Si Ri Panya News Highlights
- Lisa McNee
- Sep 26
- 7 min read
Updated: Sep 29
Welcome to our Friday September 26th 2025 Newsletter (issue 22)
This week is about getting settled, which means students should know what their daily routine is and what their teachers expect of them. In week four, students should also have made new friends and be reaching out to new students, showing good values around campus, leading by example and making us all proud.
Each student at Si Ri Panya brings with them their unique contribution to school life and one of our weekly highlights is Friday morning, when Primary and Secondary hold our assemblies.
It's moments like these were we feel our shared school identity, where we stand together as a community, who practice the same values as part of day-to-day life at school.
Our students are happy, enjoy excellent relationships with teachers and each other and we'd like to start this week's newsletter by congratulating all of our new students for settling in so well and becoming fully fledged members of our Si Ri Panya school community!
Primary, cooking up a storm in our weekly Cooking Club!
Every Wednesday and every Friday, there is a buzz in the air at the end of the school day, because the time has come for our weekly cooking club!
Each week, students learn to cook dishes from around the world. This week it was Banoffee Pie. If you'd like to try and make it at home, you can find recipes for it HERE and a Vegan version HERE.
"Wednesday ASA we have made
Turkey and Veggie Wraps and
Strawberry cheesecake chimichangas.
Next week, we'll make meatball sandwiches."
"Friday Cooking Club we have made
Triple Berry French toast with Greek yogurt, Berry smoothies
Cheese Omelettes and
tomorrow we will make apple cinnamon oatmeal.
Next week, we will make spaghetti," said Teacher Devon.
If your child is part of this club and you'd like to recommend a recipe, please get in touch with your ideas.
Our cooking classes aim to teach essential cooking techniques, but first of all we need to get our students confident in the kitchen environment, showing us that they are safe and responsible learners.
As students progress, skills offered will include knife/cutting skills, roasting, and sautéing, as well as food safety practices, time management.
We want students to see food as a shared social occasion to be enjoyed and well as a source of nourishment.
We hope through these classes, students will acquire an expanded palate--through tasting and working with new ingredients and flavour combinations.
Cooking Club helps develop life skills such as problem-solving, patience and teamwork, and also boosts a student's confidence in their abilities to independently create and present dishes to others.
Drop Everything And Read!
As well as being a pleasure, reading is the key to developing our minds, our knowledge of the world and our empathy - a true doorway to what the world is like from another person's point of view.
In Secondary, every Wednesday morning's form time is dedicated to reading in what we call DEAR! (Drop Everything And Read), where everyone including teachers are given the luxury of just reading quietly for 15 minutes. A great way to start the day, and helping to make sure that our students see reading as something that everyone does and enjoys.
Get Caught Reading!
This week's assembly in Primary we set a whole school challenge and asked our students to get caught reading!
So, help us to catch your child reading when they least expect it!
Get Caught Reading is an iniative set up by the charity Every Child a Reader, which promotes novel and often humourous interactive ways to get children reading.
The Photo Challenge
Students should submit the wildest pictures of themselves reading in unusual or amazing places.
Did you visit a historic landmark with a favorite book? Attend a concert or performance? Travel someplace new? Share a photo and get others talking!
GET CAUGHT READING!!!!!!!!
Spooky Tales Year 5, English...
In English, as well as reading, writing, speaking and listening, not to mention grammar and punctuation and the myriad styles of writing they learn, our students also get the opportunity in this subject to really bring the stories they're reading alive!
This week, Teacher Matt's class reenacted scenes from a spooky tale they've been reading. See them playing various characters in these action packed shots below.
"The children enjoyed bringing the spooky tale The House that was Filled with Ghosts to life by role-playing a key scene with great imagination and enthusiasm" - Teacher Matt.
Anyone for Tennis?
Join Our New Mini Tennis Club Now!
We are excited to announce the launch of a new fun and active Mini Tennis Club with Coach James.
The club is suitable for Years 1 to 3 and it on each Tuesday from 3pm to 4pm.
*BOOK YOUR PLACE BELOW
Classes start: Tuesday 30th September
The club is open to all abilities – whether your child is a complete beginner or already has some experience. It's a great way to build skills, stay active, and enjoy a game of Tennis with friends.
*Free Trial on Tuesday 30th September!
We’d love to see your child on the court! Please email Coach James for more information and to register: James.c@siripanya.com
The Power of Reading:
The Snail and the Whale
Year 1 - In English, our youngest students have been putting their newly learned skills to the test by "predicting" or imagining for a better word, what happens next in their class reader: The Snail and the Whale.
