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Patana
NEWS
Friday 20th November 2020
Volume 23 Issue 13
www.patana.ac.th
DEVELOPING GRIT By Cindy Adair, Cross Campus Assistant Principal
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Also in this issue...
Arts Council/Lip-sync Battle Raises Funds for Habitat for Humanity/Sports Updates 20/11/2020
Bangkok Patana School News
Bangkok Patana is a not-for-profit IB World School accredited by CIS
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Developing Grit Cindy Adair, Cross Campus Assistant Principal Sports and ECAs
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n the world of sport there are winners and losers, gold medallists and silver medallists, record breakers and the rest of the field. In every contest there will be some celebrating, whilst others commiserate and then (hopefully) vow to fight on. Nobody likes to fail. But for a teenager, failure can feel like devastation. When your ego and identity are still forming, what might seem like small failures to others can cause heartbreak and self-blaming for tweens and teens. Whether it’s rejection by someone you’ve got a crush on, a poor score in a test, or a loss in a varsity game, tweens and teenagers take failure hard. However, the truth is that failure can offer much greater life lessons than success. But first, we must learn how to face failure head on. More than anything, parents want to protect their children from discomfort and pain, whether physical or emotional. Yet, by keeping hardships at bay, we can unwittingly deprive students of the sense of confidence and empowerment that’s created by overcoming a challenge. As Dick Moore taught us during his visit two years ago “Out of love and desire to protect our children’s self-esteem, we have bulldozed every uncomfortable bump and obstacle out of their way, clearing the manicured path we hoped would lead to success and happiness. Unfortunately, in doing so we have deprived our children of the most important lessons of childhood. The setbacks, mistakes, miscalculations, and failures we have shoved out of our children’s way are the very experiences that teach them how to be resourceful, persistent, innovative, and resilient citizens of the world.” We find success in failure when we use it as a learning experience and move forward with greater strength. Furthermore, what matters most is how we respond to what we perceive as failure. Therefore, parents and teachers need to be aware of this when supporting students through challenging experiences. If you’re a parent or teacher, observe how your child or student reacts to failure. Then ask yourself these questions: • Do they give up rather than trying again? 2
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• Are there certain activities they avoid out of fear of failure? • When they have a setback, do they blame others? Or do they shame themselves? • Do they only stick with activities they know they are good at? • Do they avoid thinking about why something was difficult or didn’t work out as they wanted it to? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then your teen or tween may need to reframe how they’re looking at failure and we, the adults in their lives need to help to facilitate that. When we work toward a goal, experience failure, and keep on going, we’re building what’s known as grit. Researcher Angela Duckworth defines grit as “perseverance and passion for long-term goals.” Her research has shown that people who possess grit are more successful over time. Furthermore, grit is a better predictor of long-term success than talent. But the important word here is long-term: It may be necessary to fall down and get up, again and again, in order to eventually achieve those goals. “I worry about people who cruise through life, friction-free, for a long, long time before encountering their first real failure. They have so little practice falling and getting up again. I see a lot of invisibly vulnerable high-achievers stumble in young adulthood and struggle to get up again. I call them the ‘fragile perfects.’ Sometimes I meet fragile perfects in my office after a midterm or a final. Very quickly, it becomes clear that these bright and wonderful people know how to succeed but not how to fail.” Angela Duckworth, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance So, as we head into the Varsity Basketball season, let’s remember the words of the great Michael Jordan, “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” If you haven’t already checked out the Michael Jordan documentary on Netflix, give it a try this weekend.
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Patana Golfers Were Not So Green at Green Valley Yizhen (Tina) Kong, 12T
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ast weekend the Bangkok Patana Golf team competed in the ASB Invitational at Green Valley Golf Club. The team performed very well, and we are all very proud of our achievements. Some highlights include Lisa Zhang (Year 7) winning Under 13 with a score of gross score of 73, Jenny Kiel (Year 10) coming 3rd in Under 16 with 74 and Tina Kong (Year 12) winning the net score in Under
18. Special mention also goes to JJ Farnworth (Year 6) for making two birdies as well as his first ever eagle on the challenging 14th hole. The team also won overall net score. A fantastic performance by all!
