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Weekly Update #23, 3 March 2023
Upcoming events can be found on the website under School Life → Calendar and are outlined here for easy reference. If you have questions or require further assistance please email [email protected]
| Date | Time | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6-8 March | Year 7 Residential Trip | Splash Jungle resort | |
| 7-8 March | Track & Field Sporting Events | HeadStart | |
| 10 March | 3.00-5.00pm | International Day 2023 (No ASPs/buses leave at 3.10pm) | Covered Football Pitch |
| 11-12 March | DofE Bronze: Group 1 Final Journey | Ao Yon Beach | |
| 13-17 March | Maths Faculty Week | ||
| 15 March | 3.00-5.00pm | Year 12 & 13 Parent/Teacher conferences (PTC) | To be announced |
| 17-18 March | 3v3 Basketball | BISP | |
| 18 March | 9.00am - 12.00pm | Saturday Thai Culture Club | |
| 20-24 March | Science Faculty Week | ||
| 24-25 March | 6.00pm to 6.00am | 12 Hours to Make a Difference | Swimming pool/Football pitch |
| 25-26 March | To be announced | CAPA Junior Rehearsals | To be announced |
| 25 March | 9.00am to 12.00pm | Russian Language Day | |
| 27-31 March | Throughout the week | Primary Swim Galas | Swimming Pool |
| 29-30 March | 4.45pm | Junior CAPA Performances of ‘Rock Bottom’ | Sports Hall |
| 31 March | 2.00pm | Primary Student Council Meeting | |
| Last day of all ASPs |
| Announcement sand Upcoming Events |
Year 7 Residential Trip on 6-8.03.23
The much anticipated Year 7 residential trip is planned for Monday to Wednesday next week. Our events team have planned an action packed trip filled with adventure, water activities, sports, island hopping and also elements of service on their finlal day. We are confident that students will have a great time and come back with lots of stories of good memories. Students should meet at school on Monday morning ready for an 8.30am start. Full trip itinerary and packing list have been sent to parents via email. Wishing the Year 7s a wonderful time of fun, friendship and new experiences!
International Day on 10.03.23
The following countries have registered a booth and performances for the much anticipated International Day taking place next Friday, 10 March from 3.00-5.00pm on the football pitch. Thank you to all who have made a commitment to participate. We now have bookings for Japan, Spain & Latin America, India, Thailand, Russia, Philippines, South Korea, Hungary, Germany, Nepal, United Kingdom, France, Israel, China, South Africa and America. We look forward to celebrating the rich cultural heritage that we share at HeadStart! If you have questions or require assistance, please contact our events team at [email protected]
Saturday Thai Culture Club on 18.03.23
This activity will take place on 18 March at school from 9.00am to 12.00pm and is open to Thai national students. To sign up, simply contact your child’s Thai teacher.
Russian Language Day
День русского языка всё ближе. Он состоится 25 марта с 9 до 12. Мы запланировали раличные веселые задания для наших русскоговорящих учеников. Пожалуйста, заполните google форму (ссылка здесь) до 10 марта.
| Meetings & Workshops |
Phonics Workshop on 7.03.23
Natalie Walker
Hello! My name is Natalie Walker. I joined Headstart in April 2021 as Reception Teacher. This year I will be Deputy Head of Foundation. I am from a town called Newcastle upon Tyne which is in the United Kingdom where I studied for my degree in Early Childhood Education. Over the past 18 years I have been lucky enough to teach in all Early Years age groups in a range of International and private schools while working within the management team. I worked in China and the UK before moving to Phuket with my family. In both positions, I managed outstanding early year’s provision and lead the development of these units and instilled a love of early childhood education. My husband, Mr Walker and our two children are also at Headstart and are excited for the coming year. As a family we like to play golf, go to the beach and of course go to many of the wonderful restaurants around Phuket. I am very happy to be leading a team of dedicated and creative Foundation teachers in order to give your children the best possible education experience in their early childhood. I believe that for children to achieve, discover their talents and become resilient young people they must feel safe and secure both in their personal and home lives. As teachers and education providers our role stretches further than what subjects we can teach them but rather educate and support the development of the ‘whole child’. Taking a holistic approach we are able to focus on the personal, social and emotional needs of children whilst supporting their cognitive and physical ability. Children spend much of their childhood studying and preparing for exams, it is my mission to ensure that every child we enroll at HeadStart looks back on their early years with fun and happy memories, knowing that they were given the opportunity to grow and explore in an interesting and diverse environment.
