Weekly Update #10, 8 November 2019

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.

HeadStart’s Creative and Performing Arts Academy (CAPA) presents FAME, the Musical. Join us for an evening of fun, laughter and tears as we relive this famous tale from the 1980s. Ticket bookings will go live online this coming week. Stay tuned for details.

We had lots of fantastic queries from parents at our UPrep drop-in session last Thursday. We were able to answer questions on topics ranging from IGCSE options choices to the structure of college courses in the USA. Remember we are there every fortnight to answer any question no matter how small, or just come and have a chat!

Next Thursday 13th November we will be looking at how to apply to university, focusing on what students need to have prepared in order to make a successful university application and comparing different countries requirements. We will look at our most popular destinations: UK, USA, Australia, Canada, Netherlands and, of course, Thailand. This will help parents understand what their child needs to be doing and when in order to prepare for university entry, as well as giving information about what needs to be prioritised. We will be in the Primary Hall from 8.15 and hope to see lots of parents there. Ms Gemma Caines

It was great to see so many beautiful ladies attend the Mum’s Night Out at Endless Summer in Phuket town on the 1st of November. The food, drinks and setting were fantastic thanks to Stephanie and her team. A full album of the event can be found on the HeadStart Facebook page Click Here. If you would like to host a parent event, please contact Ms Miki Edouard by writing to [email protected] or pay her a visit in the front office. We are looking forward to the next one!

Over the past few weeks there have been a number of occasions where the fire alarm has sounded and we have had to evacuate the school buildings. During this time, we have only had one planned evacuation ‘drill’ the other instances have been genuine evacuations, where for a variety of reasons the alarms have been triggered and we have had to evacuate the building. I think that it is important to confirm that these have been genuine evacuations and none of the evacuations have been caused by faults in our system.

Out of these evacuations several positives have emerged - it is clear that our alarm system is working well and that our students are well aware of how to react in an evacuation. The time it has taken for them to safely evacuate the buildings to the Common Assembly Point (Astro pitch) has significantly improved, along with the manner in which they have evacuated.

These evacuations have allowed us to practice our procedures as well as identify ways in which we can become even more efficient. Among these is our communication with parents in case we have an evacuation before 9.30am or in the afternoon, outside ‘normal’ school hours.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank parents for the manner in which they have responded to the evacuations and also to remind parents about a few key points so that everyone is aware of procedure and what to do when the alarm sounds:

• There are a number of Fire Marshals operating as a team during an evacuation - identifiable by their orange vests, working alongside Maintenance and Security to ensure that the evacuation is as efficient as possible, everyone is safe and any issue is dealt with quickly. We ask that you please follow their instructions at all times and evacuate the buildings quickly and quietly, so clear communication is possible.

• When the alarm sounds nobody should run.

• When the alarm sounds people should immediately stop what they are doing and evacuate the buildings, including the Coffee Shop.

• When the alarm sounds all children in school need to go to the Common Assembly Point on the Astro Pitch, where they should line up in classes or ASP groups, depending upon the time of evacuation, and where we can then account for them and locate anyone who cannot be accounted for.

• When the alarm sounds parents need to go to the Common Assembly Point and assemble in the area at the ramp end of the pitch, or alternatively may immediately leave the school, while also following any instructions about safe routes. Once we have further information about the cause of the evacuation and safe areas the Chief Fire Marshal will communicate and advise about the next step(s).

Please be reminded that the HeadStart school day starts at 8.00am. It is important for the children to be here before 8.00am as it gives them a chance to settle at the start of the day. They communicate with their peers and organise themselves for the day ahead. During morning registration, important messages are passed on by the Homeroom Teachers.

In Foundation structured play, social and interactive activities start from 8.00am. This is an important time of day for Foundation students so that they can comfortably say their goodbyes at the door, settle into class and develop play and social skills in a timely and positive manner.

