Term 1 Magazine December 2019

The Termly Magazine of Bangkok Patana School

Bangkok Patana

Magazine

Issue 59 Term 1, December 2019

WELL-BEING

School/Life Balance

LEARNING

Flipped Learning

GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP

Bringing Smiles to Surin Villagers

Bangkok Patana is a not-for-profit IB World School accredited by CIS

Page 2 Allied Pickfoeds Size: 1/1, Color: Full Note:

LEARNING

CONTENTS

Issue 59, Term 1, December 2019

WELL-BEING

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Does Getting out of the

Classroom Help You De-Stress?

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Family Golf Day Well-Being and School/ Life Balance

LEARNING

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Excellent at Languages!

Flipped Learning

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Continuous Professional Learning (CPL) Daring to Be Different

GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP

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Bringing Smiles to Surin Villagers Life after Patana

Front cover: Artwork by Gaia Artinian, Year 4

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Alumni Bangkok Reunion Student Arts Council

L ELAORBNAI LN C G GI T I Z E N S H I P

FOREWORD As a new staff member to Bangkok Patana School, it is an honour to be writing the foreword for the Term 1 magazine. My role in a team of Social and Emotional Counsellors can sometimes be a challenging one, but one that is always, always worthwhile. I often get asked the question ‘Why have you chosen to dedicate your career to young people and their emotional well being?’. The answer for me is simple: young people need a voice, an advocate, someone who they can rely on to always be in their corner in a world that is run by adults.

We also live in a world of high pressure; whether that is from school, work, our friends, family, social media, or from inside of us, and the demand to always show our ‘best selves’; which can be utterly exhausting! Sometimes, when our inner critic sounds too loud and our inner coach seems to have deserted us, replaced by self-doubt; we need that ‘other’; a person that is not our friend, not a parent or teacher; someone who will talk to us from a place of care and compassion; and this is where we, the school counsellors come in.

Taking time to look after emotional well-being is a strength and is aspirational to others. Understanding our own emotions equips us with the ability to care for others and gives us the skills to be the

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world’s next inspiring leaders. While these grandiose statements may well turn out to be true, where do we start?

Simply by breathing. Take a big inhale. Exhale. Unclench your jaw. Roll your shoulders back.

Smile.

Reconnecting with ourselves is the first step of the journey.

After working with young people for years, I decided I wanted to revitalise my skills and in order to look after others, I spent this past summer training as a yoga teacher in Dharamshala, India.

What happened was a surprise; the

Editor: Shana Kongmun Tel: +66 (0) 2785 2200 Email: shkn@patana.ac.th Advertisement: Finn Balslev Tel: 081-866-2577 Email: finn@scandmedia.com

course better equipped me for life back in the city; it has given me an inner sanctuary to escape to when I need it, a way of working through difficult times and the permission to take my time in life and not rush through it. A phrase my philosophy teacher used was that ‘knowledge is nothing if it is not shared’.

I believe this to be true and that is what I would like to do at Bangkok Patana School; sharing the skills which enable us to live fulfilling, contented, happy lives with strength, compassion and grit.

– Fiona Milligan, Secondary Social and Emotional Counsellor

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Bangkok Patana Magazine is the termly publication of Bangkok Patana School published three times per year and distributed to 2,000 members of the School community. Reproduction of articles, artwork and illustrations by written permission only.

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LEARNING

WELL-BEING

DOES GETTING OUT OF THE CLASSROOM HELP YOU DE-STRESS?

By Caroline Ferguson, CAS Leader

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e, as teachers and parents, often push our students or children to do more, get more involved and challenge themselves, but does this additional burden on time and energy result in heightened stress and anxiety?

When I first arrived at Bangkok Patana, eager to take up the role of IB Creativity, Activity and Service (CAS) Coordinator, I remember asking the Year 13 students, it must have been Grad12, what CAS meant to them. I was struck by some of their replies; not all were completely positive of course, but a few made me think. These were the responses 8

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from students who clearly viewed CAS not as a chore, but as something to counterbalance the academic pressures they were feeling – as one student phrased it: “CAS is a stress relief”. At the time, the sample was small so I drew no firm conclusions, but the same message resurfaced now and then over the next few years. Therefore, this year I decided to find out whether CAS does indeed contribute significantly to student’s well-being or whether it actually represents an additional stress factor.

The rationale behind the research was to establish not only whether CAS significantly added to the IB students’

Bangkok Patana Magazine

Figure 1: In which strand of CAS are you most engaged?

workload, and therefore stress levels, but also whether students felt that their experiences in CAS added to their feelings of self-worth, through increased confidence levels, and whether they felt it helped them establish positive support networks through positive collaborative relationships with their peers and teachers. In all, 124 Year 13 students responded to the survey and what they had to say was very interesting, but also incredibly positive.

