Over the past few weeks, it has been fantastic to have parents back on campus in large numbers for all our cur riculum mornings, coffee mornings, parent conference evenings, and the mental health first aid talks. I know from the feedback that I have received that these events have been really insightful for all of our community and have provided much-needed human connection. It has been so great for us to finally get a chance to meet so many parents in person and make these face-to-face links. For too long, we have not had opportunities for these types of interactions due to the shadow of Covid. The value and importance of these events and the chance to meet in person are a large part of what makes our community thrive.
Despite our community's best efforts in recent years - with the vast majority of our meetings having been in a digital format - we have not had the opportunity to
interconnect in a natural (analogue) way. Moving the conversations away from a digital forum to a real space environment allows us to connect on a much more in terpersonal level. We can communicate with true ex pression, in more detail and without potential misinter pretation. The subtleties of human communication and complexities of expression are still yet to be tackled by many digital formats. These applications often still do not match the joy of face-to-face meetings, particularly now we can see facial expressions given that masks are now less of a barrier. We are fully embracing having parents back in school!
Another reason we have had such high numbers of parents coming in for these events might be due to what I refer to as “The COVID Backdraft”. One of the many positives that have come out of the situation over the past few years is that parents have had more insight into their children's education than ever before—growing a deeper understanding and appreciation of their child's education compared to pre-covid times. Currently, we know parents are craving a chance to build relation ships with ourselves and other parents. We celebrate this hunger and desire to get involved in your children's
“Deep human connection… is the purpose and result of a meaningful life. It will inspire the most amazing acts of love, generosity and humanity” Melinda Gates
education. “The COVID Backdraft” has also meant that the usual conversations and connections in any typical academic cycle have not occurred. We know these parent events have provided a chance to bridge those gaps in real-world discussions and strengthen our rela tionships. They have brought us closer and allowed us to discuss more detail areas around curriculum, assessment and learning in a more personable way; this is extremely healthy for our community as we move back to normality.
Our teachers are contactable at any time.
Our teachers and leaders are enthusiastic about em bracing this human connection and continuing to build back our face-to-face relationships with the parent com
munity. Again, I take this opportunity to state that our teachers are contactable anytime; parents do not have to wait for a parent conference evening. These oppor tunities will contribute to bridging any connection gaps that have occurred in recent years.
To support the information provided during our recent curriculum and coffee mornings for Key Stages 3 and 4. I wanted to take this chance to remind everyone about our excellent curriculum guides, which can be found in the links below. These documents are so well put togeth er by our marketing team and provide essential informa tion for our programs of study.
Click on each image to view the relevant Curriculum Guide:
This year, the SEC and Primary CAT team are inviting our community to join together for the One Green Goal challenge. This year-long challenge aims to put sustainability and environmental awareness back at the centre of our thoughts, as we move beyond the pandemic. We hope that Year groups, departments, families and our wider Bangkok Patana community will set themselves One Green Goal to pursue this year. We have a list of possible suggestions, but we know that each setting and household has different needs and challenges. We want you and your family to choose a goal that is relevant to you.
People are already joining the One Green Goal challenge and we want you to be part of the challenge too! Please decide your One Green Goal for this academic year and record a short video explaining what it is. Videos should be portrait style and less than one minute long. We will share them on our social media channels. The link for uploading is here: One Green Goal Videos
Please take photos and record your progress with your One Green Goal. We will be checking in through the year to share successes, challenges, barriers and next steps. We will be using the Patana News and our other communication channels to celebrate our journeys. We know that change is never easy but by starting small and supporting each other, great things can grow. We hope that you will join with us in putting sustainability and environmental awareness back at the top of the agenda.
Have a meat free day once a week
Use a fan at night not air conditioning
Turn off lights when leaving a room Beach clean
Bring trash to school to recycle Buy LED lights
Snap face masks before disposing to reduce chances of animals becoming entangled
Say no to straws
Walk more, drive less Car share to school
Pass on old school uniform via the Tiger Shop
Use metal straws
Say no to plastic packaging
October and November can be stressful months for Year 13 students as they are busy writing col lege essays and filling out university applications. This article is meant to support our Year 13s, but the strategies
Stress affects our body and mind in negative ways but there are many, easy-to-learn and easy-to-practice strategies that we can use to manage our stress level. explains a few. Please remember to take time to unwind when you need it. Pushing through when your system tells you to relax can wear you out. Continuously pushing through might lead to a burnout. Stay physically active, but do it because you enjoy it, and not because you “have to”. “Have to” is more a state of mind than a list of duties and it is stress inducing. Being mindful of your thought patterns can switch many of the “have tos” around and reduce your stress level.