At 8.00am in Primary the day usually starts with a Phonics lesson in Year 1 and 2 or a Guided Reading lesson for the older children. This is valuable learning time for the children. If children arrive late they are missing out on essential teacher input and may struggle to participate in the lesson effectively as a result.

In Secondary, students are required to have prepared themselves for the lessons ahead at their lockers and be ready to participate in Homeroom activities such as independent reading, house quiz and group discussions on current news topics.

We understand that from time to time there are issues beyond the control of parents and students, such as traffic incidents and extreme weather that will result in late attendance. Please wherever possible inform us so that registers can be updated accordingly. If there are other issues that are causing children to be late for school then please let us know so that we are aware and can offer appropriate support for your child.

Supporting Your Child in Early Year and Reception

It is our pleasure to invite you to attend a presentation delivered by our dedicated Reception class teachers. The topic will be; Supporting your child with reading and writing in Reception. This meeting is open to Reception and Early Years Parents. The meeting will be held on Tuesday 12th November at 08:30-09:30 in the Secondary Hall. We look forward to seeing many of you there. Ms Hannah Brown

Positive Parenting Meeting

This Thursday we had a great turn out to our Positive Parenting Talk 3 and 4. We discussed challenging behaviours and positive discipline. We broke down the reasons behind these challenging behaviours. According to Rudolph Dreikurs, there are 4 reasons children may be misbehaving with the mistaken goal of getting a need met:

Undue Attention: When a child is misbehaving with the goal of getting attention, what they really want is for you to notice them and involve them usefully.

Misguided Power: When a child is misbehaving to gain power or be the boss, they are really hoping for you to let them help, involve them and give them choices

Revenge: When a child is misbehaving for revenge or to get even, they are really trying to tell you they are hurting and need their feelings validated.

Assumed Inadequacy: When your child is giving up and wants to be left alone, they may really be needing you to show you won’t give up on them or that they need you to show them a small step.

With shared experiences we broke down strategies and tools to look at effective discipline and it’s five criteria.

Thank you for joining us. For a link to the presentation, please scan the QR code below. Our next talk will be ‘Positive Parenting Talk 5: Self Esteem and Personal Growth’ on November 21st. We hope to see you there.

This years’ focus for Anti-Bullying Week is ‘Change starts with us’ and on Friday 8th November, the Secondary School launched this in assembly. Some of our Yr. 7 students read out pieces from their persuasive writing English class about the topic of bullying. A big ‘Well Done’ to Federico Solaroli, Peemai Kongsawad and Eric Cao for this.

Students will be sharing their opinions on how we can facilitate change through their PSHE lessons across the school from Foundation up to Yr. 11. We look forward to reading these and sharing their efforts in the coming weeks.

On Tuesday 12th November we would like to invite all students and teachers to participate in ‘Odd Sock Day’ to highlight Anti-Bullying Week and celebrate what makes us all unique! All you need to do is wear odd socks! We look forward to seeing as many odd-sock participants as possible to help raise awareness.

Preschool ‘Teddy Bears Picnic’

The Preschool class will host it’s next ‘Stay and Play’ session on Monday 18th November at 8.30am. We are going to have a Teddy Bear’s Breakfast Picnic. Children and parents should bring in their teddies and some healthy food. We will sit outside (weather depending) on blankets for a little picnic. By Ms Charlotte Myers

Early Years ‘Messy Play’

On Friday 22nd November between 10:00 - 11:00am we would like to invite the Early Years parents to a fun session of ‘Messy Play’ in the back garden. Please wear something that you can get messy, and bring a change of clothes just in case! You can enter through the Early Years classrooms. By Ms Amy drew

Reception ‘Teddy Bear Picnic’

On Monday 25 November from 11:00 - 12:00 we invite parents to join us for a teddy bear’s picnic. Please bring snacks to eat for lunch with your children and chef will be providing finger snacks too. Don’ forget to bring a Teddy Bear to school! Ms Candice Smithie

Reading Sight Words

Beginning readers use a lot of different ways to become more fluent readers. One of the most important ways to do that is to be able to read and recognize sight words. These are basic words are memorized rather than sounded out.