Mini-tennis Players Gain Valuable Tournament Experience Dan Ahl, Cross Campus Head Tennis Coach
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he Junior Tigers Mini-tennis Orange Ball squad joined a mini-tennis tournament with STA, NIST and Harrow last Saturday. The event was played as a timed event with each player playing six matches that are seven
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minutes long. This allowed players to gain match experience against players from other schools in a fun environment. A great time was had by all and the players took home new skills from playing in a competitive environment.
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Bangkok Patana Hosts Successful Thailand Open Janelle Lourdes de la Cruz, 12T
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he Varsity Girls’ Football team participated in the first ever Thailand Open Invitational as a replacement for our SEASAC earlier this month. I know we were all super excited to take part as we didn’t have our traditional competition at the end of the season. Throughout the three days, we showed a lot of resilience and grit – even coming back from a 4-1 game against Harrow, which finished 5-5! We went on to win 5-0 against ICS in our second match and left the first day with our spirits held high.
off games to goal difference against Harrow by 1 goal. Of course, we were all disappointed about this, yet we kept the energy up in all our games, winning 2 more, and finished the tournament 5th. While we didn’t get the result we wanted, we know that we will come back stronger next year (and for many years after)!
2020 has been a whirlwind of a year, I didn’t even think we would get to play a SEASAC this November, so I’d like to say thank you to all the coaches and staff involved The next day we had BISP; we put on an extremely in organizing the Thailand Open and to the parents and good fight and matched them in almost every way, unfor- supporters as well. tunately the game ended 2-1. We narrowly lost the playGo Tigers!
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CAT Corner
Lip Sync Battle Raises Funds for Habitat for Humanity Nard Coolen, 12D
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abitat for Humanity recently hosted our annual lipsync competition in the Black Box. It was a very interesting and enjoyable experience. We had some great performers who bravely went on stage and lip-synced and danced their way through to the final rounds. Everyone who participated put up a great performance however, there had to be a winner. Congratulations to Henry Chandler who eventually won the competition with the most votes. It was definitely worth
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watching. Every day of the competition we sold brownies outside the Black Box which were delicious and everyone had one. At this event we raised THB 9,850 which will go towards building a house for an underprivileged family in Thailand. For those who did not find the time to come, there will always be next year and we highly recommend coming along – remember, all money goes to charity. Thank you to everyone for coming and we’re sure everyone loved it. We hope to see you next year.
BE M E V NO
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Arts Council Challenging Myself in Acting Roles
Each week the Arts Council features reflections from Bangkok Patana artists Max Masson, 11M t the start of Year 11, I performed an extract from the zone by portraying a personality and undertaking an actplay ‘Five Kinds of Silence’, portraying the character ing style which was new to me. Yet, I am glad I had the of Billy. Billy is the most complex character in the play due experience, as I believe it has enhanced my acting abilto his tragic suffering in his past with mental and physical ities. For example, I learnt to develop my physicality and abuse at the hands of his mother. This leads to one of the diction to a level which I had never experienced before. major plot points of the play: when Billy in turn also abuses I also learnt a lot about the process of characterisation in his wife and children. Billy is clearly a fragile and unpre- my acting and I will apply this experience to other perfordictable individual and I hope I conveyed this personality mances in the future. trait effectively to my audience. Overall, I am very proud of my role, as I believe it was To undertake the role of Billy I researched how such a my best acting performance to date. Despite the challengperson would behave, watching numerous videos about es, I thoroughly enjoyed this experience. Indeed, I would mental health issues, domestic abuse and how other ac- like to once again portray a challenging character as I tors portrayed the role. Playing the character of Billy was enjoyed coming out of my comfort zone. very difficult for me as I had to come out of my comfort
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Finding My Voice in Art Tahilia Constant, 13B
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eing an international student with a multicultural background has not only shaped me as an individual but it has influenced my artwork deeply. The theme of my collection is the celebration of different cultures; a key way that I represent this is through the use of circles as a symbol for unity and cohesion, such as the indigenous busts. During my holidays abroad, my family enjoys traveling to different countries to experience the rich cultural diversity and one place that was really special for me was Australia. A moment that really stood out was watching the sky at sunset, what made it especially memorable was seeing the haze left over from the forest fires that had recently ravaged Australia. I had lunch at the Sydney Opera House, and while there, I was blown away by these large wooden poles, intricately decorated with Aboriginal designs. It was the juxtaposition of first seeing these beautiful pieces of artwork and seeing the result of the fires that spark an idea in my mind.
