Dates for Your Diary

Upcoming events can be found on the website under School Life → Calendar and are also outlined here for easy reference.

For daily updates and news follow the HeadStart Facebook Page and You Tube channel.

Happy Mid-term Break & Date Reminder

We wish all of the HeadStart community a restful mid-term break and look forward to everyone coming back and ready for an exciting, fast paced second half of term 1. Thank you once again for your support through out the first half of the term.

The mid-term break starts on Saturday 12th of October. On Monday the 21st of October there are no classes as teachers and staff will be in training. We look forward to welcoming you back to school on 22 October bright and early. 

Introducing the Team

This is Paul’s fourth year of teaching at HeadStart. He has been a teacher since 2005 and worked in East London for 11 years before moving to Thailand. He enjoys travelling and has visited many countries. One of his proudest achievements is climbing a range of volcanoes around the world. He believes that children are in a fabulous position because they have their lives ahead of them and, with hard work, can achieve whatever they want to.

“I have been working with HeadStart for eight years now as a Deputy Teacher. I consider my greatest accomplishment to be when I decided to study for my teaching diploma. In my free time, I love spending time with friends, singing Karaoke and watching movies.” -By Ms Ayce Rico

Mum’s Night Out

It’s time to organise a nanny, awaken your Bohemian Gypsy spirit and join a fun loving group of ladies for an evening of drinks, tapas and maybe even some dancing in the beautiful setting of Endless Summer in Phuket town. There will be a live DJ, photographer and prizes but most of all the chance to enjoy an evening of getting to know each other. Special offer for a free shuttle to and from the venue. Bookings for both transportation and tickets can be made in the front office starting this Friday, 11 October, 2019. Looking forward to seeing you all there!

UPrep Drop in Session

Just a reminder that our next UPrep drop will be held in the Coffee Shop on the morning of the 24th of October. Parents are welcome to come and have an informal chat with Ms Gemma Caines, Head of Sixth Form, and Ms Gem, University Placement Officer, about any questions that you may have or issues that you may need assistance with. If you would rather communicate your questions via email please write to: Ms Caines [email protected] or to Gem at [email protected].

If you missed Thursday’s UPrep talk about ‘Your Child’s 5 Year Plan’, you can catch up on the information presented by CLICKING HERE.

Positive Parenting Talk Invitation

Please join us on November 7th, 8:30am in the Primary Hall for Positive Parenting Talk 3 & 4: Setting Expectations: How to respond to challenging behaviours with positive behaviour management techniques. In a collaborative environment, we will discuss communication strategies to use with your children and how to create a safe and interesting environment. Learn more about using assertive discipline and key communication strategies. The event is free and open to all parents with children in Foundation to Year 1. By Ms Hayley Milner

Change of Policy Regarding Academy Students Sign Out

Please be informed of the change in policy for Primary students when attending Academy training. It is important that an adult (who is responsible for the collection of the child) MUST sign the ‘Sign Out’ sheet after every session. This is to fall in line with the school policy of all Primary students being collected by parents or a responsible adult and so that we know students have been collected safely. At the conclusion of Academy training, if any students have not been collected after five minutes they will be escorted to the front office by one of the coaches and parents must collect them from there (and also sign the ‘sign out’ sheet). Please ensure you help us with this change in policy by always signing the child out when collecting them. By Mr Nick Carter, Director of Sports

Thai Parents Meeting Invitation

Inviting all Thai parents to a meeting on Tuesday, 22nd October from 08.30 - 09.30 in the Secondary Hall. We will welcome Dr. Nongnapa Jirarattanasopa from Bangkok hospital to speak to parents about “How to Prevent Common Childhood Illness”. The doctor’s talk will focus on medication, vaccination and hygiene for children. Please note that the meeting will be presented in Thai. This is a great opportunity for you as a parent and we hope to see as many of you there. Details of the doctor presenting can be found here: https://www.phukethospital.com/doctor/nongnapa-jirarattanasopa/ By Kru Nee, School Director

Year 1 Parenting Meeting Recap

A big thank you to all the Year 1 parents that attended our parent meeting on Tuesday. I hope you all found the meeting informative and useful, and would like to thank you all for being such a patient and thoughtful audience. Please find a download of the presentation from the meeting below. Can I take this opportunity to wish you and your families a happy, fun and safe half term break. We all look forward to welcoming you back on Tuesday 22nd October. By Mr Sam Khan, Head of Foundation and Primary

Staff Training Day

On Saturday Ms Gemma Caines conducted a seminar for the HeadStaff staff going over our Child Protection policy. Go to our website page if you would like to find out more on this topic: https://headstartphuket.com/school-life/child-protection

Training to Make Natural Fertilizer for Growing Garden

After some compost training from the Phuket Farmers Club we are proud to say that our gardening team now officially know how to make natural fertilizer to use for our growing garden located on the Foundation roof. Stay tuned for more news regarding how we plan to involve our students in future growing projects.

Sports News

Your child is invited to register for Soccer Circus starting in the second half term starting on Saturday, 26th October at 10.30am - 12.00pm. 3,000 Baht per half term. Stay busy and active and learn new skills! For more information contact Coach Ace.

PISAC Football News

HeadStart Girls

→ The Under 11 girls were in sensational form at the PISAC tournament winning every game to in the tournament. Great work girls!

→ The Under 13 girls also continued their impressive development under Coach Iain, winning two of their four matches.

