Weekly Update #19, 27 January 2023

Upcoming events can be found on the website under School Life → Calendar and are outlined here for easy reference. If you have questions or require further assistance please email [email protected]

Zones of Regulation Workshop

Many Key Stage 1 parents attended the ‘Zones of Regulation’ Workshop. It was a great opportunity to share the sessions taught in school and to provide strategies which can be used at home. The ‘Zones of Regulation’ is an approach that is used across Foundation and Primary to support the development of self-regulation. The framework provides strategies to teach pupils to become more aware of and independent in controlling their emotions and impulses, manage their sensory needs, and improve their ability to problem solve conflicts. Thank you to all who came along and for your active participation with the workshop. We look forward to seeing many of you at the Key Stage 2 workshop later in the term. -Ms Rebecca Ross, Deputy Head of Primary

Invitation to Secondary Parent Workshop on 31.01.23

We are inviting parents in Secondary for a workshop on the topic of ‘Body Image and Online Influence’ on Tuesday the 31st of January at 8.15am in the Primary Hall. In this session we will discuss the growing concerns that parents have expressed regarding the impact that online influencers and social media have on attitudes and body image in Secondary age children. This will be a workshop style session where we will discuss some of the trends that are being seen in school and around the globe as a result of over exposure to social media. Please make your way to the Primary Hall for an 8.30am start.

World Book Day on 2.03.23

I am delighted to announce that this year, as part of our drive to maintain, promote and engage pupil interest in reading, the school will be celebrating World Book Day on Thursday 2nd March. On this special day, Primary children can come to school dressed as a favourite character from any book. It would be great if they could bring also bring the book that their character is from to share with their peers. Along with dressing up, the children will be taking part in lots of fun activities in class and around school. The dressing up possibilities are endless: Postman Pat, Oliver Twist, Fantastic Mr Fox, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Danny- Champion of the World, Matilda, Goldilocks, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Twits, Cinderella, Gruffalo, Elmer the Elephant, Three little Pigs, Harry Potter etc… Reading different books every evening, in preparation would be great! So get thinking and reading! We look forward to seeing your child dressed up for the special day on Thursday 2nd March. -Ms Donna Wintersgill

International Day 2023

After a long hiatus due to Covid restrictions, we are excited to announce that we are bringing International Day back bigger and better than ever on 10 March 2023!

If you are wondering what International Day is, click on the YouTube link below for a look at our first International Day 8 years ago, when we first moved into our current facility. International Day is characterised by everyone wearing national costume, delicious food made and served by the parents, and loads of beautiful performances from around the world. The friendly smiles and interactive games and booths are what make this day as a community together so special!

Getting Organised

Since International Day is a community generated event, you will want to start planning soon. Here are some tips on how you can go about getting organised for this exciting event!

1. Create a dialogue with other members of your country. Invite anyone who wants to participate to join a WhatsApp group or a meeting to plan.
2. Assign responsibilities: who will prepare and serve the food? Who will be performing and what costumes/music you will need? When and where will you practice?
3. As of the 20th February, we invite you to come and book your tent and stage performances with our events team in the front office.

There will be a meeting invite for representatives of each country to get organised a few weeks before the event. Stay tuned!

Update on Phuket Sunshine Village Term 1 Fundraiser

As a result of the HeadStart community pulling our resources together, we have raised just under 300,000 Baht in support of the Phuket Sunshine Village Foundation in term 1 of this year! A heartfelt thank you to everyone who sponsored a child or gave of their time and resources towards this very worthy cause. There are long lasting effects of supporting a charity year on year and this can be felt in the way the 95 children at the foundation consistently have access to good food, clothing, transportation to and from school, a psychologist who works with the children to overcome trauma and staff who care for the children day in and day out, giving them a safe haven and a place where they can call home, and eventually integrating them as useful members of society.

Last Saturday, myself, Mr Khan and Ms Ross (Heads of Primary) as well as Coach Rothwell had the pleasure of visiting the foundation with the Primary Student Council. The children had lots of fun interacting with each other and it was lovely to see them all playing together during a mini sports day organised by Coach Rothwell. It is my hope that we continue to raise awareness and support for the wonderful work that the staff and admin are doing at PSV and I invite members of the community to visit the foundation and explore ways in which you can be a part of the wonderful work they are doing to change one life at a time. -Ms Miki Edouard, School Founder and Community Links Coordinator

• Over the weekend the HeadStart Panthers Football Academy welcomed teams from Together Academy for some exciting fixtures. Well done to all who played!
• The Panthers welcomed Gate Of Football FC to HeadStart for friendly fixtures this week. Well done to the HeadStart Panthers U11 Boys and U14 Girls teams!

𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐃𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐩!

A very warm welcome to come and cheer the children on during their sports days as they attempt to run, hop, and throw their way to victory!

As part of our Global Citizenship lesson, Year 1 went to interview Chef. We asked him about the food he cooks and where he gets the different foods from. We also got a chance to say thank you for the yummy meals that he cooks us each day! -Ms Annie Cusworth

For the SECOND time this year, Year 6 White are TOP of the WORLD LEADERBOARD on SpellingShed (the online scheme we use in Primary to practise weekly spellings). What an amazing achievement! -Ms Carla Whitehead

This Thursday witnessed the first of the Year 12s showcasing their prowess garnered from Communication Skills lessons this academic year. The first brave souls to present their TED-style talks- no mean feat in front of all their peers and the Head of English- were Mehar Sachdeva and Kirill Kotchetkov. We were entertained with Kirill’s insights into mathematical patterns and educated by Mehar’s explanations of the ways in which The X-Men could be read as a civil rights allegory. - Mr. Pollicutt, Head of English

Year 3 have been learning all about the worms and how they are important in our very special garden environment. They first learnt about how elephant poo makes excellent compost and how the worms add to the process by creating castings which make the nutrients more soluble for the plants. They were fascinated to know that elephants can poo 10% of their body weight a day – that is about 200kg! They used some ‘worm tea’ that was produced by the worms as a fertilizer for their plants. The children are keen to know what difference the fertilizer makes and have set up scientific experiments to compare the growth rates. Thank you to Chalong Elephant Retirement Sanctuary for your help with providing the elephant poo. -Ms Rebecca Ross, Deputy Head of Primary