Patana News Volume 21 Issue 32

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 24h May 2019

Volume 21 Issue 32

www.patana.ac.th

STUDENT VOICE AND ACTION

WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT PLASTIC?

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Also in this issue...

Safekeeping after School/Junior Golfers at the RBSC Invitational /Visitors from Home of Praise 24/05/2019

Bangkok Patana School News

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

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Student Voice & Action – What can we do about plastic waste?

Helen Thew, Cross Campus Principal ne aspect of my role that I most look forward to each week is being part of the Student Environmental Committees (SEC). The committees are composed of Primary and Secondary students and staff who are passionate about reducing our environmental footprint. Through this group’s work, we no longer sell water in single-use plastic bottles, have eliminated the use of plastic straws, have reduced plastic packaging in our snack bars and are exploring further ways to eliminate all single-use plastic on campus. The SEC have also worked with local companies such as USmile to help spread our environmental message - for those of you who have recently received your USmile photos you will have noticed no plastic in their packaging.

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can then be used as building materials.

If you want to start EcoBricking at home, you will automatically become more aware of how much waste you actually produce (trust me - it's scary)! But, you will also have the opportunity to keep track of what waste you are generating each month and ideally you will start to find ways to eliminate non-recyclable items from your life, in favour of reusable or recyclable alternatives. If you do make an Ecobrick please do bring them in to school and hand to Ms Michelle Brinn in Year 2 as she will be able to use them as a building material. Click here to learn how to make an ecobrick at home.

Last Friday I was invited to attend the Year 4 and 5 Spanish lessons by Ms Mariela. During these lessons the students were discussing climate change – for more information as to what was discussed please read Mariela’s article “There is no Planet B”. What impressed me the most was the answers that the students gave when asked what they personally could do to help the planet.

It sounded the norm for them not to use plastic bags or plastic straws and they knew why it was important to turn off lights and the air con when leaving a room.

The students summed it up so well when they said, “We should be refusers not consumers!”

Like most people, I have read many articles about how plastic waste has become an urgent ecological crisis, threatening ocean and land animals. Plastic is being found everywhere on the planet. Recently, adventurer Victor Vescovo turned his attention to the deepest point of the oceans. There floating in the pitch-black abyss of the Mariana Trench 36,000 feet below the surface were pieces of plastic. Sometimes, you have to see the plastic for your own eyes for it to really hit home. As an avid scuba diver, I continue to be horrified by the amount of plastic littering the otherwise beautiful coral reefs. Worse still I recently had to surface from a dive through a layer The SEC really want to spread the word to the whole of very unpleasant plastic and other waste, which really Patana community about the issues of plastic and what helps to focus the mind that something has to change. harm it is doing to the environment. We will therefore I am very pleased to say that many of our Primary be showing a film called “A Plastic Ocean’. This eyestudents (especially Year 2 students) have been working opening adventure documentary shows how discarded on a solution to help prevent the plastic getting into plastic is destroying our oceans and killing marine life landfills and contaminating our oceans in the first place and what we can do to make a difference. Please make by creating EcoBricks. So what is an EcoBrick? An a note of the date below and make it your small step to EcoBrick is a plastic bottle packed tightly with clean and come along and watch the film. I look forward to seeing dry, non-biodegradable plastic waste. These bottles you there.

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THERE IS NO PLANET B Mariela Bianciotti-Sennecke, Leader of Learning, World Languages/ Spanish Teacher ach day we are bombarded with news about climate change. Some believe it is fake news. But the latest report from a panel of more than 91 scientists worldwide, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), warns that we have scarcely 12 years to curb the devastating consequences of climate change. Time is running out!

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Terrible news about our global climate motivated a young girl from Sweden to take a stand. Greta Thunberg is a 16-year old who started the #FridaysforFuture movement to engage young people like her to act. She saw that adults were not doing enough to manage climate change. So, in August 2018, Greta sat in front of Our Year 4 and Year 5 students in World Languages the Swedish Parliament to demand action to combat the current climate crisis. Since that day, #FridaysForFuture has made posters with powerful messages such as “There is no Planet B” and “One Planet. One Race. One Future”. They grown into a global movement. then walked around the school with their posters joining in Our school values instill in us the need to care for our this global initiative. If you would like to learn more about common home, thus improving global sustainability. They it, visit FridaysForFuture.org or check out their social mealso foster a spirit of volunteering for the common good, dia on Twitter #ClimateStrike and #FridaysForFuture. and what’s more common to all than caring for Mother Earth?

