Weekly Update #10, 3 December 2021

Upcoming events can be found on the website under School Life → Calendar and are outlined here for easy reference. For daily updates and news follow the HeadStart Facebook Page and YouTube channel.

ASP Booking for Term 2

Booking your child’s after school programmes (ASPs) for Term 2, through the Parent Portal, will begin in the last week of this term and will remain open throughout the holidays. Remember that all ASPs are now allocated on a ‘first come, first served basis.’ So don’t miss the booking! A tutorial on how to book your child’s ASPs on the Parent Portal can be found HERE. Please take some time to read through the ASP Policy and Procedures posted on the website in order to familiarise yourself with the After School Programme.

Important Notice: in order to avoid parents receiving multiple emails with confirmations regarding what ASPs a child has been enrolled in, all parents will receive one email directing them to the Parent Portal where they can check a child’s ASP enrolments. If you require assistance or would like further clarification, please contact Ms Anisa van der Laan by visiting the front office or writing to [email protected].

Important ASP Dates Coming Up

House Competition Winners

Congratulations to our term 1 House winners…THE BLUE TIGERS!!! The Blue Tigers will receive their House prize on the morning of Wednesday, 15th December - a meal and a movie! Everyone in the Blue House should wear their Blue House shirt on the day. Well done! -Mr Nick Carter, Athletic Director

Christmas Festivities Update

Please be advised that the Christmas fair planned for the 16th of December has unfortunately been cancelled. The MoPH has advised against organising any large public events, and like other international schools, we have therefore taken the decision to cancel our Christmas Fair. We plan to continue with the Year group sing-a-longs in the atrium for Primary in the final week of term, and we will still be able to have the Foundation stay and play activities.

Primary Parents Meeting on Assessment, Grading & reporting (7 December)

Primary parents are invited to attend a meeting this coming Tuesday, 7 December at 8.15am in the Secondary Hall on the 4th floor. The topic for this meeting will be explaining how we assess and report on our pupils in Primary at HeadStart. The meeting will be presented in English with the option to ask questions or seek clarification from our School Director Kru Nee after the meeting.

Year 11 Presentation & Sixth Form Subject Fair

On Wednesday 8th December there will be a presentation on Sixth Form Subjects (A Level and BTEC), followed by a Subject Fair. At the Fair you will be able to find out more information about the different subjects and ask questions to the teachers and some current students of those subjects. Following the Fair, we will send you a Google Form so you can indicate your initial preferences and thoughts about future study. -Ms Jennifer Blackweir

• 15:00-15:30 - Presentation on Sixth Form Subjects in the Dance & Drama Studio (4th Floor)
• 15:30-16:30 - Subject Options Fair in the Secondary Hall

Select and click the button shown below to be taken directly to the Foundation, Primary or Secondary school news.

Foundation Primary Secondary PE & Sports

Star of the Week

Congratulations to all of the students in Foundation who have won Star of the Week!

Soccer for Sunshine

As many of you are aware, this term we have been raising money for the Phuket Sunshine Village. In each homeroom across the entire school, every class is trying to sponsor a child each. To enable us to do this, each class needs to raise 3,000 Baht. Thanks to our recent casual clothes day and our cupcake sale, each class in Primary has already raised a minimum of 750 Baht.

As a fun way to raise the rest, we have decided to hold a Primary staff v staff football match. We are asking your child to get sponsors in support of one of the teams. We would like them to ask family and friends to sponsor either, how many goals their team will score or to just make a donation.

The football match will be on the 10th December at 2.30pm. To make the event extra special you are invited to join your child to support their chosen team. All the classes in Primary will be watching the match and we are hoping it will raise lots of money for Phuket Sunshine Village and be lots of fun too. Many of us, myself included, are not football players and it won’t bear any resemblance to a proper game but should be a lot of fun. We really hope you can join us and hope to see you on the 10th December. -Ms Sophie Cunningham, Deputy Head of Primary

Sexual Violence Presentation and Education

“The Year 12s and 13s were lucky enough to attend a presentation by Derek Johnston (a former police officer who has been in the field for 30 years and is currently the Vice Consul at the British Embassy in Bangkok). This presentation was organised by the British Embassy in collaboration with HeadStart International School, with the hope of educating and raising awareness of sexual violence and its effects. He focussed on how to stay safe when we go to university and made us aware of the dangers that exist, raising our awareness of how to avoid becoming victims of drugs and sexual violence when we leave home.

