Weekly Update 3

Greetings from HeadStart International School, Phuket. Welcome to the first edition of the Weekly Update for the 2016-2017 academic school year. This is your ‘one stop shop’ for general school information, upcoming events and announcements. We encourage parents to open up the link that is sent by email every week and read the update in order to stay abreast of what is happening in the school. Should you have questions or suggestions regarding the Weekly Update please write to [email protected]. We also welcome offers or promotions to publish as long as they are of benefit to the HeadStart community.

Announcements

Flag Raising

Flag Raising on Friday morning is a formal event organised for the students and staff. If you choose to observe this event we ask that parents stay out of the Football pitch. Please refrain from chit chat, filming the assembly and any other distractions. If you think that your child will fuss or cry for you in the morning, please don’t stay for the assembly as it will cause a disruption. We discourage parents from following their children up to the classrooms after the assembly as this also causes a disruption to the students and teachers.

After School Programmes

The After School Programmes (ASPs) are off to a great start this week with many happy students excited to begin their new activities. We still have places in many ASPs for anyone still interested. Please note that we will continue to accept sign ups until the 16th of September after which we will continue with the ASPs as they are for the remainder of Term 1. Invoices for paid programmes will be sent out in 2 weeks. All paid ASPs are charged for a full term (13 weeks).

Photo Taking in School Hours

Please be reminded of the school policy (from the Parent Handbook) regarding taking photographs in the school: Parents are only allowed to take photographs at birthday parties and at sporting events except swimming galas. Photographs are not allowed to be taken at any other time. If in doubt, parents should request permission from the Head of the Department.

Trash Hero Launch

Trash Hero Thailand – winner of the prestigious Green Excellence Award 2015 – held its first official community clean up in Phuket on Saturday, August 27th at Bang Tao Beach. The day’s schedule included a free yoga session by Phuket’s brand new yoga studio A Yoga A Day, presentations by organizers of Trash Hero and the Tourism Authority of Thailand, and, of course, the beach clean itself.

The TAT had representatives from all over Thailand and sponsored the opening event, providing 150 Trash Hero Phuket t-shirts, reusable bottles and a buffet for all volunteers.

In two hours, the volunteers prevented about 750 kg of rubbish going back into the Andaman Sea from Bang Tao Beach by filling over 100 bin bags. Volunteers included local government representatives, local citizens, expats, police officers, the Thai Tourist Police, Tourist Police Volunteers, and hotel staff from Best Western Bang Tao who kindly hosted the event.

Students from all over Phuket also attended, especially from HeadStart International School, who will be working closely with Trash Hero Phuket for their Duke of Edinburgh Awards.

Trash Hero began in 2013 when a few friends decided that it was time to stop talking about the garbage problem, and time to start doing something about it. They organized locals and tourists on the South Andaman island of Koh Lipe, picked a beach, and just started cleaning. Two and a half years later, Trash Hero has 27 chapters in six countries, and with the help of nearly 15,000 volunteers has collected more than 160,000 kilograms of trash.

In Thailand, chapters are already going strong in Koh Lipe, Ao Nang, Chiang Mai, Ban Krut, Bangsuphan, Koh Tao, Railay Beach, Hua Hin, Koh Lanta, Songkhla, Khao Sok, Trang, Bangkok, Pattani, Pranburi, and at Mahidol University International College (MUIC)! For information on future Trash Hero Phuket clean ups, visit them at www.facebook.com/trashherophuket. For more information about existing Trash Hero Thailand chapters, or on how to start a chapter, visit the, at www.trashhero.org or on Facebook at: fb.com/trashherothailand.

Thai Parents Meeting–Khru Nee, Deputy Head of School

Tuesday’s Thai Parent’s meeting covered topics such as HeadStart’s pick up, sickness, birthday, allergy policies and bringing learning to home. We also invited special guest speakers who are longtime parents in the school to share their experiences on how they can support their children in the international school system. Thank you Khun Jakkrit and Khun Tanyagon for being with us. A full schedule for Thai Parent’s meetings can be found in the download below.

Secondary Head Teachers Weekly Update–Elizabeth Mason

Two weekends ago I was proud to be a part of the Eco school beach clean. Plenty of students and teachers attended, community members also and we all mingled joining together in a common goal it was a great atmosphere. Thank you to Mr Richard Cramp for organisation this as a school wide event after which Bang Tao beach was super clean however there is still plenty we can do as an Eco community. When going to the beach say no to a straw in our drinks, take our own containers to take away food from stalls and always take your rubbish home.

Year 7 Parent’s Meeting

Coming up next week is the year 7 parents evening. This will take place in the sports hall . Parents will need to come along with their child between the hours of 3:30 pm and 5:30 pm to speak to subject teachers and homeroom teachers about how there child is settling into Secondary school. A letter was sent to all year 7 parents earlier in the week. Students in year 7 have also taken home a physical copy. Please return the reply slip to the home room teacher

Book Sampling

In line with our settling in procedures we will have a student book sample next week. Therefore the focus will be on Year 10 to see how they have settled into there IGCSE syllabus and Year 7 to see how they have transitioned from the Primary school. Myself, the director of studies and the Heads of faculties will look at a range of students books to check that the basics are in place such as titles, dates and project overviews and syllabus work sheets , plus we want to see that students are being set challenging work that keeps them engaged and interested helping them to aim high.

