NEWS Patana

B a n g k o k P a t a n a i s a n I B W o r l d S c h o o l , a c c r e d i t e d b y C I S a n d N E A S C

The Head of School’s Letter

reetings everyone, As the academic year draws

to a close, I’m delighted to take some time to reflect on another great year at Bangkok Patana School. The school places an une-quivocal emphasis on excellence, whether academic, sporting or cultural. In our mission we aim to inspire our students to develop their talents, to reach well beyond the ordinary as they meet their full potential and in so doing, ac-quire a life-long passion for learn-ing. At Bangkok Patana School, all students are encouraged to strive for personal achievement in the

context of a supportive, empow-ering environment. Our aim is to enable our students to become productive citizens who appreci-ate the importance of service, leadership and traditional values in a rapidly changing world.

We are very pleased with our academic results over the years and have a high expectation that our exam results will be stronger than ever this academic year. Over the past 11 months I have observed: Confident polite stu-dents who are at ease in wanting to question to improve under-standing, strong music and drama performances both solo and in groups, great displays of sports-manship and high success rates in

sporting competitions both at home and away, amazing visual art shows that are unique and thought provoking, a huge array of ECAs on offer that are geared for high student motivation, strong debating skills at the Mod-el United Nations events, increas-ing numbers of students attaining their Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award encapsulating outdoor education and numerous examples of successful student-led service projects. All of these student successes are beautifully showcased in the 2015 Yearbook, which is being published as I write this account. Many thanks to our editors Cheryl Rego and Emma Goligher who have spent hours putting together this year’s com-pilation. Our resident photogra-phers Khun Rooth and Khun Pook have done a splendid job taking thousands of photos of our stu-dents in action over the past year.

I would like to thank each and every teacher and staff member for their professional dedication in helping guide our students to

reach their full potential. I have been extremely pleased with the quality of teacher instruction that I have observed during the aca-demic year supporting our learn-ers.

As usual being an international school, we have a number of stu-dents and families leaving us this year and we want to wish all of them the very best for their future wherever they are moving to around the globe. Please stay in contact with us as we are keen to stay in touch and welcome you to

our worldwide Alumni group – please take a moment to register on our alumni website to receive the latest news and reunion invi-tations.

We have a number of teachers leaving us this year as we do every year and we want to wish them all the very best as they move on to new positions around the world.

On behalf of Clare Sharp, James Penstone, Mick Smith and myself, we would like to wish all of our Bangkok Patana community a wonderful, safe summer holidays and we look forward to welcom-ing you all back to school on Wednesday August 19.

Enjoy your last weekend before the summer holidays! Matt Mills Head of School

ince the beginning of June, two visiting artists-in-residence

from Brazil have been working with students across the school. Lara Ja-coski and Patrick Belem of Bem-Te-Vi Produções are passionate about raising environmental awareness and they are very skilled film mak-ers. They spent a week with FS2 stu-dents who enjoyed getting ‘hands-on’ by making planters out of recy-cled plastic, and using these to seed lemon grass and other plants. More recently, they worked with our Year 3 students who researched different types of waste and found out about what happens to it, how long the items take to decompose and what we can do to reduce, reuse and recy-cle such waste. As a result of these two first weeks, Lara and Patrick produced two fun and engaging films, which were beautiful reflec-tions of the students’ learning expe-riences. The students, in turn, loved watching these.

Now, in their third week with us, Lara and Patrick are working with a group of Year 5 and Secondary stu-

dents who will be creating a mini ‘documentary’. As part of this, the team plan to raise awareness about the problems with wasting plastic in all aspects of life. The film will also highlight the positive steps we can

all take, and in some cases already are taking, to reduce the problem.

This will involve filming people across the school community, both in the Primary and Secondary schools, in large group situations and also individually (interviews / reac-tions to displays). We are always mindful of respecting people’s iden-tity with photography and videogra-phy made within school. With that in

mind, we are taking this approach: If a student (or anyone else)

features in a close-up situa-tion, and if we would like to include the clip in the final edit, we will contact them and/or their parents (as ap-propriate) to ask for permis-sion. We will wait until the final film is in post-production stage to identify these people.

Names or other written in-formation will not be placed against individuals’ images unless specific permission is requested to do so.

