Chaofah City
Chaofah City
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Yearbook Photoshoot
Please save the date for the upcoming HeadStart Yearbook Photoshoot, taking place from Monday 5 October to Wednesday 7 October. More details regarding specific timings for each year group, locations and uniform requirements will be shared with parents and students nearer the time. We look forward to capturing some wonderful memories for this academic year!
Parent Dress Code
We are always delighted to welcome parents onto our school grounds, whether you are dropping off your children, attending a meeting, or joining us for campus events.
In keeping with local Thai culture, which deeply values modesty and respect, especially within educational settings, we kindly ask all visitors to dress modestly when on campus. To help us maintain a respectful and culturally appropriate environment for our students and staff, please keep the following guidelines in mind:
- Please avoid revealing fitness wear: such as wearing only a sports bra without an outer shirt.
- Please avoid very short shorts and skirts: as well as skimpy, see-through, or overly revealing tops.
Thank you so much for your understanding, cooperation, and support in helping us model cultural respect for our students.
Share Your Child's Success Stories!
Does your child have an exciting achievement from outside of school hours? From weekend sports tournaments and arts performances to community service projects, our students continually impress us with their dedication beyond the classroom. We want to celebrate these external milestones with the wider HeadStart community. Please share your child's success story using the submission link, and we look forward to featuring their hard work in our upcoming updates.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Make Your Move at the First Chess Tournament of the Year
Calling all student chess enthusiasts! Secure your spot in the first student chess tournament of the 2026/2027 season. Whether you are an experienced strategist or a complete beginner, this is an excellent opportunity to enjoy some friendly competition, claim your share of THB 4,500 in cash prizes, and enjoy some free pizza. Every participant will receive an award for their efforts!
Please refer to the attached poster for full contact details and secure your place:
- When & Where: Saturday, 19 September at 11:00am (Chaofah City Campus Canteen)
- The Format: Swiss System matches (10 minutes + 5 seconds)
- Registration: Contact Coach Dawid directly to lock in the THB 350 Early Bird entry fee!
Thai Culture Club
We are delighted to invite students to join our Term 1 Thai Culture Club on Saturday, 26 September 2026, from 9:00am to 12:00pm at our Chaofah City Campus. This special morning celebrates local heritage through engaging, hands-on experiences. Early Years and Reception students will practice planting in a demonstration rice paddy, Years 1 to 3 will discover the traditional Nora dance and classic attire, and Years 4 to 6 will visit Museum Phuket to investigate local Peranakan heritage. If your child is interested in joining, please contact their Thai teacher for further information and registration.
Upcoming Meetings & Presentations
Parent meeting: Pastoral Care and Support in Primary
Ensuring every child feels safe, valued, and supported is the foundation of a successful education. We warmly invite all Primary parents to join our upcoming meeting focused on Pastoral Care and Support. This session will outline the dedicated systems in place to nurture student well-being, build emotional resilience, and create a positive, inclusive environment across the Primary phase. Join us in the Primary Hall to discover how our school and families can work in partnership to support your child's personal and social development.
Upcoming Meetings & Presentations
UPrep Talk 1: Introduction to UPrep and Unifrog
We were delighted to welcome so many parents to our first UPrep Talk of the 2026–27 academic year. The session provided an introduction to our UPrep programme and the support available to students and families as they begin exploring their options for life after HeadStart. We looked at how UPrep supports students from the early stages of career and subject exploration through to researching universities, preparing applications and making decisions about their next steps.
Parents were also introduced to Unifrog, our online platform for exploring careers, courses, universities and future pathways, and we discussed how students will use it throughout their time in Upper Secondary. It was particularly encouraging to see such strong engagement from parents, with a range of thoughtful questions and discussions throughout the session. These conversations highlighted the many different pathways our students may consider and the importance of starting the process early, researching carefully and keeping options open.
