Patana News Volume 22 Issue 17

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

Patana

NEWS

Friday 17th January 2020

Volume 22 Issue 17

www.patana.ac.th

WHAT’S MORE IMPORTANT, THE FUTURE OR THE PRESENT? Page 2

Mrs Lindley explores the parallels between Liverpool FC and Bangkok Patana!

Also in this issue...

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Rice and Shine!/ESS trip to Kaeng Krachan/Smile Club Bangkok Patana School News

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

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What’s more important, the future or the present?

Suzanne Lindley, Secondary Assistant Principal, Curriculum and Assessment

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t seems that many aspects of school life I am involved in currently have the common theme of planning and looking forward to the future.

Year 9 and 11s have been busy finalising their (I)GCSE and IB option choices; reflecting on their strengths and where their future paths may lead to. Year 13 have been sitting their trial exams and many have finalised applications for their choices of university – the outcomes of which will determine the next 3-5 years of their life. We have almost daily visitors in Senior Studies at the moment from different universities and our returning alumni, informing and guiding Year 12 and 13s as to the potential opportunities and possibilities. In Primary, Year 3 and Year 6 students have been deciding which language they will study next year as they move into Year 4 and Secondary, shaping their language pathways through until they graduate.

Mr Mills, the Principals and other school leaders have been very busy shortlisting, interviewing and observing lessons of potential future Bangkok Patana teachers and leaders. They are currently in the UK on a world-wide search to recruit the very best of the best. It’s a lifechanging decision to move from your home country to live, and in our case, teach, in a different part of the globe. So, what persuades us to change our futures in this way?

Many of you are sports fans and may have been following the current record-breaking success of Liverpool football team in the Premiership, having earnt 61 points from an available 63 after 21 games so far this season. It seems that Manager Jürgen Klopp, his support team and players, are pretty much doing everything right at the moment. I see many parallels between Liverpool Football Club and Bangkok Patana: • This team are the current Champions League winners. This is significant in football as being in this league provides players with the platform to compete against the strongest players in the world, and, in doing so, they get better; this has added strength to the squad. Teachers make that leap to come to Patana, because they are provided with the chance to work with the very best, and the opportunity to further develop.

• We are so fortunate here to have such a strong professional learning culture and range of experiences available to us. Later in the year we are thrilled to welcome Natasha Devon MBE, a writer and campaigner who has dedicated her life to promoting positive mental health, body image, gender and social equality. This professional learning opportunity builds on the work of Dick Moore, who visited for the second time last term to provide Mental Health First Aid training. Klopp comments that the training at Anfield “has always been on a really high level and the better the players around you the better the standard should be”. Later this term we are hosting and leading the Association for Science Education (ASE) 2

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Conference for teachers and technicians across South East Asia, opened by the Minister of Education (Thailand). A range of Patana teachers from across Primary and Secondary are leading workshops and sharing their expertise with teachers from across the region.

• In his tenure, Klopp has “changed a lot of things…. but kept a lot of things too”. We, too, regularly reflect on what to change or develop, and what to keep the same. As we have reached the mid-year point, we have already planned our building works for next year. How can we make the environment for our students even better? What adjustments do we make to our curriculum? What resources do we need to budget for to support student wellbeing and learning even further? As a school we constantly evolve to enable us to provide the best international education possible.

Whilst it is important to see what’s on the horizon and pave the way towards our futures, how we get there is shaped by what we do and how we are in the present day. Liverpool will only win the Premiership by really focussing on the here and now, by taking each game one at a time. Similarly, Year 11s and 13s must make each lesson in the final 10 weeks of their (I)GCSE and IB course really count. Each student should listen to and act upon the current feedback they regularly receive from peers and teachers to move forward. As teachers, we welcome and proactively seek feedback, as well as self-reflecting, to develop and improve the learning of our students.

In the situation we currently face on the planet, and the consequences/impact of our actions that we are seeing (floods, droughts, bushfires, glaciers melting, species extinction, highest recorded ocean temperatures etc), it is clear that all of our futures very much depends on what we do in the present.

NATASHA DEVON “IS SOCIETY BREAKING OUR CHILDREN'S BRAINS?”

