Weekly Update 14

Announcements

This year we will present the students with as many aspects of a traditional Christmas within a school setting as possible. Kicking off the festivities with true Christmas spirit the students participated in Casual Clothes Day with a Christmas theme donating 100 Baht for the Phuket Sunshine Village.

The students are also participating in an ongoing game of Secret Santa where they are encouraged to do deeds of kindness to the person whose name they have chosen. It is requested that students bring along a small gift (value no more than 200 Baht) to exchange within Year groups on the morning of the 14th of December. We would like to encourage parents to plan something handmade or home cooked adding a personalised touch to the gifts versus a commercial materialistic atmosphere.

On the 14th of December we have organised student and teacher Christmas House challenges in the afternoon. We will end the day off with a Christmas Market 2016 starting at 2:00 pm and finishing at 3:30 pm. There will be traditional carols sung, foods and drinks as well as a visit from Santa and his elves.

In order to make this a success we are inviting parents to book a table to either sell or offer traditional Christmas treats, gifts or handicrafts for our Christmas Market at school on the 14th of December between 2:00-3:30 pm. Parents or students who wish to participate are encouraged to dress in Christmas colours to add to the festiveness of the event.

If you are interested in this activity please contact Miki Edouard in the front office or write to [email protected].

ASP Information

Please refer to the calendar above for beginning and ending dates for the ASP and Academy programmes as well as sign up fairs in Term 2. Parents will be informed regarding next term’s ASP list in next week’s update and will be posted to the website http://headstartphuket.com/after-school. Booster recommendations will be emailed to parents by the end of this term. Stay tuned for news regrading the French and Russian language programmes that will commence next term.

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Swimming Policy for Foundation and Primary

Swimming lessons start from Pre School and is part of the school curriculum. As swimming is part of the curriculum it is expected that all children take part. However, we do understand that at times, your child may not be able to swim. If your child is to ill to swim, they should not be in school, or a medical certificate from the doctor needs to be provided to the Homeroom Teacher. If a child is not swimming, parents must inform the teacher via email as soon as possible.

If a parent fails to send an email to the school they will be required to fill in a simple form stating the reasons why their child cannot participate in the lesson. If a child misses three consecutive lessons, the PE department will get in touch with the parents and a medical certificate must be provided.

Students will be required to participate in swimming lessons if no communication has been received from the parents. The PE department holds a small collection of swimwear and students will be required to borrow a spare kit for the lesson.

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Children Bringing Medication to School

Please alert the homeroom teacher and nurse if your child requires medication at school. We will not allow the students to handle the medication on their own.

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Meeting Invitation to Secondary Parents

I would like to invite you to a meeting held by myself, Mr. James Barker, in the Secondary Hall on Tuesday 6th December at 8:00am. This meeting is to give you an insight into what my role is at HeadStart as a Deputy Head of Secondary and the impact we have from a pastoral element on the student’s life.

Some of the key focus areas of the meeting will be to look into:

• An introduction to the role of Deputy Head of Secondary

• The role of student leadership in secondary

• An update on some of the school policies

• Some tips and reminders for how you as parents can support your child from a pastoral perspective.

This is a great opportunity for me to meet some of the parents face to face and share my vision and work for our secondary students. I very much hope you are able to attend this meeting and looking forward to speaking with you.

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HeadStart’s World Scholar’s Cup Stunning Success–By Ms Beanland

On Tuesday 15th November nine HeadStart students and two members of staff departed the shores of Phuket for New York and New Haven, USA​​​​. The students had qualified for the prestigious World Scholar’s Cup Tournament of Champions at Yale University, USA. To actually qualify for the Tournament of Champions is a significant success in itself. However, to qualify, participate and win medals is a phenomenal achievement.

The World Scholar’s Cup is a celebration of learning which provides participating students with wide ranging learning opportunities that stretch far beyond any traditional examination syllabus. The competition has an over-arching theme every year. This year the students have been working with content related to ‘An Imperfect World’. They have studied Art, Literature, Science, History, Social Studies and the Special Area of Crime and Justice. The knowledge and understanding that the students gain is then tested during the competition by their ability to debate, write analytical essays, complete a multiple choice exam and work as a team under pressure in the Scholar’s Bowl.

