New International School of Thailand

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The New International School of Thailand (NIST) is an international school located at Sukhumvit Soi 15 in the downtown area of Bangkok, Thailand. It is widely considered as Bangkok's most elite international school, as it attracts families affiliated with embassies, large non-governmental organizations, and multinational corporations. These entities pay for the education of the children of their white-collared employees, and such families are considered highly desirable by international schools.

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[edit] History

The school opened its doors to students in 1992. The founding of the school was assisted by a seed grant from the United Nations. The Nist campus is owned by the Church of Christ, which has given the school a 30-year lease.

[edit] Curriculum

Nist has two schools on the same campus: the Elementary School and the Secondary School. Nist is an IB World School that runs all three academic programs of the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO). These are the Primary Years Program (PYP), for students aged 3 - 11, the Middle Years Program (ages 11 - 16) and the IB Diploma Program (ages 16 - 18).

The school is run by a not-for-profit organization, the Foundation for International Education. That organization chooses a board of directors, who are elected from the body of parents. The primary task of the board of directors is to select the Head of School. The current Head of School is Mr. Simon Leslie, an Australian who was working in Tanzania before joining Nist. Nist serves families from more than 40 countries, with an approximate enrollment of 1350 students.

Nist markets itself as a "truly international school," meaning that it does not adhere to the national system of any one country but combines the best of many national systems with its own educational philosophy. The teaching staff come from Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, and a host of other nations. Most of the teaching staff are recruited at international job fairs.

As part of the curriculum, Nist Students learn a Language Other Than English (LOTE). The choices include Spanish, Mandarin, French, German, Finnish, Thai, Hindi, Japanese, and more.

[edit] Nist Portal & New Technology

Since the academic year of 2005-06, grade 9 (year 10) have been using tablet PC's as substitutes of text books and work books. This huge achievement in the technology department has made a very positive results. Therefore, the experiment of tablet PC's have been successfully promoted to the current grade 9 (year 10) and may be widely taken among all the secondary year levels. There has also been a development in a section of the Nist website called the "Nist Portal", it is a server where works, homeworks and other academic related files are stored and obtained.

[edit] Sports Teams

Nist athletic teams compete in the Bangkok International Schools Athletic Conference (BISAC) and the Southeast Asian Schools Athletic Conference (SEASAC). Nist excels in basketball, soccer, volleyball and softball at the varsity level, frequently finishing with medals in local and international tournaments, both for girls and boys. Nist also has varsity teams for tennis, badminton, swimming and rugby. Nist teams are called "The Falcons" after the school's sport mascot. They play in blue and silver/grey/white.