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

Mathematics…

in 3D! P. 4

The Secondary Principal’s Letter

s part of the Secondary School Development Plan

for 2015/16 we are continuing to focus on further refining our cur-riculum at Key Stage 3 to ensure the best possible experience for our students. This may be more difficult than it might seem on the surface. Key Stage 3 spans the tricky ground for students be-tween childhood and young adult-hood, when they are expected to quite suddenly become more ma-ture and take more responsibility for their learning despite the fact that they are all growing at differ-ent rates and have confusing hor-mones raging through their bod-ies. Year 7 students, having just ‘graduated’ from Primary are now the ‘babies’ of Secondary. From a curriculum point of view it can be easy to simply see Key Stage 3 as the bridge between Primary and the challenges of Key Stage 4 and the IB Diploma, but if we accepted this we would clearly be doing a

disservice to our younger stu-dents. How do we get the balance right then between preparing stu-dents, particularly in Year 9 for the examination years that lie ahead, while ensuring that we build upon the strong pedagogical foundations laid in Primary?

We have worked hard over the last two to three years to ensure that we are proud of the curricu-lum in Key Stage 3; that it offers a broad, challenging range of sub-jects, which develop the skills, personal attributes and knowledge needed by our stu-dents later in school and beyond. All teachers have contributed to this, refining assessments, chang-ing foci, chopping away ‘dead wood’ topics, focusing on key skills and ensuring that absolutely ALL of our students will be chal-lenged and supported appropri-ately. This year Tony Berghuis, Senior Teacher for Curriculum in Key Stage 3 will oversee the final

aspects of the implementation of all of these improvements. An in-teresting first step this year has been to ask each academic faculty to compare their subjects at Key Stage 3 to the new Framework for Key Stage 3 introduced in England last year to see how closely aligned to it we are as a British International School. As you can see from the graph there is a high degree of similarity in most sub-ject areas, and even in music where we are committed to an instrumental music programme which isn’t a feature in the UK, we still have close to 70% alignment in terms of the number of Nation-al Curriculum objectives which we cover. The order that we do things may be different, as may content to illustrate key points in many areas but essentially there is align-ment in terms of concepts and skills.

….continued on page 3

Continued from page 2… Assessment is a whole school

priority this year and the focus of much of our professional develop-ment. We have been using the extensive research of Professor John Hattie for some time and last weekend were fortunate to also receive two days of in depth input from Dr Dylan Wiliam. Hattie’s ‘Assessment Capable Learners’ and Wiliam’s emphasis on ‘Formative Assessment” (which identifies ways to make progress) both put the idea of students hav-ing a clear understanding of their

current strengths, knowing the areas that they can target to make progress and understanding the steps needed to be taken to get there, at the very centre of what should take place in school every day. Both provide practical strate-gies and tools for teachers that are proven through massive-scale research to have a high impact upon student learning. In Key Stage 3 Tony has led a discussion on the purpose, nature and bene-fit of assessment in this age group. This will lead to significant changes over the course of this year, especially relating to sum-

mative assessment (for example tests or exams) in Years 7 and 8. Year 9 will see fewer changes but there too focus on assessment that informs future progress ra-ther than measures learning made up to that point will be empha-sised. Our increasingly effective use of assessment data in terms of setting and monitoring targets for each student, alongside mentor-ing for those students who may need more support in meeting them, sits alongside this to inform both students and parents of pro-gress made and provide ways for-ward.

Dylan Wilam’s simple but powerful model for forma-tive assessment

Shortly we will send out elec-tronically a calendar of study for Key Stage 3 to provide a clear overview of what each Year group are studying in every subject on a half termly basis. Over the course of the year we will be able to add more information to this such as key assessments in specific areas. The document will be ‘live’ so that changes and updates made by any subject area will be reflected im-mediately in the version seen by parents. Tony will share more de-

tailed information in this regard before half term.

We believe that Key Stage 3 is a critical time in our students’ lives. Ensuring that the academic curric-ulum is exciting, challenging and rewarding in its own right rather than merely a stepping stone to study further up the school re-flects this. It sits within our strong, values based pastoral system and curriculum which has the overall development and welfare of our young students to enable them to

become active, reflective, caring future citizens at its heart. Have a great weekend and I hope to see many of you at the Fun Run on Sunday. Mick Smith Principal. Secondary School

Click here

for the

Canteen

Menu

The calendar for this aca-demic year is available on

the front of the school website or click here to

view it.

