Patana News Volume 19 Issue 30

Patana

NEWS

Transitions

Page 2

PTG AGM Invitation / Gymnastics Junior SEASAC / Thank You from Rise Bangkok Patana is an IB World School, accredited by CIS and NEASC

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ow time flies at Bangkok Patana School! Last time I wrote in Patana News, I raised the subject of the ‘Circle of School Life’ as our Year 13 students were almost ready to start their final examinations while Year 6 were enjoying their first taster days of life in Secondary. Now, my daughter and her classmates have finished Year 13, the final exams are in the past and all that remains is to wait anxiously for their results in early July, and prepare for the wonderful celebration of Graduation in two weeks’ time.

I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade but this reminds me to share with you that late May traditionally heralds the beginning of ‘party season’ amongst international school students. Some schools, such as ISB break for summer at the end of May, and for those like Bangkok Patana, that are in session longer, there are many reasons for student parties, such as completion of IGCSE, other end of year exams and waving off friends leaving school in other Year groups. At this time of celebration, please continue to be vigilant; know where your children are, what kind of party they are attending, who organised it, whether alcohol will be available, if adults will be

present and so on. We host formal events such as Graduation and the Senior Prom, supervised by Bangkok Patana staff, but we have no role in ‘After Grad’ and ‘After Prom’ parties. Beware of the largescale celebratory events organised at different venues such as downtown clubs where much older adults may be able to mix with school-age children.

You all received two messages that I sent over the last couple of weeks regarding potential threats to our students’ safety in the form of substance misuse and ‘roof-topping’. I have received an enormous number of responses on these concerns from parents, and am grateful that our community takes

these threats to our students’ safety so seriously.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to write, ask questions, offer support or share more information. Working together we can do our very best to

ensure that our students are healthy and make good, safe choices.

Linked to this, we were delighted to welcome Tim Gerrish, our consultant on Student Safeguarding, back to school last week. Tim worked with different groups of staff across both business and academic sides of the school to ensure that we are all aware of our responsibilities towards the wellbeing of our students. This included key areas such as safe recruitment practices and crisis management, and supplemented ongoing training and awareness raising led

by Carol Battram, Primary Assistant Principal, and myself as part of the development of our new Student Safeguarding Policy this year.

Now, back to Year 6 who stand on the cusp of leaving the safe harbour of Primary where they are the biggest fish in the sea and venturing into the open waters of Secondary where they are the ‘tiddlers’ once again. Actually our Year 6 are already becoming very familiar with the Secondary School and in fact will be old hands by August, as they are spending the

kinds (including non-digital) to support their learning in Secondary. Tony Berghuis, Senior Teacher for Key Stage 3, Curriculum and Assessment, spoke on important aspects such as CEM testing, Home Learning and the range of new subjects our new Year 7s will encounter. Perhaps most importantly of all, the parents were able to meet the new Head of Year 7, our very own self-styled BFG, Mr Kristen Meadows. Kristen has tremendous experience as a Head of Year and will be making an exciting personal transition from guiding our oldest Year 13 students towards Graduation, to supporting our youngest students take their first steps in Secondary. There are many different challenges in these two roles but at their core, they are exactly the same in that they aim to advocate for, guide, protect and provide opportunities that enable our students to develop to their full potential. Mr Meadows may have to bend down MUCH further to look his new Year group in the eye but I know that he will relish working with them and their parents as they mature and grow in the years

last couple of weeks based in classrooms in the heart of Secondary as a knock-on effect of exciting new renovations in the Primary School to be unveiled in August. This week it was the turn of the parents of our Year 6 students to have their ‘Transition Morning’ as Lena Perriam, Senior Teacher for Key Stage 3 led them through what to expect in the months ahead. The morning began with a tour of Secondary led by Year 9 students who did a wonderful job of showing parents every nook and cranny including typical classrooms, the collaborative spaces, amazing Science and Design Technology Centres, as well as the Lounges, Noodle Bar, Canteen and of course the near mythical freezer with the ice creams!

Lena introduced Brian Taylor, Cross-Campus Technology Integrator, who spoke on digital citizenship and how Year 7 students will use technology of all

to come. Each speaker emphasised our key focus will be on simply helping our new students settle in to their new environment.

The common thread in all of this is that our number one priority at Bangkok Patana School is to do all that we can to protect, nurture, guide and challenge our students across the school. The Year 13 students are about to leave the ‘Patana’ nest, confident global citizens ready to fly solo at universities around the world. Year 6 are taking that first step towards greater independence as they move across campus and make the transition to the Secondary School.