The benefits of Phonics in Early Years are not to be understated. It’s a key area that enables children to accomplish lifelong skills - being able to read and write. As it is such an important part of a child’s education, there are consistent goals associated with Phonics throughout the HeadStart Foundation curriculum.
Phonics is an area of education that aims to link a child’s understanding of sounds (phonemes) and letter patterns (graphemes). This helps kids to identify and use sounds to distinguish different words from each other. However, In Phase one, children do not learn any letters or the sounds they make. The purpose of this stage is to develop children’s listening and communication skills, including their vocabulary, to prepare them for reading and writing in the next Phase. If children do not fully develop these skills it can mean that they may struggle to hear the individual sounds in words, which can mean children find it much harder to spell and blend sounds for reading.
In phase two children begin to learn letter patterns in words and produce particular sounds. In essence, it’s code-breaking. When you have an in-depth knowledge of the meaning behind these codes, you can pronounce and read any word. Improving your child’s awareness of phonics will help them to decode unknown vocabulary they encounter when reading. As adults, we do this without thinking. It’s a fundamental skill in learning the English language.
We invite Early Years and Reception parents to join us on Tuesday 7th March to learn more about the phonics taught at HeadStart and how you can help at home. We look forward to seeing you all there.
Presentation on Studying in the UK on 23.02.23
Last week we were lucky to have Dr Teeradej Tripatarasit, Khun Boonyuen Frederiksen and Khun Thanyaphat Jiraboonphirak, all HeadStart parents with children currently studying in universities in England, come to share their valuable experience about what students should expect if they choose to study in England. They were able to pass on very valuable information about applying for visas, online banking, student accommodation and how parents can best support their child academically and mentally before moving to the UK. It was great to see parents, new and old, connecting with each other and building a network in order to support their child in university. -Kru Nee, School Director
| Chinese Language Day |
On Saturday 25th of February we held our second Chinese Language Day at HeadStart! For this occasion, students from different sections of the school, and their parents, came to HeadStart to participate in a whole new range of activities organised by the Mandarin teachers.
We first enjoyed the students’ talent show and Chinese work exhibition on the ground floor. Then, students were grouped in two language classrooms for cultural experience activities. In Languages 6, we had the Beijing opera mask- painting session. Mr Tian introduced that the masks are inspired by the Chinese Opera tradition, in which the colours and patterns of the make-up change according to the characteristics of the characters in the stories. Parents and students designed and painted their own masks. In Languages 7, Ms Zhong taught how to use clay to make traditional Chinese antique door handles and everyone was busy creating their masterpiece. Finally, everyone gathered in the Secondary Hall for an intense and exciting game of Word Puzzle. At the end of the day everyone shared the Chinese food they had brought in the dining hall.
The Language faculty would like to thank all the parents and students for attending this event, and are looking forward to the next one that will be held in Term 1 next Academic year! -Mr Salmon, Head of Languages & Wei Wang, Chinese Coordinator
2 月 25 日星期六 HeadStart举办了第二届中文语言日！幼儿园、小学以及中学的学生和家长们参加了一系列有趣的文化体验活动。
我们首先在一楼大厅观赏了学生的才艺表演及作品展。接着，学生们分组参加了文化体验活动。语言教室6进行的是京剧脸谱涂色活动，田老师介绍了不同颜色在京剧中代表的主人公的不同性格，家长和学生们积极设计自己的脸谱。在语言教室7，钟老师正在教授如何使用粘土制作中国传统大门的铺首衔环，大家都十分有兴趣地制作自己的作品。最后，在中学会议室举行的是拼字游戏，大家进行了紧张而激烈的拼字比赛。大家在活动的最后分享了带来的中国美食。
我们在此感谢所有参加本次活动的家长和学生，让我们共同期待在下个学年举行的中文语言日！
For a full album of high quality photos click here!
| World Book Day |
On Thursday 2nd March HeadStart students, along with children from all over the world, celebrated World Book Day. The children dressed up as different characters and shared their love of stories and books with their parents, friends and teachers. Here are a few pictures of the fun that was had! -Ms Donna Wintersgill Full album of high quality pictures can be found here!
