Patana News Volume 24 Issue 24

www.patana.ac.th

PATANA NEWS

Friday 11th March 2022

Talking with Your Child About Loss and Grief

By Carol Battram

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Also in this issue...

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The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award International Women’s Day SEASAC Swim School Fees Upcoming University Visits Primary Sports Days 11/03/2022

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

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Talking with Your Child

About Loss and Grief

Carol Battram, Primary Assistant Principal

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irstly, a request for your help. Teachers are skilled in recognising when a child is struggling with complicated emotions, but may never know when a child is grieving a loss if the information hasn’t been shared, either by the student themselves or by a parent. Their loss may be linked to a critical illness in the family, a parental separation, or the departure of a much-loved caregiver.

Any change can potentially be felt as a loss, so we ask that you inform the School’s Admission Office, and the class teacher or tutor, whenever your child is experiencing a significant change in family circumstances, living arrangements or custody agreements.

A death, of course, is often felt as the biggest loss of

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all. We all experience grief and loss at points in our lives, and the death of a friend, family member or pet can be shattering. Grief is our response to loss, and we experience it in different ways.

Many people aren’t comfortable talking about death and this is reflected in the language we use and a common reluctance to even mention the “D word”. Instead, we resort to euphemisms. We say that someone has passed away or gone to a better place. We talk about putting a pet to sleep. These phrases might seem gentler, but they can also confuse a child who is trying to make sense of their loss.

Passed where? If it’s a better place, why can’t we all go? And when is Mog going to wake up?

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Death means that someone is not coming back and so it’s important to talk about death with an age-appropriate degree of honesty and clarity. Tell your child when someone they know has died, even if they don’t yet understand the concept. Cultural and religious beliefs will often shape what we choose to share, and the rituals of mourning, and the comfort of sharing memories, can be immensely helpful in taking some of the fear and sadness away.

The author and academic, Mary-Frances O’Connor, recently gave an interview in which she talks about the process of grieving and how important it is to have a view of life that incorporates death.

Once you have started the conversation, your child may have big questions. They may be curious about how or why someone died or what happens after death.

Younger children may expect to see the person again and can struggle with the fact that is irreversible. They may ask how they can bring a person back or when they are going to see them again. Be patient and try to answer their questions as honestly as you can – even when you’ve answered the same question several times.

Stories about grief and loss can help families remember and talk about a family member, friend or pet who has died. We have some marvellous picture books in our Primary library, and our library staff would be glad to assist you. (Note some examples to the right).

We know that grief can be overwhelming and that finding the words to share your loss can be difficult. Please know that you will be met with sympathy and compassion, and that we will do our utmost to support your child with kindness, compassion and the comfort of routine.

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THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH’S INTERNATIONAL AWARD

by Kieran Clarke, DofE Leader and DofE Students

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THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH’S INTERNATIONAL AWARD

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t has been absolutely fantastic to see DofE participants exactly where they should be, outside with a map and compass navigating their way from checkpoint to checkpoint. For the past five weekends DofE, Bronze participants have been exploring the greener parts of Bangkok and have completed their Adventurous Journey Section of the Bronze Award with smiles, laughter, wrong turns and a few burnt lunches. Well done to all the DofE participants that are well on their way to obtaining their Bronze, Silver and Gold Award in very challenging circumstances.

to overcome personal challenges, found confidence, resilience, focus, motivation, and achieved things we never thought we would. The challenges, frustrations, and exhaustion we encountered definitely paid off and shaped us into better people than before. Despite the obstacles we faced, we made new friends and created unforgettable memories that will last us a lifetime.

ROSE, MUNIZA, AND ASHLEY DofE is an eye-opening experience, teaching and strengthening us both physically and mentally preparing us for the future. Especially with COVID going on, it felt spectacular getting out into nature since we don’t get much of a chance to get out into fresh air and keep fit.

Bang Krachao has exquisite scenery and is well known as the ‘green lung’, as it is the most preserved area with no high buildings and a bit of nature just outside the bustle of Bangkok city. We followed concrete paths and roads surrounded by the beautiful Thai culture, lovely people, along with nature and trees that helped cheer us on as we persevered and made it through to the end together.

