Patana News Volume 19 Issue 27

Patana

NEWS

Welcome Back from the Head of School

Page 2

Palliative Care Donation / Accolades Abound at THAIMUN / CATs Corner Bangkok Patana is an IB World School, accredited by CIS and NEASC

Welcome Back!

A very warm welcome back to Term 3, which is our shortest term of the academic year. It has been noticeable around the Secondary School that our Year 11 and 13s are now on permanent study leave as they prepare for their upcoming exams. I am sure the rest of the Secondary Year groups are enjoying quieter lines at the Snack Bars, Canteen and Noodle Bar. I have managed to get into some classrooms this week and it is great to see our students back into their academic studies after a relaxing two-week holiday.

I have also really enjoyed our Library “R.A.P and Read” Week, which has included famous visiting authors, Gail Clarke, Donavan Christopher and Janice Santikarn culminating in today’s dress as your favorite book character or super hero. Many thanks to Sal Flint, Stephen Murgatroyd and our entire fabulous Library team who did a magnificent job. I am always saying our school libraries are the best in Asia and they area! Click here to view the photo gallery on Facebook.

Recruitment 2017/18 My recruitment team spent a very busy week in the UK prior to the Songkran holidays interviewing prospective teachers to fill our remaining vacancies for the 2017/18 academic year. Once again, we interviewed some top quality candidates and have filled most of our remaining vacancies. New teachers will arrive in Thailand for a week’s induction programme starting on 3rd August 2017.

Exams are Around the Corner!

As our Year 11 and 13 students start their study leave, it is timely to review how our students spend their days

productively and as stress free as possible. Here are some good exam preparation tips which are really worth a read.

Calendar Changes As you are aware, there have been a number of calendar amendments due to some changes with official Thai holidays. Friday 5th May 2017 is still going to be taken as a holiday as confirmed in our existing Bangkok Patana Calendar.

In the 2017/18 calendar, you will notice that we now have a public holiday on Friday 13th October in recognition of King Rama IX. Tuesday 1st May 2018 is now a Teacher Inset Day and Monday 7th May 2018 will now be a school day.

We regularly update our school calendar templates on the front page of our school website in the bottom right corner, so if in doubt always check there.

CIS/NEASC 5 Year School Accreditation Report We have received our written CIS/ NEASC 5 year report, which has affirmed that we do what we say at Bangkok Patana School. The visitors commented on the high quality of learning taking place in our classroom; the amazing, modern facilities and the positive attitude of our students. They also spoke very highly of new school Guiding Statements, which they think will further support the school’s vision over the coming years.

They also gave some suggestions on how we can improve the performance of our school even more, including looking at ways that we could more fully meet the resourcing needs of our EAL students and making our performance management system and processes cater more to high performing staff. Hard copies of the full 5-year report will be made available to any parents wanting to peruse them in our school libraries. The next accreditation visit will be in five years’ time.

Cognitive Biases I recently read a thought-provoking article from the Guardian, which looks into cognitive biases that can be barriers impeding good lucid decision-making processes. My most important takeaway from reading the article is: Having high expectations that each student can improve no matter how well they did previously is critical for all high performing educators to have in their teaching toolbox. Read the article here.

Have an enjoyable weekend, Matt Mills, Head of School

Reminder that Monday 1st and Friday 5th May are holidays for students

D

eath is a word that everyone fears. Talking about it has always been a social taboo; something that we all avoid. Society usually overlooks the concept of death and only links it to the elderly, which is detrimental as this inevitable event can happen to anyone at anytime, regardless of age or life experiences.

Palliative care, an important concept which is unknown to many, is specialised medical care for patients with chronic diseases. This type of care, rather than seeking to find cures for these diseases, is focused on providing relief from the symptoms and stress of serious and terminal illnesses; the goal is to create comfort in order to enhance the quality of life for both the patient and the family. What we find extremely valuable is that palliative care does not hasten or postpone death, but it regards death as a natural process. This evokes acceptance from patients, allowing them to clear their mind of pain and concern, leading to a pleasant and peaceful death.