A healthy body goes hand in hand with a healthy mind. Do you feel the need to talk about your stress? Try reaching out to people around you such as friends, fam ily, teachers, and counsellors. Make sure to schedule in some quality time with friends and family. It is nice to just spend time together – not all conversations have to be
about schoolwork and college applications. Take time to just be you! Get out of your mind and into your life from time to time. Maybe try the Leaves on the Stream medi tation. You would love it! It is only 13 minutes long. Want something shorter? Try the 7/11 breathing exercise. It doesn't get any easier than that. Just spend five minutes sitting comfortably, counting to seven when you breath in, and to 11 when you breath out. Everyone can do it! Don't underestimate this exercise – it has a very calming effect on your body and mind in just a few minutes.
If you have never practiced meditation before, then you might want to give it a shot. Even just a few minutes per day will have a remarkable effect on your system. Maybe check out Calm. It's one of the highest rated apps of all time. They have a free trial, called “7 Days of Calm”. My 7-year-old son listens to their bedtime stories every night and he loves them. You might too! Another great app is Headspace. It also has guided meditations and a free trial.
Be sure to take some time to do things that make you happy during the upcoming half term holidays, and see you again on 24th October.
Event and Entertainment Management equips students with the theoret ical knowledge and practical skills to become leaders in the fast-paced event and entertainment industries. With a business-oriented skill set, stu dents are prepared to successfully manage a wide variety of events: fairs, festivals, entertainment and sporting events, meetings, trade shows and much more. This attractive, international industry has a huge range of op portunities that fit a wide number of interests and career goals.
Students learn all aspects of event management from inception to imple mentation including risk management, sustainability, marketing, finance, and logistics. Using the newest technologies and emerging trends cou pled with essential business principles, students will have a skillset to thrive in the industry or branch out into others.
M A J O R S U B J E C T S P O T L I G H TMANAGEMENT
As we celebrate the completion of Term 1a, its such a relief to have so much to look forward to. There has been a renewed sense of purpose across the school and a genuine desire to get back to sport and ECAs. In November, we will begin our overseas trips once again with more than 150 students heading out to Singapore and Phuket.
For those who are new to the school, out Varsity (Under 19) teams compete in SEASAC, a conference made up of the most prestigious schools across Southeast Asia. Renewing rivalries and finding new challenge has been welcomed by our senior student-athletes with renewed vigour and excite ment evident.
“Extra-curricular programmes are the beating heart of the school for so many students who find thriving in the classroom more difficult” (Buckley and Lee, 2018 discussing ECA provision and student confidence)
In this busy half term, Bangkok Patana has played host or travelled to more than 180 fixtures with teams across Bang kok. These fixtures have equated to more than 50% of the stu dent body taking part in Sport related extra-curricular activity. This highlights the importance activities hold to our students and the value they add to our thriving school. We are excited to be hosting lots of BMAC tournaments to end the season, celebrating our students success in sport.
Block B will be upon us at freight train speed when we re turn, with trials week for Block B taking place from 14th-17th November. For our Varsity and JV student-athletes, we have Rugby and Touch alongside Basketball and Tennis. At Un der12 and Under14 age group level, we have Softball and Volleyball. Please remind your children to sign up for trials, these are all extremely popular sports, and we want everyone to have the chance to play.
This week in our Chemistry lessons, our teacher heated some salts to see the different colors of the metals found in the salts. The metals were lithium, sodium, potassium, calcium, strontium, barium and copper. We started by putting a little bit of the powdered salts in a beaker. Then we poured in a little bit of water to dissolve the salts slightly and added 5ml of ethanol. The exothermic reaction, the combustion of ethanol, was started by lighting the ethanol. The heat released warmed up the metal ions. The electrons in the metal ions were then excited to higher energy levels by the heat. When the electrons fell back down to lower energy levels, they emited lights of various, specific wavelengths (the atomic emission spectrum). Each metal ion has is own characteristic flame colour, as can be seen in the photo below.