The nine students: Marco David Bokoksa De La Rosa, Phet Frederiksen, Lisa Kim, Denalyn Kwok, Elliott Lovotti, Jean Phaisamran, Hayeon Song, Albert Tandivit and Eve Whittaker were all extremely successful at each stage of the world wide competition. The HeadStart teams initially participated in a Regional Round in Bangkok, from which they qualified to take part in the Global Round. Around the world, in over 40 countries, 20,000 students participated in numerous Regional Rounds, to qualify for the next stage of the competition. The Global Round was also hosted in Bangkok this year, where 3,500 students from around the world competed, with around 1,000 of the highest achievers qualifying for the Tournament of Champions at Yale University. This places our students in the top 5% of all the participants from around the world.

The students acquitted themselves admirably, with every single HeadStart student being awarded with a medal for different competition disciplines, demonstrating what a wide range of talent our HeadStart students have. The students’ individual successes, as well as their team successes are celebrated. An overview of the students’ successes follows:

Debating

Denalyn - Silver medal

Eve - Gold medal (ranked 35th)

Denalyn, Eve and Marco - Gold medal for Top Junior Team (ranked 38th)

Writing

Jean, Phet, Elliott, Albert - Silver medals

Jean, Phet, Hayeon - Silver medal for Top Collaborative Writing Team (ranked 66th)

Albert, Elliott, Lisa - Silver medal for Top Collaborative Writing Team (ranked 67th)

Scholar’s Challenge

Albert: Social Studies (ranked 5th)

Marco: Special Area (ranked 19th)

Eve: History - Gold (ranked 28th)

Top School Scholars

Eve - Junior

Albert - Senior

Top Overall Scholars at the Tournament of Champions

Eve - Junior (ranked 100th)

Congratulations to all our HeadStart Scholars. Next year’s theme has been announced as ‘An Unlikely World’ and the Global Round destinations will be in Hanoi, Vietnam and Cape Town, South Africa.

Fundraising for Phuket Sunshine Village

A big thank you to all the students, teachers and parents who joined in and supported our fundraising day on Thursday 1st December. The children had a lot of fun playing some simple games and they all looked fantastic wearing the red and white Christmas colours. At this stage over 30,000 THB has been raised for the PSV and donations are still coming in. Many children are keen to find out who won the teddy bears and the jar of sweets; we do have the winners and we will announce these in next week’s Primary assembly. More information will follow in next week’s update.

House News–By Mr Carter

Year 3, 4, 5, and 8 all had fun competing in their inter House Speed Burnball competitions. The overall winners were the Cheetahs. Year 5 and 6 were given a Christmas Letter Challenge. The students had to make giant letters that would spell ‘Merry Christmas’ (this is currently on display in the lunch hall).

1st place winners were: Yeeping Chatho Napahtson of the Green Dragons and Katerina Dyer of the Red Phoenixes.

HeadStart’s Got Talent–By Ms Cramp

Congratulations to all our contestant who took part in HeadStart’s got Talent last week. The judges were pleasantly surprised by the quality of all the performances. Hard Rock Cafe have invited the top 3 Secondary performers as well as the winner of the Primary show to perform at one of their Sunday evening concerts.

The results for Primary were

1st - Pooh Sutiravidvanich

2nd - Pun Chaokijkha, Teelek Haikasetsin , Payut Ammatariyakul

3rd - Jomp Koysomboon and Louise Landgraf

The results for Secondary were

1st - Daria Gorodtsova

2nd - Brendon Boyle and Juno Wannakitti

3rd - Julianna Mester and Nyke van der Laan

The Green House walked away as the victors and have moved from 4th place to 1st place in the House Competition tally. Well done, Green House! For the full show please watch the You Tube link here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxTQbVG9Fbo

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Primary News

By Mr Whittaker

It was so lovely to arrive at school yesterday, 1st December, to see the atrium decked out in Christmas splendour – the tree is spectacular and with the columns decorated it really does provide us with festive cheer; I especially love the Advent Calendar. I wonder how many of our pupils actually made their beds this morning without being asked though, as was the request for the 1st day of Advent?