By following the beautifully drawn, colourful illustrations of the stories main characters--a small snail and its unlikely ginormous friend, a whale--students were able to imagine what might happen next, as the two friends set off on their epic adventure across the ocean.
The magic of the story really captured the class's imagination. Students were also able to identify and recognise key words, and talk about what they mean. Well done Year 1, what a fantastic job!
Powerful Adjectives to Describe How We See the World - English, Year 2
This week we have been focusing on learning powerful adjectives to describe people and places. We have been working on comparative and superlative adjectives as well by adding the suffix er and est.
In Maths we are focusing on learning place value and how to write our numbers using the written word from 1-100.
History has been a fascinating topic for them this week. We are learning about different homes and how housing has changed over time. We focused on castles and parts of the castle, who lived there, what daily life was like and jobs they would have had in the castle.
Year 2 is very interested in trying to build their own castle. I would like to ask parents to save any cardboard boxes you have and bring them in any time during the next two weeks so we can build a castle. Thank you in advance for your help. We are looking forward to having many adventures and exciting tales to tell from our castle.
Have a good weekend,
Teacher Devon
Minecraft Gymnastics: Physical Education with a twist
Good teaching is when you can find ways to bring learning alive in the classroom and engage students, who otherwise, might find the subject or topic of learning unappealing, or perhaps, not be their favourite.
In this week's Class Teacher led Physical Education lesson, our students were in for a treat.
In the gallery below, "Year 3 are putting together sequences based on creating a city or village, like they might in a programme such as Minecraft," said Teacher Amy.
"We looked at positions such as pike, straddle, tucks and balances and the children modelled physical geography they imagined or have seen when using Google Earth in Computing," she said.
This innovative approach to learning is bursting with creativity and challenges our students to think outside of the box when it comes to how and indeed where they can apply prior knowledge in one subject to another. Very impressive!
Year 3 using sequences from the Minecraft game in a Gymnastics lesson.
Key Dates at a Glance
Looking Ahead: Key events and special days for the school year are published on our homepage.
Term 1 After-School Activity (ASA) sign-up information
See Newsletter Issue 18 for full details
2-Oct-25 Annual Family Beach Clean with Trash Hero
See Newsletter Issue 20 for full details
Parent Discussion Circle - every Friday
See Newsletter Issue 21 for full details
Links to our end of term event songs to practice at home
See Newsletter Issue 21 for full details
Week 4 - Time to take a break...Time to relax with our breaktime gallery...
This Week's Parent Discussion Circle Topic
Friday 26th September: How do we balance screen time, online safety, gaming and social media pressures?
📅 When: Every Friday, 9:00am – 10:00am
📍 Where: Boardroom, upstairs at the main office
👩🏫 Hosted by: Pastoral Lead - Faye Reading
📝 This Week: Online safety, screen time, social media pressures for children
✨ Come as you are—whether to share your thoughts, ask questions, or simply listen in. Every parent is welcome.
Ongoing Weekly Reminders
Library Reminder: Please check at home for any lost books and return them to the Primary or Secondary library so everyone can enjoy them!
Bottle Cap Collection: We're collecting bottle caps for our Precious Plastic Project! Please bring your bottle caps to the collection point located inside the Primary school gate on the left. Secondary students can bring theirs to the Design and Technology Lab. Find out more about this exciting long-term project here: Precious Plastic Phangan Facebook.
Drop Off and Pick Up: Drop-off is at 8:30 am (not earlier). Pick-up times are 2:50 pm for Primary (or 4:00 pm if attending an ASA) and 4:00 pm for Secondary. Please be punctual, as some Primary children have been waiting up to 30 minutes after 2:50 pm, which can be distressing for them.
No Idling Zone: Help make the area outside our school a NO IDLING ZONE which means switching car engines off while you wait for your child. We appreciate your action for the environment and health of all.
Absence and Illness: Notify your child's class teacher (Primary) or form teacher (Secondary) directly to inform them of absence and sickness.
Head Lice Check: Continue to check your child's hair for head lice regularly and treat accordingly. Boys and girls with long hair need to tie it up.
Uniform Orders: Ensure your child wears the correct uniform each day. Uniform orders can be placed online: 🔗 Secondary Order Form 🔗 Primary Order Form
Healthy snacks: Healthy snacks only. No sweets, crisps/chips or cakes at break times. Birthdays are the exception and dealt with per class policy.