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Urban Neighbours of Hope are a small, respon sive neighbourhood-based team who live and serve the community in Khlong Toey, one of the poorest areas of Bangkok. They partner with a local Montessori Preschool, Grapongdeang, at the Khlong Toey Commu nity Centre. Year 1 have supported Urban Neighbours of Hope and the students of Grapongdeang for over six years through fundraising projects and giving books at Christmas time.
The school endured a long period of closure due to the pandemic, but are open again now. Last year, Year 1 helped to fundraise money to replace the old school roof and update the kitchens and toilets. This work is due to start as soon as the rains stop. This year, Urban Neighbours of Hope plan to install new playground equipment in the outside space to encourage movement and the physical development of their students. Year 1 will use their fundraising efforts to support this important development.
Also run by Urban Neighbours of Hope, Roy Rak is a fair trade initiative that helps local women make beauti ful, ornate jewellery. Now that Covid restrictions are lift ed, Roy Rak are able to offer workshops, tours and even birthday party activities. Please find them at royrak.org or on their Instagram page
If you are able to support UNoH please contact Lish Faulkner at alisha@unoh.org
On Saturday 8th October, 11 Bangkok Patana students waited excitedly for the Model United Nations Con ference at Concordian International School to begin. Resplendent in their freshly pressed suits, they began preparing themselves to enter the committee rooms where they would debate the following topics:
•Addressing the weaponisation of information in the age of globalisation
•Women’s rights reform in Saudi Arabia
•The (abusive) use of veto power in the UN Security Council
•The trial of Bosco Natanga in the International Court of Justice
•A simulation of how the UN Security Council would deal with World War 1
For many of the delegates, it is their first ever Model United Nations conference and for even the most experi enced, it is their first face-to-face conference since February 2019.
Opening speeches were delivered, nerves settled, resolutions were written and presented, speeches were given both for and against the arguments and clapping resounded as resolutions were passed.
As our delegates exited the building at the close of the day, they were chatting with newly made friends and looking forward to Day 2. While a lot of serious work was done, it was also clear that the old adage still rings true: M-U-N is F-U-N.
Congratulations to the following delegates who represented Bangkok Patana so well: Utkarsh Bagaria, Ashvika Bansal, Bobby Benhar, Phisira Chatchupong, Jonas Christiaen, Tarini Chowla, Jun Ishihara, Amanda Ljunberg, Shrish Mahesh, Sarisa Tetrasukij and Johnny Tungsubutra.
Carol Battram, Primary Assistant Principal, Learning and Welfare
Ioften write about safeguarding but this week my focus is on keeping safe – safe in the city, safe on holiday, safe from pre ventable harm. First, a tale of folly and woe.
Not long ago, I went to a friend’s birthday dinner at a Sukhum vit restaurant. Being a lark rather than an owl, I was one of the first to leave. I tried Grab but no cars were available, so I decided to walk around the corner to the next soi and flag down a taxi. Rath er than wait, I started to walk down the soi towards Sukhumvit. I didn’t even hear the motorbike until it had passed by, and it took me a moment to realise that I was now minus my bag.
The bag was decorated with a bright yellow pineapple (!) which no doubt glowed in the dark like the lure on an angler’s pole. Mr Opportunistic had plenty of time to get his trajectory just right. I had helpfully worn the strap over my roadside shoulder, allowing for the removal of said bag without any unseemly tussle. It could have been so much worse. I know people who have been left seriously hurt in similar circumstances.
Every year, when new staff join the school, I talk about the importance of keeping safe and yet I’d made this rookie error. Those of us who call Thailand our adopted home often tell visitors that we feel safe here – far safer than in our home country! That still feels true, but there are things that we should all be doing to keep ourselves, our visitors and our families safe.
Firstly, don’t do what I did. Don’t walk down a soi on your own with valuables dangling off your arm. Inconvenience is massively preferable to injury, but I’m still upset that I’ll never see my phone again. I make a point of telling new teachers to switch wallets when out and about, especially at night and only take out what you need.
Very little needs to be paid for in cash – and some ATMs at tract unwanted attention. Cancelling a credit card is increasingly straightforward. Replacing your Thai driver’s license, not so much. Please keep your medical insurance card to hand. In the event of an accident, this one small piece of plastic will get you admitted into hospital, speed up your medical treatment and potentially save your life.
Violent crime, including sexual assaults, occurs in every coun try, with clear spikes in reported assaults during holiday periods and where tourists congregate. Please take these precautions to reduce your exposure to risky situations and, if you have children who no longer want or require your supervision, teach them to do the same.
