Weekly Update #4, 14 September 2018

Dates for Your Diary

Upcoming events can be found on the calendar on the website School Life → Calendar but we have outlined upcoming events here for easy reference. For daily updates and news follow the HeadStart Facebook Page

Announcements

ASP Notice

Any adjustments to ASPs (After School Promgrammes) should be finalised before Friday, 21 September, this week. No new enrolments will be allowed except in special circumstances that are approved by the ASP manager or Head of School. Invoices for fee paying ASPs will be sent out this week.

Thai Parent Meeting Invitation

We would like to invite all the new parents and existing parents for a meeting on Tuesday 18 September in the Secondary Hall at 08.15-09.15. At the meeting we will give a presentation on MyiMaths and Bug Club, our online maths and reading programmes. We will show you how you can access these programmes to support your children’s learning. The MyiMaths will be introduced first and that will then follow with Bug Club. The presentation will be presented in English with a Thai translation.

Parent Handbooks

Some updates have been made to the Parent Handbooks. Although they are lengthy documents, we recommend that parents read the information provided in order to be familiar with school policies and regulations. For easy access please click on the link you require here:

Foundation Parent Handbook on the Website

Primary Parent Handbook on the Website

Secondary Parent and Student Handbook on the Website

Parent Committee Meeting Notes from Term 3

Parent participation is at the core of the school and is included in our mission statement and abiding values. Parent involvement makes a significant statement about the importance of education, reinforces the values of our school, and benefits all of the members of our community. The membership of the Parent Committee at HeadStart reflects each area of the school and aims to include parents to represent the nationalities and languages of the families in our community. To be a member of the committee, all that you need is a sense of commitment and a capacity to contribute to the benefit of the school community. For a detailed look at the role and responsibilities of the HeadStart Parent Committee, or to contact them please click HERE

In term 3 the Parent’s Committee held a meeting to discuss concerns brought up by parents in the school. The notes of the meeting can be found in the download below. Please note that a Thai translation will be made available to parents via email and on the Parent Committee tab on the website.

Reduce Your Plastic Footprint and Make an Eco Brick!

By Ms Fiona Scott, Deputy Head of Foundation

As part of Our Global Goals campaign this term, we are teaming up with Trash Hero and The Bamboo School, Thailand to turn our plastic waste into Ecobricks. The idea behind an Ecobrick is simple: it’s a plastic bottle packed solid with non-biological waste to create a reusable building block. The Ecobricks keep plastic from entering the ecosystem and will help families reduce their plastic waste.

The Bamboo School, Kanchanaburi are building a school extension from Ecobricks and need our help.

We are asking all families to get involved by simply cleaning all single use, household plastic that is used with the household. All clean and dry plastic can be packed tightly into a plastic drinks bottle (at least 1 litre in size) and can be brought into school. Plastic waste such as bread bags, food wrappers, straws, crisp packets can all be used to pack out an Ecobrick.

Each Ecobrick needs to be packed solid and weigh between 400 - 500 grams. Ecobricks have already started to come into school. This week in the Atrium, there will be an information display board, and an area for families to store their Ecobricks and collect empty bottles if required. If you have any spare bottles (water or fizzy juice bottles, at least 1 litre size) please bring them into school and drop them into the bins provided so our families in need can reuse the bottles and turn them into Ecobricks.

The Ecobrick campaign will run throughout Term 1. Our target is 1000 bricks. When we reach our Target, Trash Hero will transport the bricks up to The Bamboo School.

I look forward to receiving all your bricks this term. Thanks for your support

The Importance of Reading

By Mr David Pollicutt, Head of English and Humanities

Neil Gaiman is a wildly imaginative writer of fiction for both children and adults. You may have seen the recent HBO adaptation of American Gods, looking at Norse deities existing in contemporary America, or perhaps you read his uncanny and unsettling book (later made into a film) Coraline, or found yourself immersed in his Sandman graphic novels. He has always been a champion of both reading and Art, and has recently released essays encouraging children and all people to become avid consumers of books in libraries. I share the link below with you all and I have no doubt that you will join me in encouraging your children to read for pleasure at home.

Reading is one of the greatest things which young people can do to self- improve. Whether it be in pragmatic terms such as improving their vocabulary and grammar, or more abstract skills like becoming a critical thinker: reading is of paramount importance. With this in mind, Year 7-9 English classes will now be in the library for one lesson out of four every week with their teachers, engaging in a range of reading lessons designed to help imbue children with an enduring love of reading.