As a requirement of their IB Diploma programme Senior students are required to show that they have been engaged in creativity, service and activity experiences for the duration of the diploma programme.

At Bangkok Patana School the students are lucky to have an incredibly wide range of experiences to choose, from competitive sports such as volleyball to performing in a theatre or music production, to engagement in an issue of global importance through one of our Community Action Teams (CATs).

As can be seen in Figure 1, the majority of students identified Activity or Service as the strand of CAS in which they are primarily engaged.

As part of the programme, students are required to maintain a portfolio that contains detailed reflections on their experiences and evidence in the form of photos and videos.

My first question was whether maintaining this portfolio represented a significant increase in workload for students and whether this meant increased stress levels. It was clear from the students’ answers that this was not the case. Although 23 percent of students acknowledged that CAS significantly increased their workload, only 8.9 percent felt that this caused any stress (see Figure 2 next page).

In fact, 53 percent of students reported none or very low levels of stress, with the lowest levels reported by students who were most involved in the creative strand of CAS. The majority of those students who stated that they experienced a level of stress through CAS cited their busy schedule as the reason why they found it difficult to balance academics and their extra-curricular experiences.

So are our CAS students happy and self-fulfilled?

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LEARNING

WELL-BEING Figure 2: To what extent do you feel that the CAS programme has caused you stress or anxiety?

So, although their commitment to their CAS experiences does mean that Bangkok Patana students have to work on maintaining balance with their academic studies, the overwhelming evidence is that any extra workload caused is by far outweighed by the positives. Senior students are clearly happier and healthier because if their involvement in CAS. Here are a few tips for our future IB Diploma students from Grad20:

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“Make the most use of CAS, enjoy yourself, get yourself involved and use your reflections to learn more about and document what you learn about yourself!”

•••

gave them personal satisfaction, an overwhelming 73 percent stated that they experienced high or very high levels (see Figure 3 above). The highest levels of fulfilment were, in fact, cited by students who had a balanced programme which equally incorporated all three strands, or those who were most passionate about service. Three quarters of all students questioned stated that “being involved in service has made me feel good about myself”, while 67 percent felt that through CAS they had found their strengths and so become more self-confident. In terms of maintaining healthy support networks, over 65 percent of students agreed that “the friendships and relationships I make through my CAS experience(s) mean a lot to me”.

“CAS is a great way to relieve your stress from school work, so it is important you enjoy what you are doing and having FUN is the main objective of having this programme.”

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Figure 3: To what extent have you felt that your CAS experiences have been rewarding?

“Don’t be afraid of trying new things, try activities where you don’t really know many people so you can expand your friend circle and find something that you enjoy doing.”

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“CAS gives you a really good opportunity to try out new things and helps you improve on existing skills.

Approach this ‘subject’ as something that will enrich you as an overall person and have fun because if you have learnt things and gained experience from your activities, you have done well in CAS.” •••

“Enjoy it. CAS is a nice form of relaxation and releases stress. Finally, you get to develop yourself – be it through developing more confidence or leadership skills.”

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WELL-BEING

FAMILY GOLF DAY

Bangkok Patana Magazine

Bangkok Patana School held its first Family Golf Day to raise funds for charity on Sunday 8th September. Teams of parents, students and staff spent the afternoon on the greens and student volunteers were on hand to help golfers register and tee off. The format for the competition was a forgiving Texas scramble whereby teams of two-hit off then played from the best ball to complete the hole.

Players were also given the opportunity to purchase a “mulligan” the golfing equivalent of a “get out of jail free” card, which allows the owner to replay a poor shot.

Another highlight was the opportunity to “Beat the Pro” on the 16th hole. For a small fee, players could challenge Pro Golfer Khun Wichanee Meechai, who is playing her 3rd year on the LPGA Tour, with recent results including three top 10 finishes. Seven players managed to beat the Pro and took away a prize for doing so. All funds raised going to our nominated charities; Cube Care, CanCure and One4One.

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L ELAORBNAI LN C G GI T I Z E N S H I P

THE YEAR 6 RESIDENTIAL VISIT WELL-BEING

WELL-BEING AND SCHOOL/LIFE BALANCE

By Laiyoung Cheng and Stephanie Lethlean, Primary Counsellors

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n daily life, the phrase “work/ life balance” tends to come up during periods of great stress or overwhelming responsibilities.