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Bangkok Patana School News

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JUNIOR GOLFERS AT RBSC INVITATIONAL

Andrew Haughton, Head of Careers and Universities

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uttawat (Password) Sudjitporn, Yizhen (Tina) Kong, Aditi Badde, Jennifer (Jenny) Keil, Piradon (Keane) Prasertsintanah represented Patana at the 10th Annual RBSC Junior Golf Team Invitational at the Royal Bangkok Sports Club.

Our five students from four different Year groups had the opportunity to play this exclusive and remarkably peaceful 18-hole golf located in the very heart of the city. Despite its tight narrow fairways, canals and racetrack to navigate, our students performed very well.

Notable mentions: Password finished runner up in the Under 18 category, displaying a flurry of birdies on the second nine holes. Jenny shot an impressive gross 72, which tied her for second in the Under 12s category.

We look forward to participating in the competition next year.

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Bangkok Patana School News

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Visitors from Home of Praise Robine Johnson, Foundation Stage Teacher

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his week, Foundation Stage were pleased to welcome their friends from Khlong Toey for the final visit of this academic year. Since August, Home of Praise children have come to Foundation Stage to play and explore alongside our children in our beautiful Foundation Stage garden on a number of occasions. This has been a wonderful opportunity for everyone involved.

asm as they travel around the learning zone. As the year has progressed, the children have become more confident and inquisitive, extending their learning and thinking through exploration. We also use this as an opportunity to share our teaching and learning ethos with the teachers from Home of Praise to support their development in their own practice.

In the spirit of Global Citizenship, our Patana students have been learning about sharing and caring especially for people who are not as fortunate as ourselves. We have spent time thinking about what our friends might like to do, how our friends might feel and what we can do, even if we don’t speak the same language, so our friends can feel welcome. The children from Home of Praise love exploring the spacious garden, the sandpit and the sensory stream! It is a joy to see their excitement and enthusi-

These visits have given our children a more real understanding of the charity we support and the children that we help. Our children are developing a sense of ownership and responsibility towards their role as active volunteers and they embrace our fundraising efforts with determination and enthusiasm.

We are so excited about continuing and extending this relationship next year as we continue to focus on Global Citizenship and our role in the world.

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n 2019/20 we are pleased to announced we are trying something new in terms of our annual community sporting event. Our annual Fun Run is hugely popular but over time the cost of running this event has risen to the extent that we are no longer able to contribute to our nominated charities in the way we’d like to. Therefore, from 2019/20 we are planning to move the Fun Run to a biennial event and we are also going to introduce a Family Golf Day. When we relaunch the Fun Run in 2020/21, we anticipate an exciting new format, which is more family friendly and ensures we achieve our core goals for this event, which are; community involvement and fundraising for our Community Action Teams. Look out for more information about the Family Golf Day after the summer break. We hope to see you on the course!

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Bangkok Patana School News

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#123: Trying to get back to sleep I

t’s been a topsy-turvy week for me. I’m putting it down to the storms at night causing a disturbed-night’s-sleep. My regular solid eight hours has gone out of the window. To help me get back to sleep I was reading a study, published in Child Development, in which Andrew J. Fuligni and colleagues examined whether there is an “optimal” amount of sleep for peak levels of academic achievement and mental health in teenagers. In summary they say: “Pupils who averaged 8.75 – 9 hours of sleep per school night demonstrated peak levels of mental health, whereas those who averaged 7 – 7.5 hours of sleep per night had the highest levels of academic achievement….

While the results showed that the “optimal” amount of sleep needed is different for the two developmental outcomes, the researchers note that reducing sleep for the sake of academic performance may result in a greater decline in mental health than in the decline in academic performance from increasing sleep for the sake of mental health.”

So, by my reckoning, our teenagers should be getting eight hours of sleep for the sweet spot of optimal well-being and academic performance. Here is the data from 1,496 members of our community on the average number of hours they sleep for you to consider: Recommendation on sleep duration at various ages can be found here.

Enjoy the football at the weekend and sleep well on Monday morning!

Brian Taylor Assistant Principal, Campus Curriculum Technology Integration Links in this article: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cdev.12729 https://sleepcouncil.org.uk/how-much-sleep-do-we-need/

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Mandarin Provision at Bangkok Patana

Virginie Turner, HOLA Secondary Coordinator, Ondine Ullman HOLA Primary Coordinator meeting about Mandarin provision at Bangkok Patana School will take place on Thursday 6th June in the conference centre (CON301/302) from 8.00

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The aim of this meeting is to explain the many ways Bangkok Patana can support your child / children maintain their Home Language. We will introduce the different programmes available in Primary and Secondary School so you have a better idea of the pathway for your child / children. Please fill in the form in the link below to let us know if you intend to come to this meeting and to provide some information about your child or children.

Please find the form here

Year 6 parents - Apply for Secondary Canteen by 21st June!

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ear 6 parents, your child will be moving to the Secondary Canteen next academic year. Please fill out the Secondary School Lunch enrolment form for your child where they will be able to explore a variety of healthy food choices at the buffet or at the Chopstick Bar where they enjoy Bangkok Patana’s famous noodle dishes! Please fill out this form and email K. Rangsima (Food Services Coordinator) at rabr@paptana.ac.th by Friday 21st June 2019.

For more information about our food services, please feel free to contact K. Wichit (Food Services Manager) at wiar@patana.ac.th or K. Sunantinee (Head of Services) at suha@patana.ac.th 24/05/2019

Bangkok Patana School News

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UNI COUNSELLORS’ CORNER

UNI OFFERS...

THANADOL (TYE) THANUNMANEE

Congratulations on offers from Imperial College London, University College London, University of Bristol, University of Bath, Purdue University, University of Wisconsin - Madison to study Engineering

My interest in engineering began through one of my Dad’s hobbies: remote-controlled cars. What intrigues me most about engineering is that ideas do not remain as concepts, instead they evolve to take shape and come to life. My curiosity in all things mechanical has led me to trust that I am most suited for a career in engineering. To me, engineering isn’t solely about understanding how things work but also about contributing ideas to create a difference, be it cutting a few milliseconds on my car’s lap time or constructing global change. With an engineering degree, I intend to make a real difference in working towards global sustainability; starting by assisting the world in its transition into the electric vehicle era.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT...

Vassar College, USA

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ounded in 1861, Vassar College is a liberal arts institution with a main campus in Poughkeepsie, a town in the south eastern region of New York state that is 85 miles from New York City. Vassar has been coeducational since 1969.

Vassar is notable not just for its pop culture icon alumni like Anthony Bourdain, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, musician Mark Ronson and Oscar-winners Meryl Streep, Jane Fonda and Anne Hathaway but also computer pioneer Grace Hopper, author William F Buckley Jr, publisher Katherine Graham and former Ambassador to construction in 1864. The facility covers 36,000 square the UK Anne Armstrong among many others. feet and contains over 19,000 artistic works. Drama Vassar has an array of facilities; for those studying majors will find The Vogelstein Centre for Drama and Biology or Environmental Studies there is the Vassar Film includes Roman Study and Dance, as well as acting Farm, a 416-acre ecological facility. Chemistry students theory and production design. Attached to the Music have access to a Bruker Nuclear magnetic resonance department, the Fox Martel Recital Hall hosts over 70 machine, and computer scientists to an extensive array of performances a year. equipment and a computer library.

Sports aren’t ignored, in addition to the NCAA Division The arts are a major part of Vassar, the Frances III Brewers, there are club sports including polo and Lehman Loeb Art Centre has had an art museum since its Quidditch!

Please join us for our final university counsellor coffee morning this academic year on Tuesday 11th June 2019, 8am to 9am in the Black Box Register online here

University Newsletter Online Now! Click here to see upcoming university visits and more!

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Bangkok Patana School News

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STUDENTS SPEAK

What Motivates Food Cravings?

By Karnsiree (Ling Ling) Chen, Year 12 A food craving is an intense, often unexplainable desire only acceptable time to eat “taboo” foods as being slim is for a specific food that can occur at any moment. It can a widely coveted ideal, so consuming chocolate must be seem uncontrollable and appear to not go away until justified in order to avoid feeling ashamed. you are able to eat the food. A common myth is that food Another interesting idea is that the trillions of bacteria in cravings are our body’s way of signalling we need certain our guts can manipulate us to crave, and eat, what they nurtients, and therefore justify the consumption of salty, fatty snacks. However, research shows that this is likely to need – which isn’t always what our body needs. Different microbes in our guts prefer different environments, such as be a myth, cravings are stimulated by your psyche. more or less acidic, and what we eat affects the ecosystem A key idea is that food cravings largely can be in our guts and what’s available for the bacteria to survive explained by our conditioning response. John Apolzan, on. They can manipulate us into eating what they need in Assistant Professor of Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism a few different ways. at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, said “If you They can send signals from the gut to the brain and always eat popcorn when you watch your favourite TV make us feel ill if we’re not eating enough of a certain show, your cravings will for popcorn will increase when you watch it.” We begin to form associations between the nutrient, or make us feel good when we eat what they action and the food, causing us to feel incomplete without want, by releasing neurotransmitters such as dopamine it. Cravings arise from particular external cues, rather than and serotonin. They can also alter our taste receptors so we consume more of something to get the same taste of our body calling out for something. sweetness, for example.

In the west, chocolate is one of the most common This can be rectified by eating a diet with lots of complex food cravings, and since it doesn’t contain high levels of nutrients we could be deficient in, it suggests that carbohydrates and fibre, which cultivates a more diverse cravings don’t stem from nutrient deficiencies. Chocolate microbiome, Aktipis says. This probably means that a is craved by more women than men, particularly before healthy diet, which leads to a healthy microbiome, means and after menstruation. It is more likely that women crave you crave healthy food. chocolate because of its cultural connotations and how it In conclusion, food cravings can be managed is usually closely associated with PMS. One study found through mindfulness techniques, where acceptance and that women born outside the US were significantly less understanding of cravings is crucial to managing them. likely to link chocolate cravings to the menstrual cycle, Scientists even suggest that we eat the foods we crave more and experienced fewer chocolate cravings, compared to often, particularly because our memory’s associations with those born in the US and to second-generation immigrants. the food often fade over time.

Furthermore, women may also feel that menstruation is the 24/05/2019

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Safekeeping of Students After School T

he School expects that Primary children will go home on school transport or be picked up by previously arranged private transport at the end of their school day, which may include ECA sessions. On some occasions, children are not picked up on time. Children may wait in the Primary Library until 3.30pm and after that they may wait in the Admissions Office. Note that the Admissions Office closes at 4.00pm.

when the Library closes.

Secondary students waiting to be picked up by private transport may wait in the Secondary Library until 4.20pm

Please help us keep your children safe by arranging for them to leave school after their school day or ECA sessions are completed

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Neither Primary or Secondary students will be allowed to wait in the Reception area. Since this area has automatic doors and has visitors walking in and out of the door, it is unsafe for children. The Reception staff sit behind a high desk and are often busy answering calls or tending to visitors, so they cannot adequately monitor the children.

Bangkok Patana School News

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the m o r f st The late

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the m o r f e r Even mo

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PATAROMA @ Yoga Cafe BKK • Dadfa

PRICING: 1 BAG • 300 THB

24/05/2019

Location: Yoga Cafe BKK 33 Lasalle Road, Khwaeng Bang Na, Khet Bang Na, Krung The Maha Nakhon 10260

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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 Tai, Bangna, Bangkok 10260 THAILAND Tel: +66 (0) 2785 2200 Fax: +66 (0) 2785 2399 www.patana.ac.th Email: reception@patana.ac.th 18

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