Weekly Update #1, 23 August 2024

Announcements

School Calendar for the Academic Year 2024-25

Upcoming Events

Parent Fitness Classes

Join us for another action packed year of parent fitness classes with our brilliant trainers, every morning from 08.00-09.00am in the fitness suite on the third floor of the Sports building (Building C). These classes are free of charge and have been organised to promote healthy and active living within our community. See you in the gym!

In addition to our free parent classes, Coach Jordi is also available for private individual and group training sessions.

👉 If you require further information about parent fitness or private training sessions, see the fliers below or contact our new fitness coach, Jordi, by writing to [email protected]

Calling All Vendors for our First Friday Market of the School Year

If you are interested in sharing your unique products with our ever-growing community, why not book a stall at our next Friday Market. With an Eco Special theme, focused on healthy, locally-sourced food, sustainably produced products and reused or recycled materials, this promises to be another wonderful community event taking place on Friday 13th September 2024. Contact Khun Newle or Mr. Bell in the admin office or email [email protected]. We can’t wait to hear from you!

Staying in Touch and Up-to-date

To all parents of our HeadStart Cherngtalay community, returning and new, we invite you to stay in touch with everything that is going on at our increasingly busy campus. We have three go to places for the most up-to-date information regarding everything “school”:

• Our Weekly Update that you are reading now https://headstartphuket.com/cherngtalay/cherngtalay-life/cherngtalay-news
• Our dedicated Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Headstartcherngtalay/
• Our social media apps (LINE for English, Thai and Mandarin languages; Telegram for Russian speakers, scan the QR codes below 👇 to sign up)

Meetings & Presentations

ECA Policy & Parent Portal meeting on 22.08.24

Thanks to the many parents, returning and new, who joined us for our first parent meeting of the school year. It was wonderful to see such a large turnout to find out about the amazing array of ExtraCurricular Activities (ECAs) we have on offer, and how parents can use our Engage portal to book these for their children. Look out for announcements on our social media channels for booking periods and, should you have any questions or problems, feel free to get in touch with our ECA Team at [email protected]

ECA Policy and Parent Portal Meeting 22 August 2024

Parent Meeting: Online Homework Platforms in Primary on Thursday 29th August

We invite all Primary parents to join us for our latest parent meeting when our Primary Academic team will share important information about the online platforms used for homework for our Primary age students. It will also be a great opportunity to meet other parents and members of our community. Our Thai, Russian and Mandarin speaking admin teams will be on hand to provide translation services. We look forward to seeing you there! Thursday 29th August 2024 from 8:30-9:30 am in the Secondary Indoor Learning Centre (SILC).

Staff News

Induction for Over 70 New Teaching Staff Members

This year we have welcomed over 70 new teaching staff across both campuses to our growing HeadStart community, and we are thrilled to have them on board. As part of their induction, we’ve introduced a special Thai culture course to help them feel right at home. Our new teachers are learning the essentials of Thai greetings and manners, and they even got to experience the vibrant flavors of Thailand with a taste of delicious somtam! We believe that embracing the local culture enriches our school environment and helps our staff connect more deeply with our students and community. Welcome to the team!

Parent Orientation Day

We were overjoyed to welcome families new and returning to our brand new Cherngtalay Campus for Parent Orientation Day on Saturday 19th August 2024. Introducing our leadership and teaching teams to our ever-growing school community, as well as offering the opportunity to explore the brand new facilities of our constantly evolving school, was a great way to get acquainted and start the new school year. With introductions to our curriculum, daily classroom routines, language options and extra-curricular activities (ECAs), our enthusiastic team were on hand to provide insight, answer questions and get to know the new additions to our growing school community.

We are so excited for the coming year and all of our team are ready to welcome you to a new school year!

PE & Sports

HeadStart Cherngtalay AquaPanthers Swim Academy and Aqua Cubs

In preparation of our world class swimming facility opening, we would like to offer our advanced swimmers an opportunity to tryout for our new HeadStart Cherngtalay AquaPanthers Swim Academy and Aqua Cubs Programmes before the pool is completed at our Cherngtalay campus.

⏰ Saturday 24th August 9-10amandTuesday 27th August 4:30-5:30pm📍Chaofah City campus

• for Year 2 to Year 9 serious / advanced swimmers only
• no transportation provided; parents will need to take their children
• swimmers only need to attend 𝐨𝐧𝐞 of the tryout dates

If you have any questions about these tryouts, please email Head Coach, Zak Brown on [email protected]

HeadStart Cherngtalay Panthers Football Academy tryouts – Round 2

This week, we saw the first round of tryouts for the HeadStart Panthers Football Academy at our Cherngtalay campus. It was great to see the smiling faces of our returning players and to welcome with open arms our new players, including our new U13 Girls and U13 Boys players. Coach Paul and Coach Taee were really impressed with what they saw both on the pitch and off, with a sense of teamwork and friendship already evident.

If you missed out on this first round of Football Academy tryouts, don’t panic! We will be holding Round 2 this week. We invite U11 (Years 5 and 6) and U13 (Years 7 to 9) Boys to join our coaches on Tuesday 27th August from 4:30pm onwardsand U9 Boys (Years 2 to 4), U11 (Years 5 and 6) and U13 (Years 7 to 9) Girls to come along onWednesday 28th August from 4:30pm onwardson the astro-pitch. No sign up is required, but we do ask that parents accompany their children or inform their child’s Homeroom teacher if they are attending.Coach Paul

Welcome Back!

We were thrilled to open the doors onto a new school year, the second at our Cherngtalay campus. It was wonderful to greet familiar faces and give a warm welcome to the many new families joining our brand new school campus for the first time! The first day of the academic year 2024-2025 was an opportunity to get to know new classmates and teachers, explore our wonderful campus and celebrate what makes our ever-growing school community so great. Here’s to another fantastic year, inspiring a love of learning!

Foundation

Exploring our New and Improved Foundation Playground

Whether a returning student or a new addition to our ever-growing Foundation community, our youngest learners adapted to their new surroundings with gusto this week! And none more so than when they were given the opportunity to explore and play in our brand new dedicated Foundation playground. The smiles and laughter were evidence enough that this will be a great attraction at our new and improved campus. See you in the playground! Mrs. Walker, Deputy Head of Foundation

Primary

Year 3 Immersed into the Stone Age

We have had a brilliant time stepping back in time looking at real Stone Age artefacts. We asked questions about how Stone Age people used to live and were so exited to learn more. We even had a go at making our own Stone Age cave paintings. Ms. Davies, Year 3 Yellow Teacher

Getting to Know Each Other in Year 4

The Year 4 class had an incredible first week of school! It was packed with fun activities and opportunities to get to know each other. We worked together collaboratively, thinking outside the box to carry out challenges, and we enjoyed learning about and sharing all our differences, and the things that make us unique. We curiously explored all the new books in our classroom and library, sharing interesting facts with one another and reading with our friends. The Year 4s are looking forward to the many exciting learning adventures that lie ahead. Mrs. Cotterell, Year 4 Yellow Teacher

Already Exhibiting our Learner Attributes in Year 5

The children of Year 5 Blue really enjoyed their ‘Team Building and Bridge Building’ lesson on Thursday. They experienced lots of fun and exhibited many of the HeadStart learner attributes, such as kindness, collaboration, resilience and open mindedness, whilst completing the task. Mr. Carroll, Year 5 Blue Teacher

Secondary

A Warm Welcome to our First Ever Secondary Students!

We were thrilled to open the doors onto a new school year! It was wonderful to welcome back the familiar faces of our first ever Year 6 graduating class of 2023-2024 and greet the many new families joining our brand new Secondary school which opened this week! The first week of the academic year 2024-2025 has been an opportunity to get to know new classmates and teachers, explore our wonderful campus and celebrate what makes our ever-growing school community so great. Here’s to a fantastic first year together, building a new community and inspiring a love of learning! Dr. Marsh, Head of Secondary

Celebrating Student Success

Overall Sports Performer Primary Boy 2023-24 Transfers to Cherngtalay!

It was with no little fanfare on Monday morning that we welcomed a new but familiar face to the HeadStart Cherngtalay community! Following his summer transfer from our Chaofah City campus, we welcomed Pavel in Year 7 with his well-earned award from last academic year. Of course, we look forward to hearing more of his exploits and achievements from both the swimming pool and the football pitch throughout his first year at our campus. Welcome, Pavel!

Promotions from Around the Island