Weekly Update 27, 30 March, 2018

Dates for Your Diary

Upcoming events can be found on the HeadStart calendar on the website School Life → Calendar but we have outlined upcoming events for the month here for easy reference.

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Announcements

ASP Notice

Please be informed that all free Primary ASPs will be cancelled from 3-5 April next week due to Foundation and Primary Parent Teacher Conferences (PTC). Fee Paying ASPs will continue as usual. All Primary students will be brought to the Dining Hall to wait until they are collected by their parent or guardian as per school policy.

Year 10-13 Parent and Teacher Conference (PTC) Invitation

You are invited to attend the Year 10, 12 and 13 Parent Teacher Consultation evening (PTC) on April 25th 2018 at 3.35 pm. Parents/students will receive a report and Year 12 and 13 parents will receive a hard copy of the statement of mock results. Once you have your reports you will then have consultations with the relevant members of staff discussing next steps for your child. Appointments should be made via the Parent Portal. You will receive an invitation to the PTC via Engage in the week beginning the 2nd April. Appointments should be booked by Monday 23rd April at 5:00 pm. If you experience any problems accessing the parent portal, please contact [email protected]

Sixth-Form Options Morning

On 20 March the Year 11 students and parents attended a ‘Sixth-Form Options Morning’. Parents & students received an options booklet and Sixth-Form application form. A presentation regarding the Head-Start Sixth-Form was given by Mr Adam Drew followed by the chance to speak to subject teachers regarding the suitability of each student for the courses.

Students should fill in the application form. This includes writing a personal statement on why the student wishes to be part of the HeadStart Sixth-Form and how the subjects they have chosen meets the needs for their future studies and career path. Students should select up to four subjects that they wish to study at AS Level in Year 12. Application Forms must be submitted to Mr Mason by Monday 2nd April. Students will then be invited to short interviews with the Head of Secondary and Director of Studies to help them firm up their choices for AS Levels. Final choices and places on the courses will be confirmed on IGCSE Results day on 14th August 2018.

P.E. Department News

Basketball News

On Monday the 26th of March the U15 Boys, U13 and U15 Girls Basketball Teams attended the 3vs3 basketball tournament at BISP. The teams worked really and progressed through the tournament to a credible 3rd place in all categories (there were six teams in each category). Everyone did exceptionally well considering that it was everyone’s first time playing 3vs3 matches in a competition. A special mention goes to Pimnara Phongworasak (Noey) in the U13 girls team, she has shown immense commitment and improvement and really impressed everyone at the tournament!’ Well done to all those who played! Natasha Y12.

I would also like to thank Natasha in Y12 not only for this write up but also for her commitment as the senior girls basketball captain. As part of her leadership role she decided to give up her own time and accompany the younger teams to BISP and joined Coach Ball in coaching the teams at the tournament. You are a great role model Natasha! By Mr Richard Lukats

Picture courtesy of the Yearbook photo shoot

Swimathon for Charity

Friday, March 23rd started as any other day for the HeadStart Aqua Panthers. Wake up and start the daily routine of having breakfast, getting ready and heading out to school. Though this day was typical, the evening would be drastically different than any had experienced before. On this particular evening, the Aqua Panthers would embark on an overnight swim-a-thon called the “12 Hour Relay”. The task was simple, have at least one person in the water throughout the night cranking out laps to see how far the team could swim while raising money for the Life Home Project Foundation. Goal: raise enough funds to repair their roof and assist with other financial necessities.

Before the event began, the swimmers set up their sleeping areas in the sports hall which consisted of sleeping bags, tents, bean bags, and other night time essentials. Next, the team was divided into smaller groups (younger to older) to fill the 12 hours of swimming we were about to embark on. Each swimmer sought sponsorship from their friends, family, and teachers by lap or flat rate.

The team did an amazing amount of work during this event. As a group, they swam 54.7 km! From HeadStart, that would be a little further than Phi Phi Island! At this point, the team has raised over 70,000 baht for the LHPF and there are more funds to come (sponsorship money is due on Friday).