A big thank you to everyone who attended, contributed questions and shared their perspectives. We look forward to welcoming families to the next UPrep Talk as we continue exploring the different stages of planning for life after HeadStart. For more information about the programme and to view our latest presentations, please explore the resources below. You will also find comprehensive guidance and support on our dedicated University Preparation (UPrep) webpages.
Parent Meeting: HeadStart Curriculum for Thai Parents
A heartfelt thank you to all the families who joined our recent HeadStart Curriculum for Thai Parents meeting. It was a wonderful opportunity to welcome both new and long-standing families to connect, share experiences, and explore the educational journey at our school. During the session, we outlined the academic progression from the early steps in Foundation and Primary, all the way through to the IGCSE, A-Level, and BTEC pathways in Secondary. We also introduced key learning tools, such as Tapestry and Spelling Shed, alongside character-building programmes like the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award.
We truly value your trust and partnership as we work together to support your children’s development. We warmly invite you to review the presentation slides via the link provided to discover more about how we support your child's growth at every stage.
Accelerating Literacy with Fast ForWord and ClearFluency
Thank you to the parents who attended our recent morning training sessions on the Fast ForWord programme. During these sessions, parents stepped into their children's shoes by experiencing the programme firsthand, completing a range of exercises that students encounter during their lessons. This provided a valuable opportunity to ask questions about how the tool is used during the school day and how to support learning at home.
Seamlessly embedded within our EAL curriculum, this evidence-based programme strengthens foundational cognitive skills such as memory and auditory processing to accelerate language acquisition. Through targeted cognitive development, students rapidly build their English mechanics and lasting confidence. To reinforce this progress, we ask parents to encourage their child to complete at least one 30 minute session of Fast ForWord at home over the weekend. You can best support this practice by:
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Preparing a quiet environment for your child.
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Providing a pair of over ear headphones.
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Ensuring they have had a healthy snack prior to starting their practice.
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Celebrating their successes together.
Please review the attached overview brochures to discover more about how this programme supports your child's ongoing development.
Student Well-Being
R U OK?
A single conversation holds the power to build resilience, strengthen peer connections, and support a healthy school environment. To highlight the importance of mental health, HeadStart students and staff recently shared their strategies for supporting one another during our "R U OK?" initiative. Supported by our school psychologist Dr Helene, students explored a structured four-step framework: Ask, Listen, Action, and Check-in. By learning to hold space for others and listen without judgement, students actively develop the emotional tools required to navigate challenges alongside their friends without needing to act as professional experts.
Mental health remains an everyday priority across our community. If you or your child ever need advice, support, or simply a quiet space to talk, please reach out to any of our dedicated teachers or pastoral staff. Additionally, Dr Helene is available in the main admin office on the first floor during her days on campus for anyone requiring further support.
Primary Peer Support
Putting these principles into practice, our Primary students dedicated their break time to exploring the concepts of friendship, connection, and peer support. Students sat together and utilised structured sentence starters to guide meaningful conversations and articulate their feelings. They actively wrote, drew, and discussed their definitions of a good friend, with several of these reflections shared during our assemblies. These practical exercises reinforce the core message that engaging in a simple conversation can make a significant difference to a peer's day. By normalising these conversations, younger students learn to listen actively, respond with empathy, and recognise when a friend might need extra support.
sCHOOL hOUSES
A Roaring Start: Cheetahs Sprint and Tigers Pounce
House activities have officially kicked off with a massive surge of energy, friendly rivalry, and incredible house spirit with the first round of events. The Year 9s hit the court to dodge, dip, dive, duck, dodge for a high-intensity round of Dodgeball, where the Yellow Cheetah's took an un-dodge-able victory. Out on the astro, Years 7 and 8 delivered a masterclass in team strategy and endurance during Capture the Flag, resulting in an overall win for Blue Tiger's. A brilliant start to the year, showcasing teamwork and encouragement from all year groups - we can't wait to see that same positive energy in the next round!
Primary
Literacy Tree: A Howling Good Time in Year 2!
