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Kindergarten kids have their own sports day
Vimolrat Singnikorn
Kindergarten children took part in their own sports day last month, an event
organized by the Sports and Recreation Unit at the Pattaya Education
Department to help prepare children for their entry into primary school
class 1.
 A
very long jump.
Six sporting events were featured, namely running, shuttle running, the long
jump, the long throw, ball kicking and soccer.
Pattaya Kindergarten Sports Day 2007 was held at Pattaya School No 2, with
500 children from the 12 schools throughout Pattaya City that have
kindergarten classes taking part.
Deputy Mayor Wattana Chantanawaranon, who presided over the opening, said
that city hall had purchased a large amount of equipment to raise the
learning skills of kindergarten children. The Education Department was also
organizing other events to help raise skills and abilities, including
musical events and a wild orchid contest.
Pattaya City currently has kindergarten classes at 12 schools, namely
Pattaya Schools 1 to 10, the Children’s Development Center at Wat
Chaimongkol and the Darul Ibadah Mosque Center. The combined capacity of
these schools is approximately 3,000 places.
Is it a goal? Is it a save?
You call it…
Waiting their turn.
And we have a winner!
City will hire 100 new teachers to meet growing student population
Sawittree Namwiwatsuk
Pattaya City is to hire at least 100 more teachers to cope with the
increasing number of students, including the staffing of the new School
No 11 that is currently under construction.
 Mayor
Niran Wattanasartsathorn presents an award to one of the area’s
outstanding students.
The announcement was made on August 24 during a meeting to discuss the
results of the city’s 29th education year.
Held at the Town In Town Hotel, the meeting was chaired by Mayor Niran
Wattanasartsathorn and attended by city councilors and administrators,
education officials, teachers and parents.
The morning featured presentations by children, including the Double G
group of young people, while the afternoon was given over to the
announcement of results and plans for the future.
Niran presented the results of Pattaya’s 29th education year, while
mayoral advisor Itthipol Khunplome spoke on future projects.
Dividing his presentation into three parts, Niran spoke first on the
development of Pattaya’s education system, then on the sudden increase
in the number of students as the city expanded, and finally on ways in
which the education system is meeting the demands of progress.
He said that recent years have seen the provision of facilities such as
science laboratories and computer rooms, the adoption of the Montessori
teaching course for the primary levels, and more focus on the teaching
of English.
Niran said that a larger budget would be requested from the Bureau of
the Budget to engage an extra 100 or more teachers, as the city now
faces an increasing number of students and an insufficient number of
teachers.
The mayor added that Pattaya School No 11 is currently under
construction on Soi Nongyai, and will be a significant development in
expanding the city’s educational facilities to meet the increasing
needs.
Some of the brighter
students presented a panel discussion on the topic: “Pattaya City under
the children’s vision”.
Children put on a show to
entertain guests at the event.
Thamsamakkee Temple
School holds open day
A budding young artist
creates a masterpiece.
Students discover the
wonders of science.
Children, dressed in
traditional Thai outfits, play old Thai games.
Students perform
Lao-Duang-Deun, an old style Thai song that is Her Majesty Queen
Sirikit’s favorite song.
Sawittree Namwiwatsuk
Pattaya School No 6, also known as Thamsamakkee Temple School, held an
open day on August 22 to celebrate the city’s 29th education year.
Deputy Mayor Wattana Chantanawaranon presided over the opening, which
was attended by members of the Basic Education Committee in addition to
parents.
School director Mrs Waree Thaichanya said the teachers and students had
organized a special exhibition to commemorate the 29th education year
anniversary and to honor the 80th birthday of His Majesty the King,
which will take place on December 5.
The exhibition covered eight areas of education, namely health, foreign
languages, vocations, the arts, society studies, science, Thai language,
and mathematics. Students also put on stage performances.
Food was served to visitors during the daylong exhibition, which began
in the morning and continued through to the evening.
Economic hardships reduce number of YWCA scholarships
Grateful students and
benevolent benefactors sit for a group photo during
the annual event.
Narisa Nitikarn
Fewer scholarships have been distributed this year by the YWCA
Bangkok-Pattaya Center, owing to the economic problems facing the
country and hardships facing potential donors.
Donators of scholarships gathered on the 5th floor of Mike Shopping Mall
on August 21 for the YWCA’s Crown Flower Open Day, where they had the
opportunity to meet the schoolchildren who had been recipients of the
scholarships that are distributed under the association’s Warm Family
Project.
Nittaya Patimasongkroh, former chairwoman of the YWCA Bangkok-Pattaya
Center, said that in the 17 years of the project’s existence, the number
of scholarships donated had usually increased each year. This year,
however, the number had fallen sharply, owing to the economic problems
facing the country.
