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

Student Environment Committee Makes it Easier to Reuse and Recycle in Classrooms

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Letter from the Secondary School Principal

Dear Parents, As I write this in my office in the

Secondary School a flotilla of kra-thongs are floating in the pond below me. All day long excited Primary and Secondary students have carefully carried their krathongs to the water’s edge before launching them, anxious that their one should make it away from the edge but nervous that they may sink it while giving it an extra strong push. Thank you to our Thai academic staff for sharing this very special taste of Thai culture with us each year.

Last week was a very special week in Secondary for almost all of our

Secondary students as Years 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12 headed out on their Resi-dential Visits across the country. Not so lucky Year 11 spent the week tak-ing their trial exams, a valuable expe-rience in itself, while Year 13 benefit-ed from their ‘Completion Week’, a chance to get key pieces of work fin-ished and handed in without the pressure of regular lessons.

I was able to visit three Residentials this year and as always thoroughly enjoyed my days out visiting students and staff getting a taste of each of their experiences. On Tuesday Mr Mills and I visited Year 10 in Khao Yai where, after checking in with Head of Year Claire Dale and students under-going ‘survival games’ at the resort, we joined Mr Collins, Mr Fountain and Ms Turner, leapt (well not quite)

onto mountain bikes and pedalled off

into the wilds of the countryside. The teachers use mountain bikes to check the progress of each group of stu-dents who are walking (with packs) and navigating along the 18 kilome-tres or so of what serves as their Practice Walk for the Duke Of Edin-burgh’s International Award at Bronze level. Sometimes a teacher has to ‘retrieve’ students who may have taken a wrong turn. The stu-dents that we met were generally three to four hours into their six hour walk and were in good spirits, not to mention surprised at the arrival in the middle of nowhere of myself and Mr Mills on bikes.

On Wednesday I drove to Kan-chanaburi for a change of pace when I joined Mr Berghuis and two differ-ent groups of teachers and students as they visited the famous Kanchana-buri World War II Cemetery and mu-seum. The Thai-Burma Railway Muse-um really offers a superb experience for visitors and I know that Mr Berghuis was delighted by the level of interest and respectful approach of our students. The same was true at the beautiful cemetery where our students laid a rose on the headstone of a soldier’s grave and were asked to imagine what a single day in their life as a camp prisoner may have been like.

Finally on Thursday, I joined Year 7 for a day at the beach at Rayong. Un-der the watchful eyes of our Wild Planet instructor Dave and resident kayaking expert Mr Watson, I shared

a kayak with Mr Worrall (Economics and Business teacher and Tutor to 7S). We effortlessly paddled out (after only two capsizes climbing aboard) and joined students out on the open water where we learned how to ‘raft up’ – linking all the kay-aks together – as well as how to de-velop good paddling technique. What a lovely way to spend a morning! In the afternoon students enjoyed a Thai cookery lesson where they learned how to prepare two delicious dishes – a curry and a sweet and sour to dazzle you parents with! The teachers were a little reluctant to taste the student concoctions but in actual fact they were delicious!

The Resi-dential Vis-its are huge-ly worth-while within our curricu-lum offering so many opportuni-ties for students to demonstrate strengths and learn new skills in com-pletely different surroundings from school. They also enable them to form and build new friendships as they mix with less familiar students, get to know their teachers better and generally have great fun.

The Residential Visits couldn’t take place without the wonderful work of the teachers and instructors who look after, encourage and support the students all week. I would like to thank them for all of their efforts, and give special thanks to the Heads of Year, who working closely with the Senior Teachers and Assistant Princi-pal Helen Thew, spend the whole of Term 1 preparing for this one very special week.

Have a great weekend and I hope to see you at the Ploenchit Fair.

Mick Smith, Principal, Secondary School

Over the past few weeks, the Student Environmental Com-mittee has been distributing reus-able paper trays and boxes to all teaching classrooms in Secondary and some Primary classrooms. The Reusable Paper Tray is for paper that has only been used on one side so that staff and stu-

dents can reuse the paper. The Paper Bin Box is for scraps of pa-per that can no longer be reused.

In classrooms that are used as tutor bases, teachers have been asked to choose a class volunteer who will empty the paper from these boxes into the house recy-cling bins when the box is full. By

bringing the paper to the recy-cling bins, students will be earning points for their house.

If there are any classrooms un-occupied by tutor bases, teachers using this room will ask a student to empty the box into the recy-cling bins when it is full.

We are currently in the process of getting a new recycling centre at the front of school, but in the meantime, the recycling bins have been temporarily situated be-tween the noodle bar and can-teen.

Our next project has been to get similar boxes out, but for plastic bottles.

We understand that this may be a complication that adds time to your busy schedules, but hopeful-ly we can all agree that it is im-portant that we take small steps to protect our environment in any way we can. On Friday 13th No-vember, three student and two teacher representatives from the Student Environmental Com-mittee (Songkhla Surapatpichai, Nucky Korprasertsri, Florence La-crosse, Ms Bennett and Dr Hed-dle) attended a 6-day staff meeting. They successfully com-municated the aim of this recy-cling project and received the

support of the staff to whom they presented.

In Primary School, paper boxes have been sent to Key Stage 2 classes and more will go out to Key Stage 1 classes, where need-ed, before the Christmas holidays.

Six students from the Green Publicity ECA (Primary and Sec-ondary) have volunteered to start off the project by emptying recy-cling boxes around the school in the hope that other students are encouraged to do the same. A big thank you goes to Puinune Busra-pan (5R), Caitlyn Bani (6G), Lucia Polastro Martinez (7D), Zara Man-soor (8K) and Bhisasha (Paddy) Chayangpath (11T).

We hope you can make these ‘small steps’ to help reduce the amount of waste at school.

By Florence Lacrosse, 12J, on behalf of the Student Environmental Committee’s Recycling Group

Following the sad news this week regarding ex-Patana

teacher Jo McArthur, parents and students are invited to sign condolence cards for the McArthur family. The cards are at the Head of School’s Office, at the front entrance of the Sala. The cards will be available for signing until 4.00pm this Wednesday 2nd December.

Upcoming University Visits

Whilst many students impressed their teachers during the Year 7 Residential in Rayong last week, six students were nominated by their Residential group leaders for book token awards for their overall atti-tude during the Residential activities. The activities were kayaking, Thai cooking, a nature trek, a visit to a turtle sanctuary and a day spent snorkelling off the coast of Rayong. The students nominated were San-skriti Luniya, Earth Kornsri, Ike Sintavanarong, Neil Shah, Charlene Chen and Anika Chatikavanij and they received their book tokens from Mr Smith and Mr Mills in the Thai Sala on Wednesday. Well done to everyone!

(Earth Kornsri is absent from the picture)

By Owen McDevitt, Head of Year 7

University/College Representative Location Date / Time Panyapiwat Institute of Management Atit Koirala Senior Studies 30th Nov, 12.14pm

University of South Florida, Tampa Maggie Brackenridge 2nd Floor,Senior Studies 8th Dec, 9.15am

Minerva Schools at KGI 2nd Floor, Senior Studies 9th Dec, 12.14pm

On 17th and 18th December, a 24 hour Rowathon will take place. In order to sign up you must be sponsored a minimum of 300 THB, which you can do-nate yourself. The fees will go towards helping refugees in Syr-ia and the Middle East. Snacks will be provided and there will also be a Seniors Sleepover as well as house points awarded for each participant!

Two people will be on rowing machines at a time for 20 mi-nute sessions in the Lounge ar-ea. Students and staff are invit-ed to participate. Using this link, please sign up in your free time OR where you either have a PE lesson/a study period. You CAN sign up for more than one 20 minute session.

The deadline for signing up is 11th December, so if you are interested please sign up right away and help make this event a success!

If you need any more infor-mation feel free to contact these Year 12 students: Reesha Jagdeo, Madison Frye, Stepha-nie Richt, Buse Ozgulsen, Kilian Kleeman, Jonathan Broadbent or Miss Jones.

By Polly Sinett-Jones, Community Service Coordinator

https://www.patana.ac.th/UploadCentre/Staff/CHRE/General_Ticket_Order_Form_-_Aladdin.pdf

The BCTFN (British Community in Thailand Foundation for the Needy) annual Ploenchit Fair is being held at school this Saturday 28th November from 10.00am – 8.00pm. Adults 150THB, Children 50THB or 500THB for all day rides. Please see the poster on page 10 for further details.

This year the Fair will be held on the Back Field and Hard Court are-as. Entry to the Fair area will be via the Foundation Stage gate be-tween the Arts Centre and Foundation stage buildings. Access via any other areas of the school will not be permitted.

If you will be on school site for non-Fair related purposes, please on-ly enter via the front of school and ensure that you have your Patana ID card or other ID with you. You should exit school via the same en-try point only. All entry and exit to the Fair is via the main fair gate on-ly. If you exit the fair and wish to return please ensure that you get a stamp. The stamp will allow access via the Fair entrance.

Please be reminded that there will be a BTS shuttle bus service to and from Bangna BTS, Exit 1, from 9.00am – 9.00pm. Parking will be available in all school car parks but we expect these to be very busy throughout the day, so please plan ahead or make use of the shuttle bus service. We hope that you will be able to attend the fair to enjoy the food, fun, music and entertainment whilst supporting this charita-ble event.

By Genevieve Ahl, Services Manager

The Bike for Dad event to be held on Friday 11th December will cause some disruption to transport around Bangkok. Please plan ahead for your own private transport on this day and be aware that there are likely to be delays for School Transport users if you live near the areas on the route. The route can be viewed here. Individual Transport users will be contacted if an alternative drop off point is required on this afternoon.

Advance Notice to Avoid Areas of Restricted Roads

All students who are in the Alad-din production will have their bus cancelled on Wednesday 2nd and Thursday 3rd Decem-ber. If you will be attending the production, please don’t forget to inform Transport in advance to cancel your child/ren’s bus home. Please help to avoid the bus waiting unnecessarily and causing delays to other Transport users and inconven-ience to the Transport staff.

On Friday 4th December, many of our Bus Monitors and Bus Drivers may be wearing yellow

for the King's Birthday. They will still have their Pat-ana ID cards but may look a little different when your bus turns up on Friday morning.

Please remind your children to remember to look around the bus and ensure they take all of their belongings when they leave the bus.

If you are planning to come to

the Fair on Saturday, please make use of the free BTS Shuttle Bus Service from Bangna BTS, Exit 1. The service will run be-tween school and the BTS from 9.00am – 9.00pm.

By Genevieve Ahl, Services Manager

THE ROAR Produced by the Athletics Council

Rugby

U15 Boys - 2nd

Touch

U15 Girls - Champi-

ons

Football

JV Girls - Champi-

ons

JV Boys - 6th place

www.facebook.com/bpssports

Monday 30th November

Basketball JV Boys’ HOME

Basketball JV Girls’ HOME

Football U15 Boys’ HOME

Football U15 Girls’ HOME

Touch U18 Girls’ HOME

Touch JV Girls’ HOME

Wednesday 1st December

Basketball Varsity Boys’ Away

Basketball Varsity Girls’ HOME

Football JV Boys’ Away

Football JV Girls’ HOME

Thursday 3rd December

Badminton U15 Boys’ Away

Badminton U15 Girls’ Away

Football U15 Boys’ Away

Football U15 Girls’ HOME

Football U13 Boys’ Away

Football U13 Girls’ HOME

Friday 4th December

Basketball Varsity Boys’ Away

Basketball Varsity Girls’ Away

Touch Varsity Girls’ Away

Saturday 5th December

Basketball Varsity Boys’ Away

Basketball Varsity Girls’ Away

Other sports websites to visit:

Tiger Sports

http://community.patana.ac.th/tiger-sports-teams

Athlete of the week: Anselm Xavier ~ Anselm was the overall point winner at ISB Swimfest ~

What is your pre-race tradition/routine?

Singing ‘Beyond the Sea’ before getting on the blocks

What is your favourite part about swimming?

Not being able to hear people

If you weren't swimming, what other sport can you imagine your-

self doing?

Boxing

What are your guilty pleasures?

Singing in the shower

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I don't even know what I'm doing tomorrow

Upcoming Fixtures

A Workshop for Parents 1st December 2015

Primary Hall, 8.00am - 9.30am

Due to the popularity of the ‘Digital Learner and Digital Literacy’ workshop in September, we will be running a follow-up workshop called ‘Are You a Good Digital Citizen?’. This will replace the previously advertised ‘Assessment as a Tool for Learning’ workshop. This is a discussion based workshop. The aim is to: Share experiences and latest developments with regards to Internet Safety,

Cyber Digital Footprints and Digital Identities Provide ideas and support for scaffolding conversations with children on

areas of on Citizenship. If you wish to participate in this workshop, please follow this link to sign up.

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