Patana
NEWS
Officially Opens The Science Centre Bangkok Patana is an IB World School, accredited by CIS and NEASC
Cheryl Rego, Development, Alumni and Marketing Manager
B
angkok Patana School was honoured to have Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn preside over the official opening ceremony of our Science Centre today. “This was a very auspicious occasion for Bangkok Patana School. Her Royal Highness presided over the opening of this school campus in 1993 and we feel extremely humbled that she was here once again to open our Science Centre,” said Dr Tej Bunnag, the Chairman of the Bangkok Patana School Foundation Board. In attendance were also the British Ambassador His Excellency Brian Davidson and the Deputy Minister of Education, Dr Teerakiat Jareonsettasin. The official opening ceremony took on a friendly atmosphere when Her Royal Highness (HRH) used her phone to snap a photo of the ceremonial plaque immediately after unveiling. After the official opening ceremony, Head of School Matt Mills accompanied HRH Princess Sirindhorn on a brief tour of the school. “We talked a lot about the changes in the school since the last time Her Royal Highness visited – not only the physical setting but she noticed there was lots more interaction going on in classrooms such as students writing on the glass walls in the Science labs,” said Mr Mills. He said that HRH was
impressed by the quality learning that was taking place. She commented on stimulating learning environment generated by the brightness of the classrooms, interactive tools and small class sizes. The first stop on HRH’s school tour was the Science Centre. She was met on the second floor by Head of Faculty Matt Baker and Sarah Lim (12L). The group stopped briefly to peer through the glass into Dr Ellerby’s classroom where the students were in the midst of a practical test to identify starch, glucose and fat in food. Further down the hallway, HRH was led into a Year 12 Chemistry class who were working busy with an experiment. She paid interest in the fume cupboard noting that she had one in her classroom but it didn’t look as new or impressive – but that it was many years ago! On the way out of the Science Centre, HRH stopped to look at some photos of the other areas in the Science Centre. Mr Baker told her about the 130 square metres of solar panels that supply 25% of the energy in the building. She responded saying that solar panels in some of her schools supply more energy than they need so are able to donate the excess locally. Mr Baker said HRH was also very interested in the electron diffraction tube, which demonstrates
the wave particle duality of electrons. HRH then proceeded into the Secondary Library. Pe (Peter) Pakdeejit was on hand to talk about the Secondary Library to HRH. “At first I was really nervous but then after a while it started to get a bit easier,” he said. HRH asked Peter if he thought the Library was important. “I told her that the Library is really is important because it is not just a house of books but it actually incorporates people together. Our Library is really practical. I told her about the many interactive things for us to do. It is more like a place where people can come and learn and have fun at the same time.” Peter explained, “She is really friendly and I enjoyed talking to her.” HRH was very interested in the books on the shelves, telling our Head of Libraries Sally Flint that she loved books and libraries. She took her own photos of the student breakout areas and the Makerspace, which is an area in the Library for students to be innovative and creative with tools such as Lego and robotics. HRH also enjoyed her walk around the Primary Library. She took a lot of photos and enjoyed perusing the Home Languages section. She was thrilled to even see displays on the floor. She gasped and laughed when the saw the big bed that is part of the display for Roald Dahl where
children are invited to make themselves comfortable to read, and said she imagined that students would have to make a booking to get on it as it must be very popular! HRH spoke about the schools she supports in rural areas and the challenge she has of getting English books into those libraries. On her last stop in the short school tour, HRH visited the Secondary Design and Technology Faculty. Head of Faculty Richard Smith said HRH the Princess was very interested in the lessons the Year 7 students were doing online using Quizlets to reinforce the theory behind manufacturing processes. The tour moved into the workshop area where another Year 7 class was working on improvements to their projects. As she moved out of the workshop, HRH stopped to see the five 3D printers. Mr Smith said HRH seemed quite knowledgeable about 3D printing. She also took at a close look at the samples of work and projects from IGCSE and IB students. In particular, she was interested in the Social Responsive projects that IB students have to undertake where the students design for charitable organisations such as Smile Thailand and Habitat for Humanity. Mr Smith spoke with Her Royal Highness about the work the school does with IPST (Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology ) where we are helping to create a scheme of learning for Thai schools and we have run workshops for Thai technology instructors. “HRH really liked the fact that we are putting knowledge back into communities.” Khun Kulvadee (Dee) Siribhadra was part of the entourage that toured with HRH and also led the effort and organisation to host HRH: “The feeling that I have is that Her Royal Highness is really engaged. She is very enthusiastic, keen and wants to know about everything and anything that she sees. She has such passion for knowledge. It really was such an incredible honour to have her visit the school.”
