We had a busy first day of school as students new and old came together for the first day of the first term of our second ever school year. There were tears and hugs (from parents as well as students!) as brave new pre-schoolers ventured into unfamiliar classrooms. And smiles and chatter from returning students who met up with their friends after the 2-month break. Assembly was a lot fuller than usual as we have almost doubled our student numbers this year. Our School Director reminded our old students of their responsibilities to make their new friends feel welcome and at home. And by the end of the first day, we were all settling in (well, most of us!) and getting to know each other.

Photo courtesy of Chiang Mai Mail.

Here’s an article on Panyaden School’s official opening with our Buddhist ceremony and enshrinement of relics on 24 April 2012 in Chiang Mai Mail. Includes a paragraph about our bilingual education and unique school concept. Click here for full article and photos by editor, Shana Kongmun.  

 Snapshot above taken from Chiang Mai Mail.

For the last five weeks, our Summer School students have been learning about different aspects of nature through challenging games, storytelling in addition to other creative activities and fun field trips. Our aim is to open our minds to love and enjoy nature by becoming familiar with its different elements and how they affect our lives and our environment.

Apart from plants, water, light, air, micro-organisms, minerals and others, our children have also learning about soil, one of nature’s most essential living elements. As humble as it may seem, soil is used in many daily activities such as planting and growing as well as in construction (our school is a fine example of this!), mining and so on.

What do we know about soil? Where does soil come from? What types of soil are best for growing plants? Questions like these are posed to the children who learn the answers by experimenting with art, storytelling and planting activities. On Monday, our children visited the Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden where they picked up pebbles, leaves and grass and mixed them with soil before pounding them and putting the different combinations into bottles. Water is added to see which combination can hold the water longest and which is best for growing little plants.

This week, the children will make ceramic animals by combining soil and water. They will also use soil to make moulds for candle and musical instruments as well as houses for small animals (like ants and worms) that make the soil their home.

Photos of our field trips to Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden

More here:

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Panyaden School's founder receiving award from the Mayor of Chiang Mai. Photo courtesy of Chiang Mai Mail.

Today, Panyaden School had the honour of receiving a design award for excellence in architecture and interior design from the committee of Chiang Mai Creative City (CMCC). CMCC promotes Chiang Mai as an internationally known city of creativity and innovation such as its interesting and sustainable architectural designs like our school. Thank you to all involved in our campus design and construction (Chiangmai Life Construction and 24h).

Above photos courtesy of Chiang Mai Mail.

Over the past 3 weeks, Panyaden’s teachers have been undergoing our summer training programme. We are committed to being lifelong learners and acknowledge that there is always room for improvement. During this summer break we have been focusing on a number of areas, identified together with our teachers, where we need to increase knowledge, understanding and skills to benefit our children most. These include

• Discipline and classroom management
• Integrating the Thai and IPC curricula  
• The teachings of Buddha and meditation
• Working cross-culturally
• How children learn
• Communicating with parents
• School policies and procedures

An Auspicious Day

Accompanied by the gentle rhythmic peals of bells and the resonance of a gong being struck along with offerings of food and flowers, Panyaden School’s official opening ceremony began on a movingly dignified note today with a procession to our main Buddha image, Phra Panyanuphap Chaiyamongkol. Our Spiritual Advisor, Taan Ajahn Jayasaro led the bearers of the shrine containing the relics, our guests and staff along the tree-lined path through our campus gate to the Buddha sala.

Students, teachers, parents and guests dressed in Lanna costume tossed flowers onto shrine, then the procession was met by a graceful Thai dance from our students who threw pink and red rose petals in the air. We then kneeled while Taan Ajahn Jayasaro enshrined the relics in the hollow lotus crown of Phra Panyanuphap Chaiyamongkol (‘auspicious victory through the power of wisdom’).

More blessings followed as Buddhist clergy from Chiang Mai chanted in the Assembly Hall in celebration of our school’s opening. Victuals and other gifts were also offered to the monks and to some of our senior guests to commemorate this special day in the history of Panyaden.

During his Dhamma talk that followed, Taan Ajahn Jayasaro kindly commended the efforts of our school founders and staff who “are willing to make the commitment to the Buddhist approach, to go through the difficulties of pioneering something new.” He added that Buddhism is not a system of dogma but “a practical, effective and superior system as it is an education of the whole child based on an accurate and authentic understanding of the human condition.”

Taan Ajahn Jayasaro is a great fan of the school’s architecture to which he refers as the “art of the possible, based on an understanding of the nature of bamboo and earth, the environment and the climate.” Our architecture is “compatible to the practical Buddhist approach to education that is “based on an understanding of the nature of human beings, the relationships between our environment, our bodies and mind.”

After the Dhamma talk, we rounded off our celebrations with our ‘Ton Lam Yai’ market selling popsicles, snacks and handicraft made by our students and teachers. All proceeds went to a children’s charity supported by Somdech Ya. Thank you all for commemorating this special day with us and for your support throughout the year.

 More photos by Ally Taylor here.

It’s all hands on deck as Panyaden rehearses and prepares for our big day tomorrow.

We look forward to celebrating our official opening ceremony with you and your family!

Agenda for 24 Apr 2012

7.30 – 8.30am: Procession and enshrinement ceremony led by our Spiritual Advisor, Taan Ajahn Jayasaro
9.00 – 9.30am: Refreshments at Parents’ Sala
10.00 – 10.45am: Chiang Mai Buddhist clergy chanting to celebrate the school opening
12.00 – 1.00pm: Dhamma talk at Assembly Hall by Phra Ajahn Jayasaro
1.30 – 3.30pm: Panyaden Market, selling food and art and crafts made by teachers and students

Rocks and minerals can be fun to learn about through exploratory games and activities like scavenger hunts and grinding them down to create art and craft projects. Our focus for week 3 is on the importance of these natural elements that make up the earth’s crust and mantle.

Children are naturally curious and love going on field trips, making things with their hands and learning through creative activities. They get excited when they can see, touch and smell different textures, colours and shapes. This week, they get to play geologists and rock hunters going around the school campus and at the Opkhan National Park to collect rocks and stones that capture their imagination.

These specimens are then identified, sorted and categorized by the children according to colours or mineral content, shapes or textures before they present them to their friends and teachers. They talk about where they found the rocks; the mineral content, for example, the red in a rock is a clue that it contains iron; that a smooth one found near a stream may mean that water movement over a period of time has rounded it. All these activities integrate science, geology and art. They aim to encourage children to think logically, to work both individually and in teams, using their skills and creativity to develop a personal awareness, care and love of all of nature’s gifts.

More photos -

• Minerals & Rocks
• Grinding and Painting Stomes

Stay tuned for what our School Director, Neil Amas and our Liaison and Operations Manager, Khun Boy, have to share about Panyaden’s unique concept, bilingual educational approach and our green practices on ”Change The World”, Health Plus Channel (PSI 90), to be aired in early May.

Khun Chirakit Suwannapaph (Wam). the host of the programme, also talked to Markus Roselieb, our co-Founder and Project Manager of the school construction about the use of environmentally-friendly materials to build our beautiful campus. Check our blog and Facebook page for updates.

One of nature’s most important gifts

Summer often brings hot and muggy days; so it was wonderful when our teachers taught us about water this week by allowing us to play in it at the Opkhan National Park! Needless to say, we did not need any persuasion to jump into the lake to look for small creatures like fish, crabs and shells using ‘nets’ that we made out of twigs, string and large dried leaves we found near the lake. What fun! We learnt a lot about the need for water to flow properly and not remain static; and although some of us shrieked at the mention of this, the nymphs and larvae of insects such as the mayfly and dragonfly do need good quality water that do not contain midge larvae or red worms in order to live and grow.

Water covers more than 70% of the earth. It is one of nature’s most important gifts to us. All living things from humans to small creatures like insects, fish and crabs require good quality water to survive. But we learnt this week that this quantity of water is limited and keeps going around and around in what is called ‘the water cycle’.

"Water Cycle" - illustration from www.kidzone.ws

Our teachers showed us this cycle and other qualities and aspects of water through charts and games. We really enjoyed the games especially the human boat we created by sitting down in a circle, putting our hands on the shoulders of the person in front of us and swaying like we were moving on water. We even stood outside our classrooms to stare at and observe the clouds to learn about how they are formed when water from plants and trees ‘sweat’ or transpire, then evaporate and condense in the air. We learnt that when the clouds cannot hold the water anymore, they release it and it falls to the earth as rain. Then it soaks into the earth and becomes ground water for animals and plants to live on and drink from. Or it collects into lakes, oceans and ponds where it will eventually evaporate when it is heated by the sun and the cycle starts again.

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