligraphy and Thai music. The big difference from most other school is that the students have to do activities.”

(left to right) Oat, Leng, Anch and Dan

By all accounts, the students are happy with the variety available. Football-mad Oat, a grade 10 student, is enthusiastic about proposals for a new soccer league which will see his school team pitted against formidable local talent as well as teams from other international schools. “I think it is going to be like a real league,” he enthuses. “Everyone here will really enjoy it. When we went to play at Dulwich recently, taking the plane and everything, it felt very good. We’re all very excited.”

Many students go home at weekends although some like Leng, another tenth grader, don’t see home for a whole term. “Sometimes it can get quite boring and I might want to go out shopping, so they’ll take us to the mall if we ask,” he says. His friend, Dan, who recently returned from a school in Uganda, is used to such isolation. “I miss my parents sometimes so it’s important that we feel comfortable,” he says. “We don’t waste much time here and I enjoy being in the country.”

"What do we have here?" Young explorers take a peek.

Students apparently refer to their school as the ‘country club’ because of the close-knit environment for forming strong personal relationships with others. But, as with all clubs, there are rules and at SIS personal relationships with the opposite sex are only allowed to go so far. “They’re not allowed to hold hands or to be alone,” explains Simon Saunders. “Kissing is totally forbidden. That’s what the parents want. We used to be much more relaxed about it but the parents thought it was inappropriate. It’s a cultural thing.”

Culture, of course, is very important to the community at SIS. Most students are Thai or from elsewhere in Asia and the school is keen to promote the best values from both Eastern and Western cultures. School Director Richard Ralphs, who overseas both Bangkok and Khao Yai campuses, explains the thinking behind this. “The founder felt that existing international schools were saying they were either a British school or an American school and he thought ‘why does it have to be like that?’ He had gone to St. Stephen’s college in Hong Kong, which had a British style curriculum with an Asian feel to it. So he wanted to make his school the same, saying to the community that both cultures are as good as each other but we just take different aspects from each one.”

And it works. Initial impressions of the school are of a well-ordered and disciplined community but when you scratch beneath the surface, that sense of being Asian is apparent. On the way back from our field trip, the students were singing pop songs. But there were no renditions of Britney Spears or Linkin Park, only those of Thai bands. Asian culture, it seems, is not swamped completely by western philosophies and values and that’s what many Asian families want.

The school wants to expand a little in the near future and hopes to welcome more boarders into its family. The overwhelming attraction of St. Stephen’s Khao Yai, however, remains Khao Yai itself. Young Oat puts it perfectly. “When I wake up in Bangkok, I see buildings and cars,” he says. “But in Khao Yai, I see sunrise and mountains.”

For more information log on to www.sis.edu

e-mail ask@sis.edu if you would like to know more about the ASK programme