James Penstone, Cross Campus Principal
Royal Visit by Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn By the time this week’s Patana News is published, the Bangkok Patana School community will have had the exceptional privilege of hosting HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn this morning. This is Her Royal Highness’ second visit to our school, having previously visited on 3rd November 1993. Today, Her Royal Highness presided over the official opening of our new Science Centre located in the Secondary School. The opening ceremony was complemented by a tour of the school such that a great many members of our community were fortunate enough to greet her. We are truly honoured to have received such an auspicious visit by Her Royal Highness who has shown exceptional commitment to education within Thailand. Our collective celebrations of this momentous visit will be further shared on our website very soon.
The Global Learner Conference – Some Reflections Two weeks ago, just as the half term break was getting underway, we held our Global Learner’s Conference which provided our academic staff, as well as some visitors from other schools, with two jam-packed days of valuable professional learning. The conference helped us to consider how we can work towards our new Vision Statement: We develop global citizens who shape their world through independence, empathy, creativity, and critical thinking. The two days were based on four themes of direct relevance to this vision statement; Community Participation, Digital Citizenship, Environmental Awareness and Action and Intercultural Understanding. There is still a wonderful buzz amongst the staff about the event. Much has been said of our two
inspirational keynote speakers, tech guru Alan November and polar explorer Robert Swan. Regarding Robert, it is remarkable that the lower floor of the Theatre was packed on the Thursday afternoon with parents and students who came to hear his inspirational stories on adventure, leadership and environmental solutions. He has paved the way for our school’s commitment to his 2041 vision – see how this is unfolding at bangkokpatana2041.com. Much has also been said about our student volunteers and student speakers. While Robert Swan stood out as a gifted orator, I couldn’t help thinking that our two Year 4 guests – Kaitlyn and Varit who spoke about integrity – easily ranked amongst the most polished speakers to take to the stage through the course of the conference. Colleagues continue to comment on the quality of public speaking and workshop leadership from all our student presenters, as well as the organisational support which many others offered, and this simply underlines Alan November’s point that we must never underestimate our students’ potential. We are already thinking about how student involvement can be significantly increased in the next big conference. However, just as important as our keynote speakers and our student stars, are the many colleagues who volunteered to lead workshops and sessions on aspects of global citizenship for which they are clearly very passionate. This contributes to the best kind of collegial professional learning, opening up our eyes to some of the many ways which we are already working hard to empower and nurture our students. It is to all of the volunteer presenters that we must extend our sincere thanks for allowing this conference to be the success that it was.
The Global Learner Conference – Social Media Buzz Finally, I would like to share a small sample of tweets and Instagram posts from some of my colleagues which help to capture the essence of the conference as it unfolded. #glcpatana
Under 13 Boys’ Tennis It was a great day at ISB with all competitors participating to the fullest. Bangkok Patana was able to stay cool under pressure and ended up coming 1st out of eight schools beating Shrewsbury in the finals 2-1. Bangkok Patana was in a group with Harrow, ICS and NIST. Although we won the first match against Harrow 3 – 0, we knew Harrow were tough contenders and expected them to be our last match in the group stages. Singles 1, Mark Nielsen, won his first match 6-4 Singles 2, Pippi, gave his opponent a thrashing, winning 6 - 2 Doubles partners, Mark Chan and Amery, played extremely well and were able to extend the lead with a 6 - 4 victory Next we played NIST, this was the toughest match in the group stages as all games were fairly close, fortunately we were still able to pull off a 3 - 0 win. Singles 1, Mark Nielsen won 6 - 4 Singles 2, Pippi demolished the competition 6-0 Our alternative player Nis came on to play doubles along with Amery defeating their opponents 6 - 2 ICS was the last match of the group stages, unfortunately their first singles player had sustained an injury, giving us a walkover, starting the matches