•Have a clear plan to get home. Make the plan before you head out.
•If walking, think about your route. (Don’t walk home along a de serted beach/soi).
•Be patient and wait for traceable transport such as GRAB or
BOLT. This is a much safer option than an untraceable taxi, tuktuk or songthaew.
•Don’t sneak out without letting someone know and message someone when safely home.
•Drink-spiking is now prevalent in areas frequented by tourists and domestic holiday makers.
o Don’t leave you drink unattended.
o Don’t share drinks.
o Don’t accept drinks from strangers.
If someone is sexually assaulted whilst in Bangkok, they can contact the One Stop Crisis Center based at the Bangkok Po lice General Hospital. The staff there are ready to provide help and support, whatever your nationality. A group of Patana staff recently made a visit to the OSCC and we were impressed with their skilled multi-disciplinary approach and readiness to provide help and support to anyone, regardless of nationality.
Having said that, it certainly helps to speak some Thai, or to bring a Thai speaker along with you when visiting a government facility. The officers at Thonglor Police Station were never less than helpful, but my lack of Thai made a slow and wearying pro cess even longer.
Other good numbers to have in your contacts include the Tour ist Police Hotline 1155. The tourist police may be able to help in all sorts of situations and can act as arbitrators in disputes.
On a much cheerier note, I recently met with Patana parents keen to support student learning in the Primary School. We have missed having our parents helping in class over the last two years and are very excited to wel come our parent-volunteers back after the half term break.
As part of our commitment to Student Safeguarding, we re quire any parents who want to support in class to complete a three-step process before offering their time, skills and expertise.
•Attend a short presentation about in-school Safeguarding •Sign the Parent Code of Conduct •Sign a Self-Disclosure form confirming that you have never been subject to any allegation or investigation with reference to your be haviour around children or young people.
In late September, I had the oppor tunity to visit some fifteen universities in Ontario, Canada and in Houston, Tex as, and catch up with some Bangkok Patana alumni. It was a wonderful chance to talk and build relation ships with admissions and financial aid officers, students and professors and to learn more about the academic and social life of the different institutions and their local areas.
At Bangkok Patana, we regularly talk about “fit” when dis cussing college lists. These are the factors that are important to the student and will allow them to thrive. There’s no point applying to the University of Oxford if you want to study Ar chitecture (they don’t offer it), or McGill in Canada if you hate the cold (temperatures in Montreal during winter can reach -40 degrees centigrade!). Below are some things to consider when developing a preliminary university list:
•Academics: Do they offer majors, minors, concentrations, elec tives, core curriculum, specialisations, co-operative opportunities, study abroad programmes that you are interested in?
•Climate: To be happy do you need warm weather, easy ac cess to skiing, four seasons, lots of sunshine?
•Location: Do you want to be near a city, in the countryside, do you not mind?
•Distance from home: How far from home are you willing to travel?
•Institutional type: Public or private institution? Very big, midsized, small?
•Parental priorities: Have early, open, regular discussions with your child about your expectations and budget.
As they walk around institutions, students will get an intangi ble sense of the place they will be living and learning in. They will see first-hand what their university experience could be like, including the unique aspects of the college's community. Keep an eye out for notices on bulletin boards, look at how students interact with each other, what events and academic opportunities are being promoted, and how are the spaces organised. Is it a good “fit”?
Tour guides are often current students and can provide gen uine insight into what an institution is like. I often ask questions related to their field of study, access to and friendliness of professors, accommodation provision, student support, intern ships, part-time jobs, and cost of living. My ‘go to’ question is, “If you could change anything at your university, what would
Many universities offer the chance to meet with a faculty mem ber or sit in on a lecture or seminar. These experiences will help them assess class size, the level of ac ademic rigour, how the professors interact with their students, facilities and resources available.
The key to asking “good” ques tions is to ensure that you are ask ing thoughtful, individualized ques tions that cannot be answered by a simple Google search or by reading the prospectus. Instead of “How many international students attend your university?” you might ask, “Tell me about your interna tional student community and what kind of support structure does your university offer them?”. Instead of “does your university have a psy chology course?” you could ask “what makes your university’s psy chology course different from the others?”.
A comprehensive list can be found here on our Careers and Universities Firefly page
•Many university websites have online virtual visits and tours.