Teamwork played a huge role in our expedition as we needed to communicate as a group and combine our knowledge and skills together. Though at certain times we may have had some disagreements on which direction we needed to go, we would simply discuss and recalculate the bearings for our next destination or double-check our route card.

On our expedition, we made sure that everyone in the group was always hydrated and safe. For example, we made sure we were always walking along the right side of the road. We saw many temples on the way and were lucky enough to observe the beauty of the culture and made sure that we were respectful to all. Not only did we see temples but we also encountered lots of locals who lived in the area; they were all so kind-hearted and were glad to give us a helping hand throughout the trip.

GRACIE AND RANYA Planning was not only the route card and the meal plan, it was also learning how to work together in a group with new people. The best way to complete DofE was to communicate well with your group, especially when you were planning your trip. You had to be organised and make sure everyone was putting in the same amount of effort. In some circumstances people relied on one person to do all the planning and it was very unfair, not only would one person be very overwhelmed We believe that we have learned a variety of skills with the workload, but the rest of the group would strugthroughout the expedition. Not only did we improve on gle later on when they needed to prepare for their next our navigation and cooking skills, we were also able

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THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH’S INTERNATIONAL AWARD trip. Not to mention, they wouldn’t know what skills they needed as they did not contribute to their groups’ planning in the first place. Additionally, if you planned the route card together everyone could join in and you would get different answers and everyone could then reflect and try again to get the right bearings together.

Planning a route card included taking bearings, which we relied on a lot when completing the actual walk.

These were the main ways of getting around when we were walking. We had to take a start and direct bearing, the difference being a start bearing showed us which way to walk at the beginning, and a direct bearing showed us which direction to walk to reach the final point. We also had to write up the six figure grid references, which we used to locate the checkpoints, and in some cases to help teachers find us if we got lost. We also had to calculate the distance between different checkpoints so we could measure how long it would take us to get between the different checkpoints.

This meant measuring the distance with paper on the map and then comparing it to the key on the map and estimating the distance.

The trip to green lung was very fun and it helped us to understand how to use a compass in real situations.

Even though we got lost a couple times, it made our group work better together and communicate more so we didn’t get confused and so we could work together to find out where we went wrong and reflect on it.

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INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

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he CAS project, ‘The Dragonfly Teen Initiative’, works with companies based in Bangkok to promote the important issue of educating women about their health. A photography project, titled #EDUCATIONISMYVOICE, brainstormed and produced by the team, was exhibited at the Body Wisdom Weekend at Siri House alongside Dragonfly360.co, Viracare and a number of other companies promoting women’s health, as well as an impressive cast of guest speakers including the amazing Khun Mechai Viravaidya. But that’s not all the group are working on; they also celebrated International Women’s Day at the BCCT International Women in Business Group, where they made a presentation about their research into unconscious bias and schemas. To bring the art for advocacy project into school, Key Stage 3 students will be participating in fabric embellishment and painting this week to promote the topic of personal health and break the taboo of speaking about our personal health and wellbeing. Please follow the Dragonfly Teen Initiative on their journey to bring freedom, health and safety to all young people in Thailand.

LEADING CHANGE:

Rada (Sammy) Anuras in Year 12 admits that since she wrote a piece in Year 5 about gender equality, she has been driven to see what change she can affect. This week, Sammy joined her peers Emiri Miyake and Alexis Loke in making a presentation on implicit bias to a large group of business representatives from the British Chamber of Commerce (BCCT). The three students were part of a panel that included James Teague, Country President AstraZeneca Thailand, Jane Ratanaporn, HR Director Diageo Moet Hennessy and Bangkok Patana Alum and ila generation co-founder Net Supataravanij.

Although they were the youngest presenters, the girls seemed undaunted and showed incredible professionalism, knowledge and confidence as they fielded questions from the audience.

In the week leading up to the event, they had sent out a link to the Harvard implicit bias test, and then interpreted the results as a comparison to all the people who had completed the test globally. Each student talked about their background and their impetus to foster change in the area of women’s equity.

The students are continuing their research on implicit bias.

They would really appreciate 7-8 minutes of your time to complete this Harvard survey. After completion, please take a screenshot of your result and enter it into this Google Form.

