Patana News Volume 18 Issue 25

Patana

NEWS

Head of School’s Monthly Blog P. 2 Bangkok Patana is an IB World School, accredited by CIS and NEASC

I can’t believe we are only three weeks out from Songkran! This is the time of the year when Year 13 students really start to feel the pressure building up as everything that they have been learning and studying for culminates with their final IB exams starting in two months’ time. IB Coordinator Andy Roff tells me that the Year 13 cohort are very focused on their learning and are working extremely hard. Year 11s are also working very hard focusing on their first important examination experience as they prepare for their (I)GCSE exams which also start shortly after the Songkran holidays.

This is a critical time of the academic year for both of these Year groups as they revise carefully during their final few weeks of academic lessons before they go off on study leave and start their exams. Being a parent of a Year 11, I’m getting first-hand experience of observing the extra pressure that these students are under at this moment in time. Exam students are being guided and supported by their teachers and have been told not to only study and prepare well for their exams but to also make sure they eat well, exercise regularly and get plenty of sleep.

I had the pleasure of attending the Year 8 and 9 drama production last week. The Alan Davis-inspired set design was superb with a huge weeping tree that had its own personality overlooking the ghostly graveyard. The students put on a very polished performance including key narrator ‘Petra’ played by Maya Lemaire (9T) who was one of the standouts for me. The Stone and Visioner groups kept the play moving from one actionpacked scene to another and the audience were kept on the edge of their seats the whole way through the play.

Congratulations to Director Paul Gatiss, his support team and of course the very talented Year 8 and 9 cast of Whispers in the Graveyard.

On the recruitment front, we interviewed some very strong and passionate teachers aspiring to teach at Bangkok Patana School. We have made a number of appointments in London and are now down to single digit vacancies, which I’m confident we will fill over the coming months. The Principals and I will return to the UK straight after the Songkran holidays to interview and confirm our final nine teacher vacancies for the next academic year. We are also holding interviews in the last week of this term for the Assistant Principal ECAs and Sports vacancy. We have received over 50 applications already for this important cross -campus position.

Congratulations to all of our amazing Under 13 SEASAC sports students who recently attended a trip to Shanghai. Acting Assistant Principal Andrew Tatam commented on the great sportsmanship that prevailed at the sports meet and once again our Bangkok Patana students did themselves proud, coming first in the Girls’ football and third in the Boys’ football, second overall in the swimming competition and third overall in the athletics. A very good set of accomplishments indeed.

I attended the annual FOBISIA Heads business meeting in Seoul over the weekend. There was lots of discussion on the growth of the Federation and the challenges of running all of the student sports and cultural/academic events that are offered on a yearly basis. I remember my first FOBISIA Heads Meeting in 2008 when there were only 23 schools compared to 2016 where we have 52 schools and a long list of aspirant schools wanting to join the Federation. There was lots of discussion on the challenges of recruiting high quality teachers to the growing number of international schools in Asia and there was also some time spent looking at future models of the leadership structure within the organisation as we become a very large Federation that is presently run by full-time school Heads.

As you will be aware, Bangkok Patana School is accredited by the Council of International Schools (CIS) which is based in Leiden in the Netherlands. Our five-year visit is coming up during the 2016/17 academic year. This will involve two international colleagues visiting our school over a period of one week to observe learning and review our school’s Development Plan, guiding statements and look at all of our school operations including health and safety requirements. I also just visited a school in Ho Chi Min who were going through a CIS visit as school heads reciprocate CIS visits. I always enjoy visiting schools to see where they are performing strongly and I constantly find great innovative ideas to bring back to Bangkok Patana School.

Have an enjoyable weekend.

By Sam Mooring, Mathematics Curriculum Coordinator

D

uring the last four days of the February half-term break, whilst many of you were sunning yourselves on various beaches, the brightest mathletes from Bangkok Patana School were competing in South Asia’s top competition for student mathematics.

round, finishing ninth overall.

Before the continent-wide event began, Yuqing warmed -up by competing in the inaugural Thailand Maths Competition. This was open to students from international schools and top Thai private schools throughout the country, up to the age of 18. Despite facing students three years older than her, Yuqing was the eventual winner of this elite event. Nucky Korprasertsri (12M) came second, just two points behind Yuqing, demonstrating excellent strength of Mathematics at Bangkok Patana.

This year’s competition took place in Kuala Lumpur, hosted jointly by Alice Smith and Garden Schools. There were two individual rounds, as well as team events like the energiser, pass-back, group questions and carousel activities. All of the students performed excellently, but particular commendation should go to Yuqing Wu who came fifth out of 240 students – the best ever perfor- Whilst these academic achievements are excellent and mance from a Bangkok Patana student. The Girls’ team should be applauded, perhaps the most exciting developcame in the top 10 for the pass-back and group questions ment from these competitions is the creation of the Bangkok Maths Competition. Having competed at three SEAMC events herself, Nucky took the initiative to set up a similar competition for Key Stage 3 students. We hope that her enthusiasm for social, yet competitive Mathematics has created an entirely student-led tournament that can continue for many years to come.