It’s often synonymous with putting wellbeing into practice in personal and professional life. Most people would consider maintaining a healthy work/ life balance as an important life skill. By translating work/life into student skills, this provides children with an earlier advantage that extends into long term growth and neurological development.

To translate work/life skills into healthy student skills, the first step is to evaluate how much a child currently has on their plate and understand how much is too much for each individual. Next is to be aware of some likely signs of dysregulation, and lastly, work with our children on how to develop personal strategies for coping.

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Taking the Time “Time is irreplaceable. You can’t have growth without time. You can’t show your love unless you make time to show it, and you can’t build memories unless you have plenty of it,” said supernanny Jo Frost in her top three tips for parents.

There are times that you may notice a child acting out of the ordinary, perhaps behavioural changes or even appearing increasingly distressed. These changes may seem to come out of the blue, even though there has been no dramatic shift in routine. If there is a persistent increase in negative feelings or behaviours, one important area of consideration would be to take a look at a child’s schedule as they may be feeling overwhelmed. Each person is unique in how much stress is placed on them with

each activity, which means a child might already feel burdened by the same activities their classmates normally participate in. In equal measure it is important to provide adequate time in the day to balance out the feelings that have built up as a result of their schedules.

When parents are asked to list what their child has on their schedule for the week, most often activities like Chinese or Thai are listed first, followed by other class subjects like Mathematics or English, or their schedule is filled with sports like tennis, gymnastics or football. On the other hand, rarely is time blocked out for craft time, quiet time, one-on-one time, or other types of playtime. Most often, the activities used to balance a child are generally lumped together in “free time” without actually being part of a child’s structured schedule. As a result, when a child gets busier

Bangkok Patana Magazine

with schoolwork, exams and more activities, the first place a child loses out is free time. Sometimes when free time isn’t enough, a child may lose time from sleeping time, pushing the bedtime later.

Reserving time in a day for a child to express and balance themselves is a crucial practice that even we, as adults, tend to miss out on in our own lives. That space to balance ourselves is not meant for social media or gaming. They are activities around self-expression and connection that uniquely match each child.

These times can be arts and crafts, reading time, outdoor play, indoor play, oneon-one time, family time, naptime, yoga, meditation, etc. By helping children to understand the activities that allow them to express themselves are an important part of their responsibility, parents are actively teaching their children schoollife balance.

The challenge can be finding out the limitations of each individual and gauging when a child is feeling overburdened. Since there is no standard measure of ‘how much is too much,’ a helpful way to evaluate when there is too much is to look at potential signs

and indications that someone may not be getting an adequate balance of activities in their life.

Emotional signs of dysregulation may include:

• becoming increasingly irritable • defensive • angry • aggressive • anxious • overwhelmed • depressed

Physical signs of dysregulation may include: • lack of concentration • difficulty sleeping or staying awake • general lethargy • lack of motivation • indecisive • difficulty maintaining eye contact • unclear communication • appearing distracted and does not appear to be present • lack of appetite

Neurological Development But what does all this mean for our children and their learning?

Brain research shows that the brains of young people are constantly being shaped. They are literally being moulded by experience, both positive and negative. Negative emotions will directly affect cognitive operations. Our job is to take control of this and promote positive brain changes. The activities listed above can also be called regulation activities, they are moving the person’s nervous system from a state of dis-regulation into a state of regulation.

By regularly engaging in these types of activities parents are teaching the brain how to regulate emotions, this will lower anxiety and lower cortisol levels.

This will directly improve not only how someone feels, but this will also have a direct impact on many other facets of life.

Lower cortisol levels increase the ability in the part of the brain that is responsible for cognition to function. It improves the ability to recover much quicker after a negative event and to calm down quicker and maintain healthy relationships. It

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WELL-BEING

WELL-BEING increases their ability to be calm and patient. As well as increasing the ability to make responsible decisions. It improves concentration and ultimately all of this has a direct impact on their learning and academic outcomes.

Seeking Balance Seeking balance in our lives means finding activities that help to manage stress levels and release the excess tension that has built up in the mind and

body. These activities can range from hobbies to time with family. An additional benefit of these activities is to help people feel connected on a deeper level to themselves, to other people and the world around us. They are activities that get people out of their heads and into their bodies, allowing them to just be.

These activities also help us learn how to move through the stressors in our lives instead of letting them build up and create high levels of tension and anxiety. This tension and anxiety has the potential to create burnout, it can decrease productivity, and affect academic performance.

Finding time to create school/life balance can often feel overwhelming in already busy schedules and long days.

But the term school/life balance does not need to come at the cost of productivity or responsibilities. Whilst it is important to factor in longer periods of time for young people to engage in activities that balance them, the ultimate goal is to ensure that there are clear moments, however small, that are factored in to allow the body and mind to reset throughout the day.