By Janice Jean, 13O

tudents often struggle with complex topics that require

skills, like spatial vision, and may find related mathematical prob-lems more difficult. However, this academic year, our school’s Sec-ondary Mathematics faculty has introduced 3D glasses to our course.

Students, especially those taking Higher Level and Standard Level Mathematics in the IB course, are able to use this device in their classes as it provides a visual con-text to the problems, aiding the student’s understanding. (The 3D glasses are also used by students in Years 8 - 11).

Year 13 Higher level and Stand-ard level Mathematics students have had an early introduction to these new devices, using them in their vectors class. The students found the quality of the glasses “pleasantly surprising”, providing an “interactive” gesture to the course, making it more interesting for the students. With this

“different style of learning”, stu-dents do not only learn and mem-orise the concepts, but also are able to further understand the details they may have overlooked.

“I found the idea of introducing the vectors topic with 3D glasses quite interesting, because previ-ously, when I learnt two dimen-sional vectors, the concepts were much simpler, but now, in the IB course, we have to consider three dimensional vectors, which is con-fusing at times. Personally, with-

out the ability to visualise the problem, I find it extremely diffi-cult to solve, because I am not entirely sure what I have to solve. But, when I used the 3D glasses for the first time, with the aid of the graphical software Geogebra, I was able to experiment with the different problems illustrated on the software, providing a clear contextual image of the possible solutions I may have to solve for in the topic.”

By Stephen Murgatroyd, Teacher Librarian

few weeks ago, we launched a book competition and invit-

ed children from Key Stage 2 to have a go at our Mo Willems book quiz. The prize was an activity book by Mo Willems called "Don't Let the Pigeon Finish this Activity Book". There was a lot of interest, but not many children managed to get all 10 of the ques-tions correct. Those children then had their names put into a box and the lucky winner was pulled out. We hope that the winning Year 4 student

enjoys the book and has many happy hours trying to finish the puzzles and activities!

CALLING ALL MALAYSIAN FAMILIES

lease contact your Malaysian reps if you would like to be part of the Malaysian

group for International Day: Eunice Flannery: flannery_3@yahoo.com.sg Shirley Tan: forget.me.not1688@gmail.com

elcome to the world of Home Languages

(HoLa)! It is well documented how important it is for children to maintain and develop their home language(s) – and how easily young people adapt to learning multiple languages once they have opened up their brains. Across both Primary and Second-ary Schools, we offer a wide range of Home Language ECA (Extra-curricular Activity) classes to ena-ble your child to develop the lan-guage which you speak at home. Sometimes it is very difficult to maintain a language in isolation, and these classes are a great op-portunity for your child to use their language with others in both a social and academic setting.

We offer ECA Home Language

classes in Mandarin, French, Spanish, Dutch, Singaporean Mandarin and Japanese. Please do consider signing your child(ren) up for one of these classes to enable them to develop their language skills and further their cultural awareness. The classes are available for Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2), Key Stage 2 (Years 3 – 6) and Secondary students. In particular we have new HoLa ECAs for Block 2 for Key Stage 3 Mandarin, Sec-ondary Spanish and Key Stage 1 and 2 Japanese. If you would like to have a class in a different lan-guage from those which we cur-rently run, please do contact us to discuss the possibilities further.

For more information please

contact: Jen Peppard, Head of World Lan-guages (Secondary) – jepe@patana.ac.th, or Ondine Ullman, Head of Language Acquisition (Primary) – onul@patana.ac.th.

By Jen Peppard, Head of Secondary World Languages

Next Friday 2nd October

Visit the Tiger Shop for your

Tiger gear!

Open daily from

7.30am to 9.00am and

Wednesday

1.30 to 3.30pm

Upcoming University Visits

University/College Representative Location Date / Time

American Education Exhibition hosted by AEO Tour Plaza Athenee Bangkok 26th Sep, 1.00pm

Hawaii Pacific University Brandon Fairchild 2nd Floor, Senior Studies 29th Sep, 12.00pm

Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne Joshua Gan 2nd Floor, Senior Studies 29th Sep, 12.15pm

Universiteit Maastricht Felix Schulte-Stathaus 2nd Floor, Senior Studies 29th Sep, 12.15pm

Massey University NZ Linda Oostenrijk 2nd Floor, Senior Studies 30th Sep, 12.15pm

Baylor University Garrett Peery 2nd Floor, Senior Studies 30th Sep, 12.15pm

Ghent University Global Campus Taewan KIM 2nd Floor, Senior Studies 30th Sep, 12.15pm

