Patana News Volume 21 Issue 9

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 12th October 2018

Volume 21 Issue 9

www.patana.ac.th

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL LEARNING: WHY IT IS ESSENTIAL FOR SUCCESSFUL STUDENT OUTCOMES Page 2 Also in this issue...

Tribute to the Late King 12/10/2018

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Triumph Motorcycles

/ ESS: A Whale of a Good Time

Bangkok Patana School News

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

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WHAT IS CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL LEARNING (CPL) FOR TEACHERS AND WHY IS IT ESSENTIAL FOR SUCCESSFUL STUDENT OUTCOMES?

Katherine Hume, Cross Campus Assistant Principal, Continuous Professional Learning

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eaningful teacher professional learning is not just a buzzword or a tick box, it is a critical component to the success of everyone at Bangkok Patana School: students, teachers, parents and leaders alike. When teachers receive professional learning that is exciting, innovative, relevant and practical, they grow and become the best hope our students have for success.

Access to effective CPL encourages teachers to be more confident, motivated and inspired, giving them the reward of greater professional satisfaction, therefore, it follows that the more colleagues who feel this way, the greater the positive impact will be on the ethos and success of our school. The use of CPL can encourage and promote a learning culture with staff helping to exemplify to students that learning is a valuable, enjoyable, lifelong activity. A more fulfilled workforce can also have a positive impact on staff commitment and retention as people feel valued and invested in. Rachel Ells calls this ‘collective teacher efficacy’ and Professor John Hattie ranks collective teacher efficacy as number one in his analysis of effect size on student outcomes.

provide direction and support, but also trust their staff and encourage creativity, innovation and a degree of risk-taking.

Evidence shows that the most effective CPL is that which is:

• Personalised – i.e. built on the teacher’s identified needs and requirements rather than a ‘one size fits all’ approach.

• Relevant – relates to teachers pedagogy and/ or subject specialism and the needs of their learners.

• Sustained – New skills and ideas need time to take hold; experimentation and refinement is the best way to embed new ideas into classroom practice.

• Supported – by coaching or mentoring from experienced colleagues, either from within or from outside the school.

• Collaborative – while teaching could be seen as a solitary profession, collaboration with fellow teachers and colleagues has been identified as one of the In education, research has shown that teaching qualimost relevant features required for effective teacher ty and school leadership are the most important factors learning. in raising student achievement. For teachers and school leaders to be as effective as possible, they continually As a school and community, we understand the imporexpand their knowledge and skills to implement the best tance of investing in and offering a wide and varied range educational practices. Continuous professional learning of pathways for academic staff, at all levels, to access CPL is the strategy we use at Bangkok Patana to ensure that opportunities. Some examples of these are: all academic staff continue to strengthen their practice • Training courses and workshops – internally and throughout their career. A recurring theme in educational externally research is the need to create a culture of trust and chal• Studying for a qualification or accreditation lenge in schools to enable professional learning of teach• Online courses/webinars/podcasts ers to prosper. In the most successful schools, the leaders • Teacher Learning Communities (TLCs) 2

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• Peer observations and learning walks • Shadowing colleagues • Mentoring /coaching • Peer group exchange - JAWS (Job A Like Workshops) • Visiting other schools • Attending conferences • Self-reflection, personal reading or research • Employing a Teaching and Learning Advisor and a Leader of Excellence in Teaching and Learning To give you a snapshot of the varied CPL opportunities we provide for our academic staff, here is a brief round-up of what we have facilitated since the start of the academic year:

Patana to facilitate and lead CPL opportunities for staff this term. To support our school development focus of Science in the Primary School, we recently welcomed Ruben Meerman, ‘The Surfing Scientist’, who worked with our Primary Leaders of Learning and Curriculum and Science Advocates looking how we engage children with science and how we deepen their learning experience and help them to make connections. Ruben also spent time with the Secondary Science Faculty demonstrating how to use and handle liquid nitrogen safely so that our teachers have the confidence to use it with students in the curriculum.

“OUR GREATEST RESOURCE IS OUR

Throughout this first term, we have offered 32 Learning TEACHERS AND THEIR MOST PRECIOUS 4 Learners (L4L) sessions, which have been attended by RESOURCE IS THEIR TIME; IT IS COMMON nearly 500 colleagues. These are our own in-house CPL SENSE, THEN, THAT WE MUST GIVE OUR workshops delivered by our staff for our staff. Sharing the range and depth of expertise we have available to us at GREATEST RESOURCE THE TIME TO LEARN TO Bangkok Patana, the L4L sessions this term have varied BECOME EVEN BETTER TEACHERS.” from ‘Social Thinking’ for our Primary teams, and ‘HanJOHN TOMSETT dling Difficult Conversations’ for our new Middle Leaders, More recently, the IOE (Institute of Education) from Unito a ‘Gender Socialisation’ session presented by a Year 13 student. In the Secondary School, we have seven TLC’s versity College London facilitated two leadership courses (teacher learning communities) established which involve – Facilitator Training and Early/Developing Leadership.

