is the first of our three core values. We firm ly believe that if students are to thrive academically, physically, socially and personally, their well-being needs to come first. If you search for a definition of well-being on the Internet, you will find an enormous range. Some are very nar row and focus solely on mental health whereas others are so broad that they are of little use in a school context.
At Bangkok Patana we have selected a definition used by The World Health Organisation which states:
‘Well-being is present when a person realises their poten tial, is resilient in dealing with the normal stresses of their life, takes care of their physical well-being and has a sense of purpose, connection and belonging to the wider communi ty.’ WHO 2001: Mental Health: New Understanding, New Hope.
I have written a number of articles for the Patana News fo cusing on this definition and discussing the many ways we try to support student well-being here at school. For this article I would like to focus on just one small part of the definition: ‘has a sense of purpose, connection and belonging to the wider community.’
Students are part of the wider Bangkok Patana community and we strive to create a feeling of belonging and a sense of being connected. But what about having a sense of pur pose?
There has been a lot of research into the link between stu dent participation in extracurricular activities and well-being. But I thought it would be interesting to look into whether there is a connection between student leadership and well-be ing, asking the questions: Does having a leadership position enhance a sense of purpose? How does having influence over school life, being heard and being able to bring about change impact that sense of purpose and, therefore, a stu dent’s well-being?
At Bangkok Patana there are a huge range of student lead ership roles including: Senior Delegates, Student Delegates,
Junior Delegates, Digital Leaders, Senior Student Council (SSRC), Board and Reps, Junior Student Council (JSRC) - Board and Reps, CAT clubs, CAS groups, Head Captains, Vice Captains and Year leaders and Well-Being Ambassadors.
These are in addition to the many leadership roles specific to the various curriculum areas.
In the area of sport, student leaders work alongside the PE teachers and coaches to influence the sports provision at Bangkok Patana. Students are captains of the sports teams as well as ‘student coaches’ helping to support and develop their peers. In the Arts, the Arts Council organised the last Patana Plugged concert, hosted the IB Visual Arts Show, and helped facilitate music performances in the Secondary Lounge. Year 12 students work with children in Year 2 to create a perfor mance around the theme of Pirates. Students lead mini work shops and take ownership over the outcomes.
In the Humanities, students lead revision clinics for their peers and take on leadership roles when collecting data on field trips. There are also two regular publications and corre sponding online resources completely overseen by the stu dents, Scientia in Science and Core Magazine in English. In World Languages, IB students lead a programme whereby they support language development with younger studentsas young as Foundation Stage.
This is just a small sample of the many leadership roles avail able to students.
Taking on a leadership position has many obvious bene fits for the students. It gives them a sense of responsibility and ownership; it develops their communication and collaboration skills and of course their leadership skills.
When searching the web for evidence to address the ques tion, I discovered that there wasn’t much available. One recent study completed in Australia had found evidence to support the link and concludes that: ‘having a say with influential peo
Lorna Conroy, Secondary Assistant Principal, Student Welfareple, having choice, having influence, and working together significantly and positively predicted wellbeing.’*
But that was about all I could find. So, I decided to carry out my own research and ask some of the student leaders here at Bangkok Patana. In doing so, giving them influence and ownership of what is included in this article.
I love that I can take the initiative to kick-start initiatives and discussions regarding significant issues- I get to be around people who are equally passionate in striving for change and to be part of those conversations allow me to remain motivat ed and hopeful. Especially as a Senior Delegate, I enjoy how flexibly I can work with various year groups in school, allow ing different communities to intertwine under a shared aim.
Definitely, there’s a misconception among many people that having leadership roles adds significantly more stress to stu dents’ lives but that is not entirely true. Yes, it does mean I have much more work to do than most students but I gain many advantages from experiencing these leadership roles.
Having a leadership role allows me to feel a sense of re sponsibility for those around me and those that we are help ing, therefore contributing to my overall well-being in a pos itive way as I am able to feel the joy of helping others in my community.
I enjoy feeling as though I am able to have a meaningful influence on my community, and that others have confidence in my abilities to guide them.
It has made me feel more connected with those working with me, more conscious of my responsibilities, and more con fident in myself as a capable representative.
