International Day

Xie Xie! Dekujeme! Danke schon! Gracias! and THANK YOU! to every community member who journeyed along to celebrate Prem’s 2023 International Day on Saturday, January 28th. Our theme this year was “Unity in Diversity” and we believe we had over 1500 people celebrating exactly that. We were fortunate to have so many Prem parents, teachers, staff and students creating global experiences representing 21 different countries from 5 different continents. This year we also added a “Third Culture Kids” stand, which reflects what many of our students are: students who have parents from a different nationality than where they are living and learning, truly making many of our students “international” at their very core. From our side, it was just a joy to see students and parents enjoying the event, learning about other countries, playing diverse games, trying on traditional dress from some countries, and attempting to speak words in other languages. These were just a few things our creative participants asked over 370 students to do in order to earn their “Prem Passport Stamps” after passing through our House Immigration Station.

The event began with a local Thai drum group leading our colourful flag parade representing over 30 nations our students and faculty come from. A massive thanks goes out to all of the Senior School Student Council members who worked tirelessly to make this grand entrance go smoothly, especially our exiting G12 co-Presidents: Ariel & Namping.

Ajarn Laurent’s Music Team also helped us immensely, fully organising our diverse cultural show which ranged from Chinese fashions to Bhutanese dances to musical performances. We are so grateful to have such a talented community willing to share their artistic gifts with all of us.

Games ranging from Canada’s “Pin the tail on the Beaver” to New Zealand’s “Rugby Toss & Vegemite Challenge” were just a few of the dozens of activities that kept students engaged, experiencing new things, and enjoying the event.

Above all, our entire International Day Planning Committee would like to thank parents and all PSC members who supported us in making this the “greenest” event our school has held thus far. With the help of Precious Plastics and Aj. Emma and Aj. Erica, we added in a new token system that we hope to improve for all future events to come at Prem. With a focused effort on reducing our plastic use at stands, reusing tokens – which are soon to be “Prem” spending tokens as the designs are in the works – we continue to live and realise our mission to be responsible global citizens with a mind towards waste reduction and Green-flag best-practices. We are making a difference in the whole world, Prem, and it starts with our efforts here and your support. So – again – we thank you!

And no event like this happens without the incredible support of our Thai facilities teams led by K. Viroj in Operations and K. Ning in Housekeeping. Their set-up, problem-solving, and attention to detail in making this the best event possible is so appreciated. We couldn’t do it without them, so “khap khun kha” again!

I’d like to take a moment and give two personal notes of thanks. First of all, to the Senior School House Captains who worked so hard creating the posters, the trivia games, setting up the stands and flags, and helping with the entrance and token booths on the day of the event. You are wonderful student leaders and Prem is so lucky to have you! Secondly, to the entire planning committee team of Sandra (Marketing), Yuki (PSC Events Rep), Mary-Ann (JS Leadership), Sam C. (SS Leadership), Ariel & Namping (SS StuCo co-Presidents). For most of us, it was our first time seeing Prem’s International Day and we knew that after 3 years without, we needed to make it special. I hope you feel that your community voices were heard and that your country was represented. We definitely did our best to provide you with “Unity in Diversity” and hope you had as wonderful of a day “travelling” as we did!