Andrew Flanagan, Year 4 Teacher

With experience of living in a variety of cities from his previous role managing live entertainment venues across the UK, Andew Flanagan is familiar with the excitement of moving to a new place and adapting to the local culture. Andrew began his international teaching career in Hong Kong, where he taught alongside his wife, Melanie Flanagan (also a new teacher at Bangkok Patana), for nine years. They then took a sabbatical to volunteer teach in South America, which was followed by a two-year teaching term in Egypt, prior to their move to Bangkok Patana. Andrew sees traveling and teaching abroad as an enriching way to broaden his horizons, to “add more tools to [his] toolkit”, and to exercise his appreciation of diversity. While teaching is what brightens Andrew’s day, he also values the opportunity he has to help his students grow and become good people. He notes that by giving our young students respect, trust and honesty, they learn that they are safe to make mistakes and thereby develop themselves more holistically, a goal he aims to achieve with all of his students.

During his first few months on campus, Andrew has enjoyed getting to know Bangkok Patana and his teacher colleagues. With so many activities and events happening around school, Andrew is enthusiastic about getting involved and being “wowed” by everything! By traveling to over 57 countries, Andrew has been working on “getting to know the world and the people in it” and is grateful for the opportunities that the world has to offer.