with a 1- 0 lead. Singles 1, Mark Nielsen, won by a walkover Singles 2, Pippi increasing his win streak with a 6 - 1 victory Doubles partners, with a different formation of Nis and Mark comfortably securing a 3-0 lead After winning the group stages we had to face the hosts of the tournament in the semifinals, ISB. We knew they were strong opponents as they gave a good match to the league winners, Shrewsbury. Singles 1, Mark Nielsen won 6-1 Singles 1, Pippi winning a close match against ISBs singles 2 The semifinal and onward pick for the doubles was Nis and Amery who won a neck and neck match with both teams not giving in. In the tiebreak (6-6) the doubles team played exceptionally, ultimately winning 7-0 in the tiebreak. This final match was going to be the toughest, if we wanted to win we all had to dig deep and play our very best, we had lost to them in the league match 3 - 0 but we knew we had what it took because all the matches that happened had been extremely close. This was our most decisive match. Our first win was the doubles where Nis and Amery were up 4-0 but a comeback from the Shrewsbury doubles caused a scare with the score at 5-2. An additional two games took the score even closer to 5-4, still with Bangkok Patana just holding the lead. But the final game ended with a roar from one of our doubles pair as Bangkok Patana took a 1-0 lead. The second game ended in a loss for us, Pub from Shrewsbury had put a stop to Pippi’s winning streak, he outplayed Pippi and unfortunately Pippi lost his first match of the day 6-3, although he had played remarkably well for all of the previous matches. Mark Nielsen had gone on to court with great confidence as he had not lost a single match and quickly went up 5-2. Bangkok Patana were only one game from claiming the title! However, Shrewsbury had claimed another game making it 5-3. Finally, after another intense game, Mark went 40 - 15 up. And after a long point he had managed to pull through to victory.
Tania Leyland, Youth Club and Community Services Coordinator
SPECTRUM campaign days SPECTRUM held their campaign days and had great fun with their decorated closet and rainbow walls. The team were informative and insightful and were able to respond to the majority of questions. There were some really interesting discussions taking place around the ‘coming out of the closet’ idea.
Mercy Centre Rice Appeal One of the big events in recent weeks was the rice appeal. We received a request from Mercy Centre for rice donations, which they wanted to hand out to elderly people in the community during their social work day. The World Food Project team got on the case and sent out a request to students. They spend two lunchtimes labeling boxes and delivering them to tutor groups ready for donations. Bags of rice came pouring in. On the last day of term, the team took them down to Reception where they were collected by the Mercy Centre. It was a fantastic example of action in action and once again our students were a credit to themselves.
There are regular updates / maintenances to the IT services that support the various systems that we use at Bangkok Patana School. We are conscious of the number of emails that inform of the updates and maintenance and have decided to schedule a regular time on the 2nd Saturday night of each month from 8pm to 10pm for this maintenance to occur. Here is the Regular Maintenance Schedule for 2016/17.
Regular Maintenance Schedule Sat 12th November 2016 Sat 10th December 2016 Sat 14th January 2017 Sat 11th February 2017 Sat 11th March 2017 Sat 8th April 2017 Sat 13th May 2017 Sat 10th June 2017 Sat 8th July 2017
University / College
Country Representative
Location
Date
Time
07.11.16 12:15
The University of Nottingham UK
Dr Thanaset Chevapatrakul
SEC 302 and 303
Bangkok Patana School University Fair 2016
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Conference Centre, 09.11.16 12:15 4th Floor
Xian Jiaotong Liverpool University (XJTLU)
China
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Senior Studies, 2nd Floor
International Day will now be held on Tuesday 13th of December 2016.
15.11.16 12:15
#43: Lab4Physics With the royal visit this week I’ve got my lens firmly focused on science. Lab4Physics is an educational app that allows you to conduct physics experiments in an easy and entertaining way within the classroom and beyond. With Lab4Physics, you will be able to create engaging experiments utilising the accelerometer, the sonometer and the speedometer as scientific instruments. You will also find pre-designed experiments that have been especially created for you. The app is free for iOS and Android devices and gets a five star ratings on Common Sense Media for engagement and pedagogy. Try for yourself and experiment with the various sensors already built into your mobile device. Happy experimenting….. Brian Taylor, Assistant Principal, Campus Curriculum Technology Integration
Early Years
Primary Library
Secondary Library
Fiction
Fiction
Fiction
Non-Fiction
Non-Fiction
Non-Fiction
Chapter Books
Senior Fiction
Oversize Books
Teachers’ Collection Parents’ Collection
Did you know that we also subscribe to these Magazines?
