Patana News Volume 18 issue 23

Patana

NEWS

A Growing Culture of Environmental Mindedness

P. 2

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

Letter from the Cross Campus Principal

T

his week, I would like to share two recent events that reflect environmental commitments by the school community.

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of accompanying Year 5 students on their Residential Visit. The week was great fun but also very educational, immersed as we were in the ecosystems of Khao Yai National Park and its surroundings.

One full day on the itinerary involved planting trees. The Thailand branch of the Plant A Tree Today (PATT) Foundation has collaborated with our school for several years now, such that Year 5 and Year 8 students have helped its reforestation programme on an annual basis. What impressed me most was how the hands-on experience of planting seeds, repotting seedlings and digging in saplings peaked the curiosity of the children. When I asked them, they all agreed that our efforts that day were positive‌it’s a good thing to plant trees. You can watch and listen to their experience in a ten minute movie which I was inspired to make about the day.

The second event I want to refer to is very positive.

I left this year’s Fun Day feeling very impressed with the students, staff and PTG reps who had worked hard to promote a simple message. Their message is that we can all reduce our waste with small steps.

Last year, I remember counting just three reusable water bottles amongst the crowds throughout the whole day. This year I could have counted hundreds.

I am sure of this because I took nearly 100 photographs of students, staff and parents carrying reusable water bottles. Look at the page opposite to see just some of these.

What this tells me is that there are enough people in our community who care about waste reduction that we are now on the verge of a tipping point. It is quite tough in Thailand, a country which ranks as the sixth highest contributor to plastic pollution in the oceans, to avoid the widespread use of disposable plastic. However, times are steadily changing. More and more people are alert to the waste problem, and people are increasingly willing to sacrifice small con-

Sadly, this week I received an email from Khun Sue (Sudarat) stating that PATT Thailand has suddenly closed. Unfortunately they no longer have the financial backing to continue. This is a real shame and I am only glad that I had the chance to see first-hand how getting involved with planting trees can inspire young people to care about the environment. I hope that someday PATT Thailand is revived because I think they were doing a really good thing on several important levels.

veniences (such as disposable plastic shopping bags and dependence on throwaway water bottles) and instead take small steps towards more sustainable habits. I believe this culture of environmental awareness can only grow from here on.

Thank you for supporting these small steps. More and more of our students care about these things, and it is great that more and more of the adults in their lives do too.

By Sally Flint, Head of Libraries

I

t always makes my heart sink when I hear someone say ‘I don’t like poetry, it’s boring” or “I don’t like Shakespeare.” After a little probing there is usually a valid explanation for their dislike. It often comes down to an individual at some point in their lives having found a poem inaccessible, pointless or, in the case of many adults, the result of a dreadful, dreary childhood learning experience. Not so at Bangkok Patana School, here we aim to bring poetry alive!

We start young when encouraging a love of poems and use rhyme as a great learning tool. You may have noticed the wonderful nursery rhyme displays and accompanying activities in the Early Years’ Library and Garden, encouraging the children to create and improvise through creative rhyme and play.

In addition Year 2 children have, as part of their connected learning, been developing their reading with expression skills through the exploration of Pirate poetry. They have enjoyed the opportunity of making a movie of their recitals and reflecting on what they could improve. This has been a gentle introduction to reading for an audience and a great preparation for the much larger Readers’ Theatre Competi-

tion organised for Year 3 and 4 children. Year 2 children have also been encouraged to enter an overseas writing competition and plan to publish their poems in the Library.

In March we are being visited by the very prestigious and well known poet Kenn Nesbitt. Kenn will be working primarily with Primary children from Years 1 to 6, exploring how to approach poetry reading and writing. Kenn is hugely popular in schools and has a wonderful website of poems which you can access here. You will be aching with laughter at his funny verses. His books are already for sale in the Primary Library - don’t leave it too late to buy one as they are sure to sell out quickly.

Immediately after the Songkran holiday we have 2012 Slam Poetry World Champion Harry Baker coming to Bangkok Patana to work with our Secondary students. Year 7 will be taking part in a Slam Poetry writing competition and be performing against children from NIST and Shrewsbury. If you haven’t heard of Harry check out his TED Talks here.

A modern, cutting edge poet, he is sure to be a big hit with the older children. The preparation for this integrates with the ‘poetry learning’ occurring in Key

Stage 3 English classes.

