Weekly DBS update - 4th September 2026
Dear Parents and Guardians, Here’s your latest DBS update, bringing together highlights from the past week, upcoming events, special offers and promotions from our partners, ASA and Sixth Form highlights, as well as important notices and reminders for our DBS community. Take a moment to catch up on what’s been happening and discover what’s coming up at DBS! 💙 📍Read update here: https://dbs.dbsbangkok.ac.th/dbs-update-04-09-2026 Warm regards, The DBS Team
Celebrating Courage Across the Lower School
This week, we launched our new Lower School Values Assembly, through which we will celebrate children who bring our five school values - Courage, Empathy, Generosity, Humility and Integrity to life. Our first focus was Courage. Class teachers nominated children who have demonstrated courage since returning to school, reminding us that courage does not always have to involve something big or dramatic. It might mean putting your hand up when you are unsure, trying a new activity, asking for help, admitting a mistake, standing up for someone else or walking into school confidently when you are feeling nervous. Sometimes courage is quiet - it is simply choosing to take the next step, even when something feels difficult. Each nominated child received a certificate and a special Courage keyring to add to their school bag. Throughout the year, we will continue celebrating all five values, and pupils will have opportunities to collect keyrings that represent the qualities they demonstrate through their everyday choices and actions. This message was particularly meaningful for our Year 6 pupils, who have shown a wonderful example of the Wisdom at the heart of the final stage of our G.R.O.W. Pathway. An incredible 30 pupils put themselves forward for the roles of Lower School Head Student and Deputy Head Student. Standing in front of others, sharing your ideas and allowing yourself to be considered takes real courage. Leadership is not only about being chosen for a position, it begins with having the confidence to step forward, knowing that the outcome is not guaranteed. Every pupil who applied demonstrated bravery, aspiration and a willingness to contribute to our school community - qualities that will serve them well far beyond this particular opportunity. We are immensely proud of every Year 6 pupil who gave it a go and would like to congratulate them all. Our new Head Students and Deputy Head Students will be announced next week, but every one of the 30 applicants has already shown us something very important, true courage lies in being willing to try.
Headmaster's Weekly Update 4/9/26
Dear Parents and Guardians, I hope your children have had a good week. This week we celebrated Wai Kru. I used this as an opportunity to address concerns that have been raised by parents about students using inappropriate language when speaking in Thai. Whilst many parents see the root of this issue as being about our policy on the use of English, which is similar to the policies used at other international schools (in fact, the changes that we made emerged from discussions in the Heads of Upper School meetings at other British Schools including Harrow, Shrewsbury and Pattana), we see this as a behaviour issue. To help to begin to address this, I would like to share with you the full text of my speech that I gave at the Upper School Wai Kru ceremony: Good morning, students and staff. Today, we participate in Wai Kru, a tradition rooted in respect, gratitude, and the pursuit of wisdom. As we look ahead to the rest of the academic year, I want you to know that the staff and leadership team are fully committed to supporting your ambitions, your growth, and your success. For our new teachers, this will be your first time experiencing this wonderful part of Thai culture, and I hope you enjoy it today. Whilst Wai Kru is a beautiful ceremony of showing respect, true respect cannot be expressed in a single ceremony once a year if it is being ignored in the hallways every day. This year, I feel I need to address an issue directly which some parents have reported to me: the use of swear words, particularly when speaking Thai by some students. When you use vulgar {bad} language, you undermine our core school values. How you speak reflects your character and the standards of our community. When you swear, you let us all down. Wai Kru is meaningless if we show respect to our teachers during a ceremony, but use offensive language in front of them by lunchtime. Most of you do not need to hear this; you are polite, respectful and model students, and you are as annoyed by this issue as I am. However, there is a small minority who do need to hear this, so this is directed to them. Casual swearing will not be normalised, excused, or ignored. It will be met with firm, direct disciplinary action. This behaviour is not welcome here. We hold you to a high standard because we respect your potential as leaders. We have high aspirations for your time at DBS and your future afterwards. Let’s ensure our daily language matches the honour of today's tradition and sets a high standard for the year ahead. Let’s work together to build a community that we can all be proud of, where everyone feels welcome, and all of our actions are built on respect. The school will take strong and escalating disciplinary action with students who are found to be swearing, be that in Thai, English or another home language. Often when parents raise this issue with us, they speak about students anonymously. To help us address this, we need parents to support us by giving us details about specific incidents that we can follow up on. Together, we can begin to shift this culture. Going back to why we allow students to use their first language in social time, our approach, and the approach of our competitors, is based on research. Arguments in favour of flexible multilingualism Translanguaging & Socio-Emotional Well-Being: Forcing monolingualism outside the classroom can create linguistic anxiety and social distance. Allowing students to use their primary language (L1) during unstructured social time honours their cultural identity, facilitates deeper peer bonding, and improves overall school engagement. Affective Filter Hypothesis: Language acquisition drops sharply when stress or self-consciousness is high. Policing language during personal downtime keeps students' "affective filter" elevated. Permitting L1 during breaks allows students to relax, lowering anxiety so they are more mentally receptive during formal English instruction. Linguistic Interdependence: Academic language proficiency relies on a shared conceptual foundation across languages . Allowing primary language social interaction does not impair academic English acquisition; cognitive depth in a student's native language directly supports academic concept development in their second language. Arguments in favour of monolingualism (English only) Output & Time-on-Task Hypotheses: Language fluency scales directly with active target-language output. We have considered this, which is why we insist on English only in lessons (with some accommodation for students explaining a concept to peers and translating terminology) Interpersonal vs. Academic Skill Imbalance (BICS vs. CALP): Restricting English strictly to lessons develops Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) but starves Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS). Considering this, we felt that there are plenty of opportunities for social English development in other areas, and we still encourage English to be used for this purpose. Minority Student Exclusion: Studies on international school demographics caution that when a single native language dominates non-academic spaces, the non-native minority frequently experiences social isolation during unstructured hours. This is the area which concerns us most and is probably the strongest argument against our current policy. It is also worth considering what the school environment was like under our old policy. When we used to insist on English during break and lunch, we had the same amount of Thai being spoken, but the approach led to much toxic confrontation and complaints from a significant proportion of the parent body that we were demonising Thai speakers. Our current policy has been in place for 3 years and, on the whole, has worked better, but this year, we have seen a shift in behaviour in some areas, not just in the use of swear words but also in the use of Gen Z neo-slang. This is something that we are beginning to address. I hope this helps to clarify and assure you that we are taking action in relation to this behaviour issue. Have a nice weekend Jonny Liddell Headmaster
Upper School Newsletter - 4/9/26
It has been another extraordinary and bustling week across the Upper School, filled with prestigious achievements, vibrant community celebrations, and exciting opportunities for our students. A standout highlight was our remarkable success at the World Scholar’s Cup national round. All three of our DBS teams qualified for the prestigious Tournament of Champions at Yale University in November, with coaches Ms. Newson and Mr. Rolleston rightfully honored as team coaches of the tournament. On Thursday, our community came together for a moving Wai Kru ceremony to honor our teachers. The event was hosted brilliantly by Freya and Ease in Year 9, with Matoom in Year 11 gracefully leading the traditional chant and bilingual song. Pastoral connection was also a key focus this week as we welcomed Year 8 and Year 9 parents to campus to meet our Head of KS3, Ms. Hamill, alongside Head of Year 8 Mr. Bailey, Head of Year 9 Mrs. Chan, and our Form Tutors. Together, they outlined our vision for the Global Leaders sessions and the exciting holistic development planned for our KS3 students this year. Our PE and sports departments have kept the energy high as students settle back into their routines. KS3 classes have made a fantastic start, while our new Year 10 cohort has enthusiastically launched into their IGCSE PE journey. Following last week’s trials, our Upper School BISA teams are now deep into their weekly training regimes, building momentum towards the end-of-season tournaments. Meanwhile, selection trials for the U15 FOBISIA Games team are nearing completion, with final announcements coming soon as we prepare for one of the most anticipated highlights of the regional sporting calendar. Adding to the buzz, the 2026 Residential Trips were officially launched this week! Offering incredible outdoor experiences across Thailand, these trips will challenge students to build resilience, forge lifelong friendships, and grow as individuals. Students will learn more during assemblies next week, and parent information sessions will be announced shortly. Looking ahead, we continue to empower student voice as interviews for the Upper School Head Students and Senior Leadership Team take place on Wednesday, ahead of final position announcements by the end of next week. We will also be rolling out leadership roles for Years 7–11 to work alongside our Sixth Form leaders. Finally, we warmly invite all Upper School parents and guardians to join us next Thursday morning, September 10th, at 8:00 AM in the Sixth Form Lecture Hall for a presentation by Mr. Jake McIntosh, Head of Upper School. This 60-minute session will provide an opportunity to meet Mr. McIntosh, hear about key priorities for the Upper School this year, and connect with other parents.
Event Calendar is Now Live on Parent Connect
We are pleased to officially launch the DBS SOCS Calendar for parents. SOCS will become our central, live calendar for school events, giving families one place to check upcoming dates and activities throughout the academic year. The parent-facing calendar displays events that have been published for our community, while internal school events remain separate. The calendar has currently been updated with school events through to the Half Term break on Friday 9 October, with plenty more dates and events to be added over the coming weeks. [Click here to access the DBS SOCS Calendar] Add SOCS to the Calendar You Already Use One of the most useful features of SOCS is that you do not need to keep checking the website. You can subscribe to the DBS calendar and have events appear automatically in your existing Google, Apple or Outlook calendar. When information is updated in SOCS, the subscribed calendar will also update. Open the DBS SOCS Calendar using the link above. Use the filters to select the areas of the calendar that are relevant to your family, then select Calendar Sync. You can choose Synchronize Filtered Calendar if you only want your selected categories, or Synchronize Entire Calendar if you would like all published DBS events. Apple Calendar – iPhone/iPad: Select the synchronisation link and follow the prompt to subscribe. Alternatively, go to Calendar → Calendars → Add Calendar → Add Subscription Calendar and paste the SOCS calendar address. Google Calendar: On a computer, copy the SOCS calendar URL. Open Google Calendar and select + beside “Other calendars” → From URL → paste the SOCS URL → Add calendar. Once added, it will also appear in the Google Calendar app on your devices. Outlook: Open Outlook Calendar and select Add calendar → Subscribe from web, paste the SOCS calendar URL and select Import/Save. We encourage families to subscribe rather than simply import the calendar, as a subscription allows new events and updates made by the School to flow through to your personal calendar automatically. We hope this makes it easier for families to keep track of everything happening at DBS and plan ahead throughout the year.
DBS Community Bands Initiative
Do you play an instrument or sing and want to be in a 'really cool' DBS band? Read on! Or rock on should I say... We are thrilled to start a new community band initiative, which is open to all staff and parents! The idea is for people to make music together in a relaxed and fun environment. We will try to put people together who are interested in playing the same style of music. Initially, the goal for this is to have these bands perform a song on the Buskers' Corner stage during UN Day (formerly known as International Day) on Friday 9th October 2026 . If there is interest following this, we will keep it going, and there may be further opportunities to perform. We will rehearse/jam on Thursdays ASA2 4:20-5:20 PM in the D4 Music Department , Floor 3. The first session will be Thursday 3rd September . If you are interested, please complete this form: https://forms.gle/ttNdVYAiQFbfpdZX8 หากคุณเป็นคนหนึ่งที่สามารถร้องเพลงและเล่นดนตรีได้ และสนใจอยากมาร่วมเป็นส่วนหนึ่ง ของวงดนตรี ‘สุดคูล’ ของ DBS อย่าเพิ่งเลื่อนผ่านอีเมลนี้ เรารู้สึกตื่นเต้นเป็นอย่างยิ่งที่จะได้เริ่มต้นกิจกรรมใหม่อย่าง Community Band ซึ่งเปิด โอกาสให้ทั้งพนักงาน DBS และผู้ปกครองทุกคนสามารถเข้าร่วมได้! กิจกรรมนี้จัดขึ้นเพื่อให้ ทุกคนได้มาร่วมทําเพลงและเล่นดนตรีด้วยกันในบรรยากาศที่ผ่อนคลายและสนุกสนาน โดย เราจะพยายามจัดกลุ่มผู้เข้าร่วมให้ได้เล่นดนตรีร่วมกับคนที่สนใจแนวเพลงเดียวกันหรือใกล้ เคียงกัน เป้าหมายหลักของกิจกรรมนี้คือ ให้แต่ละวงได้มีโอกาสขึ้นแสดงบนเวที Buskers' Corner ในงาน UN Day (เดิมเรียกว่า International Day) ในวันศุกร์ที่ 9 ตุลาคม 2026 หากกิจกรรมได้รับความสนใจและมีผู้เข้าร่วมอย่างต่อเนื่อง เราจะดําเนินกิจกรรมนี้ต่อไป และ อาจมีโอกาสให้วงดนตรีได้ขึ้นแสดงในโอกาสอื่น ๆ อีกในอนาคต เราจะมีการฝึกซ้อมกัน ทุกวันพฤหัสบดี เวลา 16:20–17:20 น. (ASA2) ที่แผนกดนตรี ตึก D4 ชั้น 3 การซ้อมครั้งแรกจะเกิดขึ้น ในวันพฤหัสบดีที่ 3 กันยายน 2026 หากคุณสนใจ สามารถกรอกแบบฟอร์มเพื่อสมัครเข้าร่วมกิจกรรมได้ที่ลิงก์ด้านล่าง: https://forms.gle/ttNdVYAiQFbfpdZX8
DBS Community Charity Update
Dear Parents, We would like to thank the entire DBS community for the tremendous support given to our charity and service programme during the last academic year. Now that the year-end accounts have been finalised, all funds have been accounted for and fully allocated. Looking across the whole year, our community’s fundraising has provided substantial support to a number of organisations: Beaumont Ruam Pattana School – approximately THB 215,000 This included THB 95,000 for our Backpack Campaign, which provided every student with a new backpack and school supplies, together with a further THB 120,000 allocation. Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand – approximately THB 209,000 This included funds raised through our Christmas Cookie Sale, an earlier transfer of approximately THB 81,000, and a further THB 120,000 allocation to support wildlife rescue, rehabilitation and care. Housing and Communities for Sustainability Foundation – approximately THB 215,000 Supporting sustainable housing and community-development initiatives, including approximately THB 176,000 from the final allocation. Rainbow House – THB 120,000 Supporting children and young people with disabilities through care, rehabilitation and development. Pak Kred Boys Home – approximately THB 89,000 Supported through our Movember initiative. In total, this represents approximately THB 848,000 of support directed to these charitable organisations and projects across the year. None of this would have been possible without the generosity of our parents, students, staff and partners. In particular, we would like to recognise our student leaders, who played a central role in planning initiatives, organising events, promoting causes and encouraging our community to get involved. Thank you to everyone who donated, volunteered, sponsored an event, purchased something at a fundraiser or supported our students. Your contribution has helped turn student leadership and service into meaningful impact for communities and causes across Thailand. We look forward to continuing this work together in the year ahead.
