Patana News Volume 19 Issue 24 by Bangkok Patana School

Patana

NEWS

Fun Day: Thanks from the PTG Page 16

The Circle of School Life

Earth Hour

SEAMC in Jakarta

Bangkok Patana is an IB World School, accredited by CIS and NEASC

s I look out of my office window, I can see the student generated sign boldly displaying 15 Days. This is all the time that remains in the countdown until Year 13 have their last formal lesson here at Bangkok Patana School. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not quite time to be saying our goodbyes to them yet, but the clock is certainly ticking on their time here at Bang-

which she has used over the last two years to represent where they are in their course of study. Initially, before the course begins, the doughnut is a perfect ring; then after Term 1 the first large bite is taken from it; by this time last year, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s half gone, and right now they are just about to take the last mouthful.

kok Patana. Once we break for Songkran they will have a very busy time revising over the holiday period to make sure that they are absolutely prepared for those all-important final IB examinations starting on 28th April. Ms Lindley recently showed Year 11 students, who are at the same point of readiness for their (I)GCSE exams, the image of a doughnut,

Year 11, or at least most of them, will of course return to Bangkok Patana next year, where Mr Roff, our IB Coordinator will inspire them with another food related analogy, maybe slices of pizza, to represent the two years of Senior Studies. For Year 13 though, this really is it, their final chance to shine. The opportunity to put down in words on the cold white examination papers, all the knowledge, skills and understanding that they have acquired over the years. To prove their teachersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; faith in them to be true, to show parents that they really can do it, to secure that university place that they so desperately want! What is most important for all for them in the long term is to know that they have simply done their best! If they know that they have worked hard over two years, revised as well as they possibly

could in the lead up to the exams, and taken on board the feedback and advice of their teachers, then as educators and parents we can be very proud of them. The next two months or so will be really tough on Year 13 and Year 11 students. They might be (even) grumpier than usual, they might be upset at times, or they might appear to be absolutely in control and top of things. As parents (I have daughters in both Year groups – yikes!) this is a very stressful time for us too and it’s hard to know sometimes what to do

ing lessons, moving around from subject to subject and of course joining the ice-cream queues at lunchtime. The Taster Days are designed to give potentially nervous Year 6 students the chance to get an early glimpse into life in Secondary so it doesn’t seem quite so overwhelming when they join us in August. It’s part of a much broader and really well developed transition process led by Lena Perriam and the incoming Head of Year 7 (Mr Meadows) alongside David Walton, Leader of Learning and Welfare for Year 6. It has been great to see the Year 6 in

for the best. If we’re very hands on we might be seen as ‘controlling’ and ‘untrusting’ but if we give them space then we might be considered as ‘uncaring’ or having ‘low expectations’ of our kids. Some of us might be accused of both extremes at different times. What should we do then? Food – make sure they are eating well. Sleep –make sure they get at least a reasonable amount. Love –make sure we tell them. That’s all we can really do. As preparations begin for Year 13 to walk off one end of Secondary into their independent futures, so at the other end we are lowering the ramp for Year 6 students to climb aboard. We have already completed all of our Taster Days for Year 6 students, all of whom have spent a day in the Secondary School join-

class and around school over the last couple of weeks. The circle of school life continues….. Finally I would like to give a quick thank you to all of the Secondary (and some Primary) colleagues who have given up time to organise and lead student trips out of school this term. Since January we have run almost 40 visits including sports, MUN, the International Award, Mathematics, Biology and Geography, extended learning, CAS and CAT. Thank you also to the Business Staff team who ensure that these amazing opportunities can take place. Have a great weekend. Mick Smith, Principal, Secondary School

STOP Through STOP 's annual fashion show, our club is not only given the opportunity to spread awareness about the issue of human trafficking and exploitation in the fashion industry, but also able to promote responsible consumption and production of items in the fashion industry. Student designers collaborate with one another and produce lines from old and donated clothes. External sponsored lines only come from local stores who have full transparency in terms of who they employ and their supply chain. Furthermore, through our visits to local charities, such as The Well, which works to rehabilitate women who have been subjected to human exploitation by providing them with the necessary skills to find work and become independent, we are able to promote the reduction of inequalities. Many of the individuals going through The Well's rehabilitation program have children who require a temporary place to learn and de-

velop while their parents participate in the program. Members of STOP helped paint the school to make it more welcoming. Refugee Action project We held Human Rights Day with Amnesty, which links to most of the sustainable development goals such that we want people to have Zero Hunger, have the right to Quality Education, have Clean Water to drink and good Sanitation, have a Good Health and not live in Poverty. Moreover, we had the Christmas food drive which links to decreasing hunger as we provided a group of refugees with essential food. Patana Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) PAWS is an animal welfare group dedicated to improving the living standards and the treatment of animals in Thailand. This year we are focusing on soi dogs and supporting the Soi Dog Foundation To find out more, look out for our main display coming to the front of school very soon.

