We are delighted to share that we have secured a Project-based Learning (PBL) coach as part of our year-long focus. After years of working and learning in cutting-edge schools, Kyle Wagner decided to share his knowledge and experiences and now is a full-time educational consultant. Click on transformschool.com to find out more about Kyle and PBL.

This is an exciting opportunity for VERSO as we strengthen and build our own PBL practices and program. PBL is a driving force in our approach and methodology for Explore Projects (student-driven) and Learning Lab (Learning Designer-led). Kyle is joining us on tomorrow to meet with the Learning Design Team and students. We value the work Kyle has done and our goal is to always constantly seek ways to elevate and enhance what we do at VERSO to deliver a meaningful and impactful experience for every student. As a school, we have made excellent progress in establishing a strong culture and foundation with PBL.

When you think about our VERSO vision, "Inspiring everybody to be future ready", building a strong and rigorous PBL learning environment speaks to our vision in equipping our learners to be project managers in any field of future work.

We are committed to a year-long partnership with Kyle and firmly believe that his work will empower our Learning Design Team and students to produce high-quality projects. Watch this space as we share our story and progress with you!

Parent Session | HeadRush & Explore Projects

We want to invite parents in for a parent session earlier in the year. As we have some overnight BTW trips over the next 2 weeks, we decided to offer a workshop on Wednesday, 12 October.

The purpose of this session will be to help parents access HeadRush to view their child's learning. We also wish to share more about the students' Explore projects - where we are up to and where we are going. This will provide a clear picture on the structure and approach we are following, using the design thinking process. Please mark your calendars for 8:00am Wednesday, 12 October in VERSO Connect if you are interested in finding out more. We hope to run more parent sessions over the course of the year. There is nothing more important than the home and school partnership.

Beyond the Walls | Overnight Trips

The power of getting out beyond the school walls is undeniable.

We have organized 2 overnight trips that are connected to learning labs, relationship building, and developing greater independence.

The C7-8 learners will be away to Chiang Mai during 27-29 September while the C5-6 learners will be away to Saraburi during 4-6 October. We truly believe that real-life experiences such as these, positively impact learning and provide a unique perspective on connecting with people and the planet.

Thank you for supporting our BTW program. We can't wait to hear all about it when the students return and hope to share a write-up about their experience

Reading Assessments

Literacy is a fundamental aspect of any educational learning program. At VERSO we conduct a reading conference twice a year to collect 2 data points to measure progress over time. We use Fontas & Pinnell (https://www.fountasandpinnell.com) guided readers and reading assessment to collect the child's reading level.

Math and Reading Assessment Week will held during 7 - 11 November 

We are sharing this information with you now because during the 3 Way-Conference (25 November) with parents, we will be able to share some data with you, offer feedback, and provide possible next steps to focus on reading goals and strategies.

All of our EAL students have explicit English lessons during workshops to build their literacy skills. Students can also access EPIC to support reading at home. All students have access to EPIC which is basically an online library and resources for them to select and read at home. All students in the ML now read every Friday from 8:00am - 8:45am to develop positive reading habits and encourage reading. Learning designers will be supporting students in their reading during this time. We are taking this approach to seeking multiple ways we can inspire and support a culture of reading in the Middle Loop. The main goal of this is to promote reading and communicate a clear message that reading is a life skill.

Stranger Danger Announcement

We are aware of the recent concerns regarding stranger danger in our Bangkok community. The Student Success Team has spoken at length to the Middle Loopers last week. The session was aimed to equip our students to keep themselves and their friends safe. Please follow up with your child about how to keep themselves safe with people they do not know. If you have any questions, please direct them to the Student Success Team: sst@verso.ac.th.