The participants in these courses ranged from senior leadnearly 60 members of staff learning collaboratively.

We have supported 51 external CPL opportunities, ers to colleagues who are new to leadership or aspiring where staff have access to expertise through courses and leaders. training throughout the SE Asia region. For example, the whole Primary PE team attended the FOBISIA Heads of PE Conference here in Bangkok, Leaders of Learning from both the Primary and Secondary MFL teams participated in the World Languages JAWS in Kuala Lumpar and teachers from both the Secondary Design and Technology and Mathematics departments recently attended the International STEM conference in Singapore.

During the upcoming Academic CPL days on Thursday 18th and Friday 19th October, Ben Walden will be joining us. He will be inspiring and motivating all of our academic staff around the key focus of ‘Inspirational Leadership’, set in the context of the Shakespearean play Henry V. Ben talks about inspirational leadership at every level of school life and how we can achieve and sustain this.

As a community, we have a responsibility to ensure that academic staff at all levels within the school engage in continuous professional learning and apply that learning to ensure beneficial outcomes for our students. By advocating for, and investing in CPL opportunities for our teachers, we are ensuring a successful education experience for every child in our community.

John Dewey reminds us about the importance of this role: “What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all of its children.”

Therefore, just as we want the focus for our students to be on learning so we need the same for our staff.

Several educational experts have visited Bangkok

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COMMUNITY SERVICE TRIBUTE TO THE LATE KING

Dr Surapee Sorajjakool, Head of Thai Programme

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n remembrance of the passing of the Late King Bhumibol on 13th October 2016, the Thai Department together with the school’s Ror Dor students organised community service on 11th October 2018 at Veteran General Hospitals and Pramongkutklao Hospital in appreciation to the late King. At the hospitals, the students presented soldiers with gifts including cakes and money. The Ror Dor students also spent time talking with, and listening to, the experiences of the soldiers who were injured in the line of duty. Through this valuable experience, the participating students have broadened their perspectives on life and paid tribute to the late King.

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MATCH REPORTS

VARSITY GIRLS’ VOLLEYBALL Lucy Thompson, Year 12 he BISAC Girls’ Varsity Volleyball tournament was played last Sunday at NIST and proved to be an intense day full of excitement, disappointment, lots of cheering, but mostly great teamwork.

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second set. This proved a motivating factor for us and we took the set 26-24. Fatigue then set in and unfortunately we lost the next two sets.

Our third and final game against Shrewsbury was our We started the day off by playing ICS and winning the glory moment. After careless errors in the first set we found first set. Expectations were high but ICS took the next set. our rhythm and won the second. The third set was the one However we fought back to win the third. ICS took the where we pulled out all the stops. After being 10 points fourth set and it came down to the tie-breaker fifth set. down at one stage we rose to 18-23 and then took the Unfortunately, after an intense two and a half hours on next seven points to win 25-23, and continued to take the fourth set resulting in a 3-1 victory. court we lost 15-9.

Overall we came fifth in the tournament and hope to Our next match was against NIST and despite only having a very short rest break, we rose to the challenge and improve on our performance at the upcoming SEASAC in battled as a team. Although we lost the first set, we fought Yangon in November. Huge thanks to Coach Jang and back and forced NIST to call a time-out at 24-24 in the the many supporters who came out to cheer us on.

JUNIOR VARSITY GIRLS’ FOOTBALL

Natalie James, Year 8 he Junior Varsity Girls’ Football team scored another win away against Harrow The first goal was a brilliant team goal with lots of passing that lead to Enya to score. Early in the second half of the match, Enya also scored a fine individual goal. Despite a late goal from Harrow, the Tigers held on until the final whistle, winning 2-1. We had the sweet taste of victory along with some Haribo on the long journey home. We are now top of the league with just one more game to go!

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TO BE FEATURED, SUBMIT YOUR MATCH REPORT TO COACH CINDY 12/10/2018

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ESS: HAVING A WHALE OF A GOOD TIME!