Mr Mooring and Mrs Hughes would like to congratulate Yuqing Wu (10T), Ann Kanchanasakdichai (9I), Flora Cho (Y9M), Kenji Miyauchi (9T), Fresh Pisuttisarun (9J), and Sho Ishizaki (8J) for their outstanding achievement and exemplary conduct throughout this competition.

University / College

Representative Location

Date

Time

Australia and New Zealand Interview Program (19th-20th March)

-

Novotel Hotel Siam (BTS Siam)

19.03.16 13:00

American University

-

Senior Studies, 2nd floor

28.03.16 12:15

Loyola Marymount University

Dwayne Zamora Senior Studies

Grand Open Day Of University of London International Programmes

-

29.03.16 12:15

The Regent's International College (RIC) 03.04.16 13:00

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Bangkok Patana PTG

By Olivier Ledoit, Coach

B

angkok Patana School are the FOBISIA Sailing Champions! The event, hosted by Regents International School, ran over three days from February 10th to the 12th, at the Royal Varuna Yacht Club on the Gulf of Thailand. The Patana Tigers’ overcame stiff competition and kept their focus through a grueling schedule of tense races in strong winds to beat last year’s winners, Bangkok Prep, at the last gasp in the overall standings. It is the Tigers’ first victory in this tournament.

Unlike the other teams, Patana Tigers’ used their non-sailing time as an opportunity to study opposition tactics together.

to help you find the solutions to your problems, delivering the goods under pressure in a must-win situation, respecting the rules, knowing that even your youngest and least experienced team members can end up playing the decisive role, sacrificing oneself for the good of the team, adapting instantly to a new job, having a good leader, preparing before and debriefing after, achieving a lot with very little, learning from competitors what they do well, talking to one another, cooperating across divisional lines, and keeping rivalries civil.

The Bangkok Patana Tigers Sailing Team.

All participating schools had to field sailors in two classes of monohull dinghies: the two-person RS Quba for team racing, and the one-person Optimist for individual racing. Thus, all the aspects of sailing performance and ability were comprehensively covered and put to the test.

There are many aspects of competitive sailing that make it the school of life lessons; selecting the best possible team for the objective at hand, showing dedication, preparing ahead of time, holding your nerve in desperate moments, being physically fit, believing that you can beat seemingly invincible opponents, counting on your friends All of the Bangkok Patana Sailing team and their parents would like to say a big thank-you to Dr Polly Sinnett-Jones, who was the school representative at the event. She demonstrated extraordinary commitment to the success of our team, going well beyond the call of duty on too many occasions to list. The Tigers’ Sailing team is proud to bring the trophy to Bangkok Patana School and looks forward to defending the title next March at the 2017 FOBISIA competition.

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS

PREVENTION

WHO IS AT RISK

Reference from: www.medicarehomehealth.com

THE SILHOUETTE presented by STOP

24/03 5:30PM BLACK BOX

ALPHA SEATS: 350 BAHT (CLOSEST TO THE RUNWAY) BETA SEATS: 250 BAHT GAMMA SEATS: 150 BAHT PURCHASE TICKETS EVERY LUNCHTIME NEAR THE CANTEEN SNACK BAR OR RESERVE TICKETS BY EMAILING: DEVE16@PATANA.AC.TH OR NILA17@PATANA.AC.TH YOU TUBE: The Silhouette Fashion Show ALL PROCEEDS GO TO LIBERTY ASIA, AN ORGANIZATION CONCENTRATED ON PREVENTING HUMAN TRAFFICKING

THE ROAR Produced by the Athletics Council

FOBISIA ALL STARS EDITION Niamh Flannery

Joanne Gavin

Vincent Boulom

U13 FOBISIA Games

FOBISIA Sailing

U13 FOBISIA Games

Who’s your sporting icon?

Katie Ledecky

What team do you support?

Waikato Chiefs

If you could change one thing in the world what would it be?

For people to stop sucking the happiness out of everything.

If you could be anyone who would you be and why?

Asaeli Tikoirotuma because he’s fast and good at rugby.

Would you rather be ignorant and happy or knowledgeable and never be fully content?

I want to be knowledgeable but I also want to be happy, eventually.

What makes sailing enjoyable?

It’s fun.

What is your dream vacation?

New York Would you rather have the ability to fly or the ability to read people’s mind?

