Departure: Meet at Terminal 2 at 11:15am

Dear participants,


Please meet at Terminal 2 at 11:15am on 13th June Friday. Don't forget to bring along your passport and do not lose it. Always have it with you all the time.

Make sure that you are properly groomed. We will give you the trip T-shirt to put on immediately for identification.

Tag all your bags with your full name and Singapore address, contact no written on it.
Also write down First Hotel, Bangkok in the tag.

Don't forget to have 2 gifts (for school visits) and 2 presents (toys or stationery) for the visit to the orphanage.

Check back here for more updates.

Location of First Hotel

Satellite view of bangkok and First Hotel (label F) where we will be staying

GP Programme China @ Mayflower

Please visit the blog at mayflowerchina08.wordpress.com

Using Nokia N95 features in Thailand

For all the friends and relatives of the participants going to Thailand, you can now keep track of the participants in Thailand. How? We will be uploading our daily tracks in Thailand with photos along the way so that you can follow us in our educational journey through Thailand. Here is a sample of a track created today, click here.

Please comment whether you like this idea and also tell us what you like us to include if time and resources permit.

Counting down to our journey.

1st Briefing on the Trip on 2nd May

For those who submitted names to go for the trip,

there is a briefing during the morning assembly at the basketball court after morning announcement. Mrs Evelyn Ng and Mr Ahmad will conduct the briefing.

For those Sec 4/3/2 NA/NT students who did not submit names and also do not have any 'N' Level coursework or exam from the 13th June to 17th June, you can come for the briefing and submit your name.

Estimated cost of trip is S$800 per student.
Singapore citizen pays 20%, ie approx. S$160.
Singapore citizen on financial assistance pays approx. S$32.
For Singapore citizen whose total household income less than S$4000, you can apply for opportunity fund to waive the 20% payment.

more details during the briefing....

Testing of email to blog

This is the content

Shorter text on River Kwai

The River Kwai, more correctly Khwae Noi (Thai: แควน้อย, English small tributary) or Khwae Sai Yok (แควไทรโยค), is a river in western Thailand, near the border with Myanmar.

It begins at the confluence of Ranti, Songkalia and Bikhli Rivers. At Kanchanaburi it merges with the Khwae Yai River to form the Mae Klong river, which empties into the Gulf of Thailand at Samut Songkhram.
The river is chiefly known from the Pierre Boulle novel and David Lean film The Bridge on the River Kwai, in which Australian, Dutch and British prisoners of war were forced by the Japanese to construct two parallel bridges spanning the river as part of the Burma Railway, also called the Death Railway for the many lives lost in its construction.

Cemetery for nearly 7000 soldiers, who worked on the Burma-railway during the second world-war.

One bridge was wooden and temporary. The other was made of concrete and steel and still exists. Ironically, the bridges actually spanned the Mae Klong, but as the railway subsequently follows the Khwae Noi Valley, the bridges became famous under the wrong name.


In the 1960s, the upper part of the Mae Klong was renamed the Khwae Yai (big tributary"). Source: Wikipedia.

GP Programme to Thailand 2008

Introduction

Students who are participating in the GP Programme to Thailand 2008 will have to read the reading materials and attend the 3 modules before they start their field expedition.

Reading Activities.
1. Look at the archives on the right hand side of this blog.
2. You have to read the newspaper articles and answer the questions posted at the end of each article.
3. Post your answers in the comments entry.
Remember to write your name and class.
4. Each student is expected to post at least three comments in this blog for this particular activity.
5. You have two weeks to complete this activity.

GP Module
Each Module is one hour long and students will be expected to be engaged in the activities designed for them.
These modules will be conducted four weeks before the trip commence.

Objectives of GP Programme to Thailand
1. To plant the seed of entrepreneurship in our students
2. To expose our pupils to the culture of an Asian country other than Singapore.
3. To provide an opportunity for our Normal (Academic/Technical) students to travel to another country.

Propose Date of Trip 13th June to 17th June 2008


Pre-field expeditions

1. Mathematics/POA Module
a. Concept of currency
b. Budgeting based on available resources
c. Concept of profit and loss

2. Entrepreneurship Module
a. Concept of trade (Buying/Selling)
b. Comparing goods and prices between home and foreign country
c. Role of cultural diversity in trade
d. Legal aspects of trade

3. Contribution to Society
a. The greater purpose of contributing to society
b. How trade can be used to develop another country or society

Field Expedition

1. Mathematics/POA Module
a. Students to budget their resources and plan the goods they can purchase.
b. Students to project their profit/loss based on the goods they would be trading.