Alexander (Coke) Smith, Environmental Systems and Societies Leader

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s a teacher, I cannot think of a better way to learn about animals than to visit them in their natural habitat and have first-hand encounters with them. This is what our Year 13 Environmental Systems and Societies students did this year for their IB field experience. Last Wednesday, 18 Senior students left school bright and early to meet our vessel at Krua Baan Pramong Village, which is located in Bangkok.

massive impact that plastic is having on our marine ecosystems: garbage patches were a constant sight on our journey.

After about an hour and a half of searching the gulf for signs of spray, we finally came across a mother and her new-born calf. This was a moment of great excitement for our students who were amazed at how close the massive animals came to our vessel and how much time we were From there, we sailed directly in to the Gulf of Thailand able to spend with the pair. The new born calf was deterin search of members of Thailand’s own endemic group of mined to be a very new addition to the Gulf of Thailand Bryde’s (pronounced “Brooda”) whales (soon to be clas- population, bringing the total to 68 in all. Students were sified as a new species – Eden’s Whale). Luckily, we were teamed up with Khun “Tour” Ekkul, owner and operator of Wild Encounters Thailand, otherwise we might as well have been searching for 10m-long needles in a very large haystack!

While searching for our target species, students learned about cetacean ecology, natural history and evolution.

They also learned about marine and coastal marine ecology and many of the human impacts that are currently threatening these very fragile ecosystems. Plastics and its impacts were a particularly important part of the lesson.

And sadly, while in the gulf, students saw first-hand the 6

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very impressed to be part of a moment of scientific discov- rience in my whole life.” It really is a teacher’s dream to ery as they were the first people to see and document the hear their kids say such a thing. new family member.

For more information on the whale watching experience, Not wanting to disrupt the pair’s feeding behaviour, we contact Khun Jirayu “Tour” Ekkul via the Wild Encounters continued our voyage in search of others. In very short Thailand Facebook page here. order we came across at least six other whales engaged To see and read more exciting wildlife expedition stoin all sorts of behaviours such as general play, hunting for ries, visit Mr Smith’s personal travel/photo blog, www. shoals of fish and plankton, mating and various feeding cokesmithphototravel.com, to see tales from all seven activities. Perhaps one of the most unique, even surreal ex- continents and many of the world’s most wild places. periences was when we broke for lunch and all six whales were feeding themselves. While we feasted on delicious Thai food, our cetacean companions were all around us, beside us and often directly under us, feasting on their own lunch of anchovies. I could not have imagined a better more authentic experiences for my students.

This is no doubt an experience that our students will never forget. As a teacher, I was very satisfied watching my, at times hard-to-impress, Year 13s bounce from one end of the boat to the other, with cameras and smart phones in hand, exclaiming how amazing it was to see so many whales so close and doing so many different things. I think the most memorable quote I heard that day from one of my students was, “I think this was the most amazing expe12/10/2018

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PARENTAL ENGAGEMENT IN KEY STAGE 3 Tony Berghuis, Senior Teacher, Key Stage 3 (Curriculum and Assessment)

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ohn Hattie is an educational researcher whose work (among that of other “cutting edge” researchers) has influenced educational thinking at Bangkok Patana over the past several years. He came to worldwide attention through his books on “visible learning” and the “effect sizes” of a range of influences on student learning. His conclusions were based on a synthesis on over 800 meta-studies covering more than 80 million students from around the world. His work has become widely influential in educational discourse since it was first published in 2008, and is well worth considering when reflecting on our own practices in Key Stage 3 with regards to further enhancing student learning.

points for reflection, what are the implications for us?

Firstly, and to set the wider scene a little, we seem to be living in an increasingly transient and fast-paced world.

It’s hard to keep up at times – not only with our own jobs, but with our children’s lives as well. Specifically, keeping up with our children’s learning as they transition from Primary to Secondary – and through Secondary - can seem increasingly challenging for a number of very good reasons, not least of which is the effort required to establish and maintain positive and effective lines of communication between the school and the home. Bangkok Patana’s Secondary School is strongly committed to continuing to develop quality communication between teachers, students Rather than look at all the significant factors which posi- and parents. Not only do we know that the more effective tively affect student learning, I’d like to take a look at just a this relationship is, the more likely our students will grow to couple. According to Hattie, “parental engagement” has their full potential, but we also value working in partnership a significant effect on student learning. “Parental engage- with parents to achieve this aspiration. ment” includes factors such as “setting goals together; disIf we accept, then, that parents and schools have signifplaying enthusiasm for learning; encouraging good study icant, positive impacts on student learning and wellbeing habits; asking questions; valuing experimentation and as Hattie asserts, it makes sense that one of the implicalearning new things; and enjoying reading”1 The second tions for Bangkok Patana is to take advantage of opportufactor I’d like to draw attention to is another very signifi- nities to enhance those relationships. cant influence on student learning: the school – its systems, Last year, we trialled a short series of Curriculum Inforand its teachers2. If we take these two factors as starting 8

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mation Mornings aimed at Year 7 and 8 parents, with a focus on Mathematics, English and Science. These proved extremely popular and valuable to parents. It enabled them to understand much more about the learning experiences their children were engaging in at school.

