FRIDAY 28TH MAY 2015 VOLUME 17 ISSUE 32 WWW.PATANA.AC.TH

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

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OUR DIVERSE ECA PROGRAMME

What do Casey the Caterpil-lar Handwriting, Minecraft

Megastructures, Digging in the Dirt, Curry Club, Wool Craft and Incy Wincy Yoga have in common?

A. They are all offered as Extra Cur-ricular Activities (ECAs) this term.

Bangkok Patana School has to have one of the largest and most diverse ECA programmes of any international school in the world! Anecdotally, when Matt Mills shared that we reg-ularly offer over 400 ECAs with the Heads of other large international schools in Thailand, they were astounded (and probably more than a little bit envious).

On Tuesday afternoon this week,

the Theatre was packed to the rafters as an excited audience was wowed by the excellent annual Dance Extrav-aganza. Everyone who attends would agree that the spectacle itself is ab-solutely wonderful and for this our collective thanks go to Ms Tracey Barton, who organised the event and led a small army of staff and student helpers, to the very talented dance instructors, and of course to the per-formers who ranged in age between FS2 and Year 12. Special mention must go to Miss Lynn who has led dance ECAs for many years at Bang-kok Patana and this is her last year with us. The huge applause which she received at the end of the show

echoed just how much our students have valued her excellent instruction over the years.

The Extravaganza is the dazzling tip of the iceberg however. This event is mostly made up of untold hours of preparation, practice, patience, per-severance and feedback in which our students learn a host of valuable skills across a truly eclectic range of dance genres.

The fact that the dance ECA pro-gramme is so varied is a good reflec-tion of how diverse the ECA pro-gramme itself is. Here is the break-down of the types of ECAs we offer:

Why do we offer such a rich ECA programme?

First and foremost, the students clearly appreciate them. The statis-tics speak for themselves when we look at the uptake for ECAs across the different age ranges and in total. Of the age groups, Secondary has slightly lower participation rates but

these are still very impressive – nine out of 10 students participate in the programme and one in four commit to at least four ECAs a week.

But why are they valued so much? According to Karoline in 6O it is

“because they give you a chance to be active and to learn new things”. Krishay (6O) agrees: “Some of the

ECAs help you to think and do stuff with your brain and some of them help keep you fit and some of them are just for fun”. Nina in 12I appreci-ates the fact that “they provide an opportunity to do other activities that a normal lesson couldn’t give you and they give us time between the end of school and our evening

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CROSS CAMPUS PRINCIP

studies to relax”. Ton in 12V, who now spends the bulk of his ECA time developing his swimming, celebrates our ECA programme for “providing opportunities for students to discov-er their inner talents and their true passions”.

James Peacock, ECA and Sports Administrator, has probably the most detailed overview of our ECA programme. He distils the attraction of ECAs into three vital ingredients: “ECAs are a fantastic opportunity for students to try something new, make friends and have fun”. All of the above reasons give solid affirmation of our extensive ECA pro-gramme. (So this next bit deliberate-ly goes in brackets, because these

next reasons come second place to the ones which our students have mentioned above. But it is certainly interesting to note that an American study found that students aged Year 9 to Year 12 who participated in ECAs perform better academically and socially than those who don’t, even when their context (parents, peers and the individual) is account-ed for. And over the years, students applying for university have repeat-edly been given advice to clearly ref-erence their extra-curricular involve-ment as it is this which helps them to stand out from the crowd. Some say that 30% of your application should be based on ECAs).

We should remember that extra-

curricular activities extend be-yond the afternoon hours. If we include the many community service clubs and activities that take place at weekends and lunch times, the Duke of Edin-burgh’s International Award, and other purposeful activities outside of lesson time, we wit-ness a vast, rich fabric of learn-ing, participation and collabora-tion. Many of our extra curricu-lar activities also develop stu-dent leadership skills, be it cap-taining a competitive sports team, leading a club or leading an afternoon ECA for other stu-dents which has become an increasing trend in recent years. Given just how important ECAs are here at Bangkok Pat-ana, we are changing our ECA programme in August for the benefit of our students. So that they have even more choice and consistency of experience next academic year, we will op-erate a four phase ECA pro-gramme. We are certain this will be an improvement on the current three phase model. For more details on this please do read the email that was sent to all parents by Mr Mike Balo,

(Assistant Principal for Extra -curricular Activities and Sport) at the start of this week.

Finally, I want to say a collective thank you on behalf of the students and their families to all of the adults who contribute and lead these won-derful, rich and extensive extra-curricular opportunities for our stu-dents. If you know your daughter or son has appreciated their ECAs this year, please can you suggest that they take the time to thank their providers either in writing or in per-son? Such small but meaningful ges-tures always go a long way …

James Penstone Cross Campus Principal

Primary - FS2, Years 1 and 2

Whole School - FS2 to Year 13

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CROSS CAMPUS

SCHOOL ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

PATANA CARD UPDATE

Students Leaving at the End of

Term 3, 2014/15:

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For Continuing Students:

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Students in Year 2, moving to

Year 3

Guardian Cards

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CROSS CAMPUS

NEW PTG COMMITTEE FOR 2015/16

Position Name

Chair Njah Khan

Secretary Vani Sharma

Treasurer Rocelyn Kielnhofer

Thai Liaison Thitinan (Goy) Kiatphaibool

Communications Coordinator Jan Briggs

Tiger Shop Manager Andrea Chaplin

Cross Campus Representative Bradley Coulter

Secondary Parents Representative Malene Bloch Lundgaard

Primary Parents Representative Rachael Cheung

Sub-Committees

Newcomers Representative Bronwyn Ure

Activities Coordinator Suzie Jhanji

International Day Coordinator Vani Sharma

Fun Day Coordinator Daphne Seiler

Year Group Representatives

Foundation Stage Vicharee Vanit Vadukan

Year 1 Helen Hou

Year 2 Amy Anuras

Year 3 Katherine Johns

Year 4 Vibeke Herslov

Year 5 Julie Vollert

Year 6 Christine Yip (Assistant Primary Rep)

Year 7 Tess Liptavat, Saipin (Nog) Tangtrongchitr

Year 8 Anne Morgenthaler Vandlik

Year 9 Rachael Cheung, Alex Masson

Year 10 Angela Frye, Annie Theodolou

Year 11 Laura McDonald, Hazel Birchall

Year 12 Maneesha Mahajhan, Suzie Jhanji

Year 13 Maike Schoeppner, Himisha Mehta

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SECONDARY SCHOOL

CROSS CAMPUS

TRANSPORT CORNER

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Parent Bus Inspections - Help

Needed

All lost property items from Primary and Secondary that have been collected this academic year will be on display in front of the PTG Room near the 25m Pool from

Tuesday 9th – Friday 12th June 2015

Please come along and see if anything belongs to you or your child. You never know what you might find!

All remaining unclaimed lost prop-erty will be donated to a deserving

charity.

*Kindly collect valuable items from Reception at the front of school.

Click here for the

Canteen Menu

LOST AND FOUND ITEMS TO BE DISPLAYED

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CROSS CAMPUS

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COMMUNITY NOTICES

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COMMUNITY NOTICES

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Bangkok Patana School

643 Lasalle Road (Sukhumvit 105)

Bangna, Bangkok 10260

THAILAND

Tel: +66 (0) 2785 2200

Fax: +66 (0) 2785 2399

Email: reception@patana.ac.th

www.patana.ac.th

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

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BangkokPatanaSchool @BangkokPatana