Yes, for sure. Being able to collaborate with similarly pas sionate, hard-working people is a freeing experience because I’m able to express my ideas openly and fuel my enthusiasm just by talking to them. It’s also always rewarding to be able to see the achievements of the group’s effort and commitment, knowing that my ideas and guidance made an influence.
It allows you to feel more integrated within the school, as the benefits and fruits of your work can be seen in effect after implementation. Noticable change has the most impact.
Absolutely, I feel a great sense of pride when the community is engaged with the cause that we are passionate about. It is also extremely cherishing and rewarding when our hard work has paid off in the end.
Yes for sure. I feel a great sense of pride and happiness when I see our school community engaged with my CAT Club. An example of when this was shown was in Christmas 2021 where the school community provided our CAT Club with numerous donations for a Christmas and Gift Drive
Having a leadership role exercises my right to collaborate and provide guidance to like minded peers. This gives me the opportunity to ensure that we are all focused on achieving our corresponding goals, in the most efficient way possible. Seeing the end result of collaborative work brings satisfaction as a leader.
Having a leadership role allows me to feel as though there is a way that I can make an impact within the school com munity. I enjoy the idea of having a “safe space” in which students can come up and express any concerns they may have, knowing that someone is actively listening.
I think being able to make an impact on the community whether it be small events or large trips motivates me as it is very rewarding. Furthermore, I enjoy generally interacting with the community within and outside the club.
Yes, because a big part of being a good leader requires communication with other members. I find it very refreshing when I interact with new people that have the same values as me. This motivates me to continue being a leader of a club full of members that want to make a change in our school.
I can say that YES, being in a leadership position in the JSRC has had a positive impact on my mental well-being. The numerous motions and agendas that have been pushed for wards and brought to the school’s leadership, including con tributing to a KS3 review in regards to workload, and also taking part in the Banter/Bullying Teacher Training Day during the first term have given me a sense of pride and happiness in the fact that I am actively participating in the betterment of the school environment
Being new and joining JSRC in year 7 was the best deci sion I have made at my time at Patana, JSRC was extremely beneficial to my mental health as it allowed my to meet, talk to and befriend many. I noticed that a month or so after I first join JSRC I immediately felt more merged into the Patana commu nity and that sentiment still holds true.
It may not be the most extensive or scientific piece of re search but the results are conclusive - at Bangkok Patana, student leadership does enhance student well-being.
*Donnah L. Anderson, Anne P. Graham, Catharine Simmons, Nigel Patrick Thomas, Positive links between student participation, recognition and wellbeing at school, International Journal of Educational Research, Volume 111, 2022The IB Design Technology off-timetable day was a valuable time for us to further develop our IA pro jects without distractions. This DT-focused day saw oc cupied 3D printers, students collaborating with clients, individual one-to-one teacher feedback and peer feed back. It definitely helped in moving all of our projects forward and taking one step further towards completing our final products for clients.
Thank you to Mr Myers and Mr Smith for arranging an uninterrupted DT Day and supporting us through it! We’re all grateful for the opportunity to have this time to accelerate our projects to the high standard that we all aim for.
ent. I’m sure we’re all very grateful for this opportunity Mr Myers and Mr Smith has given us.
Having the full day to invest time and effort into my DT IA was invaluable to getting closer to my final product. I was able to fully focus on CAD drawings, gain time with my client/users, discuss potential ideas with my teacher and collaborate with other design students. Additionally, as DT requires a combination between time spent brain storming and practical work of making models, having the opportunity to spend more time on it was enjoyable and very much needed.
Our “off timetable session” has been able to support us to continue to develop our designs, through the feed back given from our clients we are able to progress for wards in our IA which has been extremely useful for us!
Following are some comments from our Year 13 IB DT students about this day:
I value my time in DT on this day as it gave me an opportunity to meet with my client and develop my prod uct even further. From today, I managed to improve my product significantly as I had a lot of time to think effec tively and try new ideas which have helped my IA.
With the entire day to focus solely on DT I was able to progress forward with my project such as doing lots of CAD design, 3D printing and conversing with my client.
