Patana News Volume 19 Issue 34

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

NEWS Patana

Friday 16th June 2017

Volume 19 Issue 34

www.patana.ac.th

Celebrations and Farewells In the Head of School’s Monthly Blog Page 2

Also in this issue Long Service Awards

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2017/18

Snack Bar Standards / Primary Music Awards Bangkok Patana School News

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

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Celebrating 60 years!

It really has been a school community celebration this year as Bangkok Patana School. We had the privilege of hosting her Royal visited the school in November, we had an amazing 60th birthday May 15th with commemorative chocolates and we had a community certainly has been a memorable year that is for sure. Many people the organisational lead and it has been a complete collaborative gone incredibly successfully and have been highly valued by the

we reached the 60-year milestone at Highness Princess Sirindhorn when she party, celebrated our official first day on sprit Tiger Exhibition in our Arts Centre. It within the school at different times took effort. All of the major celebrations have extended school community.

The Power of Positive Parent Talk I keep stating in lots of my speeches and discussions with the parent community that a successful school is one that works with parents and students in partnership. A Bangkok Patana teacher shared this wonderful BBC article on the power of parent conversations and I thought I would share it with you as it is an excellent read and so true.

Put on your Helmet Most of you that know me quite well will have heard me going on and on about the importance of saving our valuable brains by putting on head protection whenever getting on a bicycle or motorbike. I still see so many people hopping onto a motorbike not wearing a safety helmet here in Bangkok and it concerns me greatly.

The bottom line is that, on average, 15 people die every day in motorbike accidents in Thailand, which equates to approximately 5500 motorcycle related deaths per year. The article here highlights how dangerous it is and helmets do save lives.

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Bangkok Patana School News

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Farewells and Reflections As the academic year concludes, I am delighted to take some time to reflect on another great year at Bangkok Patana School.

At Bangkok Patana, all students are encouraged to strive for personal achievement in the context of a supportive, empowering environment. Our aim is to enable our students to become productive Global Citizens who appreciate the importance of service, leadership and traditional values in a rapidly changing world.

We are very pleased with our academic results over the years and have a high expectation that our exam results will be stronger than ever this academic year. Over the past 11 months I have observed; confident polite students who are at ease in wanting to question to improve understanding, strong music and drama performances both solo and in groups, great displays of sportsmanship and high success rates in sporting competitions both at home and away, amazing visual art shows that are unique and thought provoking, a huge array of ECA’s on offer that are geared for high student motivation, strong debating skills at the MUN’s, increasing numbers of students attaining their Gold International Award encapsulating outdoor education and numerous examples of successful student-led service projects. All of these student successes are brilliantly showcased in the 2017 Yearbook, which is being published as I write this account. Many thanks to our editors Cheryl Rego and Rebecca Meadows who have spent hours putting together this year’s compilation. Our resident photographers Khun Rooth and Khun Pook have done a splendid job taking thousands of photos of our students in action over the past year.

I would like to thank each and every teacher and staff member for their professional dedication in helping guide our students to reach their full potential. I have been extremely pleased with the quality of teacher instruction that I have observed during the academic year supporting our learners.

As usual being an international school, we have a number of students and families leaving us this year and we want to wish all of them the very best for their future whereever they are moving to around the globe. Please stay in contact with us as we are keen to stay in touch and welcome you to our worldwide Alumni network – please take a moment to register on http://alumni.patana.ac.th/ to receive the latest news and reunion invitations.

We have a number of teachers leaving us this year as we do every year and we want to wish them all the very best as they move on to new positions around the world.

On behalf of Jason Cooper, James Penstone, Mick Smith and myself, we would like to wish all of our Bangkok Patana community a wonderful, safe summer holiday and we look forward to welcoming you all back to school on Wednesday 16th August.

Enjoy your last weekend before the summer holidays!

Matt Mills Head of School

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Bangkok Patana School News

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Long Service A wards

Charuwan Leanglam Kanyapassorn Nimpatcharawut Business Business

Somsak Preetiyathorn Business

Pongsri Rungruengcharoenkul Canteen

Lisa Cody-Sehmar Primary

Richard Smith Secondary

Yadong Wu Secondary

Somchai Mayman Business

Pranee Waisara Primary

Rosarin Vattanaput Primary

Jackie Houghton Cross Campus

Duangporn Turongratanachai Business

Congratulations 4

Patama Chutima Business

Bangkok Patana School News

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Primary Music Awards Rachel Stead, Leader of Learning, Music

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t last week’s wonderful Patana Primary concert a number of students were recognised for their contributuion to Primary music. Presented by Primary Principal Mr Jason Cooper, the awards are effort based and the criteria are: • The student consistently shows evidence of having worked on their words, singing parts or ensemble parts at home.

• They have made consistent progress through the year.

• They have all contributed wholeheartedly to their ensembles, trying their best during rehearsals and often helping the others around them.

• They have always displayed a positive attitude to their ensemble.

