Weekly Update #36, 12 June 2026

Yearbook and Photo Package Release Date and Time

We invite families to come and collect their free copy of the 2025-2026 Yearbook from Monday, 22 June starting at 15:20 in the main atrium beside the Admin office.

Families who ordered photo packages for their children will also be able to collect these along with any additional copies of the Yearbook they ordered. Plese be informed that you must present valid parent ID (i.e. HeadStart Parent ID, passport) to collect your children’s photos. Photo packages will only be given to registered parents of the child.

A Heartfelt Thank You to Our Long-Serving Staff

On behalf of the entire HeadStart community, we extend our deepest gratitude to our long-serving staff members celebrating 5, 10, and 15 years of service this year. Your loyalty and passion have served as the steady foundation upon which our school has flourished. Whether inspiring students in the classroom, guiding leadership teams, or working tirelessly behind the scenes, your unwavering commitment has been instrumental in shaping HeadStart into the vibrant, successful institution it is today.

While your dedication has consistently pushed our students toward academic excellence, your impact stretches far beyond the classroom walls. You have provided a safe, nurturing environment for a generation of HeadStart students to learn and grow both individually and collectively. Your daily guidance ensures that as our students progress academically, they also develop the confidence, maturity, and strength of character needed to navigate the world beyond our school campus. You have truly embodied our motto of “Inspiring a Love of Learning”.

Celebrating Our Sporting Super Stars!

Celebrating a year of outstanding dedication, progress, and teamwork, we invite our academy players, parents, and coaches to the 2026 Sports Awards! Join us as we recognise the incredible hard work of our student-athletes across the Football, Swimming, and Basketball academies. This year, the event will culminate with an enjoyable Comunity BBQ. Thanks to the many families who pre-registered for this event. To any families who missed the deadline we invite you to join but politely ask for a 100 baht contribution per family member for the BBQ.

As this is a major highlight of our sporting calendar, we kindly ask all academy players to join us and come dressed in their academy travel shirt and academy sports shorts. If a student is unable to make it, please let your respective coach know.

Primary & Secondary End of Year Awards Ceremony 2026

We are delighted to invite students from Year 2 to Year 6 and parents of our award winners (email confirmation sent to all parents of award winners) to our Primary & Secondary End of Year Awards Ceremony. This special event is to honor the achievements of our Primary students. Join us in celebrating the hard work and accomplishments of our students. We look forward to sharing this memorable occasion with all of you.

Matvei Baranov (Matt) – Enrolled at HeadStart since Year 12

HeadStart International School is pleased to celebrate Matt, who has secured an excellent offer to study Business Management and Entrepreneurship at 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗮𝗱 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗮 in Valencia. Demonstrating a profound interest in economics, cryptocurrency, and stock investment, his academic dedication earned him Student of the Month in IT, while his discipline, resilience, and leadership shine clearly through his pursuits in boxing and his role as Basketball Captain.

Matt brings extensive real-world business experience to his future career, having rapidly progressed from employee to Assistant Manager of Sales at Colezium gaming shop in Russia within just six months. There, he successfully drove revenue growth, managed staff, oversaw social media, and organised local tournaments. A patient, analytical critical thinker, he furthered his skills through a financial internship at Kulika and by supporting HeadStart sales events. We wish Matt every success in his ambition to establish his own hedge fund!

Anabella Abreu-Counsell (Bella) – Enrolled at HeadStart since Year 10

HeadStart International School proudly celebrates Anabella, who has accepted a Conditional Firm place to study Psychology at Loughborough University, alongside impressive offers from Nottingham Trent University and the University of Leicester. A dedicated student since August 2022, her deep passion for humanities and psychology has earned her Student of the Month awards for both Resilience and Humanities, reflecting her outstanding academic commitment.