Google Cardboard– Richard Cramp, History Teacher

History classes have been graced with Google Cardboard - headsets that give students Virtual Reality experiences. Last week our Year 9s immersed themselves in a World War 1 battlefield and explored the terrible conditions of the trenches. Virtual Reality, or ‘VR’, is an excellent classroom tool that can take students to times and places otherwise out of reach. Apart from being good fun, the experience refines crucial historical skills such as empathy, imagination and exploration.

House News

2016-2017 House Captains–Erika Cramp, Head of Creative Arts Faculty

Please welcome our new House Captains for this year. This year we have chosen 2 students in Year 6 and one in Year 10 to help organise House Competitions.

• Red House: Yodvarids Stowe/Katarina Dyer/Eve Whittaker

• Blue House: Buraset Thinkohyao/Annabelle Prentice/Anton Kvitkin

• Yellow House: Matana Gires/Hyun Kim/Peter Guglielmi

• Green House: Viktor Tjernstrom/Fleur Masson Sauter/Alexandre Pravin

House Competitions–Erika Cramp, Head of Creative Arts Faculty

We kicked off with out first House Competitions last week. The Yellow House started strong by winning both the ‘Weigh your Waste’ Year 7 Football competitions. Our first results for the year are on the board:

1st Yellow - 30 / 2nd Red - 20/ 3rd Green - 14/ 4th Blue - 10

Performing Arts Academy Production News

The year started with much excitement as we held auditions for our first ever Performing Arts Academy production - into the Woods Jr. More than 40 students turned up for the auditions to battle it out for the 21 parts available. Ms Milner, Mr Adams, Ms Feliciano and Mrs Cramp had a very tough choice to make but our cast has been chosen. Congratulations to the following students for securing a role. Watch this space. Something magical is coming!

Andrew Heinz, Y 13, Ben Caspi Y9, Brendon Boyle Y9, Calvin van der Laan Y8, Dasha Gorodsova Y8, Emmie Parsons Y9, Innes Alexander Y8, Tam-An Phung Y9, Julianna Mester Y10, Bomnuri Kim Y11, Lucy Mester Y9, Nick Gold Y8, Nutcha Phaisamran Y8, Minseo Kim Y9, Yoonkyung Lee Y9, Sandi Davies Y9, Alexander Ogay Y9, Stella Ballini Thipsak Y8, Vitalina Oshchepkova Y7, Aneeta Mettapanyalert Y7

P.E. and Sport News Darren Beanland, Director of Sports

Hello all and a big welcome back to the new term from all the PE and Sports staff. We are very excited to welcome two new members to our team this year: Miss Greenwell who will be teaching PE and swimming, and Mr Brown who will be our new head swim coach. Please make them feel welcome if and when you meet them over the next days and weeks.

Academies

We recently had our try outs for out academy sports teams. It was encouraging to see many new faces trying out for our teams. A big welcome to our new students. We wish them all the best.

This week we have started our Team Academy training schedules and it has been great to see our athletes preparing hard already for the coming season. Below is the outline of the training that was given to the students last week:

Football team academy training schedule and requirements:

• U9 – U 15 squads will train 3 times a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

• The senior boys and the U 13 and U 15 girls will train twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday.

• Training will be from 4:00-5:30 pm this season.

• Training will initially start with some simple fitness tests and we will share these results with you.

• All training programs will be available to look at too for parents.

Term 1 Football Fixtures

• BISP soccer 7’s tournament

• Phuket International Schools tournaments hosted by HeadStart

• SE Asia soccer 7’s tournament at BISP

Any questions or concerns please see Head Football Coach JR.

Swimming Team academy training schedule and requirements:

We have a new Gold, Silver, Bronze system in place for our swim academy. Due to significant numbers of students in the pool, we have reviewed the timetable and amount of sessions for this. Please see below:

• Gold- swim 5 times per week

• Silver – swim 3 times per week (Mon/Wed/Fri)

• Bronze- swim 2 times per week (Tue/Thurs)

• Training will be from 4:00-5:30 pm this season.

• Saturday training will be from 9:00-11:00 am

• Morning sessions will start next week and will be: Tuesday , Thursday Friday from 6.45-7.45 am

Term 1 Swimming Fixtures

• Bangkok Patana Flying Fish meet

• Thanyapura swim league meets

Basketball team training schedule and requirements:

• U11 – U 13 squads will train 2 times a week.
• The senior boys and the U 13 and U15 girls will train twice a week on Wednesday and Thursday.
• Training will be from 3-5.00pm this season for the senior boys and girls.
• Training will be from 3-4.00pm this season for the U 11 and U 13 teams.

Term 1 Fixtures

Our fixtures schedule will be updated soon with all key dates on there for the coming season. We have the following Big tournaments coming up in this term:

• BISP Inter school tournaments

• HeadStart 3v3 Comp

• Thai Basketball league meets (Dates and times to be announced)

Foundation swimming lessons

Please be advised that both Preschool and Early Years swim lessons will still go on this this term as planned. However if the weather is poor we will change the activity and use an indoor space.

Parent/Adult fitness schedule

Please see below the parent /adult fitness schedule for this term: