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Written by BISP Year 12 Head Student Katie 

Wednesday 13th March was Baan Day#3, an important day for our school unity, where we saw so many wearing their House colours, participating in activities and donating to the House charities. It was an inspiring day!

The preparation started many days before, with countless meetings brainstorming and planning activities to really make the day special. It was our aim this year to introduce new events and consolidate Baan Day as something that will remain an amazing tradition in our school. Then, the day before, the Leadership Team, the PTA, the Events Team and the Housekeeping staff all pitched in to decorate the school. Alongside our House colours and fun decorations, we had the pleasure of displaying the incredible artwork from Primary School students, which was so heartwarming as students crowded around us in excitement at their work being recognised! 

The morning of the event, we arrived bright and early to start painting the faces of the hundreds of students flooding in, sporting their House colours with pride. The outfits ranged from simple, to beautiful, to ridiculous, and it was incredibly fun to see what everyone wore to the event. 

At lunchtime, heads were turned as students took to the runway. Students of each colour House strutted their stuff together in front of cheering crowds, in return for House points. Although the populace was originally shy, they quickly were persuaded to get on stage by Mr Wheatley and the House Captains. Then, we commenced with one of our most popular events: drenching teachers with water. There’s nothing like public humiliation to bring a crowd together, and indeed one did form quickly as buckets of water were dumped on staff from various faculties in return for correct answers to our House animal-themed questions. Students also took the opportunity to indulge in treats distributed by the PTA stalls, of which bubble tea possibly brought on more smiles than the aquatic attacks on our hardworking teachers!

As the students returned to class, our Y7 and 8 students, alongside our Welsh exchange students, made their way gleefully to the field for an epic water-balloon themed showdown of Capture the Flag. Pitting each House against each other, we witnessed students across year groups and nationalities working together to utterly drench the other team – and themselves – in the pre-Songkran heat! After several nail-biting games, where students became increasingly skilled in their water-based tactical play, there was a race to pick up the rubbish and clear the field for future use. 

Finally, it was time for the House Captains to collect all of the donations from the House Dollar Drive, which was an overwhelming success, raising a whopping 31,772 THB! The PTA Bake sale raised an additional 127,407.60 THB for 4 local charities linked to each colour house.  All this money will be used to help those in need and is a testament to the dedication and generosity of the BISP Community. It was a wonderful day of fun and fundraising, and everyone should be proud of their accomplishments.

As we took down the decorations, we were already planning on how to make next year’s Baan Day even more spectacular. An extra special thank you to all of the Student House Captains and Leadership Team, who worked tirelessly to organise this event; Ms Cockerill, Mr Dilts, Ms Jennings and Ms Williams, who volunteered to get dunked; Mr Wheatley for his help on the microphone; the PTA who ran so many amazing stalls; the housekeeping staff who helped to set everything up and take it down again; and all of the teachers, staff and students who participated fully in this event!