Patana News Volume 20 Issue 24 by Bangkok Patana School

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NEWS Patana

Friday 16th March 2018

Volume 20 Issue 24

www.patana.ac.th

The Importance of the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Rightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Environment Page 2

2017/18

Also in this issue

Smile Day - Smile and Sparkle / Reading Out Loud / Real Life Science in Year 9 16/03/2018

Bangkok Patana School News

Bangkok Patana is a not-for-profit IB World School, accredited by CIS, NEASC and ONESQA

The Importance of the ‘Right’ Environment Mick Smith, Secondary School Principal

t seems that everywhere I look right now, I am reminded of the importance of the best possible environment to enhance learning and our wellbeing. At Bangkok Patana we are very fortunate to work and study on an absolutely beautiful campus where simply crossing between lessons from one building to another can be a genuinely uplifting experience. On Monday, Mr Mills almost physically accosted me in sheer excitement. This isn’t an entirely unusual experience in itself, but on this occasion rather than talking about a brilliant lesson he’d seen or sharing a keen student insight, it was to ask me to come and admire the tree behind the Sala, that had burst into vibrant purple flower for the first time in ten years. Everyone who walked past looked in wonder at the glorious tree. Anyone who has spent any time in my office will know that I have the best view in the school –wall to wall glass

that gives me a spectacular outlook but is almost impossible to see in. I sometimes feel like I’m in a David Attenborough documentary as amazing wildlife passes by just beyond the glass. This week I’ve had my first 2018 sightings of a beautiful kingfisher darting in and out of a palm tree, sometimes over the heads of the students working in the community garden, hunting for fish. Most days I see monitor lizards climbing up and down trees or sunning themselves on the grass. Today, a very large one, well over a metre in length, appeared on the bank as though from nowhere. It’s a wonder I ever get anything done! Over the course of the last week I’ve experienced other aspects of our environment that make it ‘just right’ for our students and remind me how special Bangkok Patana is. A team of students, with very little guidance from staff, organised, promoted and ran a superb TEDx event around

Bangkok Patana School News

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“We are very fortunate to work and study on an absolutely beautiful campus where simply crossing between lessons from one building to another can be a genuinely uplifting experience.”

the topic of ‘Chances and Changes’. The Black Box provided the perfect backdrop to superb presentations by students, staff and an inspirational parent. I also dropped in on the first FOBISIA Climbing Competition at the climbing wall in the Sports Centre. I found it difficult to comprehend how students from Patana and around the region were able to contort and pull themselves up the wall at such alarming speed. Climbing was once quite ‘niche’ at Bangkok Patana, but through the vision and dedication of a number of teachers over the years, we are now in a position where students are able to develop and demonstrate their skills in the perfect setting. Enhancing the physical environment still further was a wonderful, supportive atmosphere amongst all the teams, encouraging each athlete to even greater feats and heights!

This leads me to the Waste Less Weeks initiative currently underway across the school. Mr Penstone, Cross Campus Principal, and his army of student and staff environmental advocates, have been sharing their vision for a less wasteful, more sustainable environment at Bangkok Patana and beyond. There are many aspects to the initiative and the students will reflect on this soon so I won’t steal their thunder. However, essentially they are asking us what small steps we can all take to protect the environment and challenging us to commit to them. From Water Bottle Wednesday to Turn It Off Thursday, we are encouraged to question how we can make practical, sustainable changes in our everyday lives. The SEC are doing a fantastic job and are having a real impact across the whole school.

Finally, the wider environment around Bangkok has been very much on all our minds in recent weeks, as we have suffered from poorer air quality than usual. A combination of low winds, high temperatures and even higher humidity has left Bangkok spluttering due to less than ideal air quality. Even though conditions are better out in leafy Bangna, we have been monitoring air quality closely and have taken the opportunity to review our policies and procedures and to enact them as appropriate. Please take time to look at the Air Quality Policy here which shows the different levels on the air quality index, the procedures that we follow and how we communicate with our community. If the air I could go on! Each day I walk along the English and Lan- quality index on any given day indicates an ‘Orange’ alert guages corridors where invariably students are clustered or worse this will be highlighted on the Parents’ Gateway in small study groups in the superb collaboration spaces. as the default ‘go to’ communication point. Crossing the bridge into Humanities or Mathematics I see Hopefully, the current air quality situation will soon imthe same thing. Cutting back through the Science Centre prove to enhance still further the wonderful learning enviinto the Library I see students learning both formally and in- ronment we enjoy here at school. formally in simply inspirational surroundings. The classroom Have a great weekend, where I support my Year 12 CAS students transforms into a student boardroom the second we leave, as it’s taken over Mick Smith, Secondary School Principal by the Student Environmental Committee (SEC).

