From Mark McVeigh, Principal

Dear DBS Parents,

I hope that you had an excellent Songkran holiday with your families. In our first assembly of the term, I spoke about Lisa and I going back to the UK in the holiday. Our children had organised a surprise party for us. As I was saying thank you to everyone for coming, I was reminded of the way that we encourage the students to be grateful; to take time to think about what they are truly thankful for. I hope that our DBS students have really appreciated their family and friends over this holiday.

I also spoke about Easter, in assembly, as Monday was ‘Easter Monday’. There are interesting similarities between Easter and Songkran, as both involve rebirth, merit making or giving, and forgiveness. I expressed the central messages of Easter and Songkran as renewal, kindness and tolerance. I urged students to renew their commitment to obtaining the most out of their time at DBS, make new friends, be generous, and show compassion by thinking carefully about what they say and do. Finally, we paused to remember the hundreds of people who were killed over the Easter weekend in Sri Lanka. This was a tragic reminder of how much evil still exists, and how much work there is still to do to eradicate extremism.

The egg is an ancient symbol of new life and rebirth. In Christianity, Easter Eggs are the modern interpretation of this and the students had a most enjoyable Easter Egg Hunt before starting the term in earnest. Thank you to the House Leaders for organising this.

We have a new teacher starting this term: Mr Sayers who will be teaching ESL. We also welcomed 28 new students. Mr Lyng gave an entertaining assembly on the theme of the term ‘Down to Earth’, with references to the constellation ‘Orion’ and a 1970s icon, the Raleigh Chopper bike! But the main message was about being ‘down to earth’ i.e. open, kind, modest etc.

We have learnt about individual student successes this week, including that of Q in Year 7 in his German and Czech Republic concerts; and Wanjan in Y7 in the KGL English Contest. 

Wednesday was the 41st anniversary of the opening of Denla Petkasem School and the start of the Denla schools’ story.  Lisa, Mrs Tanabe and I were fortunate to be invited to attend a special ceremony, on behalf of DBS, to celebrate the anniversary, and give our best wishes to Ajarn Arn Pandejpong, Chairman, on the occasion of his birthday. 

Lisa joins me in sending you our very best wishes,


Mark McVeigh
Principal
Denla British School, Bangkok