The Haunted House strengthened Bangkok Prep’s ‘social glue…’

Who would have thought that a haunted house in a school could symbolise a sign of strengthening a school community’s ‘social glue’. Some people reading this might be confused on two parts. How would a haunted house strengthen bonds and what is social glue? If you knew what went into the organisation, creation and execution of this year’s Halloween you would 100% fully understand its meaning and symbolisation. My messaging in the Wai Kru article last month about ‘being on the same team’ really did come to fruition this Halloween.

The Halloween event enabled and empowered our whole community to get together for the first time this academic year on the same campus. The event wasn’t without its challenges, like all whole school events, but the perseverance from our FOBP team, student leadership and our staff body, was nothing shy of inspirational. When a team unites to achieve a common vision, the outcomes can truly be remarkable and sometimes surpass expectations greater than one could even imagine. I would like to go on record, to challenge any international school, to prove they had a better haunted house than Bangkok Prep did in 2023. 

The power of perseverance and purpose – The success of this year’s Halloween came down to the perseverance and purpose of a group of parents, student leaders and with help from the staff. That group of people set out to provide an experience for young people that was like no other. This was their purpose and they stayed true to achieving their vision and their ‘why’ throughout. One should never underestimate the power of the positive triangular relationship between students, teachers and parents in all walks of school life. Add to that embedded, shared values, a clear vision and mission and it truly is the magic recipe.

Student leadership teaches skills you can’t always learn when studying academia – Witnessing our Assistant Head of Enrichment, Kiri F and her team devise and send out student and parent communication plans, create schedules for working during the weekend and most impressively, visioning what the haunted house would look like, and then delivering on that vision was a real highlight. It also reinforced the integral role of student leadership in the development of our student’s character and skill set. Here is Kiri with her thoughts and experiences from being an instrumental factor to strengthening our community’s social glue through the Halloween festivities…

As the Assistant Head of Enrichment, I was given the opportunity to work with the Assistant Head of Performances, Art Prefects, SAT and FOBP on this year’s Haunted House that we have named “Land of Oz”. Working with various teams, inevitably, required a good level of team working and communication skills, as well as respect. Not only did I try inspiring the teams with my ideas, I had to have confidence in my thoughts to be able to communicate clearly with the different teams. Fortunately, everyone that I worked with on this huge Halloween event were very passionate and enthusiastic and were willing to give up their time into making the Halloween event more enjoyable and memorable for other members of the community. 

With the different talents that we all have, we were able to give ideas and support each other in different aspects of organising the Haunted House. We had the Art Prefects design the layout and decorations, and the SAT and FOBP working on the decorations and operation of the Haunted House using the ideas that came from the Art Prefects. Communicating and collaborating with FOBP was a little bit of challenge for me due to the language barrier. However, we were able to build a good relationship through working on this project. 

I learned that challenges like language barriers can easily be overcome by having patience and respect for one another to try understand each other. And this is a vital skill to have especially in an international community like our school. I have been hearing a lot of positive feedback from many students, parents, and staff members, and I hope to work on more events like this in my last year here at Bangkok Prep to make this academic year more exciting than ever for everyone in the community. I would like to take this opportunity to show my gratitude to everyone who has taken part in organising the Haunted House, and to everyone who has entered inside and gave back to us with the best reactions ever. It wouldn’t have been so successful without your support!!

These opportunities can enrich our students’ experiences at school and prepare them for life beyond academic study. No student needs a title or a badge to be a student leader at Bangkok Prep. Just the willingness to get involved and be an active member of the community. 

At Bangkok Prep, we pride ourselves on having a strong organisation culture that is built on a caring and supportive community. This community centred culture is being tested more than ever due to our ever growing numbers. With our values at the core, our vision and mission at the forefront and if Halloween is anything to go by, Bangkok Prep’s ‘social glue’ is becoming stronger and stronger by the day. 

A huge thank you to our FOBP team, parents helpers, Khun Diew, PCS staff and our Student Leaders for all their work on the Halloween festivities. It really was a showstopper of an event!

Mr. Hurworth

Deputy Head Teacher