Beyond the classroom, Anabella has shown immense drive through extensive volunteering at elderly homes, hospices, beach cleans, and childcare, alongside completing advanced Massolit and Coursera psychology courses. A resilient, open-minded communicator, she has also gained valuable work experience across finance, marketing, IT, and hospitality at NH Boat Lagoon Resort and in England. We wish her every success as she pursues her passion for psychology!

Martin Giffin – Enrolled at HeadStart since Year 12

Martin has secured an exciting offer to study International Business at the Asian Institute of Hospitality Management in Bangkok.

Studying BTEC Sport and BTEC Business, he seamlessly combines his lifelong passion for athletics with a strong focus on business operations and management. Beyond the classroom, Martin demonstrates his dedication to sports through football and swimming. He has also built essential communication, customer service, and teamwork skills through practical work experience in customer-facing roles at Bravo Pizza and Delta Gym. Resilient and hardworking, Martin is well-prepared to build a successful career in the hospitality industry.

Araya Jasmine Gilbert – Enrolled at HeadStart since Year 10

Jasmine is pursuing an exciting future in the creative industries, applying to Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès in France for a Bachelor of Arts in Colour, Image and Design.

Balancing her studies in BTEC Business with A-Levels in Art and French, Jasmine draws on her experience of living in France to strengthen her language skills and cultural awareness. She has even developed practical entrepreneurial experience by managing a school vending machine! Her extensive and active extracurricular portfolio includes archery, acrobatic silks, cheerleading, tennis, badminton, surfing, and participating in beach clean-ups.

Furthermore, Jasmine built valuable problem-solving and coaching skills through work experience at an archery range and a local brewery. Independent and open-minded, she is ready to thrive internationally in the arts and design sector.

Building Healthier Digital Habits at Home

Even with built-in safety features, popular apps can occasionally let AI-generated misinformation and inappropriate content slip through the cracks. We know how useful YouTube Kids can be for busy households, but its algorithms can still expose young learners to targeted ads or videos that are not age-appropriate. The platform is also specifically designed to keep children watching, making it hard for them to switch off, which can start to impact their daily routines, studies, and social time.

The good news is that taking charge of your child’s screen time only takes a few quick adjustments. We highly recommend using the app’s parental controls to set specific age brackets, turning off the search function, setting firm time limits, and doing a regular check of their watch history. Combining these simple boundaries with sitting down to watch videos together ensures that digital entertainment stays a safe and positive part of family life.

Red Phoenixes Secure Top Spot in Primary House Challenge

Demonstrating fantastic resilience and boundless energy, Primary students faced off in a fast-paced obstacle challenge during their latest House Activity! With rain moving the event into the Sports Hall, the space buzzed with enthusiasm as students navigated sprints and hurdles to secure crucial points for their teams. Even when facing a tumble over the barriers, our youngest competitors showed true HeadStart spirit, dusting themselves off and getting straight back into the race. The competition was fierce but incredibly supportive, culminating in the Red Phoenixes taking the top spot!

Final Standings:

• 1st Place – Red Phoenixes

• 2nd Place – Yellow Cheetahs

• 3rd Place – Green Dragons

• 4th Place – Blue Tigers

Secondary End of Year House Games

Trading in their textbooks for beanbags and dart boards, Secondary students wrapped up the academic year with a bustling indoor fairground in the Secondary ILC. Packed with a variety of fun challenges, the space prompted students to test their coordination in the classic egg and spoon race, precision in the beanbag toss, and quick thinking in tic-tac-toe. Students and teachers fully immersed themselves in the event, teaming up to tackle the different games and setting formal scoring aside to simply enjoy the moment. While there was no overall winner, all students engaged brilliantly, collaborating with their House to round off a busy year of House events together. A special thanks to Ms Thompson for leading the charge on so many amazing House activities this year!