Have a great weekend.

Mick Smith Principal, Secondary School

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ell done to our Junior SEASAC gymnasts who competed over Friday 12 th and Saturday 13th May. The highlight of the two days was hearing all the gymnasts repeatedly telling the coaches and myself that they were making personal bests each day. The Bangkok Patana gymnasts showed a great team bond and true Tiger spirit. The gymnasts also made plenty of new friends from other schools and showed impeccable sportsmanship, which derives from the same core values of being a Global Citizen. We are proud of our gymnasts as they have all worked hard consistently throughout the year and were delighted that they were able to celebrate the culmination of their success at the Junior SEASAC Gala Dinner—it was a party!

The Junior SEASAC results this year far exceeded the results from last year!

Bangkok Patana won the most team awards out of all the schools, taking home four trophies: Level 3 Junior 2nd Level 3 Senior 3rd Level 4 Junior 2nd Level 4 Senior 1st

Emily Cannon Evelyn Cannon

2nd Individual Overall Level 3 Juniors 2nd Individual Overall Level 4 Senior

For the individual medals Bangkok Patana gymnasts won 11 medals, the second highest after NIST. The level 3 and 4 girls were able to outshine the gymnasts from UWCE and Tanglin this year.

Emily Cannon 2nd Vault, 2nd Uneven bars, 3rd Floor Elsie Griffiths 3rd Vault Tayla Gahagan 3rd Uneven bars

Jennifer Greenbank Hannah Donahoe Evelyn Cannon

Ava Asavanarunat Nyasha Manda

2nd Balance Beam 3rd Floor 1st Vault 1st Uneven Bars 3rd Vault 3rd Floor

A huge thank you to all the parents for supporting the gymnasts and coaches both at practice and at all the competitions throughout the year.

We look forward to carry forward this success and momentum to build and even more exciting and stronger gymnastics programme next academic year!

For photos of the event please click here.

S

vari (Teya) Tejacharoenanan from Year 2 has won her third award this school year. Teya took first prize for piano at the 2017 London Grand Prize Virtuoso in the Young Musician category. She was selected and invited to perform at the Elgar Room within the prestigious Royal Albert Hall in London on 12th April 2017. The musical piece Teya played was Sonatina Op. 36 No. 3 by Muzio Clementi. It was quite a challenge for her as it is a long, advanced piece. Teya performed wonderfully and was very proud of her achievement.

Congratulations Teya from the Bangkok Patana community!

University / College

Representative

Location

University of Leeds

-

Senior Studies, Second Floor

Date

Time

29.05.17

12:15

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e continue this week with a look at more of the individual CATs and how they link to the SDGs One SDG that Interact focused on this year is #4 Quality Education. During their annual Art Relief Trip, where they collaborate with Art Relief International, the Interact team went to three different schools to enrich children's lives through art activities and donate equipment and stationery. A second SGD that Interact focused on this year is #17 Forming Partnerships for the Goals by collaborating with Art Relief International during the trip. Interact also formed partnerships with RISE with the annual Patana auction. This allowed us to share resources and ideas more efficiently. With Art Relief International, they guided us and showed us ways to grow. With RISE, we gave them a chance to express their goals with us. In both instances, we were privileged to have these experiences.

Smile Club believe that the main sustainable development goal that links to their activities is #3 Good health and wellbeing. Ultimately, Smile Club's goal is to provide health care and treatment to those who are in need, but are not in economic positions to do so. We cover the cost of cleft lip palate operations for children.

Refugee Action Project is a new CAT. They collaborated with Amnesty for Human Rights Day which links to most of the sustainable development goals such that we want people to be fed (Zero Hunger), have the right to education (Quality Education), have clean water to drink (Clean water and sanitation), have a good health (Good health and wellbeing) and not live in poverty (Zero poverty).

Dear Patana Parents and Academic Staff,

Notice of the upcoming 2017 PTG AGM I would like to notify you of the upcoming Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Bangkok Patana School’s Parent Teacher Group (PTG) which is to be held on Tuesday 30th May 2017 in the Sports Hall, Room SPH-201, from 8:45am to 9:45am. Refreshments will be provided. For AGM business to be valid, we require a quorum of 25 parents to be present at the meeting.

PTG membership is automatically held by any parent or guardian with a child or children attending Bangkok Patana School and any member of academic staff.