Our CAS project began in November 2016 after one of our members, Jessie, became inspired by the concept of Palliative Care during her internship at the Cheewabhibaln Centre in Chulalongkorn Hospital. The Cheewabhibaln Centre or ศูนย์ชวี าภิบาล, is a palliative care centre in Bangkok, Thailand. The Thai word "cheewa" (ชวี ต ิ ) means life and "bhibaln", which stems from the

word "abhibaln" (อภิบาล), means healing. This centre aims to provide care to improve patients' quality of life, both mentally and physically, to ensure they can die in peace. Patients at the Cheewabhibaln Centre have the option of spending the last stage of their life at home or in the hospital to fulfill their last wishes. In order for patients to spend their last moment of life at home, they need an oxygen generator and other medical equipment, such as syringe drivers, which enable them to die without any suffering or pain. Prior to the establishment of our CAS project, there were only two oxygen generators at the hospital for the patients to borrow and consequently only two patients could go home at a time. This was not enough.

In order to bring attention to this issue, we started our project called “Palliative Care (Youth Association of Thailand)” with an aim to raise awareness of palliative care and to raise sufficient donations to buy at least one more oxygen generator.

To ensure the completion of our aim, we started by creating a Facebook page to raise awareness about palliative care and brainstorming fundraising methods. We then designed t-shirts and sold them. We were given the opportunity to operate a stall at the ServICE conference on January 27th 2017, where students from international schools around Bangkok came together to discuss global issues. Manning a stall on this day helped us to gain more supporters. Also, by selling our shirts online through our Facebook page, people from all over Bangkok expressed their interest in the cause and subsequently we were able to raise money through both selling shirts and monetary donations.

By 21st April 2017, we had managed to raise 398,500 THB in donations over a six month period of fundraising, meaning were able to purchase and donate eight oxygen generators to Cheewabhibaln Centre. We would not have been able to donate the oxygen generators without the generous support of those who believed in our cause. We thank you and hope you will join us as we continue our journey to raise awareness of this valuable cause.

J

unior Enterprise students have once again made some fantastic donations to a range of CATs. Many thanks go to the following:

Junior Enterprise Team Name

Donation (Thb)

CAT Club Receiving Funds

Nacho Macho

460

TechUp (CAS team)

Unicandy

480

PAWS

Coka-Pizza

2642

PAWS

FallafleWaffleFries

1480

Project Star

Fried-aye

90

World Food Project

Arctic Blizzard

600

Hand 2 Heart

Refugee Aid Project (RAP) aims to fundraise for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and give aid to refugees in the North of Thailand. We aim to raise awareness about the refugee crisis.

Our campaign day took place on the 15th and 16th March 2017 and was the first major event we ever had.

Since it was our first event we hoped to convey how reaching out to help refugees is essential and we can all make a difference by standing up for their rights. Furthermore, we wanted people to stop sympathising on their behalf and instead take initiative to raise their voice and take action. The aim of the event was to raise awareness within the school community by holding an interactive lucky draw activity to educate students about fundamental facts and statistics about refugees and finally rewarding participants with free treats.

This event was a huge success. Several students expressed their interest in being part of our project and were all eager to learn more about the refugee crisis and how they can help.

The RAP team is working towards providing essential educational materials to Parami Migrant School in Mae Sot. The collection box will be available for donation this coming June.

Nicha (Mai) Viseschindavat, 12C President, Refugee Aid Project

O

n Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd April 2017, Bangkok Patana’s Gymnastics team attended the Black and Gold gymnastics competition. This was also the second competition weekend in the row for some our most dedicated gymnasts, following on from Senior SEASAC. It takes a big commitment and a lot of time from both the gymnasts and coaches to succeed in a sport like gymnastics.

The weekend saw 64 Bangkok Patana gymnasts compete across gymnastic Levels 2-6. The boys had a remarkable run sweeping up first place in four out of five levels for the Team Overall! Our boys programme remains strong and bustling. We are excited to build on and grow our boys’ programme next academic year.

From our Boys’ team, Xavier Arkotxa Lakha, Thanan Chuwanon, Thomas Horton, Tristan Vandermeer and Jacob Broadhurst, Nathaniel Stuart, Giles Kinsella and Aron Steinmetz all made the podium for individual all -around competitions.

From our Girls’ team, Emily Cannon and Rachel Manda, Charlene Chen and Paengrum Chatchupong all made the podium for individual all-around competitions.