Simple Exercises for Self-Regulation Here are some examples that are quick and easy to do, that parents can teach their children to do; even better if the whole family does them together.

One of the best ways that children will learn how to self-regulate is to observe the adults in their life doing it for themselves.

• Anything that gets the body moving – dance, jump, run, bounce on an exercise ball, stretch your whole body, spin, make up fun jumping games, marching, walking quickly, yoga, sports, swimming, pushing your hands hard up against something. Rolling back and forth across the floor, shake your head really quickly, run up and down stairs, hang your body upside off the bed

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or couch.

• Apply pressure to the body – massage, using your hands to squeeze deep pressure up your arms and legs. You can teach your child to do this for themselves or you can do this for them. Have a big squeezy hug.

Rub your hands vigorously up and down your arms, legs, body.

• Sensory experiences – have a bath or a shower prompting your child to focus their attention on how the water feels on their body. Use a cold or hot face cloth on their face and body. Use a fidget ball or sensory item in their hands. Play with clay or play dough. Put your feet on the grass or in sand and tune in to the experience.

• Mindfulness and meditation – this

can be as simple as taking the time to focus on your breathing.

Focusing on counting the breaths to make sure the inhalation is the same length as your exhalation.

Describe what is happening in your body and saying it out loud eg. ‘My tummy is going around in circles, my legs feel heavy, my heart is beating fast’ • Any other activity that helps a child to relax – free play time either alone or with a parent, cuddles, play different types of music, read a book, draw, write, colouring in, turn the lights down or up, be in nature, do something creative.

So, take a big deep breath! And start practising.

Bangkok Patana Magazine

LEARNING

EXCELLENT AT LANGUAGES!

By Ondine Ullman, Leader of Learning, Language Acquisition; EAL Teacher

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ecently I, like many others around the world, was struck by the phenomenon that is Greta Thunberg as she addressed the United Nations regarding climate change. Not only did she get her impassioned message across, chastising world leaders and galvanising masses of people across the globe, but Greta did so in a second language.

Watching her brought to mind Malala Yousafzai, another incredible young woman and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate ever, a human rights activist and proponent of education as a fundamental social and economic right for all. Malala regularly communicates with the world in English, her third language after her mother tongue Pashto and second language Urdu.

It has been estimated that, like Greta and Malala, approximately half of the world’s population is bilingual, using two or more dialects or languages in everyday life. Very often, this is borne out of

necessity to communicate in countries with numerous languages. Many countries recognise this linguistic diversity with several official languages (South Africa has 11, Singapore and Switzerland both have 4, and Belgium has 3, for example), while others have such a range of languages that it would be impossible to recognise them all in an official capacity (India, for example, is home to over 400 languages).

It is sometimes easy to forget how many people have English as their second or additional language. The World Economic Forum estimates that over one

billion people speak English as an additional language, with fewer than 400 million people doing so as a first language.

English is also the most commonly studied foreign language in the world.

Here at Bangkok Patana we are privileged to be part of a culturally and linguistically diverse community, and English is our lingua franca. We are fortunate to be part of a community that celebrates the diversity language brings and that also offers all of our children the chance to develop their skills as linguists; be this with further developing their home language, acquiring a foreign language or extending their English language skills.

Let’s take a moment to celebrate our students and staff who come to learn and work in a second language every day; who work hard at learning foreign languages and at also at maintaining their home languages. We should be proud.

We are a community that is Excellent at Language!

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LEARNING

FLIPPED LEARNING

By Ross Corker, Learning and Teaching Advisor, Secondary School

Here at Bangkok Patana School we are committed to developing our students to achieve their full potential as independent, motivated and engaged learners. Our staff make this possible through continuously striving to enhance their own professional learning; working collaboratively to develop and practise a diverse range of learning and teaching strategies. One such pedagogical approach is that of Flipped Learning, a model which enables students to foster their critical thinking and collaborative skills.

What is Flipped Learning?

Flipped Learning is a learner centred model, which ‘flips’ the more traditional idea of a teacher telling the students what they need to know, or providing them with information. It involves students being more active in their learning. Typically, they are given materials and tasks prior to a lesson and asked to work through these independently as Home Learning. This may involve students reading materials or watching clips or tutorials outside of class. Students are encouraged and challenged to discover key concepts, or broaden their knowledge, of a particular topic themselves, facilitated by the materials or guidance from their teacher. The concept of Flipped Learning goes back to the 1990s, but the phrase came into more popular use in the mid-2000s following the work of two Science teachers, Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams.