University of Southern California David Park 2nd Floor, Senior Studies 30th Sep, 12.15pm

The Chinese University of Hong Kong Paul K. Smith 2nd Floor, Senior Studies 1st Oct, 9.15am

New College of the Humanities Jonathan Watts 2nd Floor, Senior Studies 1st Oct, 9.15am

Northeastern University Darryl Tynen 2nd Floor, Senior Studies 1st Oct, 9.15am

University College Roosevelt Denise Nijhuis - 1st Oct, 12.00pm

University of Bristol Jo Phillips TBC 1st Oct, 12.15pm

University of California, Irvine Pimjai Santatiwat 2nd Floor, Senior Studies 1st Oct, 12.15pm

University of Warwick Jeremy Burgess 2nd Floor, Senior Studies 1st Oct, 12.15pm

University Fair in Bangkok by EARCOS and CIS

- The Shangri-La Hotel, Bangkok

3rd Oct, 3.30pm

Boston University Anne Corriveau 2nd Floor, Senior Studies 5th Oct, 9.15am

Tufts University Jen Simons 2nd Floor, Senior Studies 5th Oct, 9.15am

American University Julie Soper 2nd Floor, Senior Studies 5th Oct, 12.15am

Ryerson University Soeun Outh 2nd Floor, Senior Studies 5th Oct, 12.15am

S P Jain School of Global Management Krishti Chatterjee 2nd Floor, Senior Studies 5th Oct, 12.15am

Carleton University Andy Raeburn 2nd Floor, Senior Studies 6th Oct, 9.15am

University of Colorado at Boulder - - 6th Oct, 12.15am

University of Exeter Jim Myton 2nd Floor, Senior Studies 6th Oct, 12.15am

The University of Iowa - - 6th Oct, 12.15am

University of Missouri Columbia - - 6th Oct, 12.15am

School of the Art Institute of Chicago Caitlin Shriner 2nd Floor, Senior Studies 7th Oct, 12.15am

Merrimack College Joseph LaTorre 2nd Floor, Senior Studies 8th Oct, 9.15am

California Lutheran University Tracy Howtamfat 2nd Floor, Senior Studies 9th Oct, 9.00am

University of Southampton Mr. Mohamed Torbati, Engineering Professor

2nd Floor, Senior Studies 15th Oct, 12.00pm

Race numbers and T-shirts can be collected at the venue from 6.15am on Sunday. The race start times are: 6.15am race pack collection opens 6.45am Aerobics warm up 7.00am 9km starts 7.10am 5km starts 7.20am 3km starts 8.20 1.3km starts

THE ROAR Produced by the Athletics Council

Athlete of the week

Maria Bobic Lindstrand

Year: 12

Team:

Varsity Football Position:

Centre Midfield or Defence Who is your sporting icon?

Charlotte Rohlin (Swedish football player)

What’s your favourite sport quote?

"I'm living a dream I never want to wake up from" ~ Cristiano Ronaldo

What’s your favourite after sports snack?

A Banana

How long have you played your sport?