Special mentions must go to: KoKo Lotharukpong for having a flawless beam routine with a dramatic dismount; Keira Mcknight-Burrell for having her strongest performance on the Vault and taking first place; Thanan Chuwanon, Oliver Morgan, Aron Steinmetz, Axel Pedersen and Roisin Sehmar for all winning their handstand competition during their individual sessions.

Thank you to all of our gymnasts, coaches and parents who made the weekend a great success.

Make sure you check out the Patana Gymnastics website for regular updates about the Gymnastics team and for some great photos.

Boys’ Team Overall Results: Level 1: 2nd Place Level 2: 1st Place Level 3: 1st Place Level 4: 1st Place Level 5: 1st Place Girls’ Team Overall Results: Level 2 Junior: 1st Place Level 2 Senior: 5th Place Level 3 Junior: 2nd Place Level 3 Senior: 2nd Place Level 4 Junior: 2nd Place Level 4 Senior: 2nd Place Level 5: 2nd Place Level 6: 3rd Place

Erin Arnold, 12L and Marina Kusumoto, 12B

O

n Saturday 1st April the Model United Nations (MUN) machine got into gear once again for the THAIMUN Conference at Concordian International School, Bangkok. The brainchild of our very own John Wood, THAIMUN is now in its fourth year and has developed into the biggest international conference in Thailand.

Attending this year were 250 delegates from 30 schools in 10 countries, coming from as far afield as the USA, UK, Europe and several countries in Asia.

Planning for this conference began in September and Putt Punyagupta in Year 12 has played a large part in this as Parliamentarian. There were 12 committees in total and six of these were chaired by Bangkok Patana students who carried out their leadership roles with notable skill. They were Nafis Maboob (ICJ), Suyash Kothari (UNSC), Jack Tye (Historical Committee), Joshua Murphy (ECOSOC), Dillon Rajakarier (ECOSOC) and Benjamin Sanders (HRC).

After three days of strenuous debate, the conference drew to a close and it was time to present awards to those delegates who had gone the extra mile to ensure the passing of their resolutions. In the Historical Committee, Avi Mehta (Year 11) was deemed to have been the most diplomatic delegate in his role as John F. Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis; in ECOSOC, Lily Wilson (Year 11) was chosen as the best delegate in the committee. All that was left was to present the award for the best delegate over the course of the entire three days and this was awarded to Mark Comer in Year 12. Mark performed brilliantly in the Security Council and his award was richly deserved.

The PTG are looking for parent volunteers to help with Staff Appreciation Day on Wednesday 24th May. If you could volunteer an hour between 9:30am and 1:30pm please email ptgvolunteer@gmail.com

E

very year, despite our best efforts to order the correct number, we are left we a large number of unwanted and unclaimed Yearbooks. Each child will automatically receive one book, but in an effort to waste less we are asking you to let us know if you would prefer each child in your family not to get one each.

Please email publish@patana.ac.th and let us know.

Many thanks for your support.

It’s a very big weekend ahead for a lot of our athletes

BISAC GYMNASTICS @ NIST BISAC UNDER 11 TEEBALL @ HIS BISAC UNDER 13 SOFTBALL @ NIST BISAC UNDER 13 VOLLEYBALL GIRLS @ ICS BISAC UNDER 13 VOLLEYABLL BOYS @ SHB BISAC UNDER 15 SOFTBALL INVITATIONAL @ RIS BISAC UNDER 15 VOLLEYBALL GIRLS @ RIS

BISAC UNDER 15 VOLLEYBALL BOYS @ ISB

BISAC WATERPOLO MIXED @ ISB

TO ALL OUR STUDENT ATHLETES IN THEIR UPCOMING EXAMS!

DATE FOR YOUR DIARY

Follow our Instagram @ bps_athletics_council

MAY 26th 2017

BPSSPORTS

BPSSports Tiger Sports Patana Tennis

Y

ear 9 French language students have spent their last lessons trying to solve a ‘Murder Mystery’. A family was poisoned after having eaten at Les Deux Moulins restaurants. Students received the menu from the restaurant plus information from each family member regarding what they like/dislike to eat, and other vital clues. The students had to work in groups, assigning each person a specific role to work out which item the family may have eaten. They then compiled a report about their findings explaining which item from the menu must have contained the poison!