The final edit will be shared with the school community next term, in assemblies / meetings / classes and via our website. Later in the year, the same film (or an edited version) could be shared more widely online and at film festivals as part of Lara and Patrick’s growing international portfolio.

If you have any questions about this, please do not hesitate to con-tact me at jape@patana.ac.th.

By James Penstone, Cross Campus Principal

By Dol Manoleehakul, 5R here are many people who contribut-ed to the PATT (Plant a Tree Today)

Foundation Thailand and who truly under-stand the reason we have to plant the trees. On Tuesday 16th June 2015 the Student Envi-ronmental Committee (SEC), which involves Primary and Secondary students, were visit-ed by the project executive of PATT (Khun Sue) and two of her colleagues, Khun Aor and Khun Min. We were given a certificate for being the international school who planted the most trees in 2014! The bewildering amount was 775 trees! The Year groups who contributed to this astonishing number were Year 5, Year 8 and Year 12.

Also contributing to this number, other Year groups donated 55 trees on our community fair day. The cer-tificate is now in Year 5 but will soon be passed to Year 8. Congratulations to everyone who helped make a difference!

By Antonius Berghuis, Senior Teacher Key Stage 3, Curriculum and Assessment

athematics is all around us. It is fundamental to

our everyday experience from the time we wake up, how much ce-real we eat for breakfast, to how quickly we travel to school, to how much we spend at the Snack Bar, and so on. At school, we also study Mathematics which, consid-ering its ubiquity, is a good thing!

The trick, though, is how to take the fractions, percentages, sur-face area and volume formulae, the unit conversions, the logical reasoning, the algebra and figure out when and how to apply these to the world we’d like to under-stand more about. This is not an easy process in which to become fluent.

For example, consider the fol-lowing scenario: “Three friends from Bangkok

Patana travel to Disneyland in California during the July holi-days. They notice that their boarding passes are numbered in consecutive order. Name the three consecutive numbers on their boarding passes if the prod-uct of these numbers is 42,840.”

How would you approach trying to determine a solution?

A different kind of problem might be the following: “A train travelling at 60km per hour crosses a bridge which is 14 times as long as the train. If the train takes 3 minutes to clear the bridge (i.e. from the point it first touches the bridge to the point where its tail leaves the bridge), how long is the train (in metres)?”

Coming up with an effective ap-proach to problems such as these – in a limited amount of time – is

not easy. These types of ques-tions, however, are exactly the kind of problems about 250 stu-dents from Years 6, 7, and 8 have been tackling this year as part of the inaugural Patana Junior Maths Challenge.

Spaced throughout the year, these young mathematicians have been given five challenge papers to complete individually. Each challenge paper has five questions, arranged in order of difficulty from easiest question to the most difficult. The questions cover a wide range of mathemati-cal concepts and is not specific to any particular curriculum, thus making it accessible to a wide range of students.

The purpose of this opportunity

was to provide a mathematical challenge beyond the regular les-son context similar in many ways to the UK Junior Maths Competi-tion – an opportunity which is ap-propriate only for the most able Mathematics students from Years 6 to 9.

The questions certainly proved a challenge for many students. Overall, out of a maximum score of 25 marks, the students aver-aged just under 9 marks with 24 students achieving a Bronze Award (scores of 11 – 13); 19 stu-dents gaining a Silver Award (scores between 14 and 16); eight students managing a Gold Award (scores of 17 or more).

Particular mention should go to Kai Mitsuishi (6K) who was not

only the top student overall, but also managed a perfect 25 out of 25! Congratulations, Kai! We look forward to meeting you next year in Secondary! The top-scoring Year 7 student was Nada Khaleefah (7K), while the highest overall scoring Year 8 student was Stijn Lek (8L). Over 100 certifi-cates have been handed out to students in recognition of their achievements in this year’s chal-lenge.

Next year, the Patana Junior Maths Challenge will run again, with practice questions featuring in future editions of Patana News – so keep an eye out for those! I am sure the questions will chal-lenge next year’s participants as much as they did this year’s. To all our budding mathematicians, remember: it’s not just what you know – it’s more about knowing what to do with what you know, so look around you and get prac-tising; the questions are all around you!

