Y2 Newsletter Week 7 - 4.10.24

A note from Mrs McCormack (Primary Principal):

4 October 2024

It’s been a fantastic week in Primary, highlighted by one of our favourite days—Tiger Spirit! We celebrated with exciting assemblies and activities, and it was wonderful to see students, staff, and parents dressed up in their best tiger costumes.

Next week, we are all eagerly anticipating International Day, another whole-school celebration that truly captures the spirit of our community. Huge thanks to the PTG for all their hard work in supporting this! Don’t forget to join us for the Parade, Cultural Show, and Assembly on Friday.

We are also thrilled to be welcoming back the Kliptown Youth Program, a community-based educational organisation providing opportunities to people from disadvantaged areas of Soweto, South Africa. As a special treat, they will be offering a parent workshop on Monday at 8am in the Primary Hall, featuring gumboot dancing, singing, and drumming. You can sign up and find more information here. We hope to see you there!

Sarah McCormack

Positive Behaviours

Parents may have seen these new posters around the Primary school.

These attitudes and behaviours are grouped under our three key values: Safe, Curious and Kind.

We want these positive words, thoughts and actions to support and strengthen your child’s holistic development as they move through Primary and into young adulthood. Please help us champion these three key values by referencing our matrix of positive behaviours and attitudes in conversations with your child. The matrix is also available in Thai.

Learning

Class Blogs

Please visit our class blogs every Friday to find out about our learning in each of the classes!

Curriculum

To find out about our Year 2 curriculum please visit our Curriculum page.

International Day Art Competition 

Parent Volunteers - Safeguarding Training

In case you are not aware, there is a ‘Safeguarding Training for Parent Volunteers’ workshop next week (Tuesday 1^st October) from 8 – 9am in the conference room at the front of school (room CON 420). If you would be interested in coming to support the students on our school trips, or supporting the learning in class this year, you need to attend this training.

This training is run annually, so those who attended it last year do not need to attend again.

We are still finalising parent helpers for our upcoming Aquarium Trips. If you would like the chance to join us, please attend this training and contact Ms Katie Hill (kahi@patana.ac.th) to let her know you are interested.

Kliptown Youth Program

Bangkok Patana is proud to host the Kliptown Youth Program next week. This wonderful educational project provides opportunities to chilren from disadvantaged backgrounds in Soweto, South Africa. They will be in school presenting some of their Arts program and talking about their wider work. Please join us for a parent workshop on Monday morning. Sign up here https://forms.gle/3J1dyW852oZyjmux8

Primary Technology

Find out more about our Primary Technology Curriculum by following this link.

International Day

Taylor's Tech Tips!

#285: New Parental Controls in Fortnite: Time Limits & Time Reports

You can now manage the amount of time your child spends in Fortnite and Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) using our new Time Limit Controls. You will now see an option to set up time limits for your child’s account in the Parental Controls section in the Fortnite main menu, or on the Epic Account Portal on the web. If you choose to enable this parental control, you can:

• Limit the total amount of time your child can play per day.
• Choose specific time windows when your child can play each day, and set time limits within that window.
• Choose whether to allow your child to request more time as they approach the end of their time limit.

From Epic’s Account Portal, parents/guardians can sign into their child’s account to set up time windows and a total time limit. If you set up a time limit, your child will begin seeing in-game notifications when they have 30 minutes left in Fortnite and UEFN. Once your child reaches their limit, they will not be able to use Fortnite or UEFN until the next day or until a new window begins.

If you have allowed your child to request more time, and they have 30 minutes or less left in their window, your child can request more time from within Fortnite. Their request will send you an email with a link where you can add more time for that day if you choose. You can also add more time, even if you haven’t enabled requests for more time, from inside Fortnite by going to the Time Limits and Reports Sidebar and selecting “Add More Time”. Once you input your Parental Controls PIN code, you can select the desired increment of time to add. Time granted will be effective immediately.

Your child can request more time by going to the main menu in Fortnite, selecting “View Time Limits,” then choosing “Ask for More Time” if you have this setting turned On. Time Limit Controls work across consoles and devices. As long as your child is using the same account across devices, the limit you set will be in effect for Fortnite and UEFN no matter where they play or create.

You can turn on Time Reports within the Parental Controls section in the Fortnite main menu, or on the Epic Account Portal on the web. If you’ve opted into Time Reports, you can view the total time your child has spent in Fortnite and UEFN that week. You will also have access to a dashboard located in the Account Portal, which provides a daily breakdown of time spent in Fortnite and UEFN and indicates when you have granted extra time for your child. Whenever you go back to the Account Portal, you will be able to see up to four weeks of activity (or less if you haven’t had Time Reports enabled for that long).

Parents will continue to have the option to receive weekly Time Reports emails. These emails include a summary of the amount of time your child spends in Fortnite and UEFN and are sent to the parent or guardian linked to the child’s account. To view and manage your child’s Parental Controls, sign in to your child's Epic Games account on the web or within Fortnite and go to Parental Controls.

For information about Epic’s Parental Controls, visit the Safety and Security Center.

Brian Taylor

Parent Partnership Workshops

Here is the link to our Parent Partnership Workshops from this year:

Click here for the link

PTG Night 

Reading

The children will be changing their reading books every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This week the children have been given a reading book based on their phonics understanding, their reading level from Year 1, and from reading with their new teacher.

Please can you support your child by encouraging reading at home, either reading to you or a sibling and helping to remind them to bring their books in (if finished) on book change days.

General Information

Preventing the spread of colds and flu

Please help us to prevent outbreaks of cold or flu as we head into the rainy season.

Children with cold or flu (influenza) symptoms should be kept at home until they are completely recovered. Even when the main symptoms have gone, your child may still need time to return to full strength.

Please do not send your child back to school too soon, even if they are no longer in the contagious phase. If your child is still coughing or sneezing, please keep them at home and limit their contact with other children.

A child who has a fever should be kept at home until ‘fever-free’ for a minimum of 24 hours.

Influenza is a serious and contagious infection that affects the nose, throat, and respiratory system. The virus is commonly spread through droplets in the air, allowing infection to spread quickly. When unsure, always seek medical advice, especially if a child has a chronic condition e.g., asthma.

If Influenza is confirmed, please send a copy of the medical certificate to Nurse@patana.ac.th

Plain black shoes for school

Primary students wear plain black school shoes as part of their uniform.

All shoes require at least a wide strap to keep the shoe firmly in place.

Your child will need a different pair of shoes (trainers) for their PE lessons.

Tiger Shop

Sharing Snacks

Please can we emphasise the importance of not sharing snacks with other children in school. There seems to be some adults kindly bringing in treats for other children, however we must not share food. There are many children with dietary requirements and allergies who must not eat specific foods. Also, some parents do not want their children eating  certain foods for religious or health reasons. 

Please can you ensure that all adults who collect your children understand this message as well.

Thank you for your understanding and support with this.

Allergies and Dietary Requirements

Please ensure your child/ren's medical information is fully up to date on our systems.

Should your child suffer from critical conditions related to their diet they are no longer able to eat any birthday treats brought into school from outside. 

We encourage parents now to provide a small box of dry snacks/treats that their child can eat, which the class teacher can keep, and use during any celebrations in class.

Playground use before and after school

Students are not permitted to use any of the climbing or play equipment before 7:30 a.m.

There is no staff supervision in any play area after 2:30.

The accompanying adult is therefore responsible for the safe supervision of the child.

We encourage parents and family employees to take children straight home at the end of the school day.

Birthday celebrations

The following students are/were celebrating this week...

Mac (2K)

Pitcha (2J) 

Nithipong (2R) 

Jayden (2D)

We cannot give out party bags or gifts - please keep these for any sort of celebration that you do out of school.

If you would like to send in some birthday treats for your child to share with their class, please arrange a day with your child's class teacher. We will only be able to manage individual items like brownies, doughnuts, or cupcakes. 

Please remember we are a nut-free Primary School and also check with the class teacher for any other dietary requirements of the class.