Weekly Update #36, 16 June 2023
Dates for Your Diary
Upcoming events can be found on the website under School Life → Calendar and are outlined here for easy reference. If you have questions or require further assistance please email [email protected]
| Date | Time | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19 June | 8.30-9.30am | UPrep- Applying for Ivy League Universities | TBC |
| 19-20 June | Year 13 Residential Trip | Boat Lagoon Hotel | |
| 21-22 June | Year 11-12 Residential Trip | Bandara Hotel Ao Yon | |
| 21 June | 1.00-2.00pm | Reception Graduation Photoshoot | Foundation Building |
| 23 June | 8.45-9.45am | Reception Graduation Ceremony | Foundation Building |
| 1.00-7.00pm | Year 13 Graduation Ceremony & Dinner | Sports Hall /Ramada Hotel | |
| Last day of Academy practise & fee paying activities | |||
| 26 June | 2.00-3.30pm | Secondary Awards Ceremony | Sports Hall |
| 27 June | 12.30-1.45pm | Primary Awards Ceremony | Sports Hall |
| 2.30-3.30pm | Year 6 Graduation Ceremony | Sports Hall | |
| 28 June | 4.30-6.30pm | Sports Awards Ceremony | Sports Hall |
| 29 June | Last day of school activities/House Winners Prize | ||
| 30 June | 8.00am-3.00pm | Parent/Teacher Conferences |
Dates for Your Diary
With many important end of year events coming up in the last two weeks of school, we would like to encourage parents to keep close track of the calendar and attend as many events as possible. If you have any questions regarding the events, please drop us an email at [email protected].
Gym Membership Offer at UTime Fitness for Cherngtalay Parents, not to be missed!
We are happy to be able to announce a new gym membership program with UTime Fitness for all of the HeadStart Cherngtalay Parent Community. We believe that exercise and being healthy play an important part in the demanding role of being an effective parent. As such, our school has built and operated a gym with outstanding fitness classes for parents within our Chaofah City Campus. As this option will not be available to parents at our new Cherngtalay Campus, we have worked with UTime Fitness to offer you an affordable gym membership and to help our parent community be fit, happy and healthy! The membership starts from September 1st, 2023 - July 30th, 2024.
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One full membership including unlimited classes will be offered for free to each family who pays the yearly tuition fees upfront in one payment by or before August 15th, 2023. Families will receive one membership per child that they pay the full fees up front for. Please fill in the following Google Form if you would like this option. Our accounting team will then send you an adjusted invoice for the yearly fees. Google Form
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Families who choose not to pay the full year of tuition upfront will still be able to benefit from significant HeadStart Parent Discounts to UTime Fitness which we hope will also be a great benefit to parents. Please fill out this Google Form if you would like to be signed up for this special discount. Google Form Link
UTime Fitness Parent Discounts
These special discounts apply for the second parent if they have already paid for one child’s full yearly tuition as well as to parents who have chosen to pay the tuition termly. Memberships should be requested with the HeadStart admin staff and then registered directly at UTime Fitness.
- a) One Year Unlimited Classes @ Baht 24,999 (waive Joining Fee of Baht 1,000)
- b) One Year Gym Only @ Baht 17,500 (waive Joining Fee of Baht 1,000)
- c) Monthly Rolling Unlimited Classes @ Baht 2,499 / month (waive Joining Fee of Baht 1,000) - requires credit or debit card
- d) Monthly Rolling Gym Only @ Baht 1,750 / month (waive Joining Fee of Baht 1,000) - requires credit or debit card
Note that the Gym Only members are welcome to purchase Class Passes as noted on the price sheet and use those anytime they want. All class bookings are done through the Utime App so passes are just loaded when purchased.
