Weekly Update 24
Announcements
Dates for Your Diary
Upcoming events can be found on the HeadStart calendar on the website School Life → Calendar but we have outlined the main ones here for easy reference:
| 14 March | Year 6 and 9 Checkpoint Mock Exams |
| 14 March | Outbound Field Trip meeting for Year 7 students & parents at 8:00 am |
| 16 March | Parent Committee Meeting |
| 16 March | The Gruffalo presented by Foundation to Year 3 |
| 16 March | Under 16 Girls Basketball vs Kajonkiet and BIS at HSIS at 3:30 pm |
| 17 March | House Competition Day–Wear House shirts |
| 20-25 March | Sports Faculty Week |
| 21 March | Outbound Field Trip meeting for Year 8-9 students & parents at 8:00 am |
| 23 March | Earth Hour from 8:00-9:00 am |
| 24 March | House Competition Day–Wear House shirts |
| 24 March | International Day 2017 from 3:00-5:00 pm |
| 29 March | Year 3-6/Secondary Sports Day |
| 30 March | Foundation/Year 1-2 Sports Day |
| 31 March | House Competition Day–Wear House shirts |
International Day News
We want to thank all of the countries that participated in last year’s International Day: Thailand, Russia, Kazakhstan, Korea, China, Australia, Israel, India, Philippines, Japan, Colombia, Paraguay, Brazil, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, France, England, Ireland and many more made a great effort to bring food, prepare a performance and dress up. We look forward to welcoming you back on the 24th of March, 2017 between 3:00-5:00 pm.
Good news! We understand that an event of this magnitude takes a lot of planning, time and energy as well money. Therefore, in appreciation for your efforts we would like to offer financial assistance for every country that will organise a booth serving food. You will receive more details of this when you come to register for a table. In addition to this Chef and his team will be setting up an international drink station in the atrium so that your team can focus on food tasters, costumes and a performance.
The Queen of England has agreed to come and visit us on International Day. Look out for her waving throughout the hallways.
We would also like to offer the incentive of House points for participation as shown below. Mr Nick Carter will be the judge so make sure to draw his attention to your booth; show him your costume and make sure he spots you on stage!
20 House points for dressing up
30 House points for dressing up and performing
50 House points for dressing up, performing and serving food
Two additional activities will be set up for young and old to enjoy: sumo wrestling and Gladiator as shown below. Welcome to join the fun on the covered football pitch. If you have any questions or require assistance please contact the front office or Miki by writing to [email protected].
Aim for zero food waste!
You can save precious resources, time, effort and money by making sure you prepare and eat all of the food you buy. However, you can take it one step further and grow food from your food scraps! Certain fruit and vegetables can be regrown from the scraps that you don’t eat. This could be a great family project to try at home. Check out the video to learn how. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6QnKAyBKu4 By Ms Kate Thongsen
English and Humanities Faculty Week
By Ms Indu Bedi, Head of English and Humanities
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” ― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!
We launched our Faculty week with a fantastic assembly led by our Year 9 students who used Dr Seuss’ poem ‘The More Read, the more things you will know’ as a metaphor to put down our phones, get out of social media and indulge in the simple pleasure of reading a book instead. Characters came to life from stories such as “Alice in Wonderland’ Sherlock Holmes, and ‘Cat in the Hat’, to name but a few, to entertain and engage us all; and, that they did! They captivated us all and launched the week with brilliant performances and a powerful message about the importance of books in our lives. We also had our Historians who performed some skits from famous historical moments and the audience had to guess who the famous historical figure was. Well done to all those students who took part in launching our week and delivering a powerful message to the school community and to Ms Milner and Mr Cramp for their part for leading this. Throughout the week there were also be a number of events for students to take part in.
Giant Scrabble
The giant Scrabble board appeared in the Atrium and each day the four houses competed against each other. The winners of this competition were Blue House. Well done to everyone who joined in and played the fun, classic word game.
‘Just a Minute’
Students also took part in ‘Just a Minute’ every break time to see if they could talk on a random topic for a whole 60 seconds. Sounds easy right? This is harder than it seems! But, it was great fun and had many of us laughing out loud! Winners of this competition were the Red House!
Geography
The emphasis in Geography was to learn more about different countries and the wonders of our amazing world. In the Humanities Quiz, students had to use their judgement and worldly wisdom to identify the famous landmarks from around the Globe! For the Geography Scavenger Hunt, 20 flags of the world were hidden around school - the students were required to use their Geography detective skills to first find the flags and then identify the relevant country! For the Geography Dingbats Quiz, students had to use their powers of deduction and reasoning skills to work out the country from the clues of the puzzling pictures! Congratulations to the many students who took part in the Geography Activities and had the chance of winning Big House Points for their House Teams!
