Outstanding Cambridge Learner Award

Prae wants to be a doctor; first-hand experience has inspired her and she quite rightly admires the care and support that doctors and nurses provide people when they need it most. She joined Bangkok Prep in Year 8 from an independent school where lessons are mostly delivered in Thai. Her first Language is Thai and she excels at the subject. Of course when Prae joined our school she had less experience with academic English than many of her peers in Year 8 but she has been, and will continue to be, remarkably successful. It was a pleasure to congratulate Prae on her achievement and hear more from her about her experience.

Our Year 11 students have been sitting their mock examinations in school over the past few weeks and for nearly everyone this was their first experience (in a very long time) in the formal examination setting. Nerves and pressure are a normal part of taking examinations but we all feel for our students who will be the first cohort in two years to take external examinations in the more traditional sense.

On the first day of the mocks, Prae already had some wonderful successes to rely on: She has already achieved her iGCSE First Language Thai in May/June 2021. Prae achieved an A* and has been recognised by Cambridge Assessment International Education with a prestigious Outstanding Learner Award.

Prae is a learner who achieved the highest standard marks in Thailand for this subject!! Amazing!! Congratulations to Prae!

We are always very proud of our students when they achieve awards like these and we hope to be able to celebrate with more students and their families again after examinations this year.

Now, we have an opportunity to ask Prae about her success.

Prae is responsible and hard-working and her award is a credit to her and how well she performed in those few hours in the two examinations but there are a lot of hours that prepare us for examinations.

This is what Prae said to me:

Set goals for yourself and ask the people around you for their support and input to achieve those goals. Talk to your family and your teachers. Speak to friends who have similar ambitions and goals to make your plans together and support each other.

In a few words Prae reminds us all of how students, teachers and families are the team that help us to achieve our potential. Thank you Prae.

As she prepares for Sciences, Art, Business Studies, English Language, Mathematics and Psychology we know that it is her hard work that will count most. Clearly though, it is both home and school listening and supporting her that will help our future Dr Prae follow her chosen pathway.

Tia Court-Smith

Head of Secondary