ast weekend, the brightest mathletes from Bangkok Patana were competing at SEAMC – South East Asia’s top competition for student mathematics. This year’s competition took place in Jakarta, hosted by the British School Jakarta. There was an individual round, as well as team events like the energiser, pass-back, group questions, a code-breaker and a mathematics trail. All of the students performed excellently, but particular commendation should go to Yuqing Wu who came second out of 240 students – the best ever performance from a Bangkok Patana student. She led her team to third place in the team round, the energiser round and also overall. Eighty teams from all over the region attended this event, so this represents an extraordinary achievement, easily the best that Bangkok Pat-

ana has achieved. This year also saw the inaugural SEAMC Plus competition, which is for students in Years 12 and 13. Having enjoyed great success at SEAMC in her younger years, it was no surprise to see Nucky Korprasertsri perform excellently again finishing sixth in an extremely competitive contest. Mr Mooring and Mrs Hughes would like to congratulate the following students for their outstanding achievement and exemplary conduct throughout this competition. Team Craft: Yuqing Wu (Year 11), Ann Kanchanasakdichai (Year 10), Prin Pulkes (Year 9) Team Work: Kenji Miyauchi (Year 10), Fresh

Pisuttisarun (Year 10), and Sho Ishizaki (Year 9) The Model Solutions: Nucky Korprasertsri (Year 13), Achu Balasubramanian (Year 13) and Poon Vichivanives (Year 12) Whilst these academic achievements are excellent and should be applauded, we are delighted at the response they have inspired in our students. Just 10 days after competing himself, Poon led a team of students who organised their own tournament for Key Stage 3 students within Bangkok International Schools. The team consisted of Philippe Ledoit, Narissa Birtwistle and Aaksh Ranjan, and visiting teachers were very impressed at their levels of organisation and question-writing. This is the second year that students at Bangkok Patana have hosted this competition, and we hope that this initiative will continue. We entered four teams of three students - Nata-

sha Leenabanchong, Jimmy Tran and David Kang; Odele Pang, Sonam Okuda and Ritvik Khurana; Puddy Boonkongchuen, Dol Manoleehakul and Mark Chan; Praewa Taylor, Tomi Bodwell Mamic and Pammy Leenabanchong. Congratulations to all who competed, the organisers, as well as David and

Last weekend ,our Under 13 FOBISIA team competed at Alice Smith School, Kuala Lumpur against other teams from across South East Asia. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with FOBISIA, the competition is between eight schools who go head to head competing in Athletics, Basketball, Football and Swimming. Below are interviews with two exceptional athletes who participated in basketball over the weekend leading both their teams to gold medals.

Girls’ Basketball- 1st Boys’ Basketball- 1st Girls’ Football- 1st Boys’ Football- 3rd Athletics- 2nd

(By 11 points, very close) Swimming- 1st

What is your favourite sport? Football

What is your favourite sport? Basketball

What was our best memory at FOBISIA? Playing basketball because we all played extremely well and came first.

What was our best memory at FOBISIA? Meeting new people, getting to compete and travel.

Who is your sporting idol? Marcus Rashford

Who is your sporting idol? Steph Curry

What life lessons have you learnt from playing sports? If you keep working hard it will lead to success.

What life lessons have you learnt from playing sports? Never give up, if the competition get stronger then I need to get stronger.

What is your spirit vegetable? Broccoli

What is your spirit vegetable? Tomato

SEASAC: A reminder to support our Varsity teams as they compete in SEASAC next weekend. Come along after or during school to cheer on our soft-ballers and Badminton players! ALSO DON’T MISS OUT ON OUR UNDER 15 SINGLES TENNIS TEAM COMPETING THIS WEEKEND AS WELL AS OUR Patana Tennis UNDER 15 TEAM TENNIS COMPETITION, NEXT WEEKEND.

Good luck to our FOBISIA golfers who are currently competing in Phuket. So far Conor has already won the 50 yard chipping competition and Password won the 30 foot competition! A big shout-out to Kellen for winning best dressed participant at the three point contest and Dorji for wining it.

Last week, the Under 9 Footballers competed in the Bangkok Patana Invitational Football Tournament where our boys won in pool A, with our BPS Black team finishing 4th. Tthe girls placed 3rd with the girls’ Black team placing 7th.

Congratulations to our gymnasts who took part in The Bangkok Gymnastics Moose Games over the weekend. A special mention to the boys’ team who won golds all round!

Congratulations to our Varsity Girls’ Badminton team who competed last weekend at NIST and placed 2nd only losing narrowly to the hosts!

AS GRADUATION APPROACHES, THE ATHLETICS COUNCIL WILL BE SAYING A WARM GOOD BYE TO THEIR BELOVED YEAR 13 MEMBERS AS WELL AS THEIR PRESIDENT, MARIE GUEST.

Follow our Instagram @ bps_athletics_council

A DDITIONALLY , THE A THLETICS COUNCIL HAS ELECTED A NEW PRESIDENT, MALACHI FRYE FROM YEAR 11 WHO IS EXCITED TO CONTINUE HIS PASSION FOR ATHLETICS AT BANGKOK PATANA.

BPSSPORTS

BPSSports Tiger Sports Patana Tennis

University / College

Representative

Location

Date

Time

Fordham University

Senior Studies, Second Floor

17.03.17