“The previous year 514 scholarships were distributed, but this year the
figure was 440 scholarships,” said Nittaya. “These went to students from
45 schools under the Pattaya City and Chonburi Education Department
Zones. The decrease was due to economic problems that resulted in
sponsors and private units having less opportunity to support or donate
for scholarships.”
Children from Banglamung Kindergarten School put on a show entitled Mai
Mai Muay Thai, and Wat Phothong School students staged a show named
Dance for Health.
Following the performances, scholarships were presented from government
and private organizations to Dujduan Ruangwettiwong, chairwoman of the
YWCA Bangkok-Pattaya Center. Mayor Niran Wattanasartsathorn presided
over the distribution of the scholarships to the representatives of 45
schools.
Over the past year the YWCA Bangkok-Pattaya Center has distributed
bicycles to students whose homes are located far away from school. There
were 10 schools that received a total of 47 bicycles, namely Ban
Pongsaked, Ban Phoosai, Wat Sawangarom, Wat Nongketnoi, Wat Nongketyai,
Ban Mabfakthong, Ban Sakngaew, Ban Huaykaonao, Ban Chaknok, and
Banglamung School.
Last call for the Children’s Fair
on Sunday September 9
The Jesters Care for Kids
Children’s day is fun for the whole family.
Mike Franklin
An action packed day awaits the Jesters Children’s fairgoers on Sunday
September 9th at Diana Garden Resort, North Pattaya, with the focus
being fun for the children and fun for the family. Over 80 stalls will
offer so much to see and do, and so much to eat with Thai, Eastern and
Western food of every description. Candy Floss is back again with 10
different flavors and two stalls this year.
The activities include plenty of new and exciting games and lots of
prizes for the kids. There will be live bands, entertainers, a circus
workshop, and clowns with brightly colored balloons. The climbing wall
will be there, bouncy castle, a Taekwondo martial arts demonstration and
Star-Photo will be covering the fairground to take and print family
photos using the latest ‘wireless’ camera technology.
 If
you have not been to the Diana Garden Resort before, here is how to get
to the Children’s Fair.
The famous Children’s Raffle has lots of great prizes with Wonder-Pooh
bear and his pal Super-Ted supervising everything with the draw at 4pm.
Here are some of the prizes to be won: Mountain bike, Yamaha acoustic
guitar, color TV and DVD players, MP4 players, Canon
printer/copier/scanner, R/C helicopter and race car, wireless microphone
system, dome tent, Casio electronic keyboard, an Index crash helmet, a
Jiehe telescope, Tata Young signed karaoke VCDs, Digital Video 1GB flash
memory, a 10 pc tool set, kitchen appliances from Moulinex and Philips,
a scooter-car and more. The prize sponsors are PSC, Diana Group, Double
A Logistics, Pattaya Trader, Tahitian Queen & the Franklin family. Lots
of valuable prizes, so visit me and Bernie at the Children’s Raffle
stall. We have hundreds of vouchers from Sizzler, Burger King, Dairy
Queen, Pizza Company & Swensen’s to give away, and many signed T-shirts
and CDs from Tata Young.
Just before the Children’ Raffle draw at 4pm, it is the special Kids Tug
‘O’ War, a real highlight of the day. Finally, we round off the day as
the sun goes down with live music from Pop’s Pattaya All Stars and
Annie’s Band, so there are many good reasons for children and the family
to be there for the whole day.
The Fair opens at 10am and the scheduled program looks like this:
06:00: Stallholders set up
10:00: Opening Ceremony for Fair
* National anthem by Marching Band from a Pattaya School
* Opening Speech by Chairman Lewis Underwood
* Opening Speech by Pattaya Mayor Niran Wattanasartsathorn
* Ribbon-cutting ceremony by the Mayor, Sopin Thappajug and Graham
Macdonald
* Marching band performance
10:30: Start of children’s variety show
* Fountain of Life Children
* Ban Jing Jai Children
* School for the Blind
* Mercy Center Children
* APEC 2003
* Annie’s Band
12:00: Children’s games
12:30: Continued variety show
* Ooi’s Taekwondo demonstration
* Circus act: juggling
13:00: Children’s games
13:30: Continued variety show
* Regent’s Band (“Through the Dawn”)
* APEC 2003
14:30: Children’s games
15:00: Presentation of bicycles to ‘Best of the Class’ FOL kids in
memory of Chris Kays (bikes provided by Mark Gorda)
15:30: Children games: tug-of-war
16:00: Children’s Raffle Draw
16:30: Live music
* Annie’s Band
* Pop’s All-Stars
18:00: Wrap up
Many of the underprivileged and needy children that we support, from the
Fountain of Life, Ban Jing Jai Orphanage, the Blind School and Mercy
Center, will be there having a wonderful day out and enjoying the Fair
with us in the Jesters 10th Anniversary ‘Care for Kids’ Charity Drive.
