Patana News Volume 20 Issue 19

Our mission is to ensure that students of different nationalities grow to their full potential as independent learners in a caring British international community.

NEWS Patana

Friday 2nd February 2018

Volume 20 Issue 19

www.patana.ac.th

What Makes a Great School?

Page 2

2017/18

Also in this issue

¿Serpientes y Escaleras? / Taylor’s Technology Tips / Fun Day Updates 02/02/2018

Bangkok Patana School News

Bangkok Patana is a not-for-profit IB World School, accredited by CIS, NEASC and ONESQA

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What Makes a Great School?

Jason Cooper, Primary Principal

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or the past two weeks, I have been in London with Mr Mills and Mr Smith interviewing teachers wanting to join the Bangkok Patana community. We also conducted interviews here at school for candidates in South-East Asia during the final week of Term 1 and the first week of Term 2.

During the recruitment process we get to meet lots of highly experienced and well-qualified professionals from all around the world, and we always ask them why they want to come to teach and learn at Bangkok Patana. There is a very consistent response that I will share later, one that gave me cause to pause and reflect on what makes a great school.

So what does make a great school? Do academic results indicate great schools?

The responses from our candidates would indicate no, because none of them say they want to come to Bangkok Patana because of our outstanding academic results. Getting outstanding test scores is relatively easy 2

if that’s all you are interested in, and many schools achieve this through rigorous student selection processes and focusing solely on academic achievement.

So how is Bangkok Patana different?

Overwhelmingly, the teachers we interview say they want to come to Patana because we don’t just focus on academics.

They appreciate and value our holistic approach, and have great respect for our Guiding Statements. They love the fact that we value the well-being of our community, and that we are explicit in developing our students into global citizens. They are amazed by the broad range of opportunities available to our students through our ECA programmes, our curriculum, and our community relationships; sporting, musical, and artisBangkok Patana School News

02/02/2018

tic (visual, creative and performing). They also genuinely value our commitment to serving our community, both locally and globally.

Above all else, they understand and appreciate that developing the whole person leads to outstanding academic results – they are not interested in achieving academic results at the expense of a child’s personal and creative development.

It would appear that the reasons that teachers want to join the Patana community are the same reasons that parents choose Bangkok Patana for their child’s education. They are looking for a dynamic

“It would appear that the reasons that teachers want to join the Patana community are the same reasons that parents choose Bangkok Patana for their child’s education.” school with very high expectations that values individuals and the various skills, talents and interests of these individuals. They want to belong to a community that is constantly striving to be the best that it can be, and then see if it can be even better. They want to become even better teachers, and are genuinely excited by the prospect of teaching and learning with young people as amazing as our Patana students.

Coming back from this recruiting trip there is no doubt in my mind that Bangkok Patana is not only the best place in the world to be a student, but also the best place in the world to be a teacher.

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Bangkok Patana School News

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¿Serpientes y Escaleras?

Charlie Turner, Curriculum Coordinator for Spanish

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ast week, Year 10 Spanish students were asked to create a board game to help teach new language skills to some of their classmates that had missed a week of lessons due to a Geography field trip.

After learning a number of new language techniques, the remaining members of the class set about creating a game that would allow all the students to consolidate their new skills as well to minimise the disruption to the learning of the students who were away. The results were amazing!

Although the rules were quite complicated, the group created two versions of a classic board game that tested their language skills as well as their luck with the dice. The best description would be a Spanish Snakes and Ladders/ Monopoly hybrid!

For the students creating the game, it not only helped to consolidate their learning but also to reflect on how impor-

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tant it is to demonstrate their range of language skills to be successful at IGCSE. Sonam Okada who was one of the students who made the game said: “We had to learn how to incorporate the tenses which was challenging and designing the board was fun. Working in a team was nice and sharing our ideas. “ Dan Manda who played the game on his return from the Geography trip said: “I learnt how to use power negatives and ‘lo’ in a fun environment. It was a new way of learning Spanish “ It was amazing to see the students working so well together on a creative task to support their peers. As the school focuses on Global Citizenship as part of our ethos, it was great to see students in Year 10 supporting each other in their language learning and with such a successful outcome.

Bangkok Patana School News

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R U E! YO ER E V SH SA AT SE

BY: Bangkok Patana School WHEN: 14th and 19th February at 4:30pm WHERE: Rosamund Stuetzel Theatre Click here to watch the trailer

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Bangkok Patana School News

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Pie Corbett Reading Recommendations

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ie Corbett is an English educational trainer, writer and author who has written well over two hundred books.