U11 Boys Football Festival

Our recent HeadStart U11 Boys Football Festival was a fantastic morning of football, with the sun shining and creating a brilliant atmosphere for everyone involved. The festival followed a round-robin format and featured teams from Chaofah, Cherngtalay, KIS, and UWCT. Every game was highly competitive, with end-to-end action, excellent effort, and some outstanding football on display from all teams. It was great to see the players showcasing their skills, teamwork, and sportsmanship throughout the day. A huge thank you goes to all the parents who came along to support the boys and help create such a positive and enjoyable environment for everyone.

Little Sparkles Shine Bright on Stage

Bringing “The Sparkle Stone” to life with brilliant energy, the Friday Drama Club put on a performance that thoroughly entertained the parents in the audience. A massive well done to the entire cast! It was clear how much effort every student put into learning their lines and really stepping into their characters on stage. Colourful costumes and an upbeat soundtrack tied everything together, keeping the energy high from start to finish. We look forward to seeing everyone again next year!

Following the Yellow Brick Road to Mini CAPA Success

Bringing the magic of Oz to life, our Year 1 to Year 3 students took to the stage for a spectacular Mini CAPA performance of The Wizard of Oz. Our young performers truly embodied our HeadStart Learner Attributes, demonstrating what it means to be Creative in their character work and highly Collaborative as an ensemble cast. Congratulations to all the students for their hard work, dedication, and brilliant performances!

Reception Graduation Ceremony

Congratulations to our Reception students who are graduating from Foundation to Primary school next year! Our Reception Graduation was a wonderful celebration of the children’s growth, achievements and personalities. They performed confidently in front of parents, teachers and friends, showcasing all of their hard work from throughout the year.

Reception Yellow came in like “TNT,” bringing endless energy and excitement, Reception White had everyone seeing “A Sky Full of Stars” with their shining performance, while Reception Blue crowned the occasion by showing that “We’re All In This Together” after all. We are incredibly proud of every child and would like to say a heartfelt thank you to all of our families for your continued support throughout the year. We cannot wait to see the children continue to shine in Year 1! *The Reception Team

Erupting with Creativity in Year 3

Year 3 have thoroughly enjoyed an exciting project this term linked to our Geography topic, Extreme Earth. The children explored the fascinating world of dioramas, choosing an extreme natural disaster to research and recreate at home. It was clear that an incredible amount of time, effort, creativity, and dedication went into these projects. The children demonstrated great inquisitiveness as they researched their chosen disasters and creativity as they brought their ideas to life through detailed and imaginative models. We were delighted to display the finished dioramas in school, where they quickly became a source of admiration and discussion.

The children were immensely proud of their work and loved seeing their creations showcased for others to appreciate. It was wonderful to witness their enthusiasm as they shared their learning and celebrated one another’s achievements. A huge thank you to all the families who supported this project! The finished dioramas were a fantastic example of the hard work, perseverance, and creativity of our Year 3 students.

HeadStart Students Shine

We are delighted to congratulate our students on their significant achievements in recent sports and academic competitions, representing HeadStart with pride on both local and international stages!

• Liam (5 White) reached the semifinals in the PTT series no. 4 tennis tournament at PTT #4 – HATYAI.

• Primary Student Mathematicians – We’re immensely proud of our Primary mathematicians who joined the Phuket Primary Maths Competition 2026 – well done!

• Primary House Point Superstars – Well done to our students across Primary who received a Diamond Certificate of Achievement for reaching 250 house points for the year!

Around the Island

On the 26th of June, the Green Charity Golf Tournament 2026 will take place in Bangkok. This event is aimed at raising money for youth environmental scholarships and coastal conservation through the Andaman Natural Resources Conservation Foundation. It’s a relaxed day of golf followed by a gala dinner, and there will be a nice mix of people there from the CP Group, Singha Corporation, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Golf Associations, Sport Associations, Thai Lawyer Associations, University, Thai Military and more. It’s a lovely way to support the cause and a good day out, and a fun way to meet some of the others. The guest of honour will be the President of the Privy Council of Thailand, General Surayud Chulanont, who will award the trophies. If you are interested in finding out more, click here to find out more from the official website!