“Flipped Learning provides students with predictable, manageable, achievable and valuable Home Learning, leading to lessons which are immediately engaging and challenging,” said John Burrell, Secondary School Biology teacher.

Flipped Learning in Action Recently, there has been a renewed focus on this approach due to the positive effects it has on Home Learning routines and in supporting greater progress and challenge during lessons. Across 16

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the Secondary School Flipped Learning is being used in a range of subject areas to provide dynamic, engaging learning opportunities for our students. Teachers are looking at a variety of ways to deliver Flipped Learning, including asking students to look at pre-lesson content and using technology such as screencasts and videos - which also allows students to pause, rewind and repeat at their own pace.

“For me, Flipped Learning is about maximising the face-to-face time I have with my students. By asking them to carry out learning that requires lowerorder thinking skills before the lesson, it means we can move on to the more

challenging, higher-order thinking skills when we are together in class. This leads to more insightful discussions, a wider range of critical, inquisitive questions, and it essentially accelerates the learning in a supportive environment,” said Lindsay Tyrrell, English teacher.

Recently I had the pleasure of visiting a Drama lesson where the students had been set the Home Learning task to remember and practise a monologue. This meant that during the lesson students were able to begin performing almost instantly. Instead of having to spend time learning the lines in class, I saw a whole room of students burst into a performance of energetic and dynamic

Bangkok Patana Magazine

monologues. This maximised the time available in class for students to develop and refine the vital performance skills required for their assessment and allowed the teacher to spend more time providing individual formative feedback.

Student Reflections In another area of the school, students in Mathematics were required to watch a video for Home Learning, which provided an important opportunity for them to gain the knowledge and understanding of key formulae required for the following lesson. As a school community, we promote students as reflective learners – they are encouraged to consider, reflect upon and analyse both their learning and learning methods applied.

As such, students were asked what they thought of the Flipped Learning model following this lesson.

“After watching the video I understood the methods and felt confident applying some of the formula, but still had questions about some aspects of the methods. By completing the ‘consolidation task’ I felt more confident completing harder questions at a later point

in the lesson,” said Zi Leong (Victor) Chong, 9L. “I think watching the video at home helped me, as in the lesson I could use the formula to refresh my memory and use it more confidently. I completed the starter task that tested my understanding before going straight on to problem solving style questions,” said Unsaya (Pearl) Chamsawang, 9S. Staff Reflections Last academic year, staff, through a variety ties, explored ways to own knowledge and

a number of of opportunidevelop their expertise of

Flipped Learning. This included a crossfaculty Home Learning party, Career Professional Learning sessions and the Secondary School Teacher Learning Communities. A number of staff have provided their reflections.

“I creatively flipped the teaching of Twelfth Night, a lengthy Shakespeare play, asking students to research the plot and characters before producing their own plot summary in a format of their choosing. The results were fantastic and included videos, Twitter feeds from the characters, storybooks and a flip book.

More importantly, the students were really enthusiastic about the task and clearly relished the opportunity to show off their talents and skills,” said Hannah Davis, English teacher.

“I really enjoy the lessons following a Flipped Home Learning task. There is no need to introduce the basic concepts, so we can jump straight into more challenging tasks,” said Sam Mooring, Mathematics teacher.

This year we will continue to develop our understanding and application of Flipped Learning and continually review the impact that it is having on our students’ progress and attainment. I look forward to sharing further outcomes with you later in the year.

Further reading: flippedlearning.org Contributors (if not quoted); Laura Glanowski, Drama. Madeleine McDonagh, Mathematics.

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LEARNING

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL LEARNING (CPL) Educational Leadership Development and the NPQ’s (National Professional Qualifications)

By Katherine Hume, Cross Campus Assistant Principal, Continued Professional Learning

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angkok Patana School has recently collaborated with FOBISIA, Bangkok Prep and the Institute of Education at University College London (UCL) to deliver the National Professional Qualifications (NPQ’s) for Educational Leadership.

School leadership has never been more important. Educational research has shown that school leaders are central to school improvement. Across multiple countries researchers consistently find that in schools or regions which show sustainable improvement, one of the earliest steps in their journey is the development of effective leadership practice. School leaders at every level play a key role in improving school outcomes by influencing the motivations and capacities of teachers, as well as the school climate and environment.

Effective school leadership is essential in high performing school systems.

Therefore, investing in the professional learning and development of our school leaders here at Bangkok Patana is a key priority for us.

Successful school leaders create conditions that support effective teaching and learning, and build capacity for professional learning and change. They enable their colleagues to perform well and, as a result, student outcomes improve.

