Regents International School Pattaya
School Principal Amos
Turner-Wardell talks to us about Regents’ new 50-metre pool with retractable roof, and swim camps with Olympic Gold Medalist Nick Thoman
It had been a while since the Discover Pattaya team had last visited Regents International School Pattaya. We were keen to find out what had been happening. So we took some time out of her busy schedule to catch up with School Principal Ms Amos Turner-Wardell and find out more.
Discover Pattaya
Hi Amos so it’s been a little while since we were here – what’s been going on at Regents?
Amos Turner-Wardell
Okay, so you were here, I remember, to promote our 30 years anniversary, which was great. Since then, we’ve been doing quite a lot across the school. We’ve opened a new Sixth Form centre, and developed an Inclusion centre for our students in need of additional support. The biggest project that we’re working on at the moment is our new 50-metre competitive swimming pool.
Discover Pattaya
Wow, 50-metres and what makes this particular pool so special?
Amos Turner-Wardell
Well, one of the reasons I believe is that we’re going to be the only pool in Thailand to have a retractable roof to make sure none of the swimming competitions are cancelled due to poor weather.The pool will be next to the sports hall where we will be able to live stream competitions for parents to watch and with the retractable roof because we’re an environmental school, we can use the natural heat of the sun to keep it warm and cool when the weather’s too hot. As with our 25-metre pool the new 50-metre will also be a complete saltwater pool because it’s much better for children’s health. They don’t get the negativities of chlorine, which impacts their teeth, their hair, their skin, etc. So it’s a healthy competitive pool.
Discover Pattaya
No chlorine smell as well! And it’s great that alongside all its academic success, Regents has built such a strong reputation as a leader in swimming—especially through its swimming camps and the international coaches who come to the school. It’s very impressive.
Amos Turner-Wardell
Yes swimming’s grown quite a lot, and that was as a demand from our parents actually. We’ve had a few top swimmers from Koh Samui and also from Vietnam join our local homegrown swimmers who have been at Regents all the way through and are now at national level. We have 5 of our students going to the Nationals and that’s as young as Year 5 all the way up through to secondary.
They’re going to compete to hopefully get onto the national team and because of that, we’re working with some Olympic swimmers. We have Nick Thoman, who’s an American gold medalist in backstroke and trained with Michael Phelps, so one of the best in the world coming to run a 4-week swim camp here this summer.
Discover Pattaya
That’s incredible.
Amos Turner-Wardell
Yes, we listened to our parents and we talked to them, and they told us that there are some amazing swim camps in China and America. However, the Chinese swim camps coach in Chinese language and America is a long way to go, on the other side of the world, so it’s really expensive. So we put our heads together and said, well, how can we run something like that here? And now this is the first one running in Southeast Asia – there isn’t a camp like it. It’s a 9a.m. till 3 p.m. camp. So specialist Olympic training in the morning and nutrition workshops. They’ll have parent workshops on mental health and well-being. They’ll have dry land training, personal training, and then technical skills in the afternoon and it’s selling out fast. I think the first 2 weeks have already sold out and we’ve just a few spaces left in the last 2 weeks. Boarding options are available as well. So at the moment we have national swimmers from Vietnam, India, and America joining and top swimmers from Bangkok as well.
Discover Pattay
A fantastic opportunity for your pupils, or as you say pupils from all over Southeast Asia. To be able to interact with other children from all over the world and work with an Olympiad as well – I mean, seriously well done!
Amos Turner-Wardell
Well, you know, it’s not just me. It’s been a team of people: very passionate parents, students, and people in the area, working with Nord Anglia and with Fobisia’s support, and being able to have these connections has meant being able to bring some of these things to this part of the world. We hope to run it every single year, and offer kids in Thailand and, throughout Southeast Asia,something that they just couldn’t get before. It’s really just to help swimming in Asia because it’s a fast-growing sport. We’ll bring the best to Pattaya rather than send everyone away. That’s my goal.
Amos Turner-Wardell
Yes, swimming is very popular here at Regents. We have swim training every morning from 6:30a.m. until 8a.m and every night after school until 7p.m. Throughout the day, there are also many different competitions such as our swim galas where the children get to compete and race against each other. Our swimming team is very good, we have some very, very strong swimmers. And once the 50-metre pool is completed, as part of their daytime curriculum plan, we’ll be introducing swimming as a standalone in secondary as well – so yeah, it’s big, it’s really big!.
https://www.nordangliaeducation.com/risp-pattaya