•Connect with the university ad mission officer, as they will be able to answer questions about your in dividual circumstances and help you find out more about the college that interests you. Make sure to send a follow-up thank you email!
•Meet with university representatives that visit Bangkok Patana. •Carry out a deep dive into the university’s website
•Contact our alumni office (alumni@patana.ac.th) to connect with Patana students who are attending or have attended the uni versity.
Laura Glanowski, Secondary Drama Teacher
Drama really is back and thriving in the secondary school, this is what has been going on in Term a.
We are really proud of our (I)GCSE and IB students who have completed final exam pieces of their courses this half term.
In (I)GCSE Ms Glanowski’s class have been working in groups to complete their devised exam piece, which is a performance that students have created themselves. The class all had the same stim ulus of a photo called “The boy with the grenade” by Diane Arbus, from this the students used the skills and drama techniques that they have learnt throughout their (I)GCSE course to create a small piece of drama which is worth 20% of their final grade.
In Ms Cordery’s (I)GCSE class, her students have been creating an individual monologue performance, which is also worth 20% of their final grade. In this per formance, the students were given a professional script, which the students had to research and understand the context, interpret and bring it to life in their own way. Some of the scripts that our students looked at included; “DNA” by Dennis Kelly, “Adult Child/Dead Child” by Claire Dowie and an adaptation of “Alice in wonderland”.
In IB Theatre our students have been working on creating their collaborative project performance. In this project, the students have worked in two small groups taking on all of the roles of theatre – the creator/director, performer and technical production roles. This has been really interesting for all of the students to take on these roles, particularly the production side of theatre, for example with lighting design, the students had to understand the process of how to plan and rig the lights in the correct position, create a lighting de sign and then plan a cue sheet for the technical rehearsals
As creators and directors, the students created their com plete performance from scratch using a stimulus of their choice- both groups chose to use this image as a stimu lus, but created completely contrasting work. One groups performance was focused on presenting a strange dysto pian reality, focusing on the idea of conformity. The other group focused on presenting different stories representing the pressures of social media on everyday life. One audi ence member commented that they found the work “very challenging, but it inspired them to reflect on the characters and way that social media affects their life”.
On Tuesday 11th October, we had the pleasure of wel coming visiting artist Ellis Van Maarseveen to the Bang kok Patana Drama department. Ellis worked with our Year 10, Year 11, Year 12 and Year 13 students exploring the Japanese theatre traditions that she is a specialist in. The traditions that she explored with our students include Kyo gen and Rakugo; however, she also introduced our students briefly to Noh Theatre as well. All of this has helped our students to understand the world of theatre further, which will be really beneficial to apply to both their (I)GCSE and IB Theatre courses.
From 5th – 8th October, Ms De Borja and Mr Ferne took a small group of IB Theatre students to our first ISTA (In ternational School’s Theatre Association) trip in three years! It was a real privilege for our students to our students to go on this trip to Chiang Mai. Throughout the experience students got the opportunity to work in theatre ensembles with students from many other international schools to gain a host of different theatrical experiences to support them in their IB Course. They also got the opportunity to work with professional Theatre artists including; 18 Monkeys Dance Theatre, B-Floor Theatre company, which is a Bangkok based professional theatre company, Makhampom Thea tre Company, who are a professional Thai Theatre compa ny based in Chiang Dao and Benjamin Tardiff who the first non-Thai master of Khon Theatre. It was a really valuable experience for our students to gain all these opportunities to work with such a range of different professional artists.
On top of this, the Drama team are currently preparing for our first secondary musical in four years; Bugsy Malone
Watch out for more information about this in Term 1b and we look forward to welcoming you see the show!
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 Primary EAL Teacher, Nicola Thornback, is stuck on a desert island.
MS NICOLA , IF YOU WERE STUCK ON A DESERT ISLAND WHAT EIGHT PIECES OF MUSIC WOULD YOU WANT TO HAVE WITH YOU?
Hotel California - Eagles
Common People - Pulp
Romeo and Juliet - Dire Straits
Mr Brightside - The Killers
Click to listen to Ms Nicola’s playlist
The Weakness In Me - Joan Armatrading
Suspicious Minds - Elvis Presley
Over - Drake
Rehab - Amy Winehouse
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. Citronella!
WHICH ONE BOOK WOULD YOU WANT TO HAVE WITH YOU?
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
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.