【ジャパニーズグループに参加しませんか】 バンコクパタナスクールのジャパニーズグループは、日本人の父親ある いは母親を持つ生徒の保護者により運営されているグループです。現在 54家族が加入しており、毎年行われるインターナショナルデーなどの学 校活動に協力しています。また、情報交換の場として親睦会を年に数回 行っています。参加ご希望の方は、西田までご連絡ください。

salut.kyoko1102@gmail.com There are 54 Japanese families who are members of the group, and we support International Day and other school activities. If you are a Japanese speaker or married to a Japanese speaker then we would like to invite you to join our group. Please send an email with your details to add to the group list for future correspondence to Mrs Kyoko Nishida at salut.kyoko1102@gmail.com

Congratulations to Secondary Mathematics Teacher Mark Willis who won a competition organised by Doceri the iPad software company. Mr Willis made a video demonstrating all the different ways you can use the software in the classroom and won an iPad!

Click here to watch Mr Willis’ video.

All lost property from

Primary and Secondary that has been collected during this school year will be on display in front of the

25m pool, near the Primary Canteen Monday 22nd May – Friday 26th May 2017 You can also have a look at the current lost property via our website: https://community.patana.ac.th/community-events/lost-property Or scan the QR code Please note that all remaining unclaimed lost property will be donated to charity.

Contact Reception@patana.ac.th or call 02/785.2201 (Benedicte)

#57 Digital Citizenship – Making Your iPad Kid-friendly and Data Privacy Any parents handing over their own iPad to their children should be aware of the in-built safety and security features available within the iOS environment. They are constantly being updated and it’s worth watching this 3½ minute video on how to set it up. I learnt a few new things about privacy settings and age-appropriate apps.

Here is how to make your iPad safe for children to use: https://www.cnet.com/videos/how-to-make-your-ipad-kid -friendly/ I’ve mentioned the Common Sense website on several occasions in the past and they continue to impress me with the quality of their output. Their recent addition of privacy evaluations, designed with the help and support of a consortium of schools, is another useful resource to bookmark. These evaluations are designed to streamline making an informed decision about the potential privacy implications of educational technology used to support teaching and learning.

Link: https://privacy.commonsense.org/

Have a restful weekend, Brian Taylor, Assistant Principal, Campus Curriculum Technology Integration

2nd May

26th May

30th May















ECAs start on Tuesday 2nd May. Please make sure you that you check what ECAs your child has been accepted onto via the Parents’ Gateway. Buses will be adjusted according to each students ECA schedule. If you make changes to your child’s ECA schedule please ensure you contact Transport.

Remember that there is no school for students on Monday and Friday next week. So please do not expect the school bus on these days and enjoy the sleep in!

Did you know that your child can check with their ECA teacher what number bus they are on before heading to the Bus Park? Please encourage them to check the bus number in advance by looking at their new bus card (which will be distributed on Tuesday) or by asking their ECA teacher.

Parents can also check the bus numbers – these will be updated over the weekend and you can check the new bus numbers from Monday 1st May. Please help to let your child know what their bus number is and please note that it may be different every day of the week.

For your information the following letters relate to the time of the bus. If you notice your child’s bus number is incorrect please email Transport.

B – 11:50am MK/MT – 13:50pm HK/HT – 14:30pm A – 15:45pm D – 16:30pm Year 11 and 13 students please note that there will be NO Transport Service on the days school is closed so Monday 1st May, Friday 5th May and Wednesday 10th May. If you have an exam on one of these days please ensure that you make private transport arrangements.

Advance warning that Thai schools will return from Monday 15th May. Traffic from this day onwards will be increased and it is important students are not delaying the bus in the mornings.

Contact Us The Transport Department’s direct phone number is 02 785 2470. The office is staffed from 6:00am 6:00pm Monday to Friday. You can also contact us via email at transport@patana.ac.th

For daily updates, snapshots and news on life at school you can find us here...

Click here for the

Canteen Menu

643 Lasalle Road (Sukhumvit 105) Bangna, Bangkok 10260. THAILAND Tel: +66 (0) 2785 2200 Fax: +66 (0) 2785 2399 www.patana.ac.th Email: reception@patana.ac.th