(By the way, the answers to the above questions are: consecutive ticket numbers are 34, 35, 36; the train is 200 metres in length.)

Providing a mathematical chal-

lenge beyond the lesson context

Congratulations to the winners!

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The calendar for the next academ-ic year is available on the front of the school website or click here to

view it.

hroughout the year, the Sec-ondary School Tutorial pro-

gramme covers a range of topics re-lating to personal, social, emotional health. Part of that focus in Year 8 recently was on gender norms, rais-ing awareness amongst the students of all the influences around us that suggest that male and female behav-iour should fit specific expectations. Students recognised where those main influences were and also dis-cussed how their behaviours and ex-pectations of others come about from that. In many cases, some of the negative effects were identified, ranging from aggression to concerns about body image.

Obviously in such a multi-cultural environment such as ours, there is a great variety of approaches to a topic like this, and students were also invit-ed to consider how strong a role cul-ture plays in establishing these norms.

Inspired by some of the impressive discussion taking place in the class-room, two of our Year 8 students lat-er on reflected and, in doing so, com-piled poems to explore what gender-based expectations mean to them. Here are the two poems.

By Rebecca Leiler, 8G

If I was supposed to be someone else Made from: Strength, Confidence and Someone supposed to be a figure of arrogance and Void of emotion Than who am I? I am not that I don’t follow these unwritten rules That seem to be branded in our brains With the early ages of our childhood From this media we surround our-selves in

Than who am I to be what I am Which is: Sensitive Compassionate Loving And shy Or was I supposed to be An alien? A robot? A person with no difference to any-one else? This world that we live in Knows nothing else but Strength and Confidence All aspects of a stereotypical guy But who is actually that? Who doesn’t have compassion? Who doesn’t have feelings? And who isn’t sensitive? We surround ourselves in thoughts Of having to be this stereotypical guy Than what am I supposed to be If I don’t want to be this stereotypical guy?

By Blanche Boucher, 8G

We live in a Modern day society Where it’s very difficult To be a girl

You get judged From the people you call ‘friends’ To the things you wear And from your so-called boyfriend To what product you put in your hair So what are we supposed to do?

If your skirt’s too long They say you’re insecure But if your skirt’s too short They call you a prostitute So should we be wearing skirts at all?

Most of your friends Are totally fake They backstab you more than your enemies And then they complain when you do

the same So why are they your friends in the first place?

Being objectified Is a daily struggle But it’s not something we should be Allowed to tolerate So how do we stop it?

If you’re not like everyone else They say you’re strange But if you try to fit in They tell you to stop being the same So where does the line cross be-tween the two?

They say not to judge a book by its cover And everyone pretends like it’s something they haven’t done before But should we be tolerating this For human beings; girls?

We must take a stand Because this isn’t right Girls shouldn’t have to worry about fitting in But there’s no way fight This problem Without attempting to fix society And that’s not something a single person can do So let’s fix it together Because we Can make a difference In society Together

Let’s make our society better For the girls of the future So that they are proud and happy to live in this world As a girl

By Matt Jones, Head of Year 8

angkok Patana’s legendary Busking Day will be held on Tuesday 23rd June from 10.10 until 11.20am. Stu-

dents will have the opportunity to prepare and perform their acts to a small audience. Please save your 5 and 10 THB coins and come along to enjoy a morning of entertain-ment. We look forward to seeing you on the Year 3/ 4 walk-way or the hardcourt to see the range of activities on offer.

By Claire Tomlinson, Primary CAT Coordinator

he very first Patana Cookbook will be on sale during Busking

Day. Made by Patana students and filled with 24 fabulous recipes from students, it’s an opportunity not to be missed! The price is only 250 THB

and all the money collected will go to charity. If you would like to reserve a copy, send your money in an enve-lope with your child’s name and class to Miss Clare in Year 4T.

ast week we held a pre-liminary meeting to dis-

cuss International Day, which will be held on 10th and 11th of November 2015. Thank you to those who attended.

We now have country reps for Australia, Bangladesh, Bel-gium, China, Denmark, Italy, Japan Korea, Malaysia, Mozambique, Norway, Philip-pines, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, UK, USA and Vi-etnam.