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SEASAC SWIMMING

Timothy Tripp, Cross Campus Head Swim Coach

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or a second successive year, the SEASAC swimming community has come together to overcome the challenges of COVID-19 by running a virtual SEASAC Senior Swimming event. Ten member schools across South East Asia competed in this year’s conference meet, with over 170 athletes competing.

Across a two-weekend window, some of the best international school swimmers in the region showcased all of their hard work and effort throughout the season with over 13 SEASAC Short Course records broken.

the BPS TigerSharks Girls’ team rose to the occasion to ensure that they could achieve their team goals.

The big talking point amongst the Boys’ category was how close could the Bangkok Patana TigerSharks get to defending champions United World College (UWC) East. After many years of seeing the UWC Dragons take the top spot, there was definitely a hunger from the TigerShark Boys to grab the win this year.

The objective for Bangkok Patana TigerSharks was to build on their success from last year, finishing 4th in the Girls’ category and 2nd in the Boys’. Combined with the target of exceeding last year’s points tally, the team did just that with our Girls’ team breaking back into the Top 3 and finishing 3rd with 30 more points than last year.

Notable individual performances came from Kaitlyn Dibbayawan in the 50 and 100 Butterfly, swimming to two new SEASAC short course records and two gold medals. Erin Richards brought home the gold in the 200 Butterfly, as well as retaining her 400 Individual Medley title for a second successive year. Hanami Roughley put in a strong performance to take the win in the 200 Backstroke.

This was followed by the girls putting in a fantastic show in their relay events, with three out of four performances being new school records and top three finishes in all four events. In a season where the Girls’ category had noticeably increased in competitiveness

After six relays and 15 individual swims, the boys were crowned SEASAC Champions by more than 100 points! A dominant performance by the entire team that saw them win all four of the Boys’ relays and six individual winning swims.

Finn Mason surpassed all expectations at this year’s SEASAC swimming with personal best times and taking wins in the 200 Breaststroke (also a school record) and the 400 Individual Medley. Shubhankar Patki claimed his place as the dominant fly swimmer, winning gold in the 50, 100 and 200 Butterfly. In only his second Senior SEASAC, James Gannicott put in a school record breaking performance to win the 200 Freestyle.

Combining both scores together, Bangkok Patana TigerSharks finished as the top combined score across the SEASAC conference.

This is a fine feat that was last achieved back in 2012 and a huge congratulations to all the team members of the Bangkok Patana TigerSharks SEASAC Senior 2022 team.

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he win was particularly satisfying as the team made a final SEASAC farewell to six graduating students: Kaitlyn Dibbayawan (nine SEASACs, two as captain) Zhen Tam (nine SEASACs, two as captain) Nicolas Changbencharoen (three SEASACs) Pon Pingkarawat (one SEASAC) Sean Spencer (two SEASACs) Patrick Walsh (seven SEASACs)

The demonstration of achievement through team work has been a quality the current Year 13 group have shown to the entire program for many years. Despite fantastic success this year and in previous years, their finest achievement has been their desire to continue competing for their team and we wish them well in their future activities.

As another SEASAC wraps up, the process will re-start again to see if both teams can build once more on their performances going into next year. For now, the team can and should enjoy all their deserved success as the number one SEASAC school for 2022!

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SEASAC SWIMMING

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Year 1 Students Raise Awareness About Sea Pollution Nicholas Grimes, Year 1 Teacher

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n Year 1, we have been thinking about a very important question… Why are the sea animals dying? To begin, we researched lots about the issue. We watched short informational videos, looked through non-fiction books, and even used a child-friendly search engine to help us learn as much as possible about what’s going on. As a class, we created some giant whale art, using lots of different materials to make it as beautiful as possible. We wanted to make a piece of art that made the viewer think about what they were looking at, so we filled his belly with plastic to highlight the fact that sea animals are eating the plastic that drifts out to sea. Finally, to raise awareness about the problem, we made some posters that we’ll hang around the Year 1 building. We used headings, captions, pictures, labels, and a body text to explain to readers why sea animals are dying, and what we can do to help. We used the important words from our earlier research, like biodegrade, microplastic, and single-use plastics to help us in our writing.