Why We Need Libraries? An Essay in Pictures

Library News

One of the most popular books that took over the world is Peppa Pig. The range of books are fun, interactive and educational, ideal for encouraging children to start to read by themselves. Many stories of Peppa are waiting for you in our library. Go grab them! By Khun Mai, HeadStart Librarian

Sports Department News

By Mr Nick Carter, Athletics Director

You may have noticed that the swimming pool was closed from Monday - Wednesday morning. I want to ensure everyone that the readings were actually within acceptable levels. However, since the water was looking very cloudy and discolored, I took the precautionary measure by cancelling any water based activities until we investigated the causes. As you can see the pool is back and action and looking great now!

Football News

Our U9 and U13 boys traveled to Kajonkiet for some friendly matches on Wednesday, 12th September. The boys played exceptionally well. Here are the results:

Headstart (U9) 11 - 1 Kajonkiet (U9)

Headstart (U13) 3 - 0 Kajonkiet (U13)

Also, the new girls Football teams were busy training on Tuesday and Wednesday ASP’s, and I’m delighted to announce that over the two days we had over 50 girls at practice. Fantastic!

Don’t forget the PISAC Football Development League also starts on Saturday 15th September and will run for four consecutive weekends. Players and parents have been notified, but everyone is most welcome to come and cheer the teams on. The venue and date details were sent in last weeks update. Go Panthers!

BISP will be hosting the PISAC Cross Country event on Tuesday, 2nd October. The P.E. staff will be signing up students soon for the following events:

1 mile long course: U9, U11 and U13 will do one lap / U15 will run 2 laps / O15 and Open (including Teachers and Parents) will run 3 laps. Timings as follows:

• 16:00–U9 boys and girls

• 16:15–U11 boys and girls

• 16:30–U13 boys and girls

• 16:55–U15 boys and girls

• 17:20–O15 boys and girls

Student News

The Preschool children have really enjoyed learning all about ‘The Farm’ this week. We have played animal games, sang songs and read farm animal stories. We loved playing with the small world characters and have made lots of craft animals. We even made colourful paintings using corn on the cob. By Ms Danielle Jones

The Early Years children had lots of fun during our messy play today. We experimented with different textures, made marks in paint and foam, and got very wet and messy! We were happy to see all of the children joining in and we hope this activity will also boost their water confidence, especially with getting their faces and heads wet. Ms Holly & Miss Saki

Reception blue had great fun today retelling the story of The Hungry Caterpillar. They fed him all the foods from the story and completed activities related to the story. We’ve also been learning about healthy and unhealthy foods linking to the story. By Ms Candice Smithie

Reception students are learning the Thai alphabet with Kru Poy.

Lego club ASP got off to a great start this week! The children used the Lego to spell out the letters of their names. Once they had finished they used their imaginations to build all sorts of fantastic models. By Ms Holly

In Year 1 Yellow, we have been learning all about The Little Red Hen for two weeks. Last week the children put their skills to use by writing their own story! I was so impressed with their concentration as well as their wonderful ideas and beautiful handwriting. I am feeling like a very proud and happy teacher today. By Ms Charlotte Myers

Year 5 students have learned about the benefits of Thai herbs through a card game. By Kru Fon

Year 5 students in Mandarin class are making Chinese characters using blocks. And they are remember how to write the characters! By Ms Wei

Year 5 and 6 enjoyed board games club yesterday. There was some very intense and exciting games of Cluedo, Monopoly, Chess and Jenga! By Ms Hannah Kuusik

Year 7 & 8 designed a tote bag with their favourite band/musician learning sewing and embroidery skills. By Ms Samantha Gill

Today Year 8 Set 1 presented their final Gothic Horror pieces in English. Well done everyone! By Mr. Ashley Paice

The Year 9s have been learning about World War One this half term and, because we are approaching the centenary of the ‘war to end all wars’, they have been learning what it was like to be in the trenches. It’s difficult to give anyone an idea on what it was like to live in the terrible trenches, but luckily we have the technology nowadays to help transport students back in time and we did this in History class with the help of Google Cardboard. For those of you who are unfamiliar with these ‘devices’, they are Virtual Reality headsets that students can put their phones in to experience a 360 degree virtual world. In this case, they were visually and audibly immersed in a trench so they could ‘feel’ what it was like. Thank you, technology! By Mr Richard Cramp

The Year 10 Duke of Edinburgh students participated in the 77th Trash Hero beach clean on Naithon last Sunday. 28 volunteers collected 250 kgs of trash. What are you doing to keep Phuket clean and green?

House News

By Ms Nadine Brelstaff

This weeks lunch time activity was a limbo competition. Despite some tough competition, particularly from the House captains, the Green Dragons were named the Limbo champions. Here you can see some of our limbo experts showing us how its done!

The Green Dragons have now moved into 1st place in the overall points standings. But how long can they remain on the top spot? Don’t forget, if students go an help with this weekend’s beach clean they can ear 3 merits for their house!