‘Horror Stories by the Fire’
On Wednesday lunchtime in the Atrium, Year 8’s performed their own horror stories written in class. Led by Shane Walters as the Crypt Keeper we heard stories about being trapped in asylums, theme parks and haunted mirrors, ending with the most wicked laugh that stayed with us for the day….Muahahaha!
Poets at Poet’s Corner
On Thursday lunchtime Year 10 students donned classical renaissance attire and sang sonnets of love to mystical muses. The show, however, was stolen by Mr Andy Heinz, who wowed the heart of young Nicholas Gold and carried him off into a beautiful sunset. With comparisons to a ‘Summer Day’, it was no surprise that the normally aloof Mr Gold melted into the arms of Mr Heinz. All members of the English and Humanities department wish them well.
Primary Involvement
Students explored Roald Dahl stories in lessons during the week; many students across the school also had a go at the Roald Dahl quiz to see how much they knew about one of our favourite writers and his books.
Dress as a character day was so much fun!
Sports Department News
Girls U16 Basketball Team
We hosted the latest round of the Tri - series on Thursday 9th March. The U16 Girls Team played in front of an expectant crowd and the girls did not disappoint! Cheered on by our very own HeadStart Cheerleaders, they attacked from the outset against KIS establishing an early lead that they never looked like relinquishing going on to beat them. BIS played KIS next and outscored KIS to take the win. This set up the last game as the decider for the competition - HeadStart v BIS. In recent games the HeadStart Girls had come close but always finished as runners up to BIS, however this time in front of a home crowd there were no nerves and the girls triumphed with a resounding victory. Well done to the U16 Girls the Cheer leading Teams that supported them and those of you who came to support!
Upcoming Sport Events
Sports Faculty Week 20th March to 24th March (including year group swimming competitions) - Look out for plenty of activities to have a go at and get involved in, more details to follow. Here is a timetable for the Swimming Gala.
| Early Years | Monday, March 20th @10:00am |
| Reception | Friday, March 24th @10:00am |
| Year 1 | Tuesday, March 21st @ 8:40am |
| Year 2 | Tuesday, March 21st @ 12:45pm |
| Year 3 | Wednesday, March 22nd @10:00 am |
| Year 4 | Thursday, March 23rd @1:55pm |
| Year 5 | Wednesday, March 22nd @ 12:45 |
| Year 6 | Tuesday, March 21st @ 10:00am |
| Year 7 | Thursday, March 23rd @8:10am |
| Year 8 | Thursday, March 23rd @12:15pm |
| Year 9 | Friday, March 24th @ 12:15pm |
Secondary News
By Ms Elizabeth Mason, Head of Secondary
Thank you to the parents of year 10, 12, 13 that attended the parents evening on the 8th of March. I continue to be extremely impressed by the support you give your children with their academic studies. Please note copies of the reports are also available on the portal every half term. Please continue to encourage your child and by looking in the school planner you can better monitor their home learning task.
This week in secondary we have been having a formal book look checking for the quality of marking and feedback for students in all subjects. Our main focus this term is Year 8 and 11 books and we took a sample of these. Tips and improvements for teachers will be fed back to improve the standard of marking and also the sharing of good practice from teachers who complete excellent marking. Next week we will begin student shadow lesson observations aging with Year 8 and 11.
On the 3rd of March Secondary management organised a Motivational Camp for the Year 11 students who had just finished their Mock Exams. Mr James Barker covered the topic of domestic and university survival. He challenged students to do simple challenges like iron a shirt. Guess how many students know how to do this simple task in Year 11? Don’t ask.
Chef organised a lovely BBQ at which time Mr Stephens challenged the students to a team quiz and watermelon eating contest. The students also played Bubble Ball https://www.facebook.com/Phuketbubblefootball/ which was loads of fun!
Mr Hayden Rhodes, Manager of RPM Health Club http://www.rpmhealthclub.com/ and personal coach came to speak to the students about what motivates him. He also spoke of his personal experiences. The students and Secondary management wish to thank Mr Rhodes for his time and effort to make this event special and meaningful.