Fly, because you can go to different places and you can travel really fast.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE UNDER 13 FOBISIA TEAM WHO COMPETED LAST WEEKEND: Swimming 2nd Athletics 3rd

GOOD LUCK TO THE SEASAC TEAMS COMPETING THIS WEEKEND

Would you rather go forward or backwards in time?

Backwards

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Tiger Sports @BPSSPORTS BPS Sports Patana Tennis

By Andrew Tatam, Acting Assistant Principal, Extra-curricular Activities and Sports

T

his is a reminder that Block 3 ECAs will finish on Friday 8th April with Competitive Sports continuing until Friday 29th April. ECA Block 4, Phase 1 will open to parents at 12 noon on Monday 21st March.

Other important Block 4 ECA dates: Monday 21st March 2016 Friday 25th March 2016 Monday 4th April 2016 Friday 8th April 2016 Tuesday 3rd May 2016 Friday 17th June 2016

Online Block 4 ECA registration opens 12:00pm ECA Sign up closes 12:00pm ECA Confirmations available online. Phase II opens 12:00pm Phase II closes 12:00pm ECA programme commences ECA programme finishes

For the week between Block 3 and Block 4 ECAs (Monday, 25th April to Friday, 29th April, 2016) there are no ECAs running except for the following: Dutch (Primary and Secondary) Singapore Mandarin (Year 1 and 2 only) Senior Choir Selective PTS Swimming (not including recreational) Selective Tigers Tennis (not including recreational) Selective Team and Development Gymnastics (not including recreational and Year 1 and 2 Students) ETP

Please note that all Block 3 Dance ECAs will be automatically rolled over into Block 4 in preparation for the Dance Extravaganza in June.

If you have any problems in signing up for ECAs please email (please do not phone) the relevant member of staff below before Phase 2 closes on Friday 8th April for help: ECA Coordinator, Khun Suly, suss@patana.ac.th Primary ECA Coordinator, Chris Meller, chme@patana.ac.th Secondary ECA Coordinator, Hannah Marshall, hama@patana.ac.th

Many thanks for your support and enjoy the wonderful selection of ECAs on offer across the School.

By Genevieve Ahl, Services Manager

P

lease be reminded that all messages for cancellations or changes to daily transport arrangements must be received before 11:00am. Any changes after this time may not be accommodated. Please plan in advance and give more notice where possible to assist the Transport staff in making the necessary arrangements.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Year 11 and 13 students should have given Transport their bus schedule according to their exam timetable in Term 3. If any bus users have not done this, please do so as soon as possible. The deadline is today Friday 18th March.

Do your children know their Bus Monitor and Driver’s name? If not, please ask them to find out so they can give them a friendly greeting every day.

The Transport Office is staffed from 6.00am – 6.00pm Monday to Friday and can be contacted by calling 02 744 2470 or emailing transport@patana.ac.th

Clay...Shaping Our Happiness Exhibition by Kimiko Oka May 3 - 29, 2016 Open Daily from 9:30 am - 5:30pm, Tuesday - Sunday Opening Reception - Saturday, May 7th from 5:00-9:00pm Four years ago, when Kimiko Oka's daughter Poko was twelve, she knew that Poko needed something new in her life that would help her grow. Something that she would enjoy and look forward to doing, something that could be shared with others, and something that would help her develop skills that she would use her entire life. They discovered that clay was the perfect medium for them to work on together. They were hooked, finding that the hands-on work was similar to therapy.

Working with clay is soothing in many ways. Touching it is relaxing, and choosing and putting on colour takes concentration and a creative process. Clay lets Kimiko and Poko work from the heart as well as the mind. All of their finished pieces are symbols of their happiness, and clay has become a very important part of their lives. In this exhibition, Kimiko Oka shares her and Poko's beautiful and unique pottery as a symbol of the happiness they share, showing how art-making can be a process of bonding and sharing as well as creating.

Clay... Shaping Our Happiness will be on view in the Neilson Hays Rotunda & Garden CafĂŠ Galleries from May 3rd through May 29th, 2016, while an opening reception will be held on Saturday, May 7th from 5:00-9:00 pm.

For further information about Kimiko Oka’s work as an artist please email kimipoko@gmail.com.

Anapana Meditation Course for Children Anapana or Mindfulness of Breathing, teaches children improved concentration skills and enhances calmness of the mind.

This technique helps to relieve anxiety and is very useful at exam time to calm those nerves as well as for every day life.

The next Anapana Meditation course will be on Sunday 20th March for children aged between 8 - 16 years.

The course is completely free!

To enrol or for further information, please contact Eva Sophonpanich evasophon@hotmail.com You may also find this site useful: http://www.children.dhamma.org/en/

The weekly canteen menu is available here.

Please check the calendar on the Parents’ Gateway, Student pages and Staff Centre for up-to-date information on school events.

Visit www.patana.ac.th and click on the relevant icon to log in