Invoices for school fees for Term 2 2016/2017 were sent to families/companies on Wednesday 2nd November 2016. If you have not received your invoice please contact Accounting Department or email accounts@patana.ac.th Please note that the due date for settlement is on Friday 2nd December 2016 and payments received after this date will be subject to a late payment charge of 1% per month. Thank you, Accounting Department
Weekly news and notices from the Transport Department Today is the last day of ECAs for Block 1. The Week of 7th - 11th November we will only have 2:30pm and 4:30pm buses. Selective sports, Dutch, Singapore Mandarin, Danish, Thai ETP and some Secondary drama/ music ECAs will run this week as well as Sports Try-outs. If you are unsure if your ECA activity is running, please contact the ECA teacher. All students not involved in the ECAs above will be put on their normal 1:50/2:30pm bus home.
Secondary students who plan to try out for Season 2 Sports should have signed up to do so already. If you have not signed up, please remember to inform Transport to cancel or change your bus on the day you will attend a Try-out. Please note that limited 4:30pm buses will be running and late requests are subject to route and seat availability only.
Transport will be amended according to each student’s ECA confirmed selections. Please ensure that you are aware of what ECAS your children will attend for Block 2. Primary ECAs will commence on Monday 14th November, Secondary ECAs will commence on Monday 21st
November. Please note that any activity that finishes after 4:45pm will require private transport arrangements home. If you make any late changes to Block 2 ECAs please ensure that you inform the Transport Office.
Please plan ahead and inform Transport if you know you will bring your child to school on the morning of departure of your child’s Secondary Residential beginning Monday 14th November. Transport on Monday 14th November will run as normal for Secondary students. Please help to avoid unnecessary delays to other bus users by cancelling the bus for your child and also for any siblings if applicable. When students return on Friday 18th November all afternoon transport home has been cancelled. If you would like your child to take the bus home on this day, please ensure that you inform Transport in advance.
For Year 11 and 13 students, normal Transport service to and from school will operate. Please request any Transport changes in advance. Please note not all requests can be accommodated due to limited bus routes for the week 14th-18th November. All requests are subject to route and seat availability.
Contact 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
The course is designed for non-Thai speakers who have acquired some vocabulary and basic Thai conversational skills. Students acquire a range of vocabulary and a variety of conversational and grammatical patterns. Students will learn about greeting others and introduction themselves, food and drinks, going shopping, places and directions, time and date, daily life and Thai Culture.
Date: Days offered: Time: Taught by: Cost: Venue: Places:
14/11/16 – 27/01/2017 (Block 2) Tuesday (Beginner) 10:30 am -12:30 (2 hours) Kru Nittaya 4,400 Baht (8 sessions) FHC 208 4–6
Interested parents can sign up on the following link: http://www.patana.ac.th/Gateway/Forms/ ThaiCourse/LV1-2Tue.asp Please note that Registration is open between Friday 4th November and Wednesday 9th November. If you have any problem with registering or would like more information please contact Khun Tip in the Thai Department at jaar@patana.ac.th
Date: Saturday & Sunday, November 12-13, 2016 Time: 9:30am - 4:00pm The popular Neilson Hays Library Used Book Sale returns in November. Thousands of high quality English language books will be on sale, kindly donated by supporters of the Neilson Hays Library. Our popular fundraiser offers books in all genres, with prices starting at 20 baht. There is also a small selection Thai books and a variety of other foreign language books. For this Book Sale, there will also be a sizeable collection of classic and contemporary leather-bound books at very reasonable prices on Saturday, November 12. From Hemingway to Satre, GĂźnter Grass to Paul Theroux, choose a lot or single books ranging from very good to mint condition. Some are limited editions, and a few--by Norman Mailer, V.S. Naipaul, Anthony Burgess and more--are even signed by the author. Gates open at 9:30am. Parking is available in the Voravit Building (Surawong Road, near Naret Road, approximately 20 metres before library entrance). NB. There will be no parking at the library and the no-parking restrictions on Surawong Road will be enforced by authorities. All proceeds from the book sale will go towards upcoming renovation and restoration plans. For more information call 02-233-1731, email neilson.library@gmail.com, or visit our Facebook page.
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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