| University Achievements of our Graduating Class of 2023 |
Sarah Gratton
My name is Sarah and I joined Headstart International School in 2022. I am from the UK and grew up in West Sussex, England. I studied Psychology at the University of Westminster, then went on to train to teach Psychology at the Institute of Education. For over 11 years I worked in an Inner London school and Sixth Form teaching Psychology and Health and Social Care. I worked as both Head of Department and Head of Faculty within the school and completed my MSc in the Psychology of Education as well as my NPQSL. In 2019, a desire for a change of pace and the opportunity to travel saw me and my young family relocate back to Sussex and spend some time travelling in South East Asia and Australia. Most recently, I worked as a Wellbeing Lead to support Sixth Form students' mental health and wellbeing through the Covid pandemic. I am an advocate of holistic education and love teaching Psychology. I have taught Psychology for 15 years and am thrilled to be teaching A Level Psychology and the EPQ this year. I am a qualified yoga and youth yoga teacher and outside of school I enjoy yoga, swimming, and going to the beach! I love travelling and have spent many school holidays in South East Asia. I relocated here with my husband and two children. When we are not at school we love exploring the island and its surrounding countries.
Each student has their own skills; whether it be basketball, writing, baking or crocheting. This year we have an incredibly dynamic and talented group of year 13’s. We have our Capa HeadStars, whose love of performing and the Arts has been an absolute pleasure to watch. We also have two ‘Top in Thailand’ students, achieving phenomenal AS results in History and English. We have some amazing athletes, in Football, Basketball and Muay Thai. We have a wave of budding scientists and engineers, whose love for Science and Maths is beyond belief! This is a truly unique, warm and caring year group who have supported each other through the trials of Sixth Form life, making decisions about their futures and growing up to be amazing young adults who are ready for life after HeadStart.
In the Sixth Form, students choose 3-4 subjects to study in depth. For some, this means picking up new subjects such as Psychology or continuing with a subject they already know and love such as Maths or Art. Students can take a purely A Level pathway, or BTEC, or a combination of both. This enables students to put together a unique programme that suits their interests and skills, and for all students this year, has allowed them to excel in their subjects, and prepare them for their next steps.
Our graduating class of 2023 is made up of 29 students from over 10 countries across the world. Our students are embarking on a wide range of undergraduate subjects including Biomedicine, Psychology, Liberal Arts and Sciences, Philosophy, Engineering, and Business. We have some who would like to enter Hospitality, Tourism and Hotel Management, as well as our first student to go onto a fully paid degree and paid apprenticeship with Airbus! We also have a number of students who have decided to take a pause, travel the world and have a gap year, before embarking on further study, or continuing with work. All of our students have shown courage and resilience this year as they have submitted over 100 applications between them, in amongst a busy year of Year 13 study.
At HSIS we offer a bespoke University Counselling and University Preparation programme, which ensures that students find the right university and pathway for them, matching their unique talents and aspirations to their university choice. The majority of our students have secured places at universities in Thailand, UK and the Netherlands with a few in other European countries and the US. Our highest globally ranked universities are Manchester University (#27 in the world), Toronto (#34 in the world), Bristol (#61 in the world) and Sheffield (#96 in the world). Students have secured places in Russell Group Universities and those which sit in the top 200 of the QS rankings including: York, Newcastle, Nottingham, Utrecht and Leiden. And, those in the top 250 in QS rankings such as Twente, Chulalongkorn, University of Amsterdam. Many of the other top Thai universities have also been chosen including Mahidol, and Thammasat. Once again, every student who wants to go to university has secured a place this year and we are very proud to have secured students at top universities where they can pursue their future studies and fulfil their potential.
| University Offers |
Congratulations to Dongyoon Lee (DY) who plans to study Mechanical Engineering and has received offers to study at University of Twente, Eindhoven University of Technology and HAN University of Applied Sciences. DY has been enrolled since 2009 and is a Senior Prefect in charge of House. He has supported numerous events across the school as well as beach cleans across Phuket.
Congratulations to Pinyo Freiwald who plans to study International Business and has received offers from The Hague University of Applied Sciences and HAN University of Applied Sciences. Pinyo has been enrolled at HeadStart since 2014 and is a keen football and basketball player.
Congratulations to Roy Caspi who is planning on studying Psychology and has received offers from Toronto University and University College UTrecht. Roy has been enrolled since 2013. Roy has been an active member of the school community, participating in beach cleans, helping out with summer camps and is also a keen martial artist, practising the national sport Muay Thai. Roy plans to take a gap year before starting his studies.