Boys Football

→ The Under 13 Boys continued their unbeaten start to the season and made a huge improvement on the previous weeks PISAC tournament as Coach Ace guided the team to win all their matches. The team passed the ball extremely well.

→ The Under 9s team also enjoyed an unbeaten day in their competition whilst the Under 11 boys put in a typically dominant display.

Coming Up:

Swimming News

Over the weekend, the Aqua Panthers had amazing swims at the annual Thanyapura Super Sprint. Overall our team placed 3rd and have four high point trophy earners! All of our swimmers pushed hard this weekend and I am so proud of everyone. Our next competition will be the ISB SwimFest in Bangkok, November 8-10. A special congratulations goes to:

• 202 Anton Solnyshko (1st for 8 & under boys)
• 169 Yejin Lee (1st for 11-12 girls)
• 162 Cameron Smith (3rd for 13-14 boys)
• 155.5 Nae Nae Poudyel (3rd for 13-14 girls)

P.E. Faculty Week News

We’re coming to the end of PE Faculty week and what a great week it has been! Lots of students have taken part in all the striking and fielding activities before school and at lunch time to earn extra points for their houses.

We have seen brilliant skills on show, from knocking over the coconut, to home run hitting, funny faces during the dive catching and amazing agility in the high catching competition. Sponge the teacher is still to come and I’m sure the students can’t wait to get in line and aim for their teachers!

The World Series of Burnball has had some very exciting and close scoring games. A big shout out goes to year 8 students for their excellent participation in true fashion of game, with super batting, fielding and teamwork on display.

Not long left until we find out the overall winners of PE Faculty week across the whole school. Watch this space…

Saturday Thai Culture Club

Students from Early Years to Year 6 were excited to participate in the first Saturday Thai Culture Club of this academic year. We focused on the topic of ‘Phuket’. Early Years - Year 1 students had a great time exploring Phuket’s major attractions. The children discovered many traditional Phuket dishes and enjoyed cooking the authentic local dessert called “O-Aew”. Meanwhile the Year 2-6 students had the opportunity to roam around Phuket town tasting authentic local foods and taking snaps with street art paintings. Students were very happy and fascinated by the Phuket Old Town vibe. By Ms Pailin Issalam, Head of Thai

Foundation Stars of the Week!

Well done to Sia, Lele, Lisa and Lilas from Early Years. Well done to Matthew, Run, Bhumi and Julie from Reception.

Preschool have really enjoyed their topic Under the Sea and got fully involved in lots of watery, fishy activities! Full Photo album published to HeadStart Facebook page. By Ms Charlotte Myers

During topic time this week, we talked about what exercise is and how it changes the way our bodies feel. We did a test run by running on the spot and realised that exercise can make us tired/thirsty/sweaty. Then, we challenged ourselves by participating in a range of activities on the playground; these activities included Funky Fingers, yoga, parachute games and an obstacle course! We were all so tired afterwards but had a fantastic time regardless. A special thank you to Senna’s mum and dad who came to help us with our activities! Full photo album published to HeadStart Facebook page. By Ms Saki and Ms Amy

Senna’s mum’s comment:

‘It was an absolute pleasure to come into Foundation and work with the children. We did some yoga poses to warm up and then each student could choose a pose they liked from a selection and we tried these. The children were absolute stars trying these new poses and we had fun together doing them.’

Senna’s dad’s comment:

‘In the obstacle course, we pretended to brave adventurers who stepped, leapt, crawled, lunged, skidded and balanced along the imaginary crocodiles in the swamp! The students were amazing and we all managed to avoid being tickled on our toes by the crocs!’

Last week Early Years hosted their first parent stay and play sessions’ Teddy Bears Picnic’. Children brought their favourite teddy to school and enjoyed some stories with the parents and teachers. For lunch everyone enjoyed a picnic of healthy foods whilst parents, children and teachers continued to make relationships. This activity supported the children’s personal, social, emotional and literacy development as well as promoting the crucial relationships continued to be secured between parents and teachers. We all had a lovely time and are very excited for the next stay and play session next term! Full photo album published to HeadStart Facebook page. By Ms Hannah Brown, Deputy Head of Foundation

It has been a busy week for Drama students at HeadStart. Our IGCSE students continue to prepare their monologues and scripted performances, while our KS3 students have been preparing set design for the upcoming production of ‘Fame’ and working on their monologues from The Diary of Anne Frank. By Ms Hayley Milner

In World Scholar’s Cup VAP, students have been doing their best to be interesting! Before a speech in a debate can be effective in its content, the audience need to be interested and engaged. Therefore we have been working on the ‘99 Rule’, which dictates that the opening 9 and last 9 seconds are the most memorable to an audience. Students have experimented with using humour, audience interaction, provocative statements, assuming personae, making controversial statements, recounting anecdotes- anything to engage their listeners. Meanwhile, I have been in ruthless Simon Cowell mode (albeit with a slightly lower trouser line), using my buzzer ruthlessly like a ennui-filled Roman Emperor to cut students down lest I’m not suitably entertained. Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind…. By Mr David Pollicutt

House News

It has been another exciting week for the House competitions and the PE Faculty week has made a big difference to the scores. The Green Dragons have been hunting down the lead and have climbed from 4th to 1st place! It just shows how quickly things can change. It’s still anyone’s game! By Ms Kirstie Melville, House Coordinator

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