We discussed whether to have an overall theme for the Expo and have decided to use an online survey for country reps to help make this deci-sion. If a theme is chosen, it is not only meant to make it eas-ier for countries to prepare their booths but also to make it easier for the younger stu-dents to take in the infor-

mation presented by each country.

Please note that it is not compulsory for coun-tries to participate in the Expo and Food Hall. The Cultural Show is on a first come basis but with a preference to those countries who did not partake last year. All performances will be vetted by the International Day team to ensure propriety and that the perfor-mance reflects cultural signifi-cance.

For those of you who were unable to attend the meeting but would like to help out as a Country Rep or as a volunteer, please email ptgintlday@gmail.com. International Day is a very popular event enjoyed throughout the school so please come forward and help make it a special one.

By Vani Sharma, PTG International Day Coordinatort has been a month since the PTG AGM and the new PTG Committee are slowly getting to know

their roles. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all the members of the new committee who have taken on their positions with enthusiasm. Sin-cere thanks to the outgoing committee for their help and support during this transition.

I feel honored and excited to serve as the new PTG Chair. The PTG is not new to me as I have previously been on the committee in the roles of International Day and Fun Day Coordinator, so have a familiarity with the aim and mission of the school and the PTG. This year we are looking at building on past efforts to create an inclusive and caring community that fosters goodwill and communication. Our children are fortu-nate to be enrolled in a school with outstanding facili-ties and exceptional teachers who strive to fulfill the school’s mission and the PTG joins in to support that mission. However, an effective and successful PTG further requires the support and involvement of par-ents. I recall my prior experience on the PTG with joy as I thoroughly enjoyed helping and organising events with people that I now include in my group of friends.

Please feel free to contact me or any of the com-mittee members if you have any questions at ptg@patana.ac.th. Wishing you a very happy and restful holiday!

By Njah Khan, PTG chair

ver the summer holiday the school will be building a

mini tennis area behind the Sports Hall – this area will be used to fur-ther develop the Tennis programme allowing younger students to play with mini tennis balls on a smaller court to improve their racket skills and rallying ability. Please take a look at this clip which shows how the different balls bounce in relation to the individual’s height: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsrVzKdKpvs We are excited by this new devel-opment, which will continue to al-low us to reflect modern tennis teaching practices from around the world. The Year 1 and 2 Tiny Tigers ECA and Primary Bengals (Year 3, 4 and 5) will have their ECAs on the new courts from the end of August. Dates for try outs are listed below:

August 20th, 24th, 25th and 27th, 2.30pm – 4.30pm.

although it is open for very promising Year 3 students) August 21st and 26th, 2.30pm – 4.30pm.

August 20th, 25th and 27th from 3.45pm – 5.30pm.

After a very successful year which

saw our Varsity teams both win SEA-SAC and BISAC and also play in the World Schools Championships in Qatar, plus BISAC wins for the Under 15 Boys and Under 13 Girls and FOBISIA success in Jakarta, we are looking to build our programme and search for the next generation of team players.

Please contact Head Coach Dan Ahl daah@patana.ac.th if you have any questions.

By Daniel Ahl, Head Tennis Coach

By Daniel Ahl, Head Tennis Coach

e are looking for tennis play-ing parents/friends of the

school to join our tennis group. We cur-rently run a ladies doubles morning on Thursday from 7.30 – 9.30 am, which is competitive but also very social and good fun and we have a cardio/drill session by Coach Dan and his staff on a Wednesday morning between 7.30 and 9.00 am.

The school is installing floodlights on all the courts, so many more opportuni-ties will be available in the evening and further details will follow.

Please contact Shirley Tan whose email is forget.me.not1688@gmail.com for Thursday tennis or Head Coach Dan Ahl daah@patana.ac.th for Wednes-day’s cardio session or any tennis relat-ed matters.

The prices will be effective from 1st August 2015.

Noodles 50 THB

Smoothie 60 / 45 THB

Secondary Canteen (Buffet Lunch) 90 THB

Primary Canteen (Buffet Lunch) 70 THB

Snack Bar items 10 – 60 THB

here will be no ECAs, selective or competitive sports next week.

All students will depart school on their default bus at 1:50 or 2:30pm, there will be no 3:45 or 4:30pm buses running in the last week of term.