What Are Sight Words? Sight words refer to the words that are most frequently used and repeated in books, which is why sight words are also sometimes referred to as “high-frequency” words. The same words are also sometimes called “core words” and “popcorn words.” The phrase “popcorn words” refers to the fact that students should be able to just pop those words out every time they see them.

It’s estimated that some 100 or so words make up more than 50 percent of the text that students read. It sounds rather implausible until you consider that sight words are often the small, easily recognizable words like “a, I, or, and, the” and so forth.

A sight vocabulary is a list of words that the individual reader knows by sight, without having to decode them or do any kind of word analysis. New arrival sight words books are available in the library. Go grab them! By Khun Mai, Librarian

We were proud to see our students receive the ‘PE Primary Student of the Month’ in assembly this week. These students have been performing well, demonstrating a positive attitude, showing enthusiasm and working hard as part of a team.

Basketball

The under 15 boys took on BISP on Tuesday, 5th November. The boys played really well and continue to make positive steps. Well done!

The girls Basketball team travelled to BISP for the first leg of a home and away fixture series. The girls played exceptionally well in both offense and defense, coming away as 37-24 winners. Keep up the good work girls!

Aqua Panthers News

This weekend, 25 of our Aqua Panthers are heading to Bangkok to attend the ISB Swimfest! There will be over 1,000 swimmers in attendance from all over South East Asia and our team is looking forward to being part of this amazing event. The first session kicks off Saturday morning with the 10 & Under swimmers. If want to follow the results, you can search for ISB Swimfest on Meet Mobile. Have a great weekend everyone! Coach Brown

Upcoming Events

Next week we have PISAC football tournaments. Please go along and support. Here are the details.

Congratulations to all of the children who got ‘Star of the week!’ Well done to Jessica, Bella, Gery and Sora from Early Years and Tyoma, Matthew and Pruk from Reception.

Lots of fun this week for our last week of learning all about colours! Ms Charlotte Myers

In Thai class we made detailed maps of Phuket so that we could learn vocabulary on the topic of ‘Where do I live?” To make it more interesting we added attractive places that people must visit when come to Phuket. By Kru Gen

The House Points positions have been changing each day this week and it’s exciting to see the Houses competing to collect as many points as they can. This has paid off for the Blue Tigers as they have managed to knock the Yellow Cheetahs off 3rd position and are now closing down for 2nd and 1st.

The Primary School have been taking part in a Human ‘Tic Tac Toe’ competition this lunchtime and have had to use their problem solving skills to strategically work out their next moves.

There were many exciting activities to take part in for Science Faculty week and this week’s quiz had the school testing it’s science knowledge. The Science Faculty week results are still being added up, but as we wait, here are the current house totals points…

On 22 November 2019, Blue Tree welcomes Oceans For All Foundation in support of their Shark Breeding Project and the online petition, also supported by Shark Guardian, to declare the Zebra Shark an endangered and protected species in Thai waters.

Come and meet marine conservation experts, David Martin and Brendan Sing, to discover the importance of sharks and the threats they currently face. The talk will be followed by an outdoor screening of the award-winning movie SHARKWATER EXTINCTION at Blue Tree Lagoon.

The event starts 7:00 pm and is free to enter.

Sharkwater Extinction Movie Summary

Rob Stewart’s first film, Sharkwater (2006), brought the devastating issue of shark finning for use in shark fin soup to the world stage. In this sequel film, Sharkwater: Extinction, Stewart continues his dangerous adventure across four continents to investigate the corruption behind a multi-billion dollar industry that is leading to the extinction of sharks. The underwater images in the film are awe-inspiring, while those scenes that show Stewart risking his life to expose the shark hunters are both frightening and engrossing.