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.

Step into your child’s world and share in their early learning journey at our upcoming "All About Me" Foundation Stay & Play! We warmly invite parents into the ILC to spend a special session engaging directly with your children through a variety of hands-on activities. This is a beautiful opportunity for our young learners to celebrate themselves, share what they have learned in their first few weeks of school, and show you first-hand the joy they find in learning, playing, and making friends every day at HeadStart. Join us to celebrate their classroom discoveries and connect with our wider Foundation community.

Our next UPrep session, "Your Child’s 5-Year Plan," will focus on how parents can support their children from Year 9 all the way through to Year 13. We will break down the crucial steps for each key stage, from fostering a growth mindset and encouraging new interests in Lower Secondary, to making informed IGCSE choices in Year 9, and navigating university applications in the Sixth Form. We will also discuss how to actively track student competencies and explore future pathways throughout their educational journey.

Unlocking the secret code of letters and sounds opens up a whole new world for our Year 1 children. To guide them on this journey, we are proud to use the highly engaging Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme for our Phonics lessons. This systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) programme, validated by the Department for Education (DfE) is used widely across primary schools in the UK and internationally. Developed “for schools, by schools” in collaboration with the Wandle Learning Trust, it provides a highly structured and engaging approach to developing children’s early reading, writing and spelling skills.

In Year 1, the children are working through Phase 5, where they continue to build on the phonics knowledge they developed in Reception. A key focus is expanding their understanding of the alphabetic code and recognising that different graphemes can represent the same phoneme. For example, the children learn that ai, ay and a-e can all represent the same “a” sound. Through daily lessons, the children practise reading words, writing sounds and words, and applying their phonics knowledge when reading and writing independently. We are very proud of the enthusiasm they are showing and the progress they are making as they become increasingly confident and fluent readers. It is wonderful to see their growing enjoyment of reading!

Year 1 students were shocked to discover that a mysterious creature had hidden itself in a cupboard over the weekend! Everyone had their own theory about what could be inside, with predictions ranging from dinosaurs and chickens to tigers and wolves. It was a fantastic opportunity for the children to practise making predictions, writing about their ideas, and explaining their reasoning using clues and evidence.

Year 7 students recently explored algebraic expressions through interactive, hands-on challenges to connect complex mathematical concepts with practical examples. Led by our new Maths Coordinator, Ms. Lindars, the class investigated how letters such as 'x' and 'n' represent unknown values. Students applied their new knowledge through three practical activities: decoding a mystery box, matching algebraic dominoes, and calculating reductions using a paperclip pot.

This active approach perfectly reflects Ms. Lindars' pedagogical philosophy. Having recently joined us from the UK, where she taught in London and Glasgow, she specialises in making mathematics highly accessible. Rather than simply teaching rote methods, she encourages students to think critically, discuss concepts, and solve problems. This strategy is already inspiring genuine curiosity and empowering students to apply mathematical thinking to the world around them. When she is not building an engaging mathematics environment in the classroom, Ms. Lindars enjoys running, travelling, and exploring Phuket. Please join us in welcoming her to the HeadStart community.