School Fee Invoices Invoices for school fees for Term 3 2021/22 were sent to parents on Tuesday, 15th February 2022. If you have not received your invoice, please contact the Accounting Department by email at: accounts@patana.ac.th.

Please note that the due date for settlement is Friday, 18th March 2022 and payments received after this date will be subject to a late payment charge of one percent per month.

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Careers and University Counseling Office:

University Major Subject Spotlight Materials Science is an interdisciplinary field applying the properties of matter to various areas of science and engineering. This relatively new scientific field investigates the relationship between the structure of materials at atomic or molecular scales and their macroscopic properties. It incorporates elements of Physics & Chemistry.

Materials play a central role in the performance and reliability of virtually every technology and living organism. The central theme of materials science and engineering is that the relationships between the structure, properties, processing, and performance of materials are crucial to their function. Materials scientists seek to understand these fundamental relationships, synthesize new materials, develop improved processes for making materials, and understand the role of materials in the functioning of biological organisms.

With a significant amount of media attention focused on Nano science & technology, materials science is becoming widely known as a specific field of science and engineering. It is an important part of Forensic Engineering which is the investigation of materials, products, structures, or components that fail or do not operate or function as intended, causing personal injury or damage to property.

Materials scientists can go on to work in research, development, operations, management, manufacturing and sales along with many other fields.

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Foundation Stage Sports Day THURSDAY 17 TH M ARCH 2022 TIME: 8:00AM—9:30AM VENUE: PRIMARY BACK FIELD

Please note that due to the current circumstances, parents will not be able to attend this event.

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Key Stage One Sports Day Wednesday 16th March Please note that due to the current circumstances parents will not be able to attend this event.

Please ensure that your child comes to School in their PE kit complete with a hat, bottle of water and remember to apply plenty of sun cream for their exciting Sports Morning.

Year 1 Classes are participating from 7.45am to 9:15am Year 2 Classes are participating from 10.05am to 11:30am 11/03/2022

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SCIENTIA:

The Spike Protein Vaccine

Marwin Banluelap, 11 WHAT IS NOVAVAX? Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine, otherwise known as NVX-CoV2373, is a spike protein COVID-19 vaccine. It is also called a subunit vaccine meaning it is a vaccine that contains purified parts of a pathogen that will elicit a protective immune response. In SARS-COV-2 there are 29 spike proteins attached to its membrane and these are the ones of interest.

ing an immune response. Once the protein is destroyed, our bodies have memory cells that remain in our blood in case our body encounters the protein again, thus preventing future infections. A compound from a soapbark tree is used as an adjuvant, however, Novavax have been testing a different adjuvant called Matrix-M.

WHERE IS NOVAVAX AT NOW? Novavax has completed Phase 3 testing and is ending HOW IS NOVAVAX CREATED? with strong results. It is shown to have a 100% efficacy The way the vaccine works is by isolating genetic ma- against the original COVID-19 strain and 93% efficacy terial of a single spike and having that injected into a against other variants. The vaccine’s overall efficacy was baculovirus. This newly modified baculovirus containing 90.4% against mild disease and 100% against the spike protein is then taken to infect a moth cell. Within severe disease. Side effects include pain at the injecthe moth cell the baculovirus replicates, creating more tion site, fatigue, headache, and muscle pain lasting less of itself along with these spike proteins, which are then than three days. The vaccine has been tested on people isolated and used for vaccines. from all three generations (grandparents, parents, children) during clinical trials. As of 12 February 2022, a virologist in Australia has received her first dose of Novavax and further clinical trials demonstrated an 82% efficacy against the Delta variant, while also preventing cases in the pediatric population.

DEFINITIONS Baculovirus: A family of viruses that serve as natural hosts.

Adjuvant: Enhances the body’s immune response SOURCES

HOW THE NOVAVAX VACCINE WORKS Other vaccines use either DNA or RNA (mRNA) technology to trigger the immune response, meaning it sends a messenger telling our cells to produce covid-like spike cells which elicit an immune response. However, using a subunit vaccine triggers the immune response in a much safer way by directly introducing the protein into the body. Our body recognizes this protein as foreign, caus-

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https://www.nebraskamed.com/COVID/moths-and-tree-bark-howthe-novavax-vaccine-works https://www.nebraskamed.com/COVID/novavax-vaccine-results-howeffective-is-it-against-variants https://www.novavax.com/covid-19-coronavirus-vaccine-candidate-updates https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/will-small-long-shot-us-company-endproducing-best-coronavirus-vaccine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQfGcAwJfFQ https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/protein-based-covid-19-vaccines-could-overshadow-rivals/4012450.article https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/covid-19-how-do-subunit-vaccines-work https://finance.yahoo.com/news/novavax-announces-positive-results-covid-024500728.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACJLB0hPY-p02b21oSyLsV1jDRiAJvlVb9GaP-JVbHyUTgspn7ukNf8xhPF0sfOVc2JgEwtFaFrTyxoVGG5hdCTiQj4kdMtV2OG7lYgvDAki-d7PlsBiP8rpxaF59T5hXOacJLvfxTYASBe6Qpd7zbpm65U7d7J_xnHqKmePZs6-

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#212: What Parents Need to Know About YUBO Y

ubo is a social networking platform where users can chat and livestream with up to 10 friends at once. People can connect with others based on location, with a Tinder-style ‘swiping’ mechanism to accept or reject someone based on their profile pictures. The app has approximately 50 million users worldwide – but despite its popularity, Yubo has not been free from controversy. While the app claims to monitor inappropriate content, a newspaper investigation in early 2022 found young users being exposed to sexual harassment, racism, bullying and conversations with adult themes.

In this guide, you’ll find tips on a number of potential risks such as cyberbullying, inappropriate content and flimsy age gates.

Have a great weekend.

Brian Taylor Assistant Principal, Campus Curriculum Technology Integration

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Desert Island Discs With Tracey Barton, Year 4 Teacher

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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 Year 4 Teacher, Tracey Barton, is stuck on a desert island.

MRS TRACEY BARTON, IF YOU WERE STUCK ON A DESERT ISLAND WHAT EIGHT PIECES OF MUSIC WOULD YOU WANT TO HAVE WITH YOU? Reasons to be Cheerful - Ian Drury & The Blockheads

Into My Arms - Nick Cave and the Bad Seed

Hold on Tight - Electric Light Orchestra

Beggin’ - The Maneskin

London Calling - The Clash

Saturdays - De La Soul

Magnificent (She Says) - Elbow

Express Yourself - Charles Wright and Click to listen to Mrs Tracey Barton’s playlist

the Watts 103rd St Rhythm Band

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. A roller disco complete with Alan Partridge as DJ WHICH ONE BOOK WOULD YOU WANT TO HAVE WITH YOU? The Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled from India to Europe for Love by Per J Andersson Catch the real Desert Island Discs on BBC. Now that you are stuck at home, what are you listening to? Have a list of your own? Let us know! Contact STML with your favourites.

Open this Link to sign up for the

Songkran Holiday Dance Camp 2022

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COMMUNITY

join us!

Communications Design Executive FOBISIA is the premier Federation in Asia supporting and promoting high-quality British-style international education by ensuring high quality British-style international education through shared professional development, student enrichment, and mutual support between Member Schools in the region. The Federation supports 87+ Member Schools and 100+ Affiliate Members, as well as Individual Members, including founding and former Heads of FOBISIA Member Schools.

The Communications Design Executive is responsible for managing the design elements of the communications portfolio.

Bachelor’s degree Strong time management and creative thinking skills Knowledge of best practices of website and social media platforms Experience in creative content design Knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite, specifically InDesign, Illustrator or Photoshop Experience with Apple OS preferred Able to learn and adapt to new software and technologies quickly Able to contribute positively in a small team environment and manage multiple priorities and deadlines Good understanding of English, both written and spoken Portfolio upon request Please send CV and any queries to Shana Kongmun eom@fobisia.org

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COMMUNITY

These play readings are open to anyone who wants to join, ages 16+ Just email: RSVP@bangkokcommunitytheatre.com to get the link. It's free and a great way to meet some other people who enjoy live theatre and to practice your performing skills as well. Please join us and tell your friends!

COMMUNITY

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