Weekly Update #9, 3 November 2023

House Captains

Congratulations to Sophie (Yellow Cheetahs), Max (Red Phoenixes), Seara (Green Dragons), and Way (Blue Tigers) on being selected as our first ever House Captains at our Cherngtalay campus. These four resilient Year 6 students have demonstrated commitment, enthusiasm and motivation to lead their respective houses for this academic year and we wish them every success!

Friday Market Eco Special coming soon

Next Friday 10th November from 2.40-5.00pm, we will be holding our second Friday Market - bringing together our community of over 170 children and their families. If you have secondhand or eco-friendly, sustainably-sourced products or healthy, homemade food that you would like to introduce to our international community, this is your chance. For more information or to book a table contact [email protected] or [email protected]

Parents Coffee Morning

The Parent Committee is inviting all parents to join a Parents Coffee Morning on Friday 10th November from 9:00am onwards at N1 Cafe’ & Green, just around the corner from HeadStart International School Chaofah City Campus. This event provides the perfect opportunity to meet new friends and have the chance to get to know some of our veteran HeadStart parents who can answer any questions that you may have.

Casual Clothes Day

On Thursday 16th November, all children are welcome to come to school for the day in casual clothes. This event is to encourage children to donate to our Term 1 fundraiser for Phuket Sunshine Village. We recommend a donation of 50-100 baht per child.

Parent Meeting 8: Introduction to CAPA Programmes at HeadStart

Thanks to the many parents who attended our latest presentation given by Ms. Sillett, Director of our CAPA faculty. Ms. Sillett talked us through the different creative and performance programs currently on offer, including dance, Junior CAPA and music and art, and informed us of the latest developments and additions to our ever-increasing offer in this important area of student learning and personal growth.

To view a copy of the presentation, click on the link below.

Parent Meeting 9: End of Term 1 Exams, Revision, Student Reports and Grades

Come join us! We welcome all parents to join us for our latest parent meeting when we will talk you through our end of Term 1 exam processes and reporting procedures and share information that will enable you and your child to get the most of these. We look forward to seeing you there! Thursday 9th November 2023 from 8:15-9:30am in the Indoor Learning Centre (ILC).

Foundation Halloween Stay & Play

Thanks to the many Foundation parents who joined their children for our oh-so memorable (not to mention, oh-so spooktacular!) Halloween Stay & Play - our best attended event yet! With a whole range of craft activities, including making spiders and pumpkins, designing spiders’ webs, and creating incredible lava bottles, it was a great opportunity for our Foundation stage community to come together and spend some quality SCARE time with each other.

Look out for our Christmas Stay & Play event coming in December.

Halloween in Primary

Throughout the 31st October, our Primary students celebrated all that is Halloween! They started by showing off their spooktacular costumes to their friends as they checked out each other’s classroom displays. Before morning break, we held our first ever Halloween parade, joined by some rather odd-looking adults that on any other day would be our class teachers. Then, after a filling lunch of Ogre Fingers in Blood Sauce and Witch Hair, followed by a delicious treat of traditional coconut ice cream with optional Ghost Plasma (a.k.a. blue sticky rice!), and some fun themed colouring and quizzing activities, the students had the chance to shake their ghosts and ghouls out at our first ever Monster Mash Dance, which included games of Musical Statues and Creepy Corners, before finishing up by joining a special Halloween Congo!

We hope the children will take away many wonderful memories of their first Halloween together and that this will be the first of many memorable events throughout the years to come!

Our PSV donation drive has begun in earnest and, thanks to the amazing generosity of our school community, we already have 23 children sponsored since its launch at the beginning of last week. A heartfelt thank you to the children and families of Year 1, Year 3 and Year 6 for their efforts to raise money to sponsor their chosen child and to the Lam, Johnson, Pimbley and Yanagisawa families for their generous donations!

We would like to thank you and your children for participating in Russian Language Day, which took place on Saturday, October 28th. The event was a huge success and we appreciate your support. Families from both campuses attended the event and it made the celebration especially memorable. Students took part in a talent show, games and a quest. The performances gave an opportunity to get acquainted with wonderful music, dance, as well as delicious food from countries where people speak Russian.

We look forward to seeing you at the next event.

хотим поблагодарить вас и ваших детей за участие в дне русского языка, который прошёл в субботу 28 октября. Мероприятие прошло с огромным успехом, и мы ценим вашу поддержку. На мероприятии собрались семьи из обоих кампусов, что сделало праздник особенно запоминающимся. Студенты участвовали в конкурсе талантов, в играх и квесте. Выступления дали возможность познакомиться с прекрасной музыкой, танцами, а также вкусной едой тех стран, в которых говорят на русском языке.

Мы с нетерпением ждем встречи на следующем празднике.

It was a fantastic experience for all our academy players at HeadStart Cherngtalay as we welcomed the U11 and U13 Girls teams from HeadStart Chaofah City for some friendly fixtures. After some training drills and an inspirational team talk from Coach Paul, our players showed how they have progressed over the past couple of months and displayed some promising skills and determination against tough opposition. Thanks to Coach Dave for bringing his well-oiled footballing machine up to the North for the afternoon. Well done to all of the players involved!

Climbing, Jumping and Moving in Preschool PE Lessons

Preschool had an amazing time exploring with our gymnastic equipment. Students are encouraged to climb, jump and move their bodies in new and interesting ways. It is an excellent lesson for exploring not only how to climb and jump, but how to get down and land safely too! Learning to share, take turns and develop essential social relationship skills are also lifelong learning goals that students work towards through their PE lessons.

Establishing New Morning Routines and Self-regulation in Early Years

In Early Years, children have been engaged in a new morning routine designed to foster name recognition and emotional identification using the Zones of Regulation. Each day, the children are encouraged to recognize and “sign in” with their names, as well as to select and place their picture in a designated “feelings” cup. This daily practice plays a pivotal role in their overall development, contributing significantly to their fine motor skills, self-awareness, and emotional regulation, all of which are vital components of the Early Years curriculum.

Using blending skills to read and write words accurately in Year 1

In Phonics lessons this week, Year 1 have been developing their ability to segment words to identify the different phonemes and then being able to blend these phonemes together to write words correctly. They have also been able to listen to a sentence being dictated and then, using their newly acquired sounds, write this dictated sentence down. Of course, our phonics skills are not limited to writing - we use them all the time when reading stories and a phonics table mat comes in super handy!

Inquisitive Investigators in Year 4

Year 4 have been exploring inventions and how the things around us work. They have been inquisitive investigators and creative thinkers. The Year 4s were amazed by our school’s very own INQUISREATOR, Mr. Lawler, who came in to give us a demonstration of his very own invention he has recently been working on! This prompted the students to make interesting inquiries and even collaborate with Mr. Lawler on the next steps he can take to complete his Bamboo phone speaker. We are so excited to see the finished product! Thank you for sharing your creation with us, Mr. Lawler!

Using a variety of learning tools to be inquisitive in Year 5

Year 5 really enjoyed their humanities lesson this week. They used electronic devices to find some of the highest mountains in South-East Asia. Then, using their atlases, they needed to accurately mark on their maps where these mountains are located. A further challenge which got them really excited was finding out which of these mountains are actually active volcanoes!

Congratulations to Jia Kim in Year 3 for sensational performances at the recent 6th PK Gymnastics Competition in Bangkok. Jia came away with two gold medals for Body Skills and Freehand, and a silver medal for Rope Skills. What an amazing achievement, Jia!