Congratulations to...

Year 1 / 2 Choir Arjun Bendix, 1M Sanaa Sachdev, 2A

Year 4 Choir Rose Darby, 4E Monty Newman, 4L

Year 3 Choir Honey Standing, 3B Waew Techajareonvikul, 3N

Year 5 Choir Ayano Inaba, 5H Niamh Smith, 5H

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Bangkok Patana School News

Year 6 Choir Pia Ruckenbauer, 6S Puckni Bhengsri, 6R

Primary Strings Sharnipa (Pa) Tantiponganant, 6A Athena Lin, 5C 5

CATs Corner Tania Leyland, Community Services Coordinator

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his will be the last CATs Corner for this academic year and what a year it has been! The teams are completing their final activities and signing off their donations, ready to start with a clean slate in August. “Interact's first collaboration with the Mercy Center today was a big success and well received by the Mercy Center staff and children. The cookie decorating activity, which Interact organised, began at 13:00 and went on over time until 14:15. Approximately 55 children participated and made very creative cookie concoctions and seemed to be enjoying themselves.

I received very positive feedback from a Mercy Center organiser, who said this creative activity really enhanced their visit to Bangkok Patana School and looked forward to future collaboration with Interact through arts and crafts activities. Mercy Center board members were also pleased with our involvement, as organizing a days worth for over 50 children can be challenging for their group alone to organise.�

Aya Kraeuchi - Interact Co-President

SMILE have had an amazing year of fundraising and have made a donation of 60,000 baht to Operation Smile. The funds will contribute to the cost of the operations for children with Cleft Lip Palate. The team will be visiting Mae Sot in November to spend time with the children during the pre-op and recovery stages. This is such a wonderful opportunity for students to see the real impact of their efforts and gain a better sense of their impact on the lives of others.

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Bangkok Patana School News

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#62 Roblox and Parenting in a Digital World A popular gaming site for our students is called Roblox. They tell us how much they enjoy the different games and levels within it. As a parent you need to know about it, and this blog post explains a bit about Roblox, what to be aware of and offers top tips on how to ensure your child stays safe when using it.

Many thanks to all of the parents that took time out on Tuesday morning to participate in the workshop on Parenting in a Digital World. If you could not make it then the presentation can be found on the Parents’ Dashboard and directly on this link. There will be another workshop in Term 1 of the next academic year, so please keep an eye on the regular communication channels for more information.

Have a wonderful tech-balanced holiday!

Brian Taylor Assistant Principal, Campus Curriculum Technology Integration

School Shop Opening times during the School Holidays The School Shop will be closed from Monday 3rd – Monday 31st July 2017. It will reopen on Tuesday 1st August.

To beat the queues in August, you can buy your uniforms for the next school year now.

Please see Khun Duang or Khun Ying in the School Shop who will help you select what you need.

Please note that the Post Office service within the School Shop will be closed from Monday 26th July until Thursday 31st August and will reopen on Friday 1st September 2017.

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Bangkok Patana School News

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Sport around school in the penultimate week

10 Individual and 12 relay school record were broken on Saturday at a Last Chance Record Breakers event put on by the coaches for the TigerSharks.

Our Gymnastics team enjoy their end of year party!!!

Keep up with the action...

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Mr. Tyers’ inspirational speech to the Primary Teachers before their game against the Secondary Teachers.

@bps_athletics _council

@BPSSPORTS

@BPSSPORTS

Tiger Sports Teams

Bangkok Patana School News

coming up

SUMMER!

Make sure you stay in shape with some of our “Workout of the Week” posts posted on our Instagram page every week!!

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BANGKOK PATANA SCHOOL SNACK BAR STANDARDS

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his academic year, we have been working on improving the school’s Food Service provision and identifying ways to overcome the many challenges we face. We have been looking at ways to maintain our aim of offering healthy options that students want to eat.

One of the areas we have focused on has been our Smoothie Bar and Snack Bars. We have developed a set of standards whereby all items for sale in the Smoothie or Snack Bar will be assessed and the item/s must fall within a certain standard in order for us to offer the item to our students. These are nutrient-based assessments with an aim to establish a healthy school environment. All items for sale in our school Snack Bars will be assessed to meet our Bangkok Patana Snack Bar Standards before being approved to sell in school. Our standards will make healthy choices easy choices.

Many studies and literature reviews are embodied in the standards and the model of a traffic light system will be implemented to make the Snack Bar 16/06/2017

Standards easier to understand. These standards were discussed with Senior Management and the student body in both Primary and Secondary where the large majority were in agreement with the principles. From the helpful feedback we made some amendments to the standards.

Students, staff and parents will notice that some items will be removed from the Snack Bars next term and our in-house bakery and kitchen will continue to improve the quality of food to make sure there are appropriate choices for students. You will also see some new items available and we hope you will enjoy these options. Students have been asked for suggestions of what they would like to see in the Snack Bars and we always welcome your comments and feedback. You can e-mail Khun Prim at jibo@ patana.ac.th Read the Bangkok Patana School Snack Bar Standards here.