He is now best known for creating the ‘Talk for Writing’ approach to learning, which is widely used in schools across the world. At Bangkok Patana we are advocates of storytelling as a tool for helping children build up a bank of narrative patterns that they can call upon to create their own stories. As an ex teacher, headmaster and Ofsted inspector his credentials are good, and thus we are more inclined to believe that he really knows that which he preaches works practically in the classroom.

age groups I had no hesitation in purchasing multiple copies of them. They are available for borrowing in the Primary library. You can browse the titles in the ‘story telling’ room, just inside the library. The titles of the books on the Pie Corbett recommended book lists is available here.

I would add a cautionary note that, in my view, it is never a good idea to restrict specific age groups to a limited set of titles, (our children are all individuals with different abilities and diverse interests), but nevertheless the lists are a useful starting point to indicate what many of our children are quite likely to enjoy reading at different ages. Please do The high calibre of Pie Corbett’s educational books, pop in our libraries and borrow some titles; there are plenty which we are well stocked with in our staff professional de- to go round. velopment library, suggests to me that he is an educational guru whom we can trust, so when I saw that he had put Sally Flint together a list of recommended titles suitable for different Head of Libraries

Upcoming University Visits UNIVERSITY / COLLEGE

COUNTRY

Carleton University De Montfort University

Dates for your Diary...

Canada UK

REP

LOCATION

Andy Raeburn Senior Studies, Second Floor Pattranit Senior Studies, Second Floor Rattanakachin

DATE

TIME

06.02.18

09:15

09.02.18

12:15

Thursday 8th February Patana Classic Saturday 10th February Fun Day Wednesday 21st March Patana Jazz and Blues Wednesday 4th April Patana Unplugged

Click here for the Canteen Menu 6

Bangkok Patana School News

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#80 Search Podcasts

There are literally thousands of podcasts out there. LISTEN NOTES is a search engine dedicated to finding them. Searching for “Parenting” reveals over 50,000 results. You can then narrow the search with various filters for language and duration. What I particularly like is the ability to create a clip and share it (you need to sign up to be able to do this). Try it for yourself is see if it really does live up to their tag line: “Podcast Search Engine that actually works”.

A reminder for the show times for Screenagers at Bangkok Patana School Theatre: 4:30pm Wednesday 14th February and 4:30pm Monday 19th February. Sign up here.

Have a rain free weekend.

Brian Taylor Assistant Principal, Cross Campus Curriculum Technology Integrator

Presenting the

Stewardship

report!

We hope by now you received our new school publication which was sent home with the youngest sibling this week (students who have been on Residential will be given them at the soonest available time). The Stewardship report is an overview of the organisation and operational activities at Bangkok Patana School.

Read the report here.

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Bangkok Patana School News

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he t m o r f st The late

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PTG

Bangkok Patana School News

Click here to join the PTG Facebook page

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Bangkok Patana School News

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the m o r ef r o m Even

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PTG

Bangkok Patana School News

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Comgratulations to all athletes!

FANTASTIC RESULTS FROM A BUSY WEEKEND OF FOBISIA GYMNASTICS, BISAC AND INTER-SCHOOLS SAILING.

VARSITY GIRLS’ BASKETBALL - BRONZE AT BISAC

VARSITY BOYS’ RUGBY - BISAC CHAMPIONS

VARSITY BOYS’ BASKETBALL - BRONZE AT BISAC

VARSITY GIRLS’ TOUCH - BISAC RUNNERS UP

KEEP UP

W I T H T H E AC T I O N . . .

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@BPS_ATHLETICS _COUNCIL

@BPSSPORTS

@BPSSPORTS

TIGER SPORTS TEAMS

Bangkok Patana School News

SAILING - 5TH AND 6TH

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VARSITY BOYS’ TENNIS - BISAC CHAMPIONS

VARSITY GIRLS’ TENNIS - BISAC CHAMPIONS

GOLF - 4TH OVERALL

WELL DONE TO ALL GYMNASTS!

SEASAC

THIS WEEKEND TAKES PLACE - GOOD LUCK TO ALL ATHLETES! THE TENNIS PLAYERS ARE IN SINGAPORE. THE RUGBY AND TOUCH TEAMS ARE IN KUALA LUMPUR. THE BASKETBALL TEAMS ARE AT NIST, BANGKOK.

Please support online or come to the events!

Don’t forget Season 3 tryouts next week!

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Bangkok Patana School News

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THIS DAY THISFUN FUNDAY PLEASE PLEASEBRING BRING YOUR OWN: OWN: YOUR NON-DISPOSABLE WATER BOTTLE AIRTIGHT CONTAINER- FOR FOOD YOU MIGHT WANT TO EAT OR TAKE AWAY NON-DISPOSABLE BAGS

BUT DON'T BUY ANYTHING NEW FOR THIS EVENT YOU CAN GET BIODEGRADABLE PLATES AT THE SEC STALL

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Bangkok Patana School News

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Lockdown and Fire Drill Procedure Bangkok Patana School takes the safety of our school community very seriously. We have a management team that meet and discuss many different crisis scenarios and we have processes and procedures in place for these. We have strong links with the local police and the various embassies who alert us to any security concerns and also visit our school to review our existing procedures and provide advice on security measures.

