RIS celebrates 60 years of excellence

RUAMRUDEE International School was founded in 1957 by Redemptorist fathers and was the first WASC accredited school in Thailand. Over the past 60 years, Ruamrudee has guided its students towards academic excellence and supported their individual growth as compassionate members of the global community in which they live.
    
As a hallmark of international education, RIS offers a rigorous academic program based on an American enhanced curriculum, as well as the choice of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP) and Advanced Placement (AP) courses in high school. From their first day, students are assigned a dedicated counselor who closely follows and assists them and their parents in selecting the best option for their particular academic strengths, post-secondary education choice and selected career pathways.

A home away from home

RIS has a boarding facility with a family feel that closely resembles a college style boarding experience. Both locally based, as well as international students share semi-private rooms with private bathrooms. For local students, this means less time in traffic and more time for study and extracurricular activities. For all students, it means living life within a multicultural community with peers who are going through the same life experiences under the watchful eye of teacher mentors who reside with them in the dorm.

Digital Age readiness

RIS students learn to live, work and lead with a 21st-century global vision thanks to the seamless integration of supportive technologies within the classroom, as well as spaces dedicated to 21st-century learning, including a robotics lab and makerspace. These spaces are poised to transform learning and emphasize creation and creativity by exploiting new digital tools to make, share and learn across space and time in do-it-yourself style.

A conversation with the Head of School, Dr. Shalee Cunningham

The trend in education reform has been a move to individualized and project-based learning, student-centered classrooms, an increase in the depth of academic rigor and the breadth of academic courses made available to students. Ruamrudee students can expect this and more in learning environments where the daily integration of technology is a given, where attention is paid to the needs of gifted and talented learners, to English language learners and to students needing learning support.

RIS’s rigorous Common Core Curriculum focuses on developing the critical-thinking, problem-solving and analytical skills students will need to be successful in the 21st century. In high school, offering students the choice between the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program and Advanced Placement courses ensures both academic rigor and high expectation until graduation, as well as the ability to best meet individual student strengths and accommodate student post-secondary educational requirements. RIS also offers global education co-curricular programs where students have the opportunity to deepen knowledge in authentic settings and for genuine causes.

Your Child • Our World

For RIS, the Your Child • Our World Campaign represents 60 years of excellence in education. The benefit to students of a long and proud history of success is the stellar reputation RIS maintains on the world post-secondary stage. RIS graduates consistently garner offers from the best universities worldwide, including medical schools and advanced science institutions. It also highlights how RIS prepares students to be positive, proactive and successful global citizens, able to rise to the diverse demands of the challenges in a world defined by a global economy and contemporary issues that transcend national boundaries. A global education provides students opportunities both within and outside the classroom setting to learn to understand and to value multiple perspectives, as well as how to communicate within and adapt to a culture other than their own.

The 60th Anniversary

Three major events are planned to honor this proud milestone in RIS history. On November 26, a talent showcase will be held at the school’s Performing Arts Centre and will feature both current RIS students and notable alumni performances. February 4 is Family Fun Day on campus and a gala dinner and dance on May 13 at the site of the original campus on soi Ruamrudee will bring the Diamond Jubilee celebrations to a close.
    
Part of turning 60 is to focus on the continued success of RIS. The school has recently completed a facility master plan that will ensure improvements in both curricular and co-curricular learning spaces. RIS prioritizes teacher professional development. All teachers engage professional development with both a school-wide goal, as well as personal professional goals supported by individual teacher professional growth allowances. RIS hires the best and the brightest new teachers who are supported by senior teacher mentors. In keeping with their goal to graduate positive, proactive, and successful global citizens, able to rise to the diverse demands of the challenges synonymous with our ever-evolving international world, they wish to further increase student diversity and offer a diversity scholarship to help achieve this goal.