Alongside expertise and technical skills, effective school leaders exhibit a specific set of behaviours. Strong leaders engage staff in their vision, establish clear expectations, plan strategically, develop others and create a positive, constructive climate. This is evidenced by recent findings from the Centre for High Performance. They identified five approaches of effective school leaders.

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• Shaping the Future: creating a shared vision and strategic plan for the school that motivates staff and others in the community • Leading Learning and Teaching: leaders taking responsibility for raising the quality of teaching and learning

and for students’ achievement. This implies setting high expectations and monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of learning outcomes.

A successful learning culture will enable students to become effective, engaged, independent learners,

Bangkok Patana Magazine

committed to life-long learning; • Developing Self and Working with Others: building effective relationships and building a professional learning community through performance management and effective professional development for staff; • Managing the Organisation: improving organisational structures through self-evaluation, organisation and management of people and resources in order to build capacity across the workforce and deploy cost effective resources; • Securing Accountability: leaders are accountable to students, parents, carers, governors, and the whole community to provide a high quality of education for promoting collective responsibility within the whole school community and for contributing to the education service more widely;

• Strengthening Community: creating links and collaborating with other schools, parents, carers and other agencies to share expertise and ensure children’s well-being.

What are the NPQ’s and how do they support leadership development?

The NPQ programmes are a suite of UK based accredited leadership development programmes, which encompass Middle Leadership, Senior Leadership, Headship, and Executive Leadership. We recently led and delivered both the NPQ programmes for Middle Leaders (NPQML) and for Senior Leaders (NPQSL). Participants are expected to complete face-toface professional learning sessions, which are delivered across two sites,

Bangkok Patana and Bangkok Prep, as well as undertake an 18-month school improvement project. UCL trained facilitators from across the SE Asia FOBISIA network deliver the programmes. We had visiting facilitators from Tanglin Trust School, Singapore, Garden International School, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Discovery Bay, Hong Kong leading sessions for participants as well as senior colleagues from Bangkok Patana and Bangkok Prep.

The NPQ’s supports the professional learning of leaders by developing the skills, knowledge and behaviours that are required to be a high-performing middle or senior leader in a school.

The NPQ framework is built around six content areas and seven leadership behaviours, enabling leaders to develop the depth and breadth of knowledge and experience: The six content areas set out what a leader should know or be able to do: • Strategy and Improvement • Teaching and Curriculum Excellence • Leading with Impact • Working in Partnership • Managing Resources and Risks • Increasing Capability The seven leadership behaviours focus on how the best leaders operate: • Commitment • Collaboration • Personal Drive • Resilience • Awareness • Integrity • Respect Currently nine of our current middle leaders are participating in this cohort of NPQ’s with the next face-to-face sessions running in March at Bangkok Prep.

In the meantime, they are working on their school improvement project with the support of an in-school coach/mentor.

We look forward to seeing the positive impact that this leadership development programmes will ultimately have on our school and our students.

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LEARNING

DARING TO BE DIFFERENT

By Mark Verde, Primary Assistant Principal, Learning and Curriculum

’Daring, Different and Unique’ is how we describe Primary Science at Bangkok Patana School.

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n August 2018 our Primary Science vision was to be the leading school in the world teaching primary students about scientific Molecular Theory.

Success in achieving this goal meant that we had to turn our science learning upside down, stand it on its head and look at it in a completely different and daring way. This approach began when our Primary Science lead teacher, Ross Sutcliffe, 10 teacher Science advocates from all age phases and specialist areas and I, came together to build science learning that you could not buy in a scheme, read in a textbook or download from the internet.

Our immediate goal was to create a skills based curriculum that inspires all learners through practical opportunities, meaningful observations and feedback that deepens scientific knowledge and understanding. The impact of this learning would produce confident, motivated, engaged and critically thinking children, who have a love of science, which will continue to grow into their secondary school education and beyond.

We realised that, to achieve this goal, we needed to inject a huge dose of challenge, a large measure of inquiry and an enormous amount of exploration to foster confident, inquisitive, scientific learners with high self-efficacy for scientific learning. So how did we begin?

By taking a huge risk and not being afraid to be completely different. That daring approach came in the form of the “Surfing Scientist”, Mr Ruben Meerman who literally blew up our curriculum.

Ruben brought explosions and clouds of liquid nitrogen, chemical reactions that

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turned gases into solids inside a balloon and made Bangkok Patana learners jump up and gasp in awe of science.

These stunning introductory starts soon

turned into highly informative and meaningful learning opportunities based around atomic theory that the children loved.