| PE & Sports |
Track & Field Events Coming up
On Wednesday, 8th March our U9 and U11 athletes will be competing at HeadStart in the PISAC Track & Field event from 12.00-15.00. Parents have been emailed the information and they are welcome to come and watch. Students will also have a practice session on Monday, 6th 15.30-16.20 and they should meet Miss Wilson on the top astro pitch. We wish all the competitors the very best of luck and next week, I’ll give you the results on how we did. -Mr Nick Carter, Director of Sport
Year 1 & 2 Sports Day
Well done to all the Year 1 & 2 students for participating in the recent Sports Day! Thank you to all of the parents who were able to come and support and as always, we need to thank our teachers and support staff and also our students leaders who helped to organise and run the activities and ensure that our students ran, threw, and jumped their way to success. 📸 A full album of high quality pictures can be found here including a beautiful album of pictures taken by one of our parents. Here are the finishing results for Year 1 & 2 Sports Day:
🥇Red House 🥈Green House 🥉Yellow House 🏅Blue House
Year 3-6 Sports Day was a great success and the children had a fun, active and competitive day that involved relay races, jumping, throwing and everyone’s favourite, tug of war! The results are shown below. 📸 A full album of high quality photos can be found here!
🥇1st - Red House 🥈2nd - Green House 🥉3rd - Blue House 🏅4th - Yellow House
Secondary Sports Day
A very well done to all of the secondary students who participated in last week’s Secondary Sports Day. The morning consisted of traditional track and field events for Year 7 to 11; hurdles, 400m, 200m, 100m, 4x100m relay, long jump, and high jump. The week before the sports days the students also participated in the preliminary events; 800m, javelin, discus, and shot put. Then, in the afternoon the Year 7 to 11 students were joined by Year 12 and 13 for a smorgasbord of activities; Yukigassen, Funky Races, Tug of War, as well as the students who elected to sign up for competitive swimming races. A big congratulations to the Red House who were the overall winners on the day. Go Phoenixes! -Mr Carter, Director of Sports
| Primary |
Year 3 Cultural Day
Year 3 had a wonderful start to their new English topic, ‘Where in the World?’ this week. We were visited by some wonderful parent volunteers who came in to teach the children about their home country and to run fun activities. Our day took us to Hungary, Brazil, Germany, Thailand and Russia! We played with Thai toys made from banana leaves, learnt about the Rio Carnival, made our own German school cones, played with Rubik cubes and tasted delicous pancakes from Russia and Hungary! What a fun day we had! Thank you to all the parents who were involved, it certainly was a day to remember! -Ms Donna Wintersgill
| Secondary |
A message from Linda in Year 13
The library is not only a place for reading, but it is also a place for discovering inner peace. Surrounding myself with books always gives me a tranquil feeling. Since I joined HeadStart in Year 8, the library has been a place I have always visited. Every time I enter it, I learn more from it. Slowly, I formed a good relationship with the school’s librarian, Miss Mai, and I found out that she is usually swamped because she is the one and only librarian in the school. I felt I could do something to assist her. From putting back books, helping people to return and borrow books to making the book cover and reading books to younger kids, I learned that helping in the library is a job with a lot of fun and knowledge. Reading can make firm connections to your inner spirit while assisting in the library can enhance your relationship between you and books. You will learn more about how the library is organized.
UWE (University of the West of England) Bristol came in to talk to us about the university, the courses they offer, links with industry and student life in Bristol.
Secondary Volunteers at Wat Ketho
During the half term break, a group of Secondary students kept themselves busy by volunteering to teach English at a local school called Wat Ketho in Kathu. The students organised fun activities, games and crafts with the aim of encouraging the children to use English in their daily lives. On the last day, the Secondary students gifted the children with some much needed stationery items using their own money. How lovely is that? I was very pleased to see some new students volunteering this time around. Let’s keep up the good work! -Kru Nee, School Director
Year 10 ESL News
Y10 have put on their reporter hats and have written an article about the pros and cons of Zoos. It was up to them to research and write their opinion piece, using various literary techniques and devices to make their writing interesting to their target audience - you! Please enjoy the fabulous work by our Y10 ESL students. -Ms Lauren Davidson
