Thailand Stories

The most important event to be held at Sriwittayapaknam School is the annual Wai Kru Ceremony. Like other schools around the country this always takes place towards the start of the new academic year and always on a Thursday. The students pay respect to their teachers by presenting them with flowers and going down onto the floor …

During the full moon of this month we celebrate the religious holiday of Asarnha Bucha Day. The following day marks the start of the Rains Retreat which is sometimes referred to as the Buddhist Lent. It lasts for about three months. …

In Thailand at the moment it is the summer holidays for school students. At Sriwittayapaknam School in Samut Prakan they have just come to the end of Summer School. Next week marks the start of the Songkran Festival which is the start of the traditional Thai new year. As it is the hottest time of the year, young people like to have some fun by taking …

I find it very satisfying to be able to give back to my local community. I teach English to Thai students in a private school in Samut Prakan. But, these kids mainly come from rich families and they are used to seeing foreign teachers. What I sometimes find more rewarding is to …

(This is the continuation of my blog about an average day in a Thai school. Click here if you missed part one.) We don’t take attendance for each lesson. The classroom teacher has already done this at the start of the day. Outside of each classroom there is a statistics board. It tells you how…

Most schools throughout Thailand are much the same. Even though they may be public or private, they all have the same guidelines under which they have to operate. The average day in these schools is also much the same. At Sriwittayapaknam School in Samut Prakan, the students start to arrive as early as 5.45 a.m. If their parents are working in Bangkok then they…

This month marks 15 years since I started teaching at Sriwittayapaknam School in Samut Prakan , Thailand. In my wildest dreams, I never thought that I would still be at the same school fifteen years later. In fact, I didn’t think at the time that I would be staying longer than one week. It was never my plan to teach nor even to stay in Thailand so long. I left England back …