The DT Day has given me valuable time to work and experiment on my project in particular, designing. I was able to develop many ideas as well as talking to my cli
I very much valued this dedicated, off-timetable DT Day as it has really allowed me, along with my classmates, to accelerate our learning and progress with reference to our individual IA projects. I personally felt that I was able to make significant improvements to my design through the constant tests and iterations which I had conducted throughout the entire day, and I now feel confident that I am well and truly on the right path to completing my IA with efficiency and to a high quality.
A considerable portion of the effort for the extremely demanding IB course IB Higher Level Design Technolo gy is allocated to the IA. This day was really helpful in al
lowing us to catch up on our IA obligations and commu nicate with our clients. It is incredibly beneficial to have days free from the schedule to concentrate on our IAs.
IB Higher Level Design Technology is a very rigorous IB course that has a relatively larger part of its workload devoted to the IA. The DT Day was extremely useful in helping us catch up with our deadlines for the IA and also interact with our clients. Having off-timetable days to work on our IAs is very helpful.
Overall, the full day of DT was a very well placed and needed day. Usually, I find that in between DT lessons I lose momentum and track of what it is I am currently working on, however by having a full day to allow stu dents to completely focus on our projects has deemed itself extremely useful to me. During this time, I was able to make more progress than I ever thought possible, it has also reduced a lot of overall stress I had over not finishing my prototype in time.
I found the day off timetable to be quite helpful as it allowed an allocated time to arrange testing of proto types which otherwise would be much more difficult to organise within the already busy IB schedule. This also provided an opportunity to progress with the models and
explore new designs with a clear view on how to im prove or develop them.
It was beneficial to have a full day developing our product iterations as it gave us a more complete session rather than sparse lesson times. The DT Day also allowed us to meet with our respective clients to gain feedback on the direction of our product development. By allow ing this time slot, I feel that there have been significant developments in my project and the feedback from my client has helped me move towards a more user centred product.
Our students must be congratulated as everyone worked very hard and made pleasing progress through out the day. It was great to see their first prototypes being manufactured and then tested with their clients. We really value the opportunity to work with our DT IB students for a full uninterrupted day. It helps both students and teachers to fully understand their projects and to make significant headway through the iterative design process. We are very grateful for the time allocated to us and for the sup port of colleagues and students throughout the school, acting as clients and users and giving their precious feed back.
Thomas House is a small, specialised school for chil dren with special educational needs located in Tha Ton, north of Chiang Mai. It provides a vital service to a ru ral area with very few options for children with special needs. Before Thomas House, children were either sent to schools that were ill-equipped and untrained to cater to their needs, or they did not attend school at all.
With construction completed in November 2017, this November marks the five-year anniversary of Thomas House. The school can accommodate up to 24 students and offers an individualised learning program to suit the needs of each child. Thomas House also offers place ments for specialist volunteers and work experience op portunities for trainees in the SEN field.
home visits from the aptly named, Kru Joy. Thankfully, Thomas House was able to open again in June 2022 and will be offering a three-day week until they are in a financial position to offer a full school week. At present, twelve students are attending.
For many years, Bangkok Patana has been sending groups of students to the Maekok River Village centre for Duke of Edinburgh International Award, Geography and community service trips. When Thomas House was first set up, a large quantity of recently-replaced Prima ry furniture was donated to Thomas House, saving sig nificant funds. Christmas collections have increased the amount of quality books available to the students of Thomas House, and the recent funds raised during the Year 3 Timestable-athon and Friendship Friday went to wards sponsoring students through university and new playground equipment which will soon be installed at the school.
Christmas cards made by a talented local student will go on sale before Christmas with proceeds going to wards Thomas House. Check the Patana News for more information on where to purchase Christmas cards when the time draws more near. Donations are also very wel come. You can contact Rosie and Bryan, who do a great job running Thomas House, at rosie@mrv-education services.com
Thomas House is part of a registered charity which incorporates three projects: Thomas House; the 'Contin uing Education Project' which supports students through Secondary and Tertiary education; and the 'Community Building Project, part of the visiting schools programme to improve conditions in local schools.