As a school, we are confident that the more we enable parents to understand how we support their children’s learning in all areas, the greater the likelihood our students will leave Bangkok Patana as the kind of person who will embrace all that life has to offer and make a positive conFollowing on from the strong, positive feedback from last tribution to their community. year, we put together a more comprehensive series of four At the end of this morning’s presentations, I was fortuYear 7-8 Curriculum Information Mornings for this year, nate to speak with several parents – all very positive about covering all the academic subjects (13 presentations in to- the Curriculum Information Mornings. One parent kind tal) taught in Key Stage 3. of summed up some of the comments I’d been hearing As was the case last year, the intention was to give the throughout the past month: “These presentations are great. opportunity to Year 7 and 8 parents to have a better un- I feel like a ‘dinosaur’ now that I hear all this – but I’m so derstanding of each subject, and the teachers whose job glad my daughter goes to this school.” and passion it is to teach our students. More than that, these mornings would give our subject leaders the opportunity to share their enthusiasm for the quality student learning that they lead in their subject, and to explain how each subject’s course is designed, taught and assessed.

As was the case last year, parents this year left each morning’s presentations much better-informed as to how teachers across all subjects very deliberately go about supporting their children to make progress and fulfil their potential.

Apart from the “dinosaur” bit, I couldn’t agree more.

PDF versions of each Curriculum Morning Presentation can be found here.

Citations:

1 - https://www.thenational.ae/pupils-and-schools-thrive-whenparents-become-involved-1.465294 2 - https://visible-learning.org/2018/03/collective-teacher-efficacy-hattie/

click here for the Canteen

Please note the menu is updated for the following week on Friday at 1pm

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DANCE AND DRAMA ACADEMY

Tamara Spalding, Head of Dance and Drama Academy

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elcome to the first Patana News article from the Dance and Drama Academy. My name is Tammy Spalding, originally from England, I come to Thailand with a wealth of experience in Dance having trained as a dancer in London and New York. I am a teacher of Dance and Performing Arts and completed my teaching degree at Reading University in the UK. I firmly believe that all children, regardless of age or experience, should have the opportunity to dance.

The Dance and Drama Academy already offers the following dance classes: Hip Hop, Ballet, Jazz, Contemporary and Cheer-leading. We are excited to add the following new classes in Block 2: Commercial Dance and Musical Theatre. Drama classes will be introduced in Block 3.

Commercial Dance encompasses a myriad of styles. It is made up of Jazz, Street dance, Hip Hop and Contemporary. We will focus on travel, centre work and developing technique. This class is primarily suited to intermediate dancers from the Secondary School.

specific to ability. From Block 2 students will begin to take beginner and intermediate classes. This is a new initiative which will ensure our dancers can progress in an environment that is challenging yet engaging.

The Bangkok Patana School Dance Company This is a new performance project that will run over the course of the school year within an ECA slot, it will be made up of a group of pupils that will learn and choreograph in all different styles of dance. The company will be the equivalent of the “Varsity” team in Dance and will be given a range of performance opportunities as well as eventually working towards competitions within Thailand and South East Asia. We are looking for students with experience in Ballet, Contemporary, Jazz and Hip Hop. Ideally you would have some performance experience and enjoy working on lots of different styles and techniques.

Audition details are below, we look forward to seeing you in the studio!

Dates: Monday 5th – Wednesday 7th November Time: 2:30 – 4:30pm Where: The Dance Academy, Year 5/6 building Age groups: Year 5 – Year 13 What to wear: Comfortable dance clothes where lines and extensions can be seen (ideally leggings, dance tights, and t-shirt) Dance Academy Kit The Dance Academy kit will consist of a specially designed top for both boys and girls and dance leggings.

These will be available soon for all pupils that take part in a Dance or Drama ECA. We look forward to sharing the designs with you soon!

Musical Theatre is theatrical performance that combines Date for your Diary acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humour, pathos, love, and anger – are comThe Dance Academy will be hosting a Parent Coffee municated through music and movement. We will study Morning at 8:00am on Tuesday 20th November for any dances from Hairspray, Chicago, Grease and Matilda. interested parents to come along and hear more about This is a very energetic class which all abilities can join and the programme and meet the teachers and coaches. is open to all dancers from Year 4 upwards.