Suzanne Lindley Assistant Principal, Curriculum and Assessment Dedicated to Mr Murphy, Ms Perriam, Mr Tyrell, Mr Ferguson, Mr Jones, dad, and all the other LFC fans. YNWA

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ESS Explores Thailand’s Premier Forest Ecosystem

Alexander (Coke) Smith, Environmental Systems and Societies Leader nce again our Environmental Systems and Societies students spent the better part of a week exploring the wilds of one of Thailand’s most spectacular natural areas – Kaeng Krachan National Park.

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Fifteen of our Year 12 ESS students, along with three teachers, Mr Adrian Palmer, Ms Christine Newbatt and Mr Coke Smith, and our full time Outdoor Learning spaces technician, “Turbo”, experienced the forest system in depth.

Our expedition started with a long trek through the subtropical dry forest of Kaeng Krachan, where students were tasked with finding and documenting specific ecological features such as mutualist species, parasitic species, epiphytic orchids, lianas and so much more. While on this trek, students spotted such amazing animals as Oriental Pied Hornbills, White-handed Gibbons, Dusky Langurs, Stump-tailed Macaques, Giant Squirrels and many more.

The rest of our days were spent with our Year 12’s learning skills required to complete their upcoming internal assessments, that are worth 25 percent of their overall IB ESS grade. Students learned how to measure stream and soil pH, TDS (total dissolved solids), DO (dissolved oxygen) and other important abiotic factors. They also humanely captured macro invertebrates from the stream and grasslands and compared things like species abundance and biodiversity to the abiotic factors.

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On our final day together the students had to construct their own unique research question and design a protocol to collect data that could be used to answer their question. Students were very professional and diligent and took this task very seriously. One student even told me that this was the first time they ever felt like an actual field ecologist – a real scientist! Of course that was music to this teacher’s ears.

There is nothing more satisfying for a teacher than to watch students evolve right in front of your eyes, from people who, may be slightly or passively interested in nature and field science, to actual true observers and students of nature, with all of its intricacies and wonder. Our urban-based students in just a few short days, experienced true nature and got their hands dirty doing real science that had real life applications. I have no doubt that these young men and women will take these experiences along their life journey and will have a much deeper appreciation of nature and the science of studying nature.

Dropping off personal items

ALL ITEMS FOR STUDENTS MUST BE DROPPED OFF AT THE SECONDARY OR PRIMARY OFFICE DIRECTLY. THE PERSON DROPPING OFF THE ITEM MUST HAVE A PATANA CARD OR BE ABLE TO EXCHANGE ID FOR A VISITOR’S PASS. ITEMS FOR PARENTS MUST BE DROPPED OFF AT THE PTG ROOM.

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Air Quality Information J

ust a reminder to our community that the Air Quality levels are posted on the Students’, Parents’ and Staff Firefly Dashboards. Links to our policies and procedures are also found on the dashboard and can be found here.

The levels are automatically read three times a day: Early morning, 11.00am and 1.30pm. Students may come to school wearing masks but they are not obligated to do so. With our new pre-cooled, fresh air systems in place, teachers will ask students to remove their masks when they are in class indoors.

Parents may find it useful to understand what happens when air quality levels reach higher than normal levels. You can find the presentation given to parents in November on Firefly here

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Rice and Shine!

Odele Pang, 12K

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orld Food Project recently organised a rice lifting challenge for their campaign day in the Lounge. The event was held over the course of two days to raise awareness about the hardships that many farmers have to go through to sell their rice. It also emphasised how laborers who are less fortunate have to carry heavy bags of rice and walk miles to ensure that they can make enough money to provide food for their families. This can be unfamiliar to many of us, who are able to easily buy food at supermarkets or convenience stores to bring to school or back home.

Students were challenged to lift as many bags of rice as possible above their head using only one hand. Although farmers do not necessarily carry rice in this manner, they have to endure difficult weather conditions, travel long distances and carry tens of kilograms of rice, only to be paid the minimum wage. However, this is the harsh reality faced by many people in our modern-day society and WFP hopes that this event will teach students to reconsider the value of food on their plates.

Thank you to everyone who participated in our challenge, and a special shout out to Louis Martin from 12T, who managed to carry a whopping 17kg of rice!

International Dance Competition18th January!

Tamara Spalding, Cross Campus Head Dance and Drama Coach

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his is the first event of its kind in an international school in Bangkok and is super exciting. There will be eight international schools from around Thailand with around 200 students participating throughout the day.