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Following on from Ruben’s visit, we were introduced to Ian Stuart, the founder of Atomic School, who helped us develop a unique Atomic Theory curriculum. This introduced the children to the atom; using investigations with microscopes of varying magnification to explore that all things are made up of atoms, which cannot be seen by the human eye because they are so small. He engaged the children with the periodic table, exposing them to metals, semimetals and non-metals. He provided opportunities for them to build molecules of varying length and complexity from sticky atoms, starting with a simple H2O structure, which grew into a string of 13 amino acids to form a protein molecule.

We focussed the remainder of the year on successfully embedding atomic theory into our Science curriculum and are now linking aspects of atomic theory into other scientific areas of learning where appropriate, to build on the children’s prior knowledge and their desire to learn new and more complex scientific concepts.

Currently we are looking at shaking up the Biological side of our Science curriculum by taking the learning outside into our green environments, the Outdoor Classroom and roof top gardens.

Focusing on the botanical aspect of the Biology curriculum, we are building gardens, exploring ponds, observing,

classifying and recording varying plants, pond waters, soils and habitats.

This is giving the children the opportunity to explore the world and consider our global impact and responsibility to value, protect and enhance the land we live on.

Ian Stuart and Ruben Meerman will be visiting us again in February 2020 when the Association of Scientific Education (ASE) from the UK hold their international conference at Bangkok Patana School from Friday 21st February until Sunday 23rd February, 2020.

Ruben and Ian will be talking about their developments in the atomic theory field in Australia and beyond and sharing their knowledge and understanding of Science education and health literacy.

One year on and our vision has now changed. What we are now aiming for is:

To be the leading primary school in the world for scientific skills-based enquiry, specialising in the learning of Atomic Theory.

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LEARNING

GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP

BRINGING SMILES TO SURIN VILLAGERS

By Risako Kusumoto, Year 12

O

n 8th September Bangkok Patana’s Smile Club was fortunate enough to be a part of a lifechanging experience visiting a village in Surin province with Operation Smile. Operation Smile is an organisation focussed on treating cleft deformities for those who aren’t able to afford the procedure themselves.

During the trip, we were able to interact with different families, learn different stories and observe the surgeries close up. The first day was mainly focussed on handing out toys and playing with the children about to undergo the surgeries. This was to prevent them from feeling scared and anxious going into the operation. There, we spoke to the families signing up for surgery and discovered their stories and backgrounds. It made us quite emotional listening to the lengths that these families travelled just to receive the procedure. However, we also felt happy that Bangkok Patana’s Smile Club could contribute to changing these people’s lives. Our campaign days and fund-raising events suddenly seemed so much more important. Seeing the smiles on these children’s faces was an unexplainable feeling that made me feel more connected with the organisation.

On the second day, we were fortunate enough to be

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able to go into an operating room to observe the surgeries.

Although none of us knew what to expect, fortunately, the surgeons carefully explained the procedure. It was undoubtedly a shocking experience for all of us as we stood among the children, who we happily played with the day before. Despite this, we felt as though we experienced a once in a lifetime opportunity where we saw our Smile Club goals coming into fruition. Through our countless fundraisers and events, we never expected such fulfilment at seeing it all happen first-hand.

I would say that we have all taken something very valuable from the trip in terms of teamwork and commitment which has created a prompt for Bangkok Patana’s Smile Club for the current school year. For many of us this was our first trip, being so vulnerable around one another in a new environment has allowed us to work closer together and take in the values that we have learnt and use them as motivation to work harder. None of this would have been possible without the amazing efforts of volunteer doctors, surgeons, teachers and students. I can confidently say that the most rewarding experience of all was to see everyone’s smiles following the end of the surgery.

Bangkok Patana Magazine

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L ELAORBNAI LN C G GI T I Z E N S H I P

GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP ALUMNI STORIES LIFE AFTER PATANA

By Erica Maesincee, Graduating Class Year 2013

M

y favourite memories of my time at Bangkok include Residentials, completing my IB Art coursework in the art studio, planning the lessons and teaching at Pong Ploy School, working with Habitat for Humanity and the Smile Club trips.

Some of the most important things I learned during my time at Bangkok Patana School include being independent, selfmotivated, and goal-oriented, while being collaborative and mindful of others and the world around me.

Throughout my time at Bangkok Patana, I wanted to do something creative after graduation, such as design, advertising, marketing, or film/production. Whilst I had those interests, I never really knew what or who I wanted to be. I think most eighteen-year-olds can relate. I just wanted to have something of my own one day.

That was why I thought Babson was the perfect match for me. It would give me the basics I needed to start my own business one day (whatever it may be), while allowing me to be surrounded by people with the same aspirations and also be coached by professionals and entrepreneurs.