2. Entrepreneurship Module
a. Students will have to do research on the prices of basic household items in Singapore and in the foreign country.
b. Students to study the implications of cultural diversity in determining the goods they are going to trade.
c. Students to analyse the legal considerations when buying in a foreign country and selling at home.

3. Contribution to Society
a. Students to learn the importance of contributing to society and the less fortunate.
b. Students to research and present the strength of trade in developing a country.

Post Field Expedition
Key Performance Indicator

1. Mathematics/POA Module
a. Students to apply daily financial transactions learned in their sec 2/3 NA/NT syllabus.

2. Entrepreneurship Module
a. Students to make 30% to 40% profit with their business enterprise and the money to be donated to the CIP

3. Contribution to Society
a. Students to share with the school during one care talk and photo exhibition to showcase their experiences.

Conclusion
The Globalisation Partnership Programme will prepare our students to function in the 21st century: rooted in Singapore yet have wings to fly. The countries selected for the GP programme will depend on the economic condition, political stability and social tone of the country. Therefore country may change form year to year but the GP programme will be use to prepare the students for globalisation

Prepared by Mr Peter Leong/ Mr Nara

The Death Railway

One Prisoner Of War died for every 32.6 metres of track.
There were 424 thousand metres of track.
How many died and are buried along the way?

(Answer to be found at the end of this post.)

Kanchanaburi




Kanchanaburi is Thailand´s third largest of 76 provinces. It is located 130 km west of Bangkok and covers an area of 19,480 km².

About 735,000 inhabitant are living in Kanchanaburi province which borders Myanmar (Burma) at the north-west.


Kanchanaburi is Thailand´s third largest of 76 provinces. It is located 130 km west of Bangkok and covers an area of 19,480 km². About 735,000 inhabitant are living in Kanchanaburi province which borders Myanmar (Burma) at the north-west.


It has a population of 54,000 and was originally established by King Rama I as a first line of defence against the Burmese, who might use the old invasion route through the Three Pagodas Pass on the Thai-Myanmar border.



It is situated on the River Kwai and the home of the famous Bridge on the River Kwai. Every year in late November and early December the River Kwai Bridge Festival is held at the bridge with a spectacular Sound & Light Show. This event help to reminds us about the history of the Death Railway and the bombardments during World War II.



The Death Railway.



In 1943 thousands of Allied Prisoners of War (PoW) and Asian labourers worked on the Death Railway under the imperial Japanese army in order to construct part of the 415 km long Burma-Thailand railway.

Most of these men were Australians, Dutch and British and they had been working steadily southwards from Thanbyuzayat (Burma) to link with other PoW on the Thai side of the railway.

This railway was intended to move men and supplies to the Burmese front where the Japanese were fighting the British.

Japanese army engineers selected the route which traversed deep valleys and hills. All the heavy work was done manually either by hand or by elephant as earth moving equipment was not available.

The railway line originally ran within 50 meters of the Three Pagodas Pass which marks nowadays the border to Burma. However after the war the entire railway was removed and sold as it was deemed unsafe and politically undesirable.

The prisoners lived in squalor with a near starvation diet. They were subjected to captor brutality and thus thousands perished. The men worked from dawn until after dark and often had to trudge many kilometres through the jungle to return to base camp where Allied doctors tended the injured and diseased by many died.

After the war the dead were collectively reburied in the War Cemeteries and will remain forever witness to a brutal and tragic ordeal.


The above information was obtained from this website

http://www.kanchanaburi-info.com/en/index.html

Post Reading activity

Choose one of the question and answer it. Please include your name and class when you post your comments.

1. Do you think the Japanese treated the Prisoner of War(POW) well?

2.If you were one of the Japanese in charge of the POW how would you threat them?

3. Why do yo think it is important for us to remember what had happen during World War II ?


Additional Resources
Try to visits these sites for more information
http://www.scottmurray.com/bridge.htm

http://www.britain-at-war.org.uk/WW2/Death_Railway/index.htm

• One POW died for every 32.6 metres of track.
• there were 424 thousand metres of track
• 13,000 died and are buried along the way