grotesque. Instead, they have been painted with intricate Aboriginal designs. To me, this reflects the continued resilience of these people, despite the lack of recognition that they were deeply impacted by this tragic example of global warming.
One of my pieces aims to honour the indigenous people I find the arts to be the truest expression of my thoughts who have been affected and displaced by this tragedy. To achieve this, I used three female figures and began and feelings and this is why subjects in the Arts are so speby burning them, a way of representing the destruction cial. It gives students the voice they need to express thembrought to these communities. But these pieces are not selves in ways other forms of communication cannot. 20/11/2020
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(I)GCSE Home Languages I
f your child studies a language outside of school, either a Home Language or a Foreign Language, and would like to consider taking an (I) GCSE exam in that language this academic year, please contact Celine Courenq, Head of Faculty World Languages (ceco@patana.ac.th) before Monday, 30th November. In your email please include: • the full name of your child • his/her tutor group • the language they wish to be entered for • the syllabus code of the exam - for example” Cambridge IGCSE Chinese - Second Language (0523)”
S primary
S secondary
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#167: Gratitude I
n the Year 7 Tutorial session on Thursday students were asked to reflect on their Residential experience.
• What were your highest and lowest points during the residentia? • How you felt during these times; • What you would change if you were to go again?
They were then prompted to choose from a list of activities, one of which was to write a thank-you note to somebody that made the Residential better for them. It got me thinking about how we can all benefit from gratitude. To help inspire us the wideopenschool site contains useful age-specific activities, both off-line and digital. Take a moment out of your busy day and pick one that you think will work with your family.
Have a restful weekend. Brian Taylor Assistant Principal, Campus Curriculum Technology Integration
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STUDENTS SPEAK The Genetics Behind Down Syndrome Akshita Malhotra, 12E
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genetic disorder is generally described as a disease caused completely by a change in the DNA sequence. The different causes of genetic disorders are monogenic, where a mutation in one particular gene has taken place, or multifactorial inheritance disorder, where there are mutations in multiple genes. Furthermore, they can be caused by a combination of gene mutations and environmental factors, or by damage to chromosomes. As scientists unpack and study the human genome, they have discovered that a genetic component is present in all but a few diseases. Some diseases are caused by mutations that are inherited at birth, whilst others are caused by acquired mutations that occur during an individual’s lifetime. These are not inherited by parents but instead, occur randomly due to some environmental exposure. WHAT IS DOWN SYNDROME? Down Syndrome is a condition in which a person has an extra chromosome. Typically, a baby is born with forty-six chromosomes, however, babies with Down Syndrome have an extra copy of one of the chromosomes - chromosome 21. This extra copy changes how the baby’s body and the brain are able to develop, which results in both physical and mental challenges. SYMPTOMS Down Syndrome generally causes learning difficulties, mental retardation, a characteristic facial appearance, and poor muscle tone in infancy, which is also known as hypotonia. Through having Down Syndrome, individuals also have an increased risk of heart defects, digestive problems, and hearing loss. People with Down syndrome have low activity of the thyroid gland as well, which is an organ in the lower neck that produces hormones. IS DOWN SYNDROME INHERITED? In most cases, Down Syndrome is not inherited, but rather occurs at random instances when the reproductive cells are formed. If there is an error in cell division, something called nondisjunction happens which results in the reproductive cells having an abnormal number of chromosomes. For example, an egg or sperm cell could possibly gain an extra copy of chromosome 21. If one of these atypical reproductive cells contributes to the genetic makeup of a child, the child will then have an extra chromosome 21 in each of the body’s cells. Read this article and more at Scientia Magazine.
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Student-created Role Playing Game Patrick Ledoit, 12G
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allz is a platformer RPG coded in Python! You control a character and you have to avoid the wallz coming at you. I used Undertale as a base for the theme and the game gets progressively harder. Can you find the
ending?
You can download the folder here Once you have extracted the zip download, double click the wallz.py to start playing. If it doesn't run it could be because python is not installed, or pygame is not installed. If you want to know more such as customising your character or making the game more difficult check out the read me file. Being my first game, it was quite the experience. It all started with the game design competition SEACSTA, which I disregarded at first because I never tried coding games before. Later on I wanted to give it a shot. I knew I wanted to code in Python and learnt that pygame was the way. So I looked for different tutorials on pygame and found this one that matched my needs. He not only taught the coding but explained the key concepts behind it. This allowed me to follow his process while making my own game: wallz. From a banal character moving, moving black wallz, game sequencing, aesthetic design, to sound, it took a while. I coded for four consecutive days with several iterations. Below are some of the key things I took away that could help you: • Getting the right game dimensions is important but tricky • I left the aesthetics and sounds to the end, this worked for me because it is much easier to set this part up after the main game is done. • Planning the game sequence on paper was helpful in guiding the code. • I should use objects in the future Overall it was very fun! I hope you enjoyed the game and my story of how I got here. Follow Cypher Magazine here
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UNI COUNSELORS’ CORNER In the Spotlight... KU Leuven, Belgium
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U Leuven is a research university located in the Dutch town of Leuven in Belgium. Ranked 41st in the Times Higher Education Global Rankings for 2020/21, KU Leuven consistently ranks highly internationally. There are 15 faculties that offer international degree programmes in virtually every academic discipline. There are over 45,000 students, of which, 15 percent are international. KU Leuven also has satellite campuses in nine cities across Belgium. KU Leuven is considered highly innovative; researchers there have filed more patents than at any other university in Europe. KU Leuven researchers produced innovative solar panel research among others. KU Leuven ranks highly in Sports-related Subjects, Theology, Dentistry, Classics and Ancient History, Library and Information Management, Psychology, Statistics and Operational Research and Mechanical Engineering.
University Visits
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UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE
COUNTRY
LOCATION
DATE
TIME
King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Lad Krabang University of Bath, Manchester Metropolitan University Royal Holloway - University of London Loughborough University
Thailand
23.11.2020
12.30 pm
23.11.2020
2.30 pm
24.11.2020
2.30 pm
UK
24.11.2020
2.30 pm
University of the Arts
UK
30.11.2020
2.30 pm
Queen Mary - University of London University of Bristol
UK
1.12.2020
2.30 pm
UK
3.12.2020
2.30 pm
University of St Andrews
UK
2nd Floor Senior Studies 2nd Floor Senior Studies 2nd Floor Senior Studies 2nd Floor Senior Studies 2nd Floor Senior Studies 2nd Floor Senior Studies 2nd Floor Senior Studies 2nd Floor Senior Studies
3.12.2020
2.30 pm
UK UK
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Desert Island Discs With Sam Stuart, Head of Year 9
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his 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 Sam Stuart, Head of Year 9, is stuck on a desert island. MR STUART, IF YOU WERE STUCK ON A DESERT ISLAND WHAT EIGHT PIECES OF MUSIC WOULD YOU WANT TO HAVE WITH YOU? 8-Ball - Underworld Unfinished Sympathy – Massive Attack Live Forever - Oasis Suspicious Minds – Elvis Presley Loaded – Primal Scream Scar Tissue – Red Hot Chili Peppers Listen to Mr Stuart’s playlist here
Graceland – Paul Simon Nothing Else Matters - Metallica
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. Motorcycle WHICH ONE BOOK WOULD YOU WANT TO HAVE WITH YOU? American Gods by Neil Gaiman Catch the real Desert Island Discs on BBC. Now that you are stuck at home, what are you listening to? Have a list of your own? Let us know! Contact SHKN with your favourites.
Check the calendar! Monday 7th December is not a school holiday! 2020/21 CALENDAR
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COMMUNITY
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