At the AGM, the PTG Committee will review its activities over the 2016/17 year, including their annual accounts. The financial position of the PTG will be discussed, and the total PTG budget for 2017/18 will be decided at the AGM. How the budget is allocated however is the decision of the incoming committee.

We will also be electing new representatives for the 2017/18 PTG Committee at this meeting. The PTG would not exist nor be able to carry out its important duties without the wonderful support of it's many parent volunteers. We are still looking for Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer roles. I strongly encourage you to consider volunteering. If you would like to nominate for a position on the 2017/18 PTG Committee, please send email ptg@patana.ac.th. Please visit the PTG Firefly page for more information.

We would love you to join us for this important meeting. If you are unable to attend the AGM, you can nominate a PTG member as your proxy in order to have a quorum of members to vote in the new committee.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact myself, an existing PTG member, or email ptg@patana.ac.th. I look forward to seeing you at our 2017 PTG AGM! Kind regards, Anthony Chang Acting PTG Chairperson

#60 Parenting in a Digital World Workshop

Date: Tuesday June 13th 2017 Time: 8:00 - 9:30am Location: Primary Hall I would like to take this opportunity to give you advanced notice of a hands-on workshop for Secondary parents. The items we will be discussing, sharing advice on and supporting with, are listed below: - screen time and multitasking - gaming and other digital distractions - inappropriate content, contact, conduct - difficult conversations and family media contracts There’s an opportunity to suggest content for the meeting when you complete the RSVP here.

Brian Taylor, Assistant Principal, Campus Curriculum Technology Integration

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re you available to help with the PTG Bus Inspections? Every year the school buses that are over six years old undergo an additional inspection by the school and we invite parents to join and take part in these inspections. This is a very important but simple job that helps ensure the safety of the children using the school buses. This year the inspections are taking place on Tuesday 6th June from 8:00am – 10:00am and we would like to ask for your help in completing these - especially from those parents whose children use the school Transport Service. If you are able to help please contact Khun Pa in the Services Department phca@patana.ac.th to confirm that you are able to assist. A check list is provided to help with the task and further details will be provided.

The process of Annual Bus Checks by parents has been in place since Bangkok Patana has been running the bus service. It enables parents to comment on and be aware of the safety of the older buses. This is a check that could easily be done by the school but many years ago parents wanted to be involved in these checks to ensure the safety of their children travelling on these buses and it is nice to see the school and parents working together on this important aspect.

All buses that are contracted to drive for school undergo a number of safety checks and the PTG inspection gives parents the opportunity to look at the internal and external areas of the buses over six years old and check areas such indicators, seat belts, quality of the interior of the bus etc. We do not use buses that are over 12 years old for our Transport Service.

The school buses are also required to visit a garage that we select at the start of the school year for a full service and safety check. All buses must pass this inspection to enable them to work for us. We also do internal inspections by senior staff in our Transport Department as well as spot checks throughout the year.

A checklist is provided by the Transport staff and any recommendations by parents will be looked at and buses will be asked to improve certain areas. We are often asked why these checks are done at the end of the school year. The reason is that in approximately 4 - 6 weeks time we will be looking to renew contracts of buses for the 2017/18 school year and if any buses over six years are not up to our high standard they will be notified and given time to improve or look for alternative work.

If you have any questions in relation to the PTG Bus Inspections please contact Genevieve Ahl, Services Manager geah@patana.ac.th

Contact Us The Transport Department’s direct phone number is 02 785 2470. The office is staffed from 6:00am - 6:00pm Monday to Friday. You can also contact us via email at transport@patana.ac.th

Invoices for school fees for Term 1 2017/18 were sent to families/companies on Thursday 11th May 2017. If you have not received your invoice please contact the Accounting Department or email accounts@patana.ac.th Please note that the due date for settlement is on Friday 9th June 2017 and payments received after this date will be subject to a late payment charge of 1% per month.

Thank you, Accounting Department

You can also have a look at the current lost property via our website: https://community.patana.ac.th/community-events/lost-property or scan the QR code Please note that all remaining unclaimed lost property will be donated to charity.

Contact Reception@patana.ac.th or call 02/785.2201 (Benedicte)

26th May

30th May 8:00—8:30am

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643 Lasalle Road (Sukhumvit 105) Bangna, Bangkok 10260. THAILAND Tel: +66 (0) 2785 2200 Fax: +66 (0) 2785 2399 www.patana.ac.th Email: reception@patana.ac.th