We have also introduced Lyrical Dance which we started in Block 1. Lyrical Dance is an expressive style of dance similar to Ballet and Jazz.

We are also really excited to offer classes that will be

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For more information on the Dance and Drama Academy or the Bangkok Patana School Dance Company auditions, please contact Miss Spalding at tasp@patana.ac.th

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WORK EXPERIENCE: TRIUMPH MOTORCYCLES Through collaboration with our fantastic Design and Technology Department at Bangkok Patana, we were so fortunate to be able to secure a placement for four of our budding young engineers and product designers with Triumph Motorcycles. Setting their alarm clocks early to be ready for the long commute to the Chon Buri production plant each day, our students came away from their week with the team at Triumph thoroughly in awe of the processes involved in a large scale production line and a new appreciation for the work of and engineer. We would like to thank the team at Triumph Motorcycles for this amazing opportunity!

“From initially walking through the glass doors of Factory 4 to saying my thanks to my supervisor, the experience this internship has taught me can only be described in three words, surreal, reassuring and informative. Before my work experience, I was unsure what I wanted to base my career on; whether I’ll be an engineer, a consultant, or something completely different. Having the opportunity to observe how a top-class motorcycle company manufactures motorcycles, and having been guided through the very fine details of the various processes, solidified my hopes and dreams of possibly being an engineer one day. We were given the chance to spend each day looking into each separate component of the factory and were able to investigate each and every manufacturing process in detail, something any young aspiring engineer dreams of.”

Weishen Teong, Year 12

“During my time at Triumph I learnt a lot about production engineering as well as the processes that take place when creating a motorbike, from initial ideas to the final bike on the assembly line.

We were initially shown around the factory by the head engineer (Dave) and then each day we were shown around specific parts of the different factories by the head engineers of each department. We spent a day looking at dye casting and then another on metal welding. I really enjoyed learning the different processes and my highlight would probably be seeing the bikes coming off of the final assembly line, or the testing phase, which was super interesting to see. The week has given me an insight into the daily working life of many engineers and I am sure the knowledge I have learnt will help me in my future aspirations.”

Sam Haughton, Year 12

“My week in the Triumph Motorcycles Factories was an eye-opening experience. I got to see the inner workings of a global brand and learnt countless new things about manufacturing processes in particular. Everyone I worked with at the company was very friendly and more than happy to tell us about their job, and this made the week thoroughly enjoyable in that sense.

The nature of the work they do at the Triumph Motorcycles factory is manufacturing based; they build and assemble motorcycles to be shipped around the world. There is also a research and development office where they design new models of motorcycles.

Overall, I gained a lot of new experience during my week with Triumph, which has made clearer what career pathway I want to pursue.”

Duncan Kerr, Year 12

“I was given the chance to explore the manufacturing, quality checking and design processes as well as challenges involved in making a high-quality motorcycle. We interacted with the engineers working at Triumph, who explained to us their processes and gave us a detailed tour of the factory.

We got to become familiar with a multitude of methods and machines which are used to assemble or make parts for the motorbikes. A highlight for me was being able to explore the injection moulding processes as well as the paint booths they have in the factories. I got to experience the having lunch at the factory and playing table tennis with the factory workers and other interns. I particularly enjoyed the computer modelling and simulations we took part in, as well as watching the

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“The work experience solidified my ambition to become an engineer and taught me a plethora of things from manufacturing processes to how to talk to professionals and represent a company.”

TRANSPORT CORNER

Alexander Steffen

assembly line.

On the final day of work experience, our mentor Dave took us to the technology expo at BITEC, Bangna. There we were given the opportunity to explore the exhibition and work as representatives for Triumph, with the task of making connections and gathering information about the automation of processes involving robots, which could be applied to the factories we had experienced over the past week. This was extremely exciting and gratifying, as we got to interact with representatives of large companies and see a multitude of different technologies and processes. The only lowlight of the placement was having to wear steel cap shoes.

Overall, the work experience I took part in solidified my ambition to become an engineer and taught me a plethora of things from manufacturing processes to how to talk to professionals and represent a company.”

Alexander Steffen, Year 12

Our Year 11 Work Experience Programme runs in the final week of the school year (17th – 21st June, 2019).

We are always seeking to secure placements for interested students and we also strongly encourage and support those students who are able to arrange independent opportunities. We are incredibly grateful to the individuals, businesses and organisations who have supported our initiative over the years. If you are interested in discovering more about how you and your organisation could possibly place one or more Bangkok Patana students next June, please get in touch with the University and Careers Team.

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• Please remind your child to check and take all their belongings before getting off the school bus.

• If you are in temporary accommodation and/ or will move residence in the near future please inform the Transport Department as soon as you have a moving date. A minimum of five working days notice is required. Please do check in advance that we have a route to your new location.

• If your child will not be coming to school for any reason during the last week of Term 1A, please remember to inform Transport Department in advance to avoid inconvenience to the Transport staff and other Transport users.

Reminder that there are only two days of school next week, therefore only two days of school transport. The Transport Department would like to wish everyone a very happy half term and we look forward to welcoming everyone back to school on Monday 29th October.

CONTACT US Direct phone: 02 785 2470 Email transport@patana.ac.th The Transport Office is staffed from 6:00am - 6:00pm Monday to Friday.

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UNI COUNSELLORS’ CORNER

ALUMNI E X P E R I E N C E

Joseph Brosnahan graduated from Bangkok Patana in 2018 and headed straight to the University of Otago to commence his studies in Law and Politics.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT...

University of Otago, New Zealand

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he University of Otago, New Zealand’s first university, leads the way when it comes to world-class teaching and a legendary student lifestyle. These two core elements set the University of Otago apart, and are the reasons students from across the country and around the world for their tertiary education. Most study takes place at the campus in Dunedin, a safe city where education is the main activity and was recognised as one of the 15 most beautiful campuses in the world (Huffington Post 2013).

As a world-class teaching and research University, Otago offers a first-class education across more than 195 undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Business, Health Sciences, Humanities and Sciences.

Otago is known for its vibrant student life, particularly its accommodation, which is often in old houses. Otago students (Scarfies) have a long-standing tradition of naming their flats. The nickname “Scarfie” comes from the habit of wearing a scarf during the cold southern winters.

Challenge 6 Design your own college.

Spend some time designing your own college. What would you be looking for in your college?

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“After completing my IB Examinations in May 2018, I had a shorter summer break than my classmates as I flew to Dunedin, New Zealand at the end of June to start Semester 2 classes at the University of Otago. It has been a busy few months but I am thoroughly enjoying my studies in Politics, History and Criminology. In February, I will start my studies in Law as I plan to do a double degree in Law and Politics.

I have particularly enjoyed learning about political theory and political history, as well as debating current issues. I have even joined the Political Students Association club.

As a New Zealander, I am fortunate to be able to enjoy my first year of study with free fees, thanks to a new initiative by our government. I also recently won a ‘New Frontiers Sustained Excellence’ scholarship for $5000. I was eligible as I gained 38 points in the IB Diploma.

The University of Otago is celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2019. The University has over 20,000 students so Dunedin is very much a ‘university’ city. After living with my grandparents for eight months, I will move into a residential college in February. I am looking forward to meeting even more new people and being able to walk to the Central Library and the Student Union, with its range of cafés, in five minutes. The campus is one of my favourite things about the University of Otago, with its magnificent Gothic style clock tower building and the Leith River running past.

Alongside my studies I also started my first job in August, working at the weekends and one evening a week as a waiter in a restaurant based at a local horse-racing venue.

These past few months have been full of new experiences and I strongly believe my time at Bangkok Patana prepared me well for my ‘new’ life!”

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UPCOMING UNIVERSITY VISITS UNIVERSITY / COLLEGE

COUNTRY

REP

University of Queensland School of the Art Institute of Chicago Yale-NUS College

Australia Jinny Yun US Ilan Gutin Singapore David Royster

LOCATION Senior Studies, second floor Senior Studies, second floor Senior Studies, second floor

DATE

TIME

29.10.18 30.10.18 30.10.18

12:15 12:15 12:15

CALLING ALL SWEDISH FAMILIES W

e are delighted to share with you that the Swedish Home Language ECA will be running from Block 2. It will be delivered by the Swedish School’s Association and Agneta will be joining us again. If you are Swedish and would like your child to participate in the ECA, please sign up as you would for all other ECAs via the Parents’ Gateway. The ECA is available for children in Year 1 upwards and will run on a Wednesday. If you would like any further information, please contact Ondine Ullman at onul@ patana.ac.th.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM TIGER SPIRIT DAY

DATES

for your

Diary...

12/10/2018

Monday 15th October King Rama IX Memorial Day in Lieu Thursday 18th October Half Term Holidays, School Closed Monday 29th October School Opens Friday 9th November Patana Plugged Wednesday 21st November International Day Thursday 22nd November Loy Krathong Bangkok Patana School News

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PAWS VISIT YEAR 6

Maisy Evans, Year 6

Cat Facts:

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n Thursday 4th October, Dr Tuktan and Dr Pup from PAWS, who are vets, came to talk to Year 6 about raising awareness for homeless cats in the community.

What is PAWS?

• Cats conserve energy by sleeping for an average of 13 to 14 hours a day.

• Cats have flexible bodies and teeth adapted for hunting small animals such as mice and rats.

• A group of cats is called a clowder. A male cat is called a Tom and a female cat is called a Molly or Queen, while young cats are called kittens.

• Calico cats are most always female.

• Cats can jump approximately seven times their height.

• Cats held a high status as far back as Egyptian times and were often mummified and buried in the tomb.

• All cats belong to the same feline family (including cheetahs and lions) and there are 36 species of cats

• It is a non-profit animal charity based in Bangkok who care for homeless cats • They started in June 2012 • There currently re-homes over 80 cats and kittens Their mission is….“Our goals are to create a smaller and healthier street and community animal population in Bangkok, as well as encouraging people to adopt a rescue animal, when deciding to bring a new pet into their lives” What is Animal Welfare?

Animals need food, water, shelter, love, safety, rights and a natural environment to be happy and healthy.

What do PAWS do...

• • • • • • • •

Rescue sick and injured cats Provide veterinary care for animals in need Re-home animals into forever homes Promote responsible pet ownership through education Foster out animals who are sick, injured or need extra TLC Spay and neuter service Rabies vaccinations Community education

What can YOU do?

At home: • Do you own a pet or know someone that does? Encourage them to be a responsible pet owner • Offer food and water to stray animals • If you see a sick animal – don’t walk past, get help!

• Donate or fundraise – a little bit can go a long way!

At PAWS: • Come along to the shelter and become a volunteer!

• Raise money, donate and collect donations for causes.

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My PAWS Experience I’ve always loved cats my whole life. I wear cat earrings and even have a cat laptop case and mouse-pad. Last year, I visited the PAWS centre on Snuggle-Up Sunday. This was a day where people could come and have a tour of the centre. We got to stroke and cuddle the cats and kittens because they don’t get much attention. They were very friendly, and they purred and jumped all over us. They love a cuddle and a snuggle.

After that visit, I adopted a kitten. In the shelter, she was called Tom. I renamed her Latte because she was the colour of a Latte frappé from Starbucks! She wakes us up every morning at about 4:15am, and she gets us up and running - there’s no rest with Latte.

I really care about Rescue, Rehabilitate and Adopt - cats are rescued, rehabilitated and then adopted by kind, loving, caring people.

Information from: PAWS, BKK Kids and Khao Sod English

Bangkok Patana School News

12/10/2018

CATS CORNER

Tania Leyland, Youth Club and Community Services Coordinator

WORLD ANIMAL DAY

T

hursday 4th October was World Animal Day, an international day of action for animal rights. PAWS held a raffle and by selling raffle tickets to students, the money we raised will be donated to shelters around Thailand such as the Love Wildlife and the Soi Dog Foundation. PAWS Bangkok Cat Shelter came in to talk to Primary students and staff about the importance of taking proper care of pets and animals in general.

We sold merchandise during Secondary lunch break and had a collection table at the front of school where we collected old pet supplies such as toys, beds, blankets, and cat scratching posts. The items will be donated to two cat and dog shelters in Bangkok, Pick A Pet For Home’ and PAWS Cat Shelter.

We hope to make the collection table a more regular thing to enable the previously mentioned items to be recycled and enjoyed by other pets. Thank you to Mr Jones for donating a walking device for injured dogs.

Jess Montgomery-Day (PAWS)

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ther activities included creating a postcard to save a tiger and making dog toys from recycled t-shirts whilst Year 6 had an educational visit from two veterinarians who are working for the PAWS Cat Shelter.

The students learned about animal welfare, how we can help to ensure conditions that avoid any suffering and how to be a responsible pet owner.

The Year 6s also learned about what PAWS does for cats in Bangkok. After the presentation students asked a lot of questions, they wanted to know all about what the shelter looks like, the special cats they have and how they got there. It was great to have such a strong collaboration with Primary School.

ERC NEWSFLASH

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he Emergency Response Committee (ERC) received a ‘call for action’ from a student in Secondary School in response to the earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia. The year reps met and decided that a donation should be made to support the work of the Indonesian Red Cross and the International Medical Corps . Both organisations are ‘on the ground’ and have the greatest opportunity to meet the needs of local people. I am extremely impressed by the actions of our students who clearly are global citizens who are empowered by their interculturalism. A joint donation of 50,000 THB from Secondary school students and Primary school students has been made.