University Experience People at Babson were either already entrepreneurs or really self-motivated and driven. I felt so out of place at first because everyone had such big things going for them or amazing goals they were actively trying to achieve. Being there changed my approach and outlook.

Over time, I realised it is not about what particular subjects you study or how smart you are, it is about where you see yourself further down the road and what you actively do to get to where you want to be; whether it is through trial-and-error, reading more books to get to know your field and other fields better, internships in related fields, taking on leadership

positions or additional courses that would otherwise be deemed as irrelevant to your actual major, starting a personal project, or overcoming your own obstacles (for me, it was to be more proactive and have the courage to “step forward”). Through these experiences, you will find what you enjoy, whether you prefer to lead or support others, what you like the most about your field, how your field is related to other fields, what skills are your assets, or where your areas of improvement are.

Also, everything will eventually start to fall into place if you let it and do your best.

While you are at Bangkok Patana, enjoy it, take on more roles, do more activities, and challenge yourself. Time will pass you by and you will miss your time at Bangkok Patana School.

Entrepreneurship

Future

I am the founder and CEO of IN THE LEAD. I work with businesses, universities, and nonprofit organisations to co-design capability building programmes that build an entrepreneurial spirit and spark innovation in their professional teams, students or relevant target groups. I have worked with King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT), Bangkok University School of Entrepreneurship and Management (BUSEM, in partnership with Babson College), the Federation of Thai Industries, UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Ministry of Commerce.

I also serve as a board member of the Mechai Viravaidya Foundation, promoting education and rural development, and the Industrial Excellence Centre (The Federation of Thai Industries).

I am passionate about entrepreneurship, I am always curious about what inspires other people, what they are passionate about, and how they go about solving complex problems for their own ventures, for their customers, and even for society.

I want to create sustainable change through youth empowerment and investment in human capital. I think it is truly life-changing when people realise their purpose, potential, and possibilities, all of which may align with, complement, or at the very least be applicable to what they learn in school or what they do at work.

In ten years I would like to see myself with a high-impact, highly specialised, scalable, and sustainable business or a range of related businesses, in the field that I am already in, that runs itself so that I can branch out and start other things that I have always wanted to do. I would love to produce a TV/digital programme, host a forum, or write. Currently, it is difficult to figure out exactly what to do, what not to do, or what to put on hold (for now) as I am very early on in my carreer. But it is my goal to seek the right balance between “exploration” and “focus.” As for my personal goals, I hope to travel more and be happy, internally fulfilled, and purpose-driven.

Visiting Bangkok? Want to come back for noodles? To book your alumni visit, get in touch at alumni@patana.ac.th 24

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Bangkok Patana Magazine

ALUMNI BANGKOK REUNION

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L ELAORBNAI LN C G GI T I Z E N S H I P

GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP

STUDENT ARTS COUNCIL

By Charlotte Masson, Year 13

T

his school year will be the first full academic year for the Student Arts Council at Bangkok Patana School.

Since being established, we have combined all of our design competition entries and, with the help and support of Mr. Christopher Ferne, have developed a logo that will be used on promotional material, our Instagram page and more.

The Student Arts Council is now active on Instagram so be sure to follow us and stay up to date with all the amazing events and creative opportunities that are coming up.

Term 1 has been very busy, there have been a lot of concerts and performances. Auditions and rehearsals for the Senior play led to the final shows that took place on the 27th, 28th and 29th of November. At the time of printing the Orchestra and Senior Choir have been busy practicing for the Key Stage 3 String Festival and the Choral Festival, respectively. Additionally, there was the Pre-IB Art opening on 6th November, followed by Patana Plugged on 8th November. All of these events showcase the incredible creative talent that our school has to offer.

As President of the Council, I have been busy talking to students and

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parents in Year 7 about the benefits of getting involved in the Arts. Research has consistently shown that participating in Music, Drama, and Art helps to develop language, cognitive and communication skills; creative subjects teach students to collaborate more effectively and express themselves through a new

outlook. These subjects can also help to reduce stress and anxiety: something that becomes essential as students move up through Secondary school.

For me, the arts have become a fundamental part of my life at Bangkok Patana. Being given the opportunity to express myself creatively from such a young age really helped to develop my public speaking skills, awareness of body language, and build self-confidence. Working with the Arts faculty over the years has been such a memorable, enjoyable and rewarding experience, the opportunities I have been given and the invaluable lessons I have learned, will stay with me throughout my life and will be what I miss most about Bangkok Patana.

The academic year 2019/2020 is going to be full of creative opportunities and events so be sure to come along and support your friends, family, and the arts at Bangkok Patana School.