In 2016, the notion of Christmas means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. The real reason for Christmas is a religious holiday to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ, and many people still choose to attend Church services at this time of year to celebrate this.

The Christmas Day many people know today, with family celebrations, carols, and gift-giving, was largely influenced by the novelist Charles Dickens when he wrote the novella A Christmas Carol, being a Ghost-Story of Christmas, first published on 19 December 1843.

Some ways Christmas is celebrated today include:

• Gift giving/Christmas cards

• Church celebrations and services

• Music/caroling – Carols by Candlelight

• Various decorations, including Christmas trees, baubles, tinsel, lights, candles, nativity scenes, garlands, wreaths, holly and mistletoe

• Santa Claus/Father Christmas/Saint Nicholas

• Christmas stories/poems

• Christmas feasts

However you will all celebrate Christmas this year, and with whom, do remember it is a time of sharing and caring, and above all a time of celebration.

Good news from Heaven the Angels bring, Glad Tidings to the Earth they sing:

To us this day a child is given, To crown us with the Joy of Heaven.

–Martin Luther

Year 5 Blue performed an assembly based on the first moon landing. The students worked hard to remember all their lines and enjoyed performing for the school.

A big Thank you to Map Abday for teaching Abstract Art to Year 4 and 6. It was a great experience!

Secondary News

By Mrs Mason

New Secondary Staff

Being an international school means we often get very good staff that don’t stay for as long as we would like. Two such people are Marie and Darren Beanland, who have decided to make a new life in Australia. I wish them all the best with their new endeavors. I am pleased to announce the appointment of Richard Lukats as the new director of sports and Ms Indu Bedi as the head of English and Humanities. They are also a teaching couple and will start in February 2017. They both have UK and international experience and have both worked on senior leadership teams.

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History in Year 7–By Mr Cramp

The Year 7’s have been on a whirlwind ride from the Big Bang to the Neolithic Revolution, with the main theme being our battle for energy ever since the Big Bang, 13.7 billion years ago. Here are the students connecting with their Neolithic ancestors who made this cave art in Spain, 10000 years ago. Not much different to us!

Year 11 Mock Exams Meeting–By Mr Drew

Thank you for attending the meeting on Tuesday to discuss the upcoming mock exams for Year 11. It was great to see you at the meeting to support your children in what is a very important time on their educational journey.

Thai Department News

By Kru Kik

Early Years-Year 1

The children learnt about ‘Sufficiency Economy’ through information stations which explained how Chaipattana Aerators work, how important soil conservation is and how land management is done in a ‘Sufficiency Economy.’ The students also got to plant their own shallots which piqued everyone’s interest in having their own veggie garden, hence another small step to becoming self-sufficient. All the students and participating parents also got to taste many scrumptious products of the Royal Projects which was without a doubt one of the most popular activities for the day.

Year 2 - Year 4

The students learnt about the life and legacy of His Majesty the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej who devoted his whole life to bettering the living conditions of his royal subjects. They were also introduced to the idea of lives lived in sufficiency and food preservation as part of Sufficiency Economy and they also got to make their own salted eggs by using talc and clay.

Year 5 - Year 7

The students learnt about the significant role Thai kings have played in the foundation of this country since the time of Sukhothai Period and the strong bonds Thai people have always had with their kings, especially King Rama IX who reigned for 70 blessed years. The students also learnt about Check Dam, soil conservation and Chaipattana Aerator. They also got to make their very own handheld wind turbines.

Reception Learning About Fruits

Fruit is still the main topic in our Thai classes for Reception students this past week and the children got to do the learning through tasting some sweet and juicy fruit.

Year 3 Learning the Days of the Week

Meanwhile in Year 3, things were little more serious than fruit tasting. Our Year 3 students got busy with learning the days of the week in Thai. Kru Euw was pleased to see all the students working hard and having fun while learning.