Congratulations to Elena Zaniboni who plans to study Business and has received an offer to study at Stamford University. Elena has been enrolled at HeadStart since 2015 and is Captain of the HeadStart Girls Football Team. She has supported a number of BTEC events within the school, raising money for Sunshine Village and has volunteered on beach cleans around Phuket.
| PE & Sports |
From the bottom of our very sad hearts we want to thank Coach Erik and Coach Suzie for your wonderful contributions to the health, fitness, and well-being of our entire HeadStart Community over the last few years. We wish you and your family all the very best for the future, and please do come back and see us when you visit Phuket for your holidays! To replace Coach Suzie’s Monday Circuits parents session, we would like to extend a warm welcome to Coach Natalie Oak who will take over for Suzie on Monday’s (and potentially Thursday HIIT tbc). Coach Natalie is a certified personal trainer and she is ready and eager to put you through your paces. We look forward to seeing you there. Go Coach Natalie!
12 & Over Swim Meet
We had a fantastic time at our last swim meet for our 12 & over swimmers! Teams from KIS, BCIS, Torwai, and Phuket County Home all participated and made it a great competition. The sun was shining bright and there were no clouds in sight, which made for a hot day, but kept the timers and parents dry! Our HeadStart swimmers showed up and gave it their all, and we couldn’t be more proud of them. We also want to extend a big thank you to all the volunteers who helped time, all the visiting teams who came out to our meet, and all the HeadStart coaches who helped make the meet run smoothly. It was a great way to end the season for our older swimmers and we hope everyone had a great time and enjoyed the experience. Congratulations to all our swimmers who competed and gave it their best shot! #AquaPanthers #SwimMeet #GoTeam -Coach Zak
Football Summer Camp
👉 For Years 2 - 8 📆 Monday 31st July - Friday 4th August (5 Days) ⏰ Camp starts at 09:00am and finishes at 14:00pm. 🍜 Lunch provided!
The perfect opportunity for players to play fun football and learn new skills in a positive environment at HeadStart International School. Players will be split into the appropriate groups, depending on their age and abilities. Expect high-quality coaching, lots of fun and medals to be won! 📩To sign up please contact [email protected]
The HeadStart Panthers U11 Girls welcomed KIS this week for a friendly fixture. It was wonderful to see how well the girls have developed. Their teamwork and technical skills have improved over the past year, we are looking forward to seeing how they continue to improve in the future. Well done Girls!
Our HeadStart Panthers U11 Boys travelled to Oak Meadow school this week for a friendly match. The boys had a fantastic performance, showing determination and playing high intensity football throughout the match. Great work Boys! - Coach Paul Rothwell
| Dance Recital |
Another resounding success for the HeadStars Dance Academy! It took 164 fantastic students, performing 22 challenging dances, created by 6 talented dance instructors to produce the latest dance recital: Rolling In The Deep. Everyone worked extremely hard and the outcome was fantastic. I am so proud of our achievement! A big thank you to the CAPA faculty and the teachers and deputies that helped. This wouldn’t have been possible without all the mums that came and assisted with hair & make up. See you all at the next show! -Coach Mina
| Primary |
Student of the Month - Humanities
A huge congratulations to all of the Primary pupils who received this month’s Student of the Month award for Humanities. These pupils have shown great interest in the world around them and its past and have demonstrated hard work and a commitment to their humanities studies. Our humanities curriculum aims to foster curiosity as well as developing important skills in analysis, communication and critical thinking. These pupils have certainly demonstrated these skills and should be immensely proud of their achievements and progress.
Year 1 and 2 have been learning how to take basil cuttings in the garden. They had messy fun extracting Aloe Vera gel and using it as a growth stimulant to help support new roots to grow from their plant. There has also been time to explore and find a range of insects and birds that live in and around this amazing garden. -Ms Rebecca Ross, Deputy Head of Primary
This week in Year 6 we have been creating free-verse poetry based on our English topic - Floodland. The poems are from the perspective of the menacing sea (Udan Adan) that is slowly engulfing the world we live in. The students painted a water colour scene, and then wrote their poems on top. -Mr. Edd
