Weekly Update 34

Announcements

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 here for easy reference.

In Remembrance of Our King…

As we all know that His Majesty the late King Bhumibol passed away last year and the Thai people are still mourning. The Thai government has announced that the Royal Funeral will take place between 23th -27th October 2017 and the Royal Cremation day is set for Thursday, 26th October, 2017. The government has declared this day a public holiday and all schools in Thailand will be closed out of respect.

We would like to invite all parents to join us in making the funeral flowers which will be handed out to the public during the Royal Funeral. Daffodils, the chosen flower for the funeral, were the flowers that His Majesty, the late King Bhumibol, gave to Her Majesty Queen Sirikit during their time in Switzerland.

There will be a flower making table along with the King’s image in the atrium next week. All parents, students, teachers and staff are invited to join in this activity in order to be part of sending our beloved King to Heaven.

Prom 2017–Masquerade!

We cordially invite all Secondary students to the Prom 2017 on the 23 June which will take place at the Sunsuri Hotel in Nai Harn http://www.sunsuri-phuket.com/. The theme this year is Masquerade! There will be funny awards, games, food and free flow of drink as well as a DJ keeping the party going! Students will vote for a King and Queen/Prince and Princess and we will have a costume award for the best costumes. There will be prizes and surprises and lots to look forward to. Tickets will be on sale in the front office next Friday, 16 June, 2017. Students are welcome to invite friends from other schools.

6:00–Year 7-9 arrivals / Photo booth / Games

7:00–Year 10-13 arrivals / Photo Booth / Dinner

9:00–Year 7-9 students are picked up by parents / Year 10-13 students continue with games and dancing.

10:30–All party goers go home.

Thai Parents Meeting

We would like to invite all Thai parents to attend a meeting on June 21st in the Sports Hall between 08.15 - 09.15. The presentation will be about reporting and assessments. This information will help you to have a better understanding about the assessments used at HeadStart.

The meeting agenda will include the following points:

• Report Cards and Publication of Report Cards

• Grades and Progression Markers

• Effort Expectation

Library Notice

The end of this academic year is fast approaching. Please bring back library books that you have borrowed between the 12-16 of June. There will be no student, staff & parents loans in the last two weeks of term in order for us to account for the books and prepare orders for next year.

Healthy Snacks at School

In an effort to raise awareness regarding eating healthy at school, here is a reminder from the Parent Handbook regarding our policy on bringing snacks to school.

HeadStart provides milk for all students during their morning break and a healthy snack during afternoon break. We would like to encourage parents to only send their children to school with healthy snack options. Snacks are quite often shared between friends and we don’t want to have students eating snacks at school that they aren’t allowed to eat from their own parents. Therefore, if a student brings unhealthy snacks, for example, candy, cartons of juice and chips/crisps to school the teacher will confiscate this.

Food Service Committee Notice

The FSC (Food Service Committee) is looking to add dedicated, knowledgeable and healthy minded parents to the Food Service Committee in order to better represent the needs of the students. Joining the FSC will mean meeting once a term to discuss ways in which to modify the menu and address parent and Student Council concerns regarding food service at HeadStart. If you are interested in joining the committee please contact Ms Anisa van der laan by writing to [email protected].

On the 7th June the FSC met to discuss issues raised in term 3. A download of the meeting points of discussion can be found just here.

Business, Computing and Technology Faculty Week

We have had an interesting and fun packed week which kicked-off with a whole school assembly. The assembly had a student-led introduction with their reflections on how Business, Computing or Technology has inspired them. A theme borrowed for the HeadStart mission statement. The speakers were Roman Girenko – Year 8, Sean Byrne Year - 12, Karina Abday - Year 13 and Andrew Heinz - Year 13. Once Mr Mason then shared an overview of the week’s activities ahead, Mr Hurley explained to the audience the timing, expectations and prizes available to the winners of the Dragon’s Den Business completion. We concluded with an insightful presentation by Ryan and Meghan from Generation Water , a company whose products reclaims water from the air and then filters it for drinking.

During the course of the week our students enjoyed a series of events including: a Binary Code Challenge, 3D printing demonstrations, a Business Logo Quiz, QR Code Scavenger Hunt, D&T Students’ work showcase and the very popular Dragon’s Den Business competition.

I would to give a very special thanks to the Sixth Form students who aided and assisted with the activities and were fantastic role models to the younger students during the course of the week. They are: Sean Byrne, Karina Abday and Tina Sowton.

And most of all a huge thank you to the Faculty team for all of their hard work and dedication during this very exciting and demanding week: Mrs Sornhiran, Mrs Scott, Mr Barker, Mr Hurley and Mr Stephens.