Year 12/13 Duke of Edinburgh Silver International Award Adventurous Journey
Congratulations to all the students who took part in their third and final Adventurous Journey: sailing and camping for 3 days/nights around the beautiful & wild islands surrounding Phuket. All participants demonstrated the true spirit of the Adventurous Journey - discipline, resilience under pressure and teamwork. By Mr Lowcock
History Bee and Bowl
A big cheer for HeadStart’s International History Bee and Bowl finalists! Last Saturday was the Thailand regional tournament and we took on the British International School. I am happy to announce that we did extremely well. All winners and runners up qualify for the Asian Finals in Singapore in mid-June (IHBBAsia.com). If they win there, they qualify for the Olympiad in Berlin in 2018, which is where all champions from around the world battle out their general knowledge. Well done to Albert in Year 11 who won three tournaments: Junior Varsity Geography, History and History Bowl competition. Sasha in Year 9 was the runner up in the Middle School Geography Competition. Calvin who was the winner in the Middle School History Bee Competition. Well done to the HeadStart team (Albert Y11, Sarah N Y10, Azra Y10) who won Junior Varsity History Bowl Competition. Well done to all students who took part! By Richard Cramp
Phuket Island Maths Challenge.
On Friday 3rd March, 12 of our top KS3 mathematicians went to UWC to participate in the 3rd annual Phuket Island Mathematics Challenge. The students from HeadStart, BIS, Kajonkiet and UWC were divided into mixed groups of 4 students per team. Together they had to solve various Maths challenges during the course of the day. All of our students received a certificate of participation. In addition to this Nutcha and Praew in Year 8 and Regina and Liza in Year 9 received medals for being round winners. Congratulations to everyone who participated. The students are already looking forward to next Year’s Challenge. By Ms Leticia Bekker
Primary Department News
A big thank you to Khun Jakkrapan, father of Porto in Y1, for speaking to the Thai students about his job as a police officer. The students were really excited to see a real police in uniform and enjoyed his talk.
Mr Ilstam, father of Erica, came to speak with Year 4 students about the importance of learning Thai. Mr Ilstam is a good example as he can speak Thai fluently and uses it in his daily life and work.
Year 1 Students learnt about the names of Thai fruits.
Foundation News
By Ms Fiona Scott, Deputy Head of Foundation
Gruffalo Rehearsals are in full swing and the costumes have arrived; Yes, the performance of The Gruffalo is creeping closer! Next week, Foundation will be having a number of full rehearsals with Year 1 - 3 in the Sports Hall. It is essential that you arrive into school on time, so all children can take part in the show rehearsals without being rushed or feeling anxious in any way. Rehearsals will start from 8.15am. The dress rehearsal will take place first thing on Wednesday morning and the show will be performed on Thursday 16th March. Tickets are going fast, please visit the admin team in the school office to get your ticket!
Holi Festival (Monday 13 March) Please note on Monday afternoon the Reception classes will be adding some brightness to the Foundation playground as they celebrate the Holi Festival. Please check your emails and class notice board for further details and don’t forget to pack a set of old clothes and towel that you don’t mind getting covered in paint!
Vitamins / medicines Whilst on playground duty this week, I noticed some students sharing vitamin C tablets. Please can I remind parents of our sickness and medicine policy, all medicines must be kept with Nurse Jelo in the Nurses room and any medicines or vitamins will be taken off children and put back into their schools bags to take home. Although relatively harmless, too many vitamin tablets can give children a very upset tummy.
Swimming It has been wonderful to see so many of our Foundation students taking part in, and thoroughly enjoying their swimming lessons. Our students are making great progress in the water and we look forward to sharing their achievements when we have our Swimming Gala later in the month. More details will follow, however, please can I remind all parents to bring in some easy changing clothes for after swimming lessons, such as shorts and tee shirts (we advise no leggings as they are difficult for our little ones to manage) and if your child has long hair, please remember to tie it up for the lessons, and if possible, pack a swimming hat to wear.
Mosquitoes Although it is not rainy season, there does appear to be a large number of mosquitoes around just now. To reduce uncomfortable bites, please make sure your child has had some repellent on before school and if possible, pack a small bottle in their school bag.
Kidsmania Some families enjoyed a trip to RPM last week and used the discount vouchers given to us from our friends at Kidsmania at RPM http://www.phuketkidsclub.com/. This week, Year 1-2 will be bringing home discount vouchers for the children’s indoor play centre. Please let me know if you have a child in Early Years, Reception, Y1 or 2 and has not received a voucher, as I do have some spare. Thanks again to Yvonne and her team and I wish you all an enjoyable weekend.
In preparation for International Day 2017 the Preschoolers had fun trying to recognise the flags from their countries.
Reception students can now make sentences in Thai. Well done kids!
