IMPACT 6 by Concordian International School

This Winter issue of Impact, the magazine of Concordian International School in Bangkok, opens with New Year greetings for 2013 (Thai year 2556) and surveys the events, festivals and achievements of the autumn term, from September to December 2012. It captures the school's belief that learning and growing happen outside the classroom as well as within it, profiling activities across the Early Years, PYP, MYP and Diploma programmes.

Community service and the Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) ethos feature prominently. Each year Grade 11 students undertake a school-building trip to rural Thailand, and the Class of 2014 raised more than 400,000 baht to fully fund this year's project. Students Cara and Mhai organised a Magic Show to buy medical instruments for a hospital in Kanchanaburi, while Grade 12 students Mercy and Vinny ran a Spelling Bee for MYP grades 6 to 10, with 17 contestants taking the amphitheatre stage. A third annual Thanksgiving Dinner honoured the school's community-service partners.

The edition records strong sporting and academic results. Since joining the TISAC league in September, the Dragons claimed Boys' and Girls' Table Tennis championships and second-place finishes in U-13 Boys Basketball and Senior Track and Field. In the UKMT Senior Mathematical Challenge, drawn from 98,580 entries across 2,038 centres, Concordian students earned 1 Gold, 6 Silvers and 8 Bronzes and were invited to the Senior Kangaroo Challenge.

Cultural traditions are celebrated through Wai Kru Day, Loy Krathong, the Interween Halloween night, and a Grade 7 visit to Her Majesty Queen Sirikit's embroidery gallery. Week Without Walls trips took Grades 6 to 8 to Kanchanaburi and Grades 9 to 10 to Yunnan, China. The issue also notes upcoming IB PYP and MYP accreditation visits, PYP and High School Student Council work, a PTA party, the first staff bowling night, and a parenting feature on children's inner voices.