One of the areas that we practise regularly throughout the year is the Fire Evacuation and Lockdown procedures. In Term 1 and 2, we have ‘announced’ and ‘unannounced’ drills. This enables our community to practise reacting appropriately in the event of an alarm sounding on the school campus.

PLEASE READ THE INFORMATION BELOW CAREFULLY SO YOU ARE AWARE OF OUR PROCEDURES SHOULD YOU BE ON CAMPUS WHEN AN ALARM SOUNDS.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU ARE ON THE SCHOOL CAMPUS WHEN AN ALARM SOUNDS? Lockdown Alarm If you are on campus and hear the ‘lockdown’ alarm (similar to a siren), please follow instructions from nearby staff. If you are not in a building, please enter the nearest building and follow instructions from staff. In a lockdown, you should be out of sight until you hear three clear whistles from the security team or are instructed that it is all clear from a security guard or member of staff. You will not be allowed to enter or exit the campus during a lockdown.

Fire Alarm

If you are on the school campus and hear a fire alarm please act immediately and follow the Evacuation Route sign to the nearest assembly point, (see example).

Please make sure that you report to the Zone Fire Point Person who will be wearing an emergency jacket and have radio communication. They will be located in the middle of the zone area and will take your name and tell you where you need to stand. There are seven zones – green, yellow, blue, white, red, purple and orange. Look for these signs when you are next in school to familiarise yourself with the evacuation routes.

If you are outside the school grounds during a Fire Evacuation please note that you will not be allowed entry into school until the all clear has been given. Please follow instructions from our Security team.

WHAT DOES THE FLASHING RED LIGHT MEAN? If you see a flashing red light on the wall or ceiling it means that an alarm has been activated somewhere in school.

When the light is just flashing you do not need to do anything or leave the building but be on alert to listen for an audible alarm which will let you know what to do next. The activated alarm will be checked by the guards and if necessary the fire alarm or lock down alarm will then sound for you to respond to as normal. So you only need to respond if you hear the actual siren or if a guard or senior member of staff gives you instructions to follow. If it is a false alarm the flashing red light will stop shortly without any alarms sounding.

WHEN WILL THE ALARMS SOUND? Luckily anytime you may have heard the alarm it has been a drill only. We hold announced and unannounced Fire and Lockdown Drills throughout the year and these procedures are for the safety and protection of all students, staff and visitors. If you are on the school campus during the alarm sounding please help to set a good example to all students by responding quickly, remaining quiet during this time and following instructions from Senior Staff.

Many thanks for your cooperation.

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Bangkok Patana School News

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Click to see the Art and Hotel Catalogue

RISE

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Bangkok Patana School News

INTERACT 02/02/2018

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Bangkok Patana School News

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Community

VACANCY: MEMBERSHIP-BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR The British Chamber of Commerce Thailand (BCCT) is seeking a Membership and Business Development Coordinator to join a very active team to assist members to develop their businesses through the BCCT. This is a varied role that requires an enthusiastic friendly professional personality.

Key Skills Required: -Administration experience -Good communication in English is required -Computer literate including Microsoft Office applications, web design, adobe applications -Sale and Customer Service skills -Networking skills.

-Multi-tasking skills -Understanding of social media sites -Knowledge of Graphic and basic website will be advantage Salary Range: 27-30 K Package: Annual bonus, provident fund, health Insurance and holiday Duties include, but are not limited to: Membership Manage membership database, including guiding members and provide information.

Manage monthly reports, members update, new members and cancellations.

Issue welcome letter and certificate for new members Assist the manager on leads and recruiting new members Coordinate with other teams with any update and change of member’s information Attend the BCCT networking events and engage with members

Provide information on website for the AGM and update Board Director Profiles on website Assist the team on digital marketing and advertising website banners.

Liaise with the webmaster on any technical issues and extract tracking reports Manage sponsored emails, send out circulars and Newsletters Publications Assist the team on marketing and advertising opportunities.

Follow up sales and artworks Liaise with the printing company, monitor their process with minimum error and deliver within time frames.

Ensure the Link is available online on the BCCT website Guide and assist members to update profile in the handbook Organise posting process.

Administration Carry out PA tasks for the Executive Director Dealing with day to day after sales services.

Monitor and keep records on the sales reports.

General office tasks --------------------------------------------------------------Please send your CV to jintana@bccthai.com www.bccthai.com ---------------------------------------------------------------

Website/Digital Media Monitor and update information on BCCT website such as partner logos, banners, member’s offers and special offers etc.

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Community

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

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 20

Bangkok Patana School News

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