Term 3 will also see the annual launch of our CORE Magazine, with this year being the 20th Edition of this publication at Bangkok Patana. CORE celebrates student creativity with poetry, short stories, art and photography and is ably led by a team of Year 11 students who are responsible for all editorial decisions. This year has seen an impressive range of entries from Secondary students. The editorial team’s chosen theme of ‘Flight’ acknowledges the joy of creative pursuits and ensures the magazine is both of a very high quality and offers our students an important opportunity to share their talents.

It is of course the year that we are celebrating the 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. The wonderful Term 2 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream was testament to how alive, wonderful, contemporary and meaningful Shakespeare’s verse is to our students and teachers. Numbers spoke for themselves as the demand for tickets for this spectacular performance far outweighed the supply. Celebrations will continue with a range of Shakespeare linked displays and activities in our Libraries. We don’t want to give too much away, but I think Shakespeare would be proud to see us celebrating his birthday with custard pies, the use of stocks and even possibly a dunk tank – teachers watch out!

Shakespeare should be accessible to everyone and we will ensure that he is!

John Burnside, the winner of the 2012 T.S. Eliot

Award, reflects that, ‘poetry renews and deepens the gift that most surely makes us human: the imagination. And that is as essential to public as it is to private life, because the more imaginative we are, the more compassionate we become – and that, surely, is the highest virtue of all.’

It is perhaps, only a poet who could state this message, so eloquently, but it is the wonderful staff at Bangkok Patana School who will be enabling our students to develop their imagination and engage in such fun and exciting learning opportunities. From the teachers, to the librarians, to the technicians, to the Buildings, Grounds and Canteen staff, to the Marketing and Leadership teams, everyone has played a part in facilitating our celebration of poetry and Shakespeare. We know as parents you will also wish to be involved; be it reading poems with your children at bedtime, encouraging them to take part in all the poetry activities, or taking a moment to enjoy our displays alongside your children, we welcome and value your involvement.

Poetry and drama is transformative, it makes us think about issues in a new way and can change the way we perceive both ourselves and the world. It perhaps helps us engage with something that we’ve lost or consider something for the first time. It is for these reasons that at Bangkok Patana School we are really encouraging our whole community to enjoy and learn to love poetry.

College

Representative

Location

Date

Capilano University

-

Renaissance Bangkok Hotel (BTS Chidlom)

06.03.2016 11:00

Humber College

-

Renaissance Bangkok Hotel (BTS Chidlom)

06.03.2016 11:00

Seneca College of Applied Arts & Technology

-

Renaissance Bangkok Hotel (BTS Chidlom)

06.03.2016 11:00

Southern Alberta Institute of Technology

-

Renaissance Bangkok Hotel (BTS Chidlom)

06.03.2016 11:00

Thompson Rivers University

-

Renaissance Bangkok Hotel (BTS Chidlom)

06.03.2016 11:00

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

-

Senior Studies, 2nd floor

07.03.2016 12:00

University of Oregon

Robert Hardin

Senior Studies, 2nd floor

07.03.2016 12:00

London School of Economics

James Brown

Senior Studies, 2nd floor

09.03.2016 12:15

Portland State University

Anouksha Gardner

Senior Studies

10.03.2016 12:15

Musashi University

Fourth Valley Concierge Senior Studies, 2nd floor

11.03.2016 12:15

Raffles International College Open House

-

Raffles International College, Bangna

12.03.2016 13:00

University of Bath

-

Senior Studies

15.03.2016 12:15

University of Exeter

Christopher Dean

Senior Studies

15.03.2016 12:15

University of Warwick

-

Senior Studies

15.03.2016 12:15

University College Dublin

Dr Eleni Mangina

SEC 302

17.03.2016 12:15

Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology

Joseph Dao

Senior Studies, 2nd floor

18.03.2016 12:15

By Genevieve Ahl, Services Manager

P

lease remember to cancel the school bus if you are going to watch the Secondary Drama Production ‘Whispers in the Graveyard’ and will not need the bus home.

If parents are attending workshops in school please don’t forget that you are welcome to travel on the school bus in the morning or afternoon. Please book in advance to avoid disappointment.

Students are reminded that they should not go to 7Eleven, Subway, True or any other food outlet after school or after their ECA as this causes delay to other bus users. Please be prompt to get to your afternoon bus. As soon as everyone arrives, the bus can depart.