Funding for Thomas House is solely reliant on the sup port of the MRV (business) Project and charitable dona tions from visiting schools, hotel guests and others. Due to the pandemic, these sources of income were severe ly impacted, and Thomas House was forced to close. However, the children were lucky to receive regular
Eoin Bevan, Assistant Leader of Language Acquisition, EAL Teacher Year 3
Over the course of five days, Year 11 (I)GCSE
geography enthusiasts finally got to go on the much-anticipated Geography Trip to Hua Hin to collect data for our coursework. This also gave us the chance to spend time along the beautiful beach of the Suan Son Pradipat resort. Throughout the week, we studied the na ture of coasts and the central business district of Hua Hin with the support of our geography teachers. Not only were we given opportunities to expand and develop our knowledge, the trip also enabled us to acquire new skills and build new friendships.
We spent one out of the five days studying three dif ferent coasts along Hua Hin: Pak Nam Pran, Pranburi Forest Park, Suan Son beach. At each coastline, we used our understanding of the features in a coast which we learned in class to draw our site maps with precision. Moreover, we took numerous measurements such as the coast width, inclination and longshore drift using different pieces of equipment provided to understand the impacts of human management on coasts. After some time spent on the beach, we often rewarded ourselves with a re
freshing dip into the sea.
In addition, we were exposed to the various features of downtown Hua Hin, where we tried identifying the central business district (CBD) of Hua Hin based on our pre-learning on settlements. To do this, methods such as pedestrian / traffic counts, environmental surveys and sketching land use maps, were carried out at four differ ent sites that we believed were possible CBDs. Although it was post-COVID with limited activity present, it helped us understand the cruciality of the impact of COVID around the whole world for the past two or so years. We believe that this study not only stretched our understand ing of our learning, but we were able to appreciate our surroundings and provisions provided to us.
Throughout the week, we developed plentiful new, unique skills which not only contributed to our geogra phy course but also our learning experience in life. An enjoyable and lively trip away from school campus doubtlessly allowed us to take our minds off deadlines and focus on the beauty of Geography.
We would like to thank the Geography Faculty for this opportunity that has provid ed us all with a memorable experience.
Parita (Pam) Phanratanamongkol, 11H; Nynn (Gor-Bua) Puttisombat, 11H; Fahsai Pibbulsongram, 11G
This week the Gymnastics Academy announced the 2022/23 Team Captains! This year, our MAG team will be led by Sam Jones and our WAG team will be led by Evelyn Cannon. Congratulations to these two!
Liew Ching (Sharon) Tan, Patana Parent Kelly Zi Ching Pan, 10C, competed in the IIHF 2022 Ice Hockey Under 18 Women’s World Championship in Radenthein, Austria, Division 1 Group B representing Taiwan. Her team achieved the Bronze Medal and Kelly was credited as MVP! Aisikaa Mendelsohn, Patana Parent Dalinda Mendelsohn, 5B, recently completed a 12km trail run, having excitedly jumped at the opportunity to participate in the spare of the moment. Even without much preparation, Dalinda finished the run in the pouring rain – the only child under 10 years old to join and complete the entire run! Great job, Dalinda!
Have you run into a stray dog in Thailand before?
There are thousands of street animals wandering around in Thailand. Did you know that Bangkok alone is estimated to have up to 300,000 stray animals? Sad ly, most of them are stray dogs that were abandoned on the streets, after they became no longer entertain ing enough, or became too costly to take care of. These dogs are not like your adorable pets at home: homeless, unvaccinated, and fierce. They will not hesitate to de fend themselves if you get too close, so I’m warning you - be careful.
Did you know that many of my neighbours have been bitten while jogging around our compound, outside my housing area? Since then, I've never gone cycling again, too worried about getting bitten.
All my life, I had been terrified of dogs, cats, rabbits, you name it! Growing up in Singapore, I never saw a stray dog before, so when I moved to Thailand, it felt like I was entering a whole new planet. However, my mind was soon changed…
Little Zoo Cafe is in Onnut, Bangkok. This is no ordinary cafe, it is literally paradise for animal lovers. There, you can experience animals such as dogs, cats, racoons, fennec foxes, meerkats, and even an arctic fox! Out of all of them, my favourites are the warm-hearted Corgis because of their short legs and friendliness. I was sur
prised by how much I had been captivated by their com panionship.