Year 2 stepped into a Literacy Tree 'Discovery Point' mystery when a wolf trashed their classrooms! Leaving a trail of mud, tipped furniture, and a note demanding "yummy rabbits", the intruder even audaciously stuck a "Wolfy" namecard on the house point rainbow. The plot thickened with an overdue book letter from Khun Mum in our newly expanded Primary library (4,500 new books!), followed by a plea for help from 'G Rabbit', the star of their new book, Wolves by Emily Gravett.
Recognising the danger, students sprang into action. After scouring the classroom for clues, including checking their tent for suspicious grey fur, they put their grammar lessons to work. Collecting powerful adjectives, the children used expanded noun phrases to create highly descriptive warning posters. These featured detailed drawings, physical descriptions, and crucial safety advice, with student recommendations ranging from "tell security" to simply "run!"
This immersive hook perfectly launched a text that cleverly challenges the differences between fiction and non-fiction. Over the next three weeks, Year 2 will use this interactive mystery to apply their developing phonics skills across captions, letters, and posters. Their ultimate goal is publishing an information leaflet to educate townsfolk and keep everyone safe. This approach sits at the heart of our Literacy Tree curriculum, sparking critical thinking before the writing process even begins.
Secondary
Forensic Detectives and Onion Cells in Year 7
Investigating a simulated crime scene to uncover the cellular structure of an onion is exactly the kind of hands-on discovery that brings science to life for Year 7. Guided by our new Science Coordinator, Ms Megan, students recently became forensic detectives, preparing slides, calculating magnification, and successfully identifying the plant cells to crack the case.
Fostering this inquisitiveness is central to Ms Megan’s teaching. Joining us from the UK, she combines her chemistry expertise with a deep passion for pastoral care and student wellbeing. Whether she is engineering reactions in the lab, supporting students through challenging times, or training for an Olympic weightlifting competition, Ms Megan brings a remarkably warm and resilient energy to the HeadStart community. We are absolutely delighted to have her on board. Please join us in giving Ms Megan a very warm HeadStart welcome!
Success Outside of School
HeadStart Students Shine
We are delighted to congratulate our students on their significant achievements in recent sports and performing arts competitions, representing HeadStart with pride on both local and international stages!
- Nicole (Reception Yellow): Won a Bronze medal for her free hand routine at the DGA Cup in Singapore.
- Annalisa (2 Blue): Achieved 2nd place in the Age 4-6 Group Ballet Solo at the International Young Dance Compilation, awarded by the University Academy of Performing Arts.
- Rafael (7 Yellow): Won a Bronze Medal in the U11-12 Male Taekwondo category at the Kick Central Krabi Taekwondo Championship 2026.
Student Success Submission Form
Does your child have an exciting achievement from outside of school hours? From weekend sports tournaments and arts performances to community service projects, our students continually impress us with their dedication beyond the classroom. We want to celebrate these external milestones with the wider HeadStart community. Please share your child's success story using the submission link, and we look forward to featuring their hard work in our upcoming updates.
Promotions from around the Island
School Community Pickleball Cup 2026
The Peak invites all HeadStart parents, teachers, and staff to connect on the court for the School Community Pickleball Cup 2026, hosted at The Peak Racquet Park on Saturday, 26 September! This is a fantastic opportunity to build community spirit through friendly competition, with divisions available for beginners (DUPR under 3.0), intermediates (DUPR 3.0 to 3.9), and advanced players (DUPR 4.0+). Entry is THB 800 per person or THB 1,600 per pair, and mixed pairs are highly encouraged. To represent our HeadStart community in this exciting local event, please secure your spot before the registration deadline on 10 September.
Important Dates
Noticeboard
Parent Fitness
HeadStart provides complimentary use of the Fitness Gym for parents every weekday morning from 07:30-09:30 and in the afternoon from 14:30-18:00.
Classes run from 8:00-9:00am. To join, sign the list at the gym entrance or speak to a trainer. Available strictly for HeadStart parents only.