These are some of the kids that we help, thanks to all our sponsors and
the support from everyone coming to our two annual events, the Jesters
Children’s Fair and six days later on Saturday 15th September at
Jameson’s, the Jesters Party Night.
The evening of Saturday 15th September is our final fund-raiser and last
chance to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of ‘Jesters ‘Care for Kids’.
This is the night with something for everyone, combining the key
sporting event of Wales and Australia battling it out in the Rugby World
Cup with the chance to win motorbikes, airline tickets and vacations and
much more in the Grand raffle, and make bids for exciting sports
memorabilia, antiques and diamond rings.
By supporting Jesters ‘Care for Kids’ you will be helping to care for
kids that really need our help. As a reminder of the great Children’s
Fair we had last year, tune in to PMTV this Friday 7th September to see
a clip from the 2006 DVD feature.
If you happen to be a
newcomer to Jameson’s, here is the location.
Tee - one of the
many kids helped by Jesters charity drive
Ingrid Cunliffe
With the Jesters Children’s Fair coming up Sunday 9th September, I
wanted to share with you a story of one of the boys, “Tee”, who was a
student at the Fountain of Life, the main benefactor for the Jesters
fundraising.
 Tee
(center), shown here with Ingrid (left), has chosen the life of a monk.
Tee and his family came to Pattaya from Cambodia with the prospect of
finding a better life for his sister, brother and mother. Times proved
hard as jobs were scarce, as they had arrived during Pattaya’s tourism
low season.
Tee and his sister were forced to collect garbage from the streets of
Pattaya just to feed themselves and family a meager bowl of rice. As
time went on, Tee was found by police and turned over to the Good
Shepherd Sisters at the Fountain of Life Center, who gladly took him and
his sister Nang for daily meals and schooling. Nang and Tee thrived
here, learning more Thai and English and other valuable life skills that
young children should all have the access to.
The Fountain Of Life takes in children from the slum areas, as many as
130, who do not have birth papers and cannot attend local government
schools. The Sisters and staff at the center try and locate the papers,
if any, which is a laborious and long task, many times leading to dead
ends.
Nang eventually left last year to help her mother with her job; her
English is excellent to this day.
Tee, on turning 14, had to leave the Fountain Of Life as he was now too
old to attend the classes. He had a life choice to make and turned to
the life of a young novice monk. He was ordained in April this year and
I know that Sister Joan and the other teachers from the center were
there with his proud mum and family when the robes were handed to him.
As you can see from the photo, he has now made the choice to study full
time as a monk in a local temple close by to where his family is living.
Today I was invited to their home to have “tea” and I was delighted to
hear that all is going well with all the family members. The only thing
I must say I regret is not being able to give Tee a cuddle and say “well
done”, respecting the monks not to be touched policy. I could see how
proud his mum and siblings are of this young boy, and how proud and
fortunate I feel knowing this family for the last 3 years.
The Fountain Of Life is a wonderful place, and has many stories of
success like this one, getting the kids off the streets, educating them
and giving them some self respect.
Thanks to the Jesters with their generosity and faithful funding to this
wonderful center.
I hope you will find time to go to the Family Fun day, Sunday 9th
September and support this wonderful charity and all the good they do in
and around Pattaya.
If you see a young monk in robes at the fair, with a big smile, say “hi”
- it will probably be “Tee”.
A decade of
‘Caring for Kids’
Mike Franklin
 Woody
reflects on the ‘Caring for Kids’ drive on PMTV this Friday.
Woody and I reflect on ten years of the Jesters ‘Care
for Kids’ Charity Drive and how the corporate financial support for this
charitable work has grown and accumulated year on year. So much has been
achieved by the Jesters and Honorary Jesters who constitute the JCD
Committee over the decade that the 10th Anniversary year is a special
landmark for all of us.
We are coming to the conclusion of the 2007 Charity Drive with just the
Jesters Children’s Fair on Sunday September 9th at the Diana Driving
Range, and the Jesters Sporting Party Night on Saturday September 15th
at Jameson’s to take us into 2008 after , we hope, yet another record
year.
Tune in to PMTV on Friday 7th September as we reflect on a decade of
‘Caring for Kids’
Children - This is your day
at The Jesters Children’s Fair
Linden talks with Mike
about the activities at this year’s
Children’s Fair on PMTV this Saturday.
Mike Franklin
Linden Phanpho from ISE, with teacher colleague Brett Stone from St.
Andrews, have gone all out to organize a great games program for the
children at the Jesters Children’s fair and Family day at the Diana
Garden Resort Driving Range on Sunday September 9th. In addition, all
the activities, performances by local schools and by the wonderful kids
at the beneficiaries we support will make for a memorable family day
out.
Hear more about the Children’s Fair in my interview with Linden on PMTV
Saturday 8th September, the day before the fair. See you on Sunday 9th.
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