The day consists of many workshops in the morning being led by the Bangkok Patana Dance Academy team along with a lot of visiting artists including well-known actor and dancer Lajon Dantzler - made famous from the popular dance films Step Up 2 and 3 and Stomp the Yard. The afternoon will see our three Varsity teams competing against other teams and a presentation at the end which will involve our Dance Celebrity Lajon Dantzler.

If you would like to come along and watch/support please do so, the morning event will be happening from 8.30 – 12.30 and the afternoon competition will start at 1.30pm and finish around 3.30pm.

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20 Facts About Operation Smile S

mile Club is a student-run ECA that raises money to help children with cleft lip and cleft palates. In Thailand today, there are around 500 children who are born with these facial deformities, scarring them both physically and emotionally. It only takes one simple operation to change their lives forever. Every year Patana Operation Smile organises several events which allow them to donate money for these operations. So far this year the committee have organised the Haunted House at the Ploenchit Fair, and are currently planning the Haunted House for Fun Day. Our aim is to support as many children with these deformities as possible to provide a happier brighter future.

FIRST SESSION BACK AFTER THE CHRISTMAS BREAK (9TH JANUARY 2020) The session's aim was to increase knowledge about the Smile Club and the Operation Smile organisation, 20 Facts about Smile were placed in the Mathematics breakout area, Smile members were placed into groups inside the classroom and one person from each group would go outside to memorise as many of the facts as possible and come back into the classroom to share what they memorised with the rest of their group. Once all the facts had been memorised and checked by a board member the winning team received a chocolate prize. Following this, all the whiteboards were rubbed out, and purely from memory they had to re-write as many facts as they could. This activity was successful, this was evident from the number of new facts the members could recall.

Late Shuttle Cancelled!

Tiny Tigers Playgroup Openings

THE 5PM SHUTTLE BUS HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO LACK OF INTEREST. THE LAST BUS IS SCHEDULED FOR 4.30PM

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If you would like to know more about signing up your toddler for our playgroup, age one year and older, please contact Mrs Geet Harris in the Admissions office at admissions@patana.ac.th or 02785 2206.

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The Evolution of Human Locomotion (Bipedalism) 2

Sarisa Techasukij, 9L .9 to 3.9 million years ago, during the Neogene period of the Cenozoic era, around the Pliocene to Pleistocene epoch, the species Australopithecus Afarensis (meaning Southern Ape and referring to the location in which the fossils were found) lived amongst other animals like the ground sloths and glyptodonts. (Wikipedia, 2019) The Australopithecus Afarensis is the earliest and best-known human species. After its near extinction came many more, Neanderthals, homo habilis, homo ergaster, etc… So now if we revert to modern society you can see we have homosapiens.

Homo is the genus that emerged from the otherwise extinct genus Australopithecus. This genus encompasses several other extinct species classified as either ancestral to or closely related to modern humans, most notably Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis. (Wikipedia, 2019) Since then, humans have gone through numerous changes, constantly adapting to their environment through means of evolution.

WHAT EXACTLY IS BIPEDALISM? Essentially, bipedalism is an organism’s ability for locomotion by its two rear limbs.

Some of the morphological characteristics of bipedalism include the • Presence of a bicondylar angle, or valgus knee (which brings feet in line with the body’s center of gravity), • A more inferiorly placed foramen magnum (the structure which connects the skull to the spinal cord and serves as a passage for the central nervous system), • Big toes (which provides additional leverage to the foot when walking, running or pedaling, and helps the body balance in conjunction with the little toe), a higher arch on the foot, • A more posterior orientation of the anterior portion of the iliac blade (which is basically the uppermost and largest part of the hipbone), and more.(eFossils, 2016) Our upright walking gait, as a result of our bipedalism, has been proven to considerably improve the rate of oxygen and energy consumed per distance covered during walking, compared to non-human apes like chimps. The other reasons why bipedalism provides us with such an advantage is due to its energetic efficiency, the allowance of a wider range of vision, and freedom of the hands for carrying items. (Cradle Of Humankind, 2019) More on Scientia

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UNI COUNSELORS’ CORNER UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE:

Nuntapat (Gun) Asavaroengchai, Grad 12

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started at DigiPen Institute of Technology, studying games design but after one year there I decided that it wasn’t for me. I enjoyed the computer programming but felt that the school wasn’t a good fit for me. I transferred to University of Washington where I graduated with a BA in Business Administration with a focus on technology innovation and management. After that I worked a few months in marketing and advertising in a town outside Seattle.

I am back in Thailand doing my Master’s in Economics at Chulalongkorn University in the International programme. Adapting to the university here wasn’t so difficult because many of my professors are foreigners and the language of instruction is English. Getting used to how classmates work has been a different matter as most of them are Thai. Having grown up in an international setting has made me more aware of the differences.

I had always planned on returning to Thailand but met someone in the States and decided to stay. At the end of that relationship I knew I still wanted to come home, so here I am! I hadn’t originally planned on doing a Master’s but decided to go back to school to help with expanding my experience in Thailand.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT...

University of Otago, New Zealand

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onsidered one of the most beautiful university campuses in the world because of its amazing architecture and gardens, student housing is generally in old houses that are given names by their studentssuch as Toad Hall and Shrieking Shack. Otago is the oldest university in New Zealand and located in the second largest city in the South Island.

Known for hiking and cycling trails on the peninsula and Victorian and Edwardian architecture in the city, Dunedin offers something for everyone.

The university has 21,000 students with first year students staying in residential colleges. There are nearly 3,000 international students from 100 countries. The university has four academic divisions: Humanities, Sciences, Health Sciences and Business offering more than 200 undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Notable alumni include All Blacks captain David Kirk MBE and coach Sir Graham Henry KNZM, several Prime Ministers, numerous Rhodes Scholars and several Olympians including two-time rowing world champion and gold medallist Nathan Cohen.

Upcoming University Visits UNIVERSITY / COLLEGE

COUNTRY

Stamford Intl University -Bangkok

Thailand Second Floor Senior Studies Australia Second Floor Senior Studies Switzerland Second Floor Senior Studies

Bond University Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne

WHU- Otto Beishem School of Managment Orange Coast College University of Toronto BMI University Fair 17/01/2020

LOCATION

DATE

TIME

21.01.20 22.01.20 23.01.20

12.15 12.15 12.15

Germany

Second Floor Senior Studies

27.01.20

12.15

USA Canada

Second Floor Senior Studies Second Floor Senior Studies Second Floor Senior Studies

24.02.20 02.03.20 09.03.20

12.15 9.15 12.15

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#141: Audible Road Trips

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colleague shared a BBC article on the rise in popularity of audiobooks recently. Serendipitously, I was searching Audible and came across an area of the site I had not seen before. They have conveniently classified their catalogue by length of time. So, next time you’re on an adventure and you know the approximate length of the journey, you can search for something to listen to based on genre and journey time.

Have a fantastic weekend.

Brian Taylor Assistant Principal, Campus Curriculum Technology Integration Direct links in this article: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20200104-audiobooks-the-rise-and-rise-of-the-books-you-dont-read https://www.audible.co.uk/ep/road-trip Image courtesy of www.audible.co.uk

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Desert Island Discs With Alec Bien,Head of Arts Faculty

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his column follows in the style of the famed BBC podcast which features a celebrity every week – here we feature our own Bangkok Patana celebrities! What eight songs, one luxury item and one book would you take with you if you were stuck on a desert island?

Today Alec Bien, Head of Arts Faculty is stuck on a desert island.

MR BIEN, IF YOU WERE STUCK ON A DESERT ISLAND WHAT EIGHT PIECES OF MUSIC WOULD YOU WANT TO HAVE WITH YOU? J.S. Bach - Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 Mozart - “Elvira Madigan” from Piano Concerto No. 21 Second Movement Alexander Borodin – String Quartet No. 2 Tchaikovsky - Serenade for Strings Paquito D’Rivera – Guataca City Mikis Theodorakis - Zorba the Greek Stephane Grappelli - Lady Be Good

Listen to Mr Bien’s playlist here

Herbie Hancock – Chameleon PICK ONE LUXURY ITEM YOU WOULD WANT TO HAVE WITH YOU. THIS ITEM MUST BE INANIMATE AND OF NO USE IN ESCAPING THE ISLAND OR ALLOWING COMMUNICATION FROM OUTSIDE. Wide-brimmed hat WHICH ONE BOOK WOULD YOU WANT TO HAVE WITH YOU? Encyclopedia Brittanica Find out more on BBC. Have a list of your own? Let us know! Contact SHKN with your favourites.

DATES

for your

Diary...

Monday 20th January - Secondary School Photo Week Monday 20th January - IB Music Recital Saturday 8th February - Makha Bucha Day Monday 10th February - Half-term Holidays Begin Monday 17th February - School Re-opens Saturday 7th March - Fun Day

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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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