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Reading Out Loud Stephen Murgatroyd, Primary Teacher Librarian

ow many of us, as parents, have read to our children from a very young age, often from birth? I suspect it could well be the great majority of us. However, how many of us continue to read with our children once they are confident (independent) readers themselves? I suspect the numbers are lower than we would imagine. In fact, a 2013 poll of 1,200 Australian parents reportedly found that 40 per cent of parents with toddlers or preschool children read to their children every day. However, this figure dropped to 23 per cent for early Primary children and 4 per cent for children aged between nine and 12. If Bangkok Patana School shared similar numbers, then that would mean a lot of children missing out on one of the most special gifts we, as parents, can give them.

discussing the wide variety of issues raised from within the pages. This alone is something that would make the continuation of the evening-time story reading routine from their younger years being kept on the family timetable.

Another aspect of reading out loud to children is that you can expose them to books that are beyond their age-related reading level and outside their comfort zone. Books that investigate new areas of interest, widen their vocabulary, introduces them to aspects of life they are unlikely to experience themselves, all of which helps and encourages them to become the true global citizens we want them to be. After all, reading, as a key part of their literary development is massively important. Back in 2016, the Director-General of UNESCO stated that, “Literacy is a foundation to build a We may all understand the importance of reading stories more sustainable future for all.” The world would indeed be to very young children so that they are exposed to new vocabulary and have the reading ‘modelled’ to them along with sharing new worlds and investigating and solving real (and out of this world) problems. How many of us, though, understand and appreciate the importance of reading to our children into their teens? Studies have shown that children and students retain more information, and also gain a greater understanding, when they hear someone read to them than when they read it quietly themselves. There is also the ‘specialness’ of being able to spend time together, sharing the ins and outs of the latest favourite book and

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a much better place if the children entering the adult realm to illustrate why reading out loud to children of whatever were widely read readers who read for the sheer pleasure age is a great thing to do, both for the child (or the teenager) and the parent. of picking up a book. I would like to finish with a quote from Mem Fox, the wellknown Australian children’s author, who says about young children on their first steps of their reading journey: “Read at least three stories a day: it may be the same story three times. Children need to hear a thousand stories before they can begin to learn to read. Or the same story a thousand times!” Now that is a whole lot of books, an enormous amount of time invested and a long time spent sharing special time together. Just like any investment you make, it is the long term you are looking at, so go on, take a risk and continue to do something that you and your children will If you are still not convinced about the power of reading both enjoy and benefit from long after you think they have out loud to your children as they grow, why not watch this grown out of it. Because, as the research suggests, there TEDx Youth Talk, by Rebecca Bellingham on YouTube. It is a actually is no such thing as growing out of story time, all wonderful talk that lasts nine and a half minutes and it helps you need is some time to spare and a good book to read.

“Children and students retain more information, and also gain a greater understanding, when they hear someone read to them than when they read it quietly themselves.”

R E M I N D E R TO

SWITCH OFF

YOUR ENGINE WHEN IN THE SCHOOL CAR PARK Please help us to protect the health of our students 16/03/2018

Bangkok Patana School News

Real Life Science in Year 9! Alexander (Coke) Smith, Head of Environmental Science

othing in science completely makes sense without real life, hands on experiential learning. Our Year 9 Science students are currently in the middle of their ‘Pilot Studies’ during which they investigate the effect of abiotic factors on a living organism.

Students are taught ethical treatment of organisms to ensure none are injured or killed during the investigations. Prior to starting students are expected to research various abiotic factors and how they might impact a biological organism. Students then design their investigations focusing on their variables and experimental design. Once they are cleared to go, they carry out their investigations, collect, process and present their data in the form of a detailed lab report. The Year 9 students are studying such factors as the effect of temperature, light intensity, light colour, music type and many other factors. They carry out their own individual investigations throughout and are expected to submit unique work. Here are some of my Year 9 students having fun with their investigations! 6

Bangkok Patana School News

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Sustainability and Global Citizenship

Alexander (Coke) Smith and Joel Lodge, Secondary Science Faculty ear 8 students are studying the concept of sustainability currently using the water crisis in Cape Town, South Africa as a case study and are learning this in conjunction with their compounds and mixtures topic of their syllabus. Students are learning that many places in the world are lacking clean water necessary for life and have learned about distillation, desalination, reverse osmosis and filtration and other purification techniques that many nations employ to create and maintain a viable water supply.

In class now, the Year 8s are designing and building their own water filters using recycled or repurposed materials. Students were challenged to think of their own unique independent variables that would possibly make their filter more effective than others’ in the class. They thought there should be a contest to determine the best filtration system design. Our students love this sort of hands on experiential learning experience!

Upcoming University Visits UNIVERSITY / COLLEGE

COUNTRY

Swiss School of Tourism and Hospitality (SSTH)

Switzerland Eilanne Januth

University of Exeter

School of the Art Institute of Chicago

University College Cork The University of Applied Sciences, Rotterdam University of Cambridge 16/03/2018

Ireland

REP

Christopher Dean Jackson Moore Gearoid McCarthy

Netherlands Hyam Falconi UK

LOCATION

DATE

TIME

Senior Studies, Second Floor

19.03.18