There is something magical about staying overnight at school with your friends paired with raising money for a worthy cause. Each HeadStart Aqua Panthers put forth amazing effort and created memories that will last for years to come. We are all look forward to next year! By Mr Zak Brown

Swimming Galas

By Mr Zak Brown, Head Swim Coach

We are all getting very excited about Songkran at HeadStart and this year we have moved all the Primary Swimming Galas to the week before the Songkran Holiday’s so we can have as much water based fun as possible. During the week, beginning the 2nd April, each year group will have a separate swimming gala (dates and times are below) in which all our primary students will be expected to take part in. They will be representing their House in the galas and will be involved in classical swimming races and some fun relays. Students are to bring their full swimming kit on the day of their galas (swimming costume, swim hat, goggles and a towel). If parents would like to come and watch their child/children’s galas there will be seats available poolside for you to soak………up the atmosphere!

Please note that for some students and classes the galas will be in their normal allotted swimming lesson, for others it will either be during a P.E. Lesson slot or a different time and day. During the week beginning the 5th April, apart from when they have their galas, all other P.E./Swimming Lessons will be as normal.

Dates and Times

Primary students as now able to use the sports hall at lunchtime to practice their skills, have fun and keep fit.

Monday is Badminton / Tuesday is Basketball / Wednesday is Boys Club / Thursday is Girls Club / Friday is Badminton.

Eco News

This week the Primary Eco Club continues to inspire a love of gardening as our lunchtime club keeps on growing! We now have a tap and watering cans in the garden and a daily team to ensure all our plants get enough water throughout the day. This week we have planted some more vegetables and flowers and a big Thank You to the parents who have kindly donated some seeds and cuttings to ensure our green-fingers team are kept busy. By Ms Fiona Scott, Eco Coordinator

Student News

Early Years have been studying the topic Around the World this week. We have built the Great Wall of China, made African bead necklaces, played in a Native American teepee with feather head dresses and listened to stories in Chinese, Russian and French so far. Thank you to all the parents who have signed up to read to us in their native tongues. By Ms Erika Cramp and Ms Holly Strawbridge

Reception blue got very excited in preparation for International Day. Each nationality stood up and sang or listened to their national anthem. They then created the flags for their countries. By Ms Candice Smithie

Reception B are practicing hard in their swimming lessons to develop their racing skills and House team work in preparation for their Swimming Gala on Tuesday 3rd of April.

We are so impressed with how brilliant the children in Reception are at applying their phonics and producing super writing! We helped with the spelling of animal names and fruits but the children used their knowledge of tricky words and phonics to write the rest independently. They are also really good artists; look at the cute animal pictures! By Ms Hannah Kuusik

Reception are really enjoying our new ‘Jungle’ topic! We have enjoyed lots of fun activities including role play in the jungle, animal scavenger hunts and lots of maths and phonics games using jungle animals and objects. By Ms Hannah Kuusik

Colourful papier mache hot air balloons in Reception!

This week in One Yellow Mathematics, the children have been tackling the challenging concepts of column subtraction. They worked in pairs to physically regroup ones when subtracting greater numbers than they had, before doing pictorial and abstract column subtraction problems. By Mr Michael Millington

In computing the children combined their previous learning to insert, re-size and move/sort photos of animals they collected online into different groups of animals, using learning from their current science lessons - ‘Living Things’. By Mr Michael Millington

In Year 2 Blue the children have been learning about the currency of Thailand - Baht. The children have learnt the denominations of coins and notes, created different amounts of money and learnt how to work out the change they are owed. They ended the week by applying this new learning to play Monopoly. By Mr Paul Williams

Year 2 students learnt about different parts of the house in Thai and made conversation that related to the topic. By Kru Dia

Year 5 and 6 Art Club have made colourful and unique masks! We also supported Eco Week by using recycled materials to make cool phone speakers that really work!

The Year 7 students have been working on their practical skills all year in science particularly how to work together and carry out experiments safely in the classroom. They are currently working on Acids and Alkalis and using universal indicator to test for pH which they are all really enjoying and putting a lot of hard work into. By Ms Ellie Leamon

The Year 8 students are creating Flowcharts for their topic on Flowol. Students are learning about programming visually with a flowchart and this allows students to focus on the logic of their solution rather than the syntax of a written program. Here they’re learning how to sequence a set of instructions, branch using decisions and create loops. By Ms Hayley Jean

Year 9 students learned how to order drinks in Thai. We made up a menu and practised conversations about ordering the drinks. By Kru Gen

The Year 13 A2 Business students (Riny Cho & Anastasia Emelianova) are working incredibly hard in preparation for their final three hour examination, scheduled for the 25th May. The pictures show the level of “healthy competition.” They are great students and deserve every success. By Mr Michael Hurley