Jiraprapa (Prim) Boonpan, School Nutritionist

Bangkok Patana School News

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Transport Corner Weekly news from the Transport Department • Please note that all students will be put on their default bus for the last week of school. Students from Year 3 and above can view their bus number by looking on their dashboard and clicking on ‘Transport Information’. Parents can also view the new bus numbers via the Parents Gateway.

• If your child will not be in school for any day next week please remember to cancel their bus to and from school.

• Don’t forget that if you will be moving house before the start of the new school year please inform Transport well in advance to ensure that your new pick up point can be accommodated.

• If you would like your child to join the Transport Service or would like to make any changes to your child’s current transport arrangements for 2017/18 please contact transport@patana.ac.th by Friday 23rd June.

• Did you know that over the holiday whilst there are no students here, the Transport staff will be in school getting everything ready for the new academic year. Some of the tasks they will be doing include; * Ensuring all school buses are checked by an independent garage * Arranging for all bus monitors and bus drivers to have a medical check * Providing a training day for all bus drivers and bus monitors * Preparing contracts with all bus owners * Recruiting new bus drivers and bus monitors for 2017/18 * Routing almost 200 buses to accommodate over 1100 students * Bus drivers and bus monitors will have the opportunity to select their route for the new school year * Preparing letters to all transport users and the new Transport Guideline booklet to be ready to be delivered to all families. * Organising the trial run that is scheduled for 11th August where all drivers along with the bus monitor will drive their morning route to ensure they know where they are going on the first day of school * Processing all new enrolments and adjusting buses to suit the combination of students wanting transport ...and many more tasks!

The Transport Team would like to wish everyone happy holidays and we look forward to welcoming all our returning students back in August.

C ontact 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

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Bangkok Patana School News

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Changes to Car Parking 2017/18

As you are aware, starting with the 2017/18 academic year our Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 students will finish at the same time as the rest of the school. To accommodate the additional school buses and private cars leaving at 2:30pm we have made changes to the parking arrangements: * Nursery and Foundation Stage parents and School Buses will be given priority and will be using additional areas of the car park. * ONLY cars with Foundation Stage Car Park passes will be permitted to park in the Foundation Stage Car park until 3:00pm daily. * Parents with children in Nursery will be given a Nursery Car Park Pass to allow parking close to the new Nursery Building. * The Arts Centre car park will be used for school buses. * All other cars will be required to use the Drop Off / Pick Up Zone or the car park across the road at the Sports Complex. No cars can be left unattended in the Drop Off Zone, this area is not a parking area; parking will be at the Sports Complex.

Please plan ahead for potential traffic congestion and allow extra time, especially in the first two weeks of school and until the ECA programme commences.

Primary School Lunch 2017/18

Canteen lunch for all Primary Students is now included in the Tuition Fee for 2017/18 and therefore all students have access to the Primary Canteen buffet. Students wishing to bring their own lunch may continue to do so but can also choose any items from the buffet to complement their own meal if they wish. Please remember that all parents are welcome to eat in the canteens at any time to see what is on offer, just pay with your Patana Card.

Did you know that there have been some new menu items recently, as voted for by the students? Did your child try the new dishes this week?

Position Available: Home Language French Teacher

Role The French community at Bangkok Patana is looking for an experienced French teacher to deliver the French Home Language Programme to Primary aged children. The sessions will take place twice a week during the Extra-curricular Activities Programme (ECA) 14:30—16:30.

Qualifications • Bachelor’s degree plus a recognised teaching qualification.

• Experience of teaching CP and CM2 is advantageous and familiarity with DELF PRIM beneficial.

Application If you would like to know more about the role please email Madame Peppard at jepe@patana.ac.th If you are interested in applying please send a CV and letter of application to Ms Houghton at jaho@patana. ac.th

Fulfil your potential with Bangkok Patana School Visit our website www.patana.ac.th

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Bangkok Patana School News

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Community

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Bangkok Patana School News

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Community

ANAPANA MEDITATION

COURSE FOR STUDENTS

Anapana (Mindfulness of breathing) teaches students 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, but also for everyday life.

The next Anapana course will be given on Sunday 18th June for students aged between 8-16 years.The course is completely free!

To enrol, please contact Eva Sophonpanich at evasophon@hotmail.com for all further information.

You may also find this site useful: www.children.dhamma.org/en/children/about-meditation.shtml

Thai Craft Fair 16/06/2017

Saturday 17th June 10am - 3pm Jasmine City Building - L floor Sukhumvit Soi 23

BTS Asoke station EXIT 3/MRT Sukhumvit station EXIT2

Bangkok Patana School News

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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, Bangkok 10260. THAILAND Tel: +66 (0) 2785 2200 Fax: +66 (0) 2785 2399 www.patana.ac.th Email: reception@patana.ac.th 14

Bangkok Patana School News

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