Thank you to everyone who participated in Tiger Spirit Day for making this donation possible.

12/10/2018

Bangkok Patana School News

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#104: My 4T’s*

A

mistake I (we?) made in life was naming my (our) three children with the same first letter of the alphabet – the letter ‘T’. As a parent I’m often found inadvertently admonishing or complimenting the wrong sibling. At first I thought it was just me, but I’ve witnessed the confusion with my parents, our friends and the boys’ teachers. When naming your children it is simply something you don’t think about at the time - nobody tells you not to do it! So, with the 3T’s in mind I would like to change the format of this technology article slightly. Each week I would like to give you four T’s, namely: 1.

a Tip: long click on the back button in your browser to navigate to all previous pages

2.

a Tool: ZoomIt for Windows – finally, a tool to zoom and annotate your Windows screen

3.

a Text: Researchers develop typeface they say can boost memory (read time < 1min)

4.

a Tutorial [VIDEO]: 5 Ways To Stay Safe on Public WiFi (see below – watch time = 3mins)

* Grammatically I don’t think there should not be an apostrophe after the letter T, but to improve clarity of the text I’ve added it.

Have a greaT weekend.

Brian Taylor Assistant Principal, Cross Campus Curriculum Technology Integration Links in this article: http://community.patana.ac.th/Resources/Home%20%5BF1%5D/Staff%20Centre%20%5BF146%5D/%23TTT001%20Long%20Press%20Back%20Button. mp4 / https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/zoomit / https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/oct/04/font-of-all-knowledge-researchersdevelop-typeface-they-say-can-boost-memory / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmznYC4NrAA&feature=youtu.be&list=PLWOi-Ohsd2WxaTWnE-iBaAjpfLtn63ChU

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Bangkok Patana School News

12/10/2018

STUDENTS SPEAK

Saving The Leaning Tower Of Pisa

By Karnsiree (Ling Ling) Chen, Year 12

Background

How was it stabilised?

Today the Tower of Pisa is one of the world’s most recognisable landmarks, but originally it was but a bell tower built for a church. The city of Pisa was originally a small but important Italian seaport, but with growth and development brought the establishment of religious buildings. The city’s fame and reputation grew gradually over the years, as the people of Pisa were involved in military conflicts and trade agreements.

The first bit of great wealth was obtained when Pisans attacked the city of Palermo on the island of Sicily in 1063. The conquerors returned to Pisa with a wealth of treasure, ready to spend on the city. To show the world just how important the city was, the people of Pisa decided to build a large cathedral complex, the Field of Miracles. They planned to include a cathedral, a baptistery, a bell tower (the Tower of Pisa) and a cemetery.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa was closed to the public for over a decade between 1990 and 2001. During this time, a massive engineering operation took place in the attempt to stop the monument from falling, as by the end of 90s, the tower was clearly in danger of collapsing.

The Tower of Pisa only began to assume the characteristic that has made it so famous in 1173, when construction began. Due to the soft ground, it had begun to lean by the time its builders got to the third story five years later. The shifting soil beneath had destabilised the tower’s foundations, causing it to tilt precariously. Over the next 800 years, it was evident that the 55-metre tower wasn’t just leaning but actually falling at a rate of one to two millimetres per year.

The team working on it decided to reduce stress on the building’s masonry and stabilise its foundations by reducing the tower’s inclination by half a degree.

This method (known as soil extraction) involved engineers digging a series of tunnels on the north side of the tower and removing small amounts of earth as the tower leans to the South. Steel cables were also employed to help pull it back into its original position.

Around two lorry loads of soil needed to be extracted for the foundations to stabilise once again.

The fact that the tower tilted more in winter as the north side water table was higher than the south when it rained, was also taken into consideration. This meant the north side was lifted even more, reducing the lean of the tower. Engineers also dug drains so the water could flow away into wells.

As a result, the tower straightened itself by 38cm after the work was done and has continued to straighten since. It reopened to the public in 2001.

Image source: Tower Images 12/10/2018

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 every day life.

The next Anapana Meditation course will be on

Sunday 28th October for students between 8-14 years.

The course is completely free!

To enrol or for more information, please contact Eva Sophonpanich at evasophon@hotmail.com You may also find this site useful: http://www.children.dhamma.org/en/children/about-meditation.shtmlÂ

12/10/2018

Bangkok Patana School News

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Bangkok Patana School News

12/10/2018