Weekly Update #33, 29 May 2020
| Dates for Your Diary |
Upcoming events can be found on the website under School Life → Calendar and are outlined here for easy reference.
For daily updates and news follow the HeadStart Facebook Page and You Tube channel.
To join the Parent Community Facebook group click here!
| Date | Time | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 June | All day | School closed for the Queen’s Birthday | |
| 26 June | Evening | Graduation Ceremony for Year 13 | To be announced |
| 30 June | TBA | Parent Teacher Conferences | To be announced |
| Announcements |
Graduation News
In order to give our deserving graduating class of 2020 every possible chance for a live ceremony and celebration marking this momentous occasion, we have pushed the date to 26 June. More news to come with details of this special event!
Year 11 Exams
Well done to our Year 11 students who have completed a grueling week of online IGCSE examinations. You can now take a few days to recover before we start your online AS and BTEC lessons on Thursday 4th June. The timetable will be shared on Monday. We are proud of you! -Ms Jennifer Blackweir
Dance Lessons Update
After 2 active month of online dance classes, we would like to thank all the students who joined. It was not an ideal configuration of learning dance but it has been a little drop of happiness and fitness, not only in the students’ life during this difficult time, but also for the teachers to be able to keep contact with their students. Miss Fabienne and Miss Anna have now stopped online dance classes but will continue with private dance coaching in Ballet, Jazz and Contemporary from Monday 1st June. If you are interested please contact Miss Fabienne directly on the following email [email protected]. Be happy, keep dancing
Don’t Stop Moving!
Here’s some inspiration to help you finish off the week strong! Our PE team and coaches got active to help motivate and inspire you to continue to keep moving, working hard, and growing strong while we’re all staying safe at home. There are so many home workouts and fun things to do around the house to keep fit! Stay home, stay safe, stay connected, and just keep moving!
| HeadStart Alumni |
Natasha Chaloemtoem
HeadStart Alumni post featuring former Head Girl, Natasha Chaloemtoem studying in the Netherlands
Hi! My name is Natasha. I am one of the 2019 HeadStart graduates. Since leaving Phuket, I have been studying at the Maastricht University in the Netherlands. I am currently exploring all fields of Science with a major focus on Analytical Chemistry. Maastricht University is ranked #1 for it’s Natural Science programme so I