11 Years Recent Results and Highlights

Basketball

Boys’ U15 v NIST – WON 57-40

Girls’ U15 v NIST –WON 29-2

Boys’ U13 v St. Andrews – Lost 20-23

Girls’ U13 v NIST – WON 18-14

Football

Boys’ JV v RIS – Lost 1-4

Tennis

Boys’ U13 v ICS – Lost 4-9

Volleyball

Girls’ Varsity v RIS – Lost 1-2

Boys’ Varsity v HIS – Won 2-0

Upcoming Fixtures

Monday 28th September

Basketball – Girls’ U13A HOME

Football – Varsity 2nd Team Away

Football – Girls’ JV HOME

Touch – Girls’ U15A HOME

Tuesday 29th September

Basketball – Girls’ U15A HOME

Rugby Sevens – Boys’-U15A HOME

Wednesday 30th September

Football – Boys’ Varsity Away

Football – Girls’ Varsity Away

Football – Boys’ JV HOME

Football – Girls’ JV HOME

Volleyball – Boys’ Varsity HOME

Volleyball – Girls’ Varsity HOME

Volleyball – Boys’ JV Away

Volleyball – Girls’ JV Away

Thursday 1st October

Basketball – Boys’ U15A HOME

Basketball – Girls’ U15A HOME

Basketball – Boys’ U13A HOME

Basketball – Girls’ U13A Away

Friday 2nd October

U11 Basketball Invitational HOME

Varsity Volleyball Olympic Training

Saturday 3rd October

Football – Boys’-U9 Away

Football – Girls’ U9 Away

Football – Boys’ U11A Away

Football – Girls’ U11A Away

Coming up…

28 DAYS till

SEASAC Football/

Volleyball

www.facebook.com/bpssports

Team Opposition Venue / Pitch Timings

Meet Start Return

Saturday 26th September 2015 In-house Gymnastics competition Gym 08:00

TigerPrawns Swimming 25m pool 08:00 - 13:00

Tennis Boys' U13A vs Invitational Tennis Doubles Home | Tennis Centre 07:30 08:00

Tennis Boys' U13A vs Harrow International School Bangkok Home | Tennis Centre 08:00

Tennis Girls' U13A vs Invitational Tennis Doubles Home | Tennis Centre 07:30 08:00

Tennis Girls' U13A vs Harrow International School Bangkok Home | Tennis Centre 08:00

Football Girls' Varsity vs International School Bangkok Away | Main School 07:00 08:30 12:30

Volleyball Girls' Varsity vs ISB Invitational Away | 07:00 08:30 17:00

Football Boys' Varsity vs ISB Invitational Away | 08:00 09:45 18:15

Volleyball Boys' Varsity vs ISB Invitational Away | 08:00 09:45 18:00

Sunday 27th September 2015 BPS Fun Run Ancient City 06:00 - 10:00

Cross Country Varsity XC vs Bangkok Patana Fun Run Away | Ancient City 07:00

Golf Varsity Golf vs Harrow International School Bangkok Neutral | Riverdale Golf Club 10:30

The noodle bar serves on average 307 bowls of noodles per

day.

The most popular days for noodles are Monday and Tuesday

We now have three serving counters at the noodle bar.

The queue to collect your bowl will take a maximum of five

minutes, if you are at the very end of the queue.

A vegetarian option is available, please use the entrance clos-

est to the payment point.

On an average day 287 bowls are served between 12.15 – 12.40 (within 25 minutes) – that means

that three bowls of noodles are served every 15.6 seconds!

By Genevieve Ahl, Services Manager

Saturday 14th

November, 7pm

PTG

Evening Social

for parents and staff at

Snapper

Sukhumvit Soi 11

Snacks provided by

the PTG

arents are reminded that they are welcome to join their chil-

dren on the school bus to and/or from school. Please make sure you book a seat in advance with the Transport Department to avoid dis-appointment.

Mobile phones, toys, iPods, wallets and other items are being left on the buses when students get off. Please remind your child to check they have all their belongings with them before exiting the bus. Any items used for the bus journey must be kept in their bag during the school day.

Please arrive to your morning bus on time. The three minute waiting time should not be used on a daily basis as it can cause a problem, making the the bus late for the next stop. Please be mindful of other bus users.

A big THANK YOU to parents and students in Secondary. For the first time in a very long time we had one day this week where no Secondary student was a 'no-show' for their scheduled bus, missed their bus or

tried to change their bus at the bus car park without notifying in ad-vance. Well done! We hope this becomes the norm.

Morning Drop Off – Can parents/drivers please avoid dropping stu-dents off in the morning at the U-turn near Soi 39 and 39/1. This is a dangerous place to let students out and it causes traffic congestion. The safest place to drop students is the school drop-off zone by entering via Gate 1 or at the Sports Complex Car Park where students can use the foot bridge to get to school. Please ensure your child arrives to school safely when using private transport.

Please ensure that any snack pro-vided on the bus is ‘non messy’ and healthy. Students should not be sharing unhealthy snacks on the bus as this can lead to prob-lems. Candy, gum, sweets, large packets of crisps and peanut prod-ucts are not permitted. Thank you for your cooperation.

ANAPANA MEDITATION COURSE FOR

CHILDREN Anapana (Mindfulness of breathing) teaches children im-

proved concentration skills and enhances calmness of the

mind. This technique helps to relieve anxiety and is very

useful at exam time to calm those nerves, but also

for everyday life.

The next Anapana Meditation course will be given

on Sunday 11th October for children aged

between 8-16 years.

The course is completely free!

To enrol, please contact Eva at 081-8456153 or email to

evasophon@hotmail.com

for all further information.

You might find this site useful:

http://www.children.dhamma.org/en/children/about-meditation.shtml

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