Patana News Volume 18 issue 23 by Bangkok Patana School

Patana

NEWS

A Growing Culture of Environmental Mindedness

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

Letter from the Cross Campus Principal

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 positiveâ&#x20AC;Śitâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;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 yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;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

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