Weekly Update 23

Announcements

Dates for Your Diary

Upcoming events can be found on the HeadStart calendar on the website School Life → Calendar but we have outlined the main ones here for easy reference:

The Gruffalo

The students and teachers are very excited to announce their performance of The Gruffalo on the 16 March, 2017 in the sports hall. At precisely 9:15 am doors open. Please be seated by 9:20 am. Tickets can be purchased in the front office starting on the 6th of March. You will notice that a variety of seating/price options have been made available to accommodate every need. Official photographers and video crew will capture this fun event after which we will publish all media on the school Facebook page and website.

Since there will be time in between dropping off your child and the performance we would like to recommend that parents have a coffee and bite to eat at N1 Cafe & Green that is located right behind the school. (See the map below) The restaurant is air conditioned and has space to park and relax. More information can be found on their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/n1cafeandgreen/

We welcome everyone at HeadStart to participate in International Day 2017! This day is designed to celebrate HeadStart’s cultural diversity within the community. Typically parents and their children will collaborate with families of the same nationality and prepare performances, food and games to share with the community during the event. Contact out Admin team in the front office if you would like to book a table, perform on the stage or organise any other activity from your country. More news as well as a timetable and floor plan will follow in next week’s update.

Photos of last year’s International Day below

Fair Trade Week

Next week HeadStart will be hosting a Fair Trade Week. The Fair Trade campaign is a global initiative to raise awareness in global farming and to ensure that farmers receive a fair price for their produce. During lessons and assemblies, children will find out more about how farms around the world are involved in the Fair Trade Campaign. At HeadStart we will be supporting local Fair Trade businesses and have invited some Phuket businesses into school on Monday and Friday afternoon to share and sell some of their products. These stalls will be set up in the school atrium and will be open from 2.00pm – 4.30pm. Please feel free to browse the Fair Trade stalls on Monday and Friday afternoon of next week.

Junk Appeal

To end our Fair Trade week, we will be celebrating with a Primary Trashion Show event. Children will work in their House Teams and have the chance to design and create a costume made from trash. From Monday, bin bags will be set up outside the classrooms, along the Primary floor where trash can be deposited for the event on Friday. Please help your House, by saving trash and bringing it into school.

Food Hygiene Inspection

On the 15th of December a team of Vichit Municipality officers visited and inspected the kitchen. We have just been informed that we passed the food hygiene inspection and have been awarded ‘Outstanding’. Congratulations to our kitchen team for their hard work. By Khru Nee

Keep your eyes out for HeadStart’s newly branded vans. Thank you students for participating in the photoshoot!

Eco Tip of the Week

Saving the environment starts with you! Plastic lasts forever, so here are six types of single use plastic to avoid so you can start making a difference today: plastic straws, plastic cutlery, plastics bags, plastic bottles, plastic cups, take away containers. Will you start reducing the amount of plastic you use? By Ms Kate Thongsen

Eco Update

Some students from the Eco and Young Scientist’s ASP got together and worked with a local company called MonoSun. The team came into school and worked with our students to educate them about the long term benefits of renewable energy, the reduce4d impact on our environment and how this clean energy can help to reduce climate change. Our students were keen to take part in some fun activities, such as lighting up bulbs from solar cells and assembling the blades to wind turbines. The wind turbine and solar cell were installed over the mid term break and can be seen from various areas of the school. A big thank you to William and his team for assisting us on our journey towards saving the world! Ms Fiona Scott

Sports Department News

By Mr Richard Lukats, Athletics Director

Girls Basketball

The Under 16 girls basketball team will be playing in a mini tournament with BIS and Kajonkiet on Thursday 9th March. Tip Off 3.30pm - 5.00pm. The tournament is to be played at HeadStart International School, so please come along and support our girls.

Sports Faculty Week

On the 20-24th March will be the Sports Faculty Week which will include year group swimming competitions. Look out for plenty of activities to have a go at and get involved in, more details to follow.

Sports Days

Year 3 - 6, Wednesday 29th March 8.30 - 11.00am

Secondary, Wednesday 29th March 12.00 - 3.00pm

Foundation, Thursday 30th March 9.00 - 11.00am

Year 1 & 2, Thursday 30th March 1.00 - 3.00pm

Football News

Well done Under 12 HeadStart team for winning the PSS International Football Tournament on the weekend! The Under 14 team also played well and came in 2nd place. Good effort and hard work from all players in the very hot sun! Thank you also to the coaches who help train the students and coach them at the games.

Swimming News

The swim team is back in the water after a spectacular meet in Thanyapura on Saturday, February 18th. We had 48 swimmers compete and edged out BIS and Thanyapura for a team victory! All our athletes did an amazing job and are now gearing up for the Rocket Science Invitational on March 31st.

Coach Brown’s Quote of the Week: “The price of excellence is discipline. The cost of mediocrity is disappointment.”

House News

By Mr Nick carter, House Coordinator

Weigh Your Waste Every Friday students will be sitting in their Houses. That way they can encourage each other to waste as little food as possible. This will also give them an opportunity to meet other people in their Houses from different year groups.

House Mascot Fundraiser On to some really exciting news! We are going to start a fund raiser to help raise enough money to buy some House Mascot costumes. To give you an idea of what the costumes will look like, there are displays in the atrium that include some pictures of how the costumes will look. We need ALL of your help including students, parents, and teachers in order to raise 100,000 Baht for this purpose. That may seem like a lot, but there are approximately 700 students and teaching staff at HeadStart, so that works out at an average of approximately 150 Baht each.

Bring in any spare change you have and deposit it into your House box in the atrium. IMPORTANT: Please only bring in 1, 2, 5, and 10 baht coins–NO Satangs! Furthermore, it’s a whole school competition, so whichever House raises the most money will receive 50 House points!

Foundation News

By Ms Fiona Scott, Deputy Head of Foundation

A big thank you to all the parents who signed up for the story reading slots. Children love listening to stories and certainly enjoyed the international stories on offer this week. As well as stories in different languages, we had the pleasure of welcoming Y3 and Y4 students this week, who shared books and also read stories with our young readers. If you weren’t able to make it into school, you can always promote a love of reading at home by sharing a bedtime story together.

Finally, if you are at a loose end this weekend, our friends at Kidsmania at RPM have given every child in early Years and Reception a 50% discount voucher to be used anytime from now. If your child is in Y1 or 2, don’t be disappointed, as more discount vouchers will be arriving next week. A big Thank you to Yvonne and her team at Kidsmania for their generosity.

Preschoolers had so much fun making animal foot prints in paint! By Ms Lisa Parsons

On Wednesday, Year 3 kindly offered their time to read with us in Early Years. Each child in Year 3 paired up with a child in Early Years. This exchange benefited both age ranges by supporting the reading and expression in Year 3 and developing the listening skills for Early Years. Ms Frankie and Ms Nikki

A rambunctiously rousing reading time in Reception! Some of our very kind, and brave parents came into read to the classes this week. The children loved having their Mummies and Daddies read to them. Year 4 classes paid us a visit too for some buddy reading, including some of our brothers and sisters. We loved learning with the big kids. Ms Amy & Ms Danielle

Primary News

By Mr Andrew Whittaker, Head of Primary

How much sleep does my Primary school child need?

This is something that I am constantly asked by parents and it can often cause concern at home. These are the recommendations from us and what research shows as best practice. Sleep requirements differ from individual to individual, but in general a younger child needs more sleep than an older one. Between the ages of five and 11, your child will need 10-12 hours of sleep a night.

A bedtime routine is the best way to ensure that your child gets enough sleep. Devise a routine that lasts 30-40 minutes, and includes a bath and the chance to read a story (or stories) together. Try not to change your routine – don’t change it at all during the week, and if you want your child to have a slightly later bedtime at the weekend, then only change it by maybe an hour. Bedtime is a chance to spend some quality time together, and if it’s a time both you and your child enjoy, your daughter or son will settle down in bed and drop off to sleep more easily.

At stressful times, such as when your child starts in Reception, and at the start of each new school year, your child will probably get more tired than usual and will need more sleep. Towards the end of primary school, your daughter or son may start to stay up later in the evening, maybe chatting to friends online, playing games on a console or watching TV. They will find it difficult to get up in the morning and will be tired or irritable during the day if they don’t get enough sleep. Limit your child’s use of the Internet, games consoles and TV in the hour before they go to bed – and ideally don’t allow your daughter or son to have a computer, console or a TV set in their bedroom.

This week we had a special visitor, Khun Noot, (mother of Prem). She came to read a Thai story for the Year 2 class.

Year 4 had Arts and Crafts stations to make classroom decorations. By Ms Katherine Dickie

Year 4 were exploring metaphors and similes in the descriptions of Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker. Ms Katherine Dickie

As part of their learning about flowering plants, Year 5 students carried out an investigation about pollination. Some students were female parts of plants, some were male, and some were insects or other pollinators. The male parts held cheesy potato snacks which the insects collected and took to the female parts, leaving cheesy bits (pollen) as they landed. By Mr Stephen Brady

Year 5 have been reading ‘George’s Marvelous Medicine’ by Roald Dahl this week. They made their own fizzing medicine as one of the week’s activities. By Mr Stephen Brady

This week Dr. Kittipat, father of Putter and Plaeng, (who works at Bangkok International Hospital) came to speak with Year 5 students about what the life of a doctor is like. He also emphasized the importance of learning Thai if you want to be a doctor in Thailand. Khru Nee

Secondary News

By Ms Elizabeth Mason, Head of Secondary

Welcome back to students and teachers! It is great to all be together again refreshed and working hard.

This week the English and Humanities Faculty week has been in full swing and culminated in World Book Day. Well done to the math’s department who achieved a fantastic Maths week fun packed with plenty of games and prizes before the half term. These important weeks really develop and stretch our learners.

Year 10, 12 and 13 Parent’s Evening

Next Wednesday, the 8th of March, will be the Year 10, 12 and 13 Parents Evening. All students will receive a printed report and the Sixth Form students will receive the results from their Mock Exams from their teachers. Student have been given the sheets to enable them to make appointments with the teachers. I look forward to meeting all of the parents during this meeting.

Year 10 IGCSE Business Studies

Our Year 10 students are currently learning about each of the four elements of the Marketing Mix – Known also as the “4 P’s”: Product, Price, Promotion & Place. This will eventually enable them to understand how medium and large size businesses create a ‘Marketing Strategy’ for their products and services. Our students will then create their own Marketing Strategy for a given product. By Mr Michael Hurley

Congratulations to Julianna Mester in Year 10 who won first place and to Daria Gorodtsova in Year 8 who won second place in the BKK KPIS Music Challenge 2017!

Around the Island

Theatrix Fun

Theatrix performed their family-friendly comedy show with something for everyone: HOW THE FIRST LETTER WAS WRITTEN, songs by the UKULADIES, a visit from Ludwig von Fleathoven and THE SHOW MUST GO ON! Loads of laughs and fun. A great time was had by all!