After this visit to the Little Zoo Cafe, my thinking about stray dogs completely changed. It made me understand that sometimes dogs can be caring and affectionate if you also show your love to them. It turns out that those ferocious stray dogs that I’ve been scared of all my life were just putting on a mask of protection, because they are always in fear, hungry and ill-treated by humans. This is unfair and if they were given a chance, I’m more than 100% sure that they would be more gentle and kind.
I heard from my sister that in Secondary School there are a lot of community service opportunities, and Rescue P.A.W.S Thailand is one of them. Rescue P.A.W.S really stood out to me because it is a voluntary organisation that saves stray dogs by giving them vaccines and nec essary medical care. They also give talks to the public to in order to raise animal welfare awareness. Bangkok Patana Secondary students who join Rescue P.A.W.S will have a chance to visit an animal shelter and play with the animals. Students will also raise funds to buy food, bowls and other pet supplies to donate to the animal shelter.
I was touched by how much they cared for the animals in the shelter. I cannot wait to be in Secondary school, so I can join Rescue P.A.W.S and help the animals in need!
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, a very honoured name,
For an honoured Queen, who had an honoured reign, She stepped up to the throne, young as can be, With no idea of how celebrated she would be, She was a wonderful Queen.
Bravery and compassion were some of her traits, She was a queen kind and great, There are many countries she’s been, There are many things she’s seen, She was a wonderful queen.
Charities and good causes she has benefited, Her reign is really unprecedented, People have looked up to her with awe and wonder, Sad that she’s not here any longer, She was a wonderful Queen.
We’ll miss the Queen truly, She really was dedicated to her duty, And she has always been, A wonderful Queen.
Ying Ying Han, 5G
The Private Education Commission, Ministry of Education (OPEC), led by Prayoon Rungsub (Ph.D), Deputy Secretary-General Office of the Private Education Commission, together with Wirus Lim charoensuk, Director of the Special Policy school Division, made a friendly visit to Bangkok Patana last week in order to receive computers donated by the Bangkok Patana School Foundation Board.
Somdet
Phra Maha Viravongse, assistant abbot of Wat Ratchabophit, visited Bangkok Patana School on Monday 19th September.
This column follows in the style of the famed BBC podcast which features a celebrity every week – here we feature our own Bangkok Patana celebrities! What eight songs, one luxury item and one book would you take with you if you were stuck on a desert island?
Today Business Studies and Economics Teacher, Mark Stewart, is stuck on a desert island.
MR MARK, IF YOU WERE STUCK ON A DESERT ISLAND WHAT EIGHT PIECES OF MUSIC WOULD YOU WANT TO HAVE WITH YOU?
Every Breath You Take - The Police
Faith - George Michael
Afraid to Feel - LF System
Pressure Drop - Toots and the Maytals
Click to listen to Mr Mark’s playlist
Hurt Me - Lapsley
Would I Lie to You - Charles and Eddie
My Destiny - Lionel Ritchie
Younger - Kygo
PICK ONE LUXURY ITEM YOU WOULD WANT TO HAVE WITH YOU. THIS ITEM MUST BE INANIMATE AND OF NO USE IN ESCAPING THE ISLAND OR ALLOWING COMMUNICATION FROM OUTSIDE.
WHICH ONE BOOK WOULD YOU WANT TO HAVE WITH YOU?
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Catch the real Desert Island Discs on BBC. What are you listening to? Have a list of your own? Let us know! Contact STML with your favourites.
Reddit describes itself as a ‘social news’ site where users connect and share stories, opinions and support, debate issues, ask questions, and chat to people with similar interests. Discussion topics are organised into communities (known as subreddits) that are created, run and populated by users, who remain anonymous throughout. Free speech is encour aged and users – or ‘redditors’ –can vote posts ‘up’ or ‘down’ so they get more (or less) attention. Reddit is free to join, although signing up to Reddit Premium unlocks an ad vert-free version of the platform.
In the guide, you’ll find tips on a number of potential risks such as har assment, trolling and fake news.
We hope you can join us at the next PTG Tech Tips event on the 4th Oc tober – sign up here
Have a great weekend.
Brian Taylor Assistant Principal, Campus Curriculum Technology Integration