Please don’t forget to cancel your child’s bus home if you are making alternative arrangements for them to return home for class parties outside of school or other events.

If you will be changing your address over the summer period, please in-form Transport as soon as possible. All routing for Term 1 2015/16 will be arranged during the summer break.

Transport will have a bus route prac-tice on Thursday 13th August. If you do not receive your bus list and Transport booklet on this date please contact the Transport Department at transport@patana.ac.th.

The Transport team would like to thank you for your cooperation this school year and hope that you have a wonderful summer break. We look forward to welcoming you back in August!

By Genevieve Ahl, Services Manager

lease see below for further details regarding the Patana

Card as we end the school year. You can find out more information about the Patana Card at www.patana.ac.th/patanacard.asp Students Leaving at the End of Term 3, 2014/15: Student and parent Patana Cards

can be kept by the leaving student/parent if they wish. The card will be deactivated in regard to accessing school via the turnstiles at the end of this academic year.

Please use up all e-purse and e-coupons by Friday 26th June. E-coupons cannot be refunded.

E-purse can be refunded but we need to keep the card in order to process the refund. The card can-not be returned to you.

For Continuing Students: Please put your Patana Card in a

safe place over the summer holi-days. All students will use the same card for the next academic year, new ones will not be issued.

Students and/or parents who lose their card and require a new one

for 2015/16 will be required to pay 350 THB to order a new one.

E-purse balance can be carried for-ward into 2015/16 school year if necessary but we recommend that you only put enough e-purse on your card for the remainder of the term.

Year 6 Students: Year 6 students who are returning to Bangkok Patana for the next aca-demic year will have their Patana Cards collected by their class teacher on Friday 26th June. The cards will be returned on the first day of Year 7 by their tutor. Students on Set Lunch will have their lunch coupons added to the card in advance. Any unused e-purse on will remain on the card. Students in Year 2, moving to Year 3 All current students in Year 2 will

be receiving a Patana Card when they are in Year 3.

The card will be distributed by their new class teacher in the first couple of weeks of Term 1.

Guardian Cards If you have bought cards for a nan-

ny/helper/driver who are no longer employed by you, please contact Reception to ensure that the card is cancelled and your records are up to date.

If you have any questions you can contact staff at Reception or email Reception@patana.ac.th

By Genevieve Ahl, Services Manager

reminder that lunch E-coupons must be used up by

the end of Term 3. Any unused E-coupons cannot be refunded and will not be valid for the new school year. If you have any ques-tions, please visit Reception at the front of school or contact them via email at reception@patana.ac.th.

Opening Hours During the Summer Holidays

he school shop will close on Friday 10th July. It will re-

open on Monday 3rd August. Opening hours during the school holidays are 8.00am – 3.00pm.

The Post Office in the School Shop will close on Friday 26th June and will reopen on 1st September.

ll returning Secondary students who are on Set Lunch should take their Patana Card and go to the Lounge at

break time (9.15 – 9.35 am) or at lunchtime between 12.15 – 1.15pm on Monday 22nd, Tuesday 23rd or Wednesday 24th June.

The Patana Card will be preloaded with Set Lunch for Term 1 and you will be able to enter the canteen as usual from the first day of Term 1 2015/16. This will avoid any disruption to the start of the new school year.

Your help in doing this in advance is very much appreciated.

By Genevieve Ahl, Services Manager

Our Key Stage 2 Assembly earlier this term focused on the small steps we can all take to re-duce our waste and our impact on the environment. Since then, eight Year 5 Student Envi-ronmental Committee representatives have researched ways in which we can reduce plastic at the Snack Bar. They have several suggestions and we will work on a few of these at a time – taking small steps along the way. A lot of our discarded plastic ends up in our waterways and our oceans. This is having a serious effect on the environment across the world.

In the last week of this term, plastic bags will not be provided at the Primary Snack Bar. We sincerely hope that this does not inconvenience you. Instead we hope that we can all recon-sider simple changes to our habits so that we can all take small steps to look after our pre-cious environment. Please do bring a reusable bag if you plan to buy lots to carry.

Thank you so much for your support and cooperation,

The Student Environmental Committee

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