Winners of the Binary Code Challenge

Roman, Year 8 / Esther, Year 8 / Sophie, Year 8 / Nicholas, Year 8

Winners of the QR Code Scavenger Hunt: Ben Caspi, Year 9

Cupcake Challenge: Nutcha, Year 8 / Esther, Year 8

Best all-round contributors Jake, Year 9 / Nazar, Year 9 / Annie, Reception / Yura, Reception

Winners of the Dragon’s Den in Primary

First place Bogdan Polekhin (Year 4 Yellow)

Second place Matvey Zakharov, Lewis Amonoo (Year 6)

Joint third place Yaroslav Sirotinin, Andrew Amonoo, Callum Smith (Year 4)

Joint third place Erika Ilstam, Chadanit Prachumpan, Chayatip Phucharoen, Viona Ngamseang (Year 5)

Winners of the Dragon’s Den in Secondary

First Place Eve Whittaker (Year 10B)

Second Place Vanessa Gysin, Nyke Van Der Laan, Azra Anderson, Hayeon Song (Year 10)

Joint third place Lucy Mester, Brendon Boyle, Anna Hull, Anya Belova (Year 9)

Joint third place Jirapat Sienghen (Year 7B)

Pictures of kids in action around school during Business, Computing and Technology Faculty Week

Foundation Department News

A Visit to the Fire Station

Early Years had a fantastic time visiting the Fire Station for our ‘People Who Help Us’ topic. We all got to hold the water hose, we saw the fire suits and we even got to see a real fire! Luckily Miss Cora and Miss Nikki were there to put the fires out!

Primary Department News

Congratulations to the Primary Students of the Month for June!

Year 6 Graduation to Secondary Trip

Every year there is a buzz about the Year 6s completing their Checkpoint exams and graduating from Primary to Secondary after the summer holiday. In order to celebrate the student’s hard work and effort as well as the fact that they are growing up, we have organised a ‘Graduation Trip’ for the teachers and students in Year 6 on the 19-20 June. The activities we have organised, in conjunction with Borsaen Villa and Spa, will help the students to have fun together, participate in team building activities while enjoying each other’s company. We hope that all of the students will be able to join in the fun.

Year 1 students in Mandarin class are having fun tracing and writing Chinese characters!

Year 2 Learning About Materials

In Year 2 Blue we have been learning about materials this term. This week the children learnt about waterproof materials. The children began the week learning about the properties of waterproof materials. They then carried out an experiment to find the most effective material to make an umbrella for the Gingerbread Man. The children really enjoyed the investigation and found out what material was best to use and what would happen to the Gingerbread Man if he used the wrong material for his umbrella!

Renew, Reuse, Recycle

In Year 4 this week the children have been making new products with recycled materials as part of our Renew, Reuse and Recycle project. They made pencil pots and money boxes with plastic bottles, decorative flags with used and old paper and much more! Both classes worked really hard and came up with extremely creative and clever ways to reuse items that would normally be thrown away. We have also been looking at the importance of water following the visit to the school from the Drink Air company on Monday. The children came up with their own Water Filter designs and looked at the best materials to filter dirty water in to clean water. By Ms Sophie Cunningham

Year 4 students had a a lot of fun learning about filtering water in their Science class.

Text Message Poems

Students in 5 Yellow have made text message poems. They were limited to 160 characters to include a simile, a metaphor and personification. The constraints meant they needed to use abbreviations or acronyms, as well as Textese (texting language). This wordplay helps students develop their phonological and morphological awareness, as you need to know how to spell a word correctly to be able to present it using a different code. By Mr Stephen Brady

Secondary Department News

By Ms Elizabeth Mason

Thank you to the Business/Computing/Design and Technology Faculty for a fantastic faculty week. I also I need to say a massive thank you to all the companies that participated in this week’s business and technology faculty week. It made it extremely interesting to see what is going on around Phuket and further afield.

This week is the last week for exams. Year 11/12/13 now need to return all there text books to the correct subject class rooms. Students should speak with their subject teachers if any issue arises.

On the 12-13 June we have organised the Year 6 to Secondary Transition. I look forward to the children coming up from Primary to get a taste of Secondary school life and curriculum.

History Bee and Bowl Trip to Singapore

Eight HeadStart History boffins are off to the International History Bee and Bowl Championships in Singapore with Mr Cramp and Miss Milner to test their mettle against over a dozen other international schools from all over Asia. They beat students from the British International School in March to qualify. Wish them luck as they enter team and individual competitions against other talented History students - they may just return as History champions of Asia! By Mr Richard Cramp

House News

The House Captains (this years Captain’s as well as next years Captain’s) have now been sent on their Captain’s Challenge, which is to make all of the Primary and Secondary House Quizzes for next academic year. The first House Captain to get me their House Quizzes (nine in total) will receive 50 important House points!

In sporting news, the winners of the Year 8 Capture the Flag sports competition were the Blue Tigers. Also, the Yellow Cheetah’s were back to their winning ways, wasting only 3.7kg during the Weigh Your Waste competition!

It’s still all to play for! Don’t forget, MERITS are number one! Keep working hard to earn those extra merits which can make all the difference to the competition.

GOOOOO!!!