The Transport Office is staffed from 6.00am – 6.00pm Monday to Friday and can be contacted by calling 02 744 2470 or emailing transport@patana.ac.th

Click here to access the Canteen Menu

Time

THE ROAR Produced by the Athletics Council

BIG UPCOMING EVENTS

Students vs Teachers: Touch

BISAC Athletics @ ISB U19 Friday March 4th U13/U15 Saturday March 5th Varsity Badminton Invitational Tournament @ RIS

5th March

If you have the chance, Go to support your friends!

Upcoming Fixtures v NIST Tuesday 8th March

Volleyball U15 Boys’ HOME Volleyball U15 Girls’ HOME Volleyball U13 Boys’ HOME Wednesday 9th March Badminton U17 Boys’ Away Badminton U17 Girls’ Away Softball U17 Boys’ HOME Softball U17 Girls’ HOME Thursday 10th March

Softball U15 Girls’ HOME Softball U15 Boys’ HOME

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he annual Students vs Teachers Touch game took place on Tuesday at lunchtime. It was great to see a variety of teachers and coaches come together in attempt to beat the defending champions who beat them last year - the Varsity Touch team. This year, the student team recruited some new players with help from the Varsity Rugby team. The game started with a tap off from the teachers who, in a series of unfortunate events, quickly managed to turn the ball over.

Nina and Ellen, used this to their advantage and scored a try through the center. The teachers tried their hardest to even the score up before half time, but never managed to. Instead, Ross Nicholson broke through and scored a second try on the wing.

At half time, both teams talked strategy. Paul Boulom did his best to pretend he knew what he was talking about when advising the student team. In the second half, the defense was stronger on both sides of the pitch as both teams did their best not to concede. Nick Landi broke through and would have scored for the students had it not been for Mr Thain's touch. The same happened the other way round just before the end of the match, where Mr Summers almost put the ball on the try line, but Flo Lacrosse quickly made the touch. The teachers accepted their 2-0 defeat and shook hands with the students. Unfortunately, fate wasn't with them this year; but who knows, they might be in luck next year.

GET SOCIAL…

SEASAC SWIMMING

More ways to follow the action!

3rd – 5th March@ GIS KL

Tiger Sports @BPSSPORTS BPS Sports Patana Tennis

Good luck to the Swim Team at SEASAC!

By Richard Thorp, Head Swim Coach

O

ver half term 21 TigerShark squad swimmers (and one coach!) competed at the Martin’s Cup Swim Meet at Assumption University chasing Thai National qualifying times. All the students swam well over the three day meet posting personal best times in a variety of strokes and distances.

Three students have qualified for their Thai clubs for the Nationals in April and 12 have qualified representing Bangkok Patana School. Chloe Burkill, Danielle Rinne, Jasmina Barron, Misol Cheung, Max Stockdale, Kaitlyn Dibbayawan and Anselm Xavier all won medals at the event. In the second half of the holiday break, the SEASAC swim team completed a five day training camp in preparation for SEASAC this weekend in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

By Florence Lacrosse, 12J

O

n Saturday 27th of February we entered a Bangkok Patana School team, consisting of students and teachers with ranging experience, into the Ladies’ Touch Tournament at the International Bangkok Tens.

We played a total of three matches, winning them all quite comfortably against teams from Yangon, Manila and Bangkok. It was great to see some of the more experienced players advising and helping our first-time players improve throughout the matches. At the end of the day, our team was victorious and we brought the champions’ trophy to a very proud Mr Andrew Tatam on Monday morning.

Anapana (Mindfulness of Breathing) teaches children 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 given on Sunday 6th March for children aged between 8 - 16 years.

The course is completely free!

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

Interested in reading a little more?

Click on the link: http:// www.children.dhamma.org/en/ children/about-meditation.shtml

Tickets available now at Neilson Hays Library.

Library non-members 250THB/ticket Library members 200THB/ticket

12th March 2016 13th March 2016 19th March 2016 20th March 2016

3:00pm to 5:00pm 3:00pm to 5:00pm 3:00pm to 5:00pm 3:00pm to 5:00pm

To book tickets: Call: 02-233 1731 Email: neilson.library@gmail.com

The weekly canteen menu is available here.

Please check the calendar on the Parents’ Gateway, Student pages and Staff Centre for up-to-date information on school events.

Visit www.patana.ac.th and click on the relevant icon to log in