In the presentation, we were exposed to the statistics which reveal the scale of the problem in the UK, which may well be representative of other similar countries we are applying to. Drink spiking seems to be particularly prevalent; Mr Johnson warned us of the tell-tale signs of this and what to do if we find ourselves or our friends in this situation. He also clarified the meaning of consent and how to find help and support if anything should happen to us whether here in Thailand or once we leave home. He also explained how to support victims of sexual assault. We found this talk really moving and eye-opening as we were able to understand just how many men and women are victims of sexual assault, drink spiking and we feel we will be more aware as a result of this”. -Keira Brain and Alicia Martin, Year 12 & 13 students

BTEC Business Enterprises for Charity

Thank you BTEC Business students for volunteering your time to help sell household cleaning products made in house by the Phuket Sunshine Village Foundation. Out of the 20 items that were passed on to us, all but 2 have been sold and the proceeds delivered to PSV.

Drama

This week the Year 10 and 11 Drama students performed their first assessment piece; devising. The students were tasked with creating an original performance between 8 and 15 minutes long that responded to a chosen stimulus. The students worked incredibly hard to create imaginative and thoughtful pieces exploring gender roles and identity. For many of the students, this is their first performance of original work and for some, their first ever performance! They have demonstrated great perseverance and an outstanding work ethic.

On Thursday, year 9 were given the opportunity to watch this exam work. The year group really enjoyed this opportunity and were able to discuss the themes and motifs of the pieces. For those in year 9 hoping to take Drama next year, this was a great opportunity for them to develop an understanding of the course and see a sample of what is in store for them next year!

Over the next two years, the year 10 students will be required to complete 3 pieces of practical coursework. They will submit an original group performance, a scripted group performance and a solo performance. During this time the students will develop essential skills required for higher education and the workforce; leadership; collaboration, problem solving; empathy; speech writing and communication to name a few! Well done Year 10 and 11! -Ms Sillett, Drama Teacher

English Literature

We aim to support A Level English Literature students in all aspects of our provision. Not least, we like to give them detailed, personalised feedback after each of their VIMAs (milestone assessments). Part of this feedback comes in the form of modelling, where teachers write the same essay as the students with the same time constraints. This then becomes a supremely useful document to be used as an aspirational model for the students. The required depth of analysis as well as how an argument is structured and expressed feeds forward into their next piece of work. Students have been positive about the impacts of VIMAs over the last two years and I firmly believe it contributes to the faculty’s outstanding results at A Level. -Mr. Pollicutt, Head of English

Last week’s inter-squad swim meet was a success! Coach Nut and Coach Pui picked their teams among our swimmers, and we had a Team Blue vs. Team Yellow swim off for bragging rights and…pizza! It was a great afternoon spent with our team, and the final scores were Team Blue 167 and Team Yellow 161, as close a score as we’ve seen in a long time. Congratulations to everyone for their hard work and amazing swimming. -Coach Sarah

The players of the month this month have all showed a fantastic attitude throughout. We have introduced a lot of shooting exercises in recent weeks and both goalkeepers did extremely well to keep out the shot. Peemai has been awesome In front of goal converting many of her chances and showing great composure! Well done! -Coach Frost

Food Donations for SOS

In November 2021, HeadStart International school Phuket donated 317.19 KG of good quality surplus food to SOS Thailand. Your donations have allowed us to provide over 1,332.19 servings to those in need! Also, by reducing this amount of food waste, you have successfully saved 602.66 KG of GHG equivalent emissions (Co₂-e (kg)) or 53.81 days equivalent of electricity consumption of one household. For more on this: GHG Calculator