Weekly Update 25

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CfBT – Centre for British Teachers

HeadStart International School has started the process of one of the most rigorous and rewarding international accreditation processes. This is not simply a ‘test’ where we pass or fail, but a thorough and impartial review and improvement of our school. The process is continuous with regular three year visits to extend the accreditation for a further three years.

Accreditation with CfBT shows that our school demonstrates high standards of student achievement with an effective curriculum, good use of resources, a successful leadership team and strong partnerships with parents.

Leading to the CfBT International Schools Quality Mark (ISQM), accreditation demonstrates the quality of our education provision to parents, students and others - signifying our commitment to the highest standards. One benefit of HeadStart working with CfBT in order to attain the CfBT International Schools Quality Mark is that our partnership approach ensures we have continued advice and support every step of the way towards improvement.

To receive the CfBT International Schools Quality Mark our school must be judged as effective in delivering an education in keeping with its stated aims in relation to the following areas:

Student achievement and progress - Student personal development - Teaching and learning - The curriculum - Support and guidance for students - Partnerships with parents and the community - Leadership and management

The process of first time accreditation involves four main steps:

Step 1: Preliminary Screen

The school first completes registration papers which are reviewed by the CfBT Accreditation Board, and is visited prior to acceptance, as part of the application process for accreditation candidacy. We have successfully completed this.

Step 2: Initial Visit

Once a school has been accepted as a candidate for accreditation, an Assigned Consultant is allocated, who will make an initial visit to establish a good working relationship with the Director, the identified Lead Evaluator (Ralph Millington) and other key staff. This visit will verify the outcome of the preliminary screening and the Assigned Consultant will explain and discuss the accreditation process in full.

On completion of the visit the Assigned Consultant submitted a short report to the CfBT Accreditation Board. This was completed in 2012.

* **Step 3: School Self-Review*

The school conducted a self-review with regular support and advice from the Assigned Consultant over an agreed period of time of two years.

Step 3 concludes when the Assigned Consultant signs off the self-review, which indicates an expectation that our school is ready to be accredited. We are aiming for February 2014 or earlier.

Step 4: Final Verification Visit

Two or more consultant inspectors will visit our school for three days to explore and verify the self-review and feed back to our management team on any emerging issues.

The visit includes

Interviews with the Director, Lead Evaluator and other key staff - Lesson observation and sampling of students’ work - Interviews with students and parents

A written report is presented to the school reflecting the feedback given to the management team. This confirms the results of the accreditation visit and informs our school of the CfBT Accreditation Board’s decision.

If the school meets the standards of accreditation required by CfBT, the International Schools Quality Mark is given for three years during which the school can display the certificate of accreditation on the school premises and use the accreditation logo on school publications.

The awarding of the CfBT International Schools Quality Mark represents a significant achievement as it is tangible evidence of a school’s high quality educational provision for students.

CfBT has a well-established history of accrediting international schools in Thailand and is expanding this through South East Asia to the rest of the world. CfBT have a particular expertise in the evaluation of school quality. In England they manage school inspections for the whole of the northern region of the country on behalf of the national inspection agency, Ofsted.

Primary School Values

Always do your best 2. Use kind words 3. Take care of the world around you 4. Walk quietly around the school 5. Keep your hands and feet to yourself 6. Listen to your teachers and each other 7. Keep the school bully-free 8. Use good manners 9. Have fun and be safe 10. Respect each others’ differences

Students of the Month in Secondary for February are:

Phuket Life Saving Course for HeadStart students

The following is a quick paragraph about the water safety project due to begin Monday and Tuesday at Headstart:-‘Phuket Lifesaving Education Center is piloting it’s water safety project here at Headstart International School. They work closely with Surf Lifesaving Australia (SLSA) and the RNLI (in the UK) and have received 2 grants from Australia (from Australia-Thai Institute and Australian Sports Commission) to assist them to develop community programs with an education center and a mobile unit to go to beaches, schools and community venues.The water safety project will be modified to suit local conditions. The pilot consists of a one-off session with approx. 2hrs classtime and 2 hours pool time in one day (on school premises). This also has the potential to develop into junior lifeguard courses and other more extensive courses if desired. There will be both Australian and Thai trainers on hand to work closely with our HeadStart students.’

Battle of the Bands

We are so proud of our 2 school bands Sticky Rice and the Nuggets and HeadStruck for their fantastic performance last Sunday at the Duck Race at Laguna. Please see the following link for the clips of their performances:

Since they did so well our 2 school bands, will be entering a new competition of the Battle of the Bands at the Hard Rock Cafe in Patong on the 23rd of March. Band members will be arriving at 2:00 pm. With many bands from many schools entering the competition we hope that you will come to cheer them on! There is a prize of 50,000 Baht to the winning band!

Songkran Holiday Programs at HeadStart

Year 7 visits Wat Chalong

Cricket Update from Steve Ketley–P.E. department

The kids had a great day at Cricket last Saturday! We played two games and won two - including the main game against Thai Hua A.

We will be conducting another practice session this Saturday on the 9th of March. School transportation is available at 8:30 am to bring any interested students to this event. We will also bring the students back from practice at 11:30.

This is the Phuket Cricket Group Website link to an article.

http://www.phuketcricketgroup.com/2011/index.php/jones-lang-lasalle-hotels-cricket-league/42-news-updates/158-headstart-in-sawasdee-league.html

French International Day Announcement

The French group organised for International Day is looking for parent volunteers to help sew the skirts that the performers will use for their Cane-Cane dance. Please inform Teacher Francois at [email protected] if you are interested in helping out.

Click on the picture for full size

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Early Years visits the Botanic Garden–From Anisa and Linda

Early Years Learns About the 5 Senses

Early Years B coloured rice with food colouring. Then we used the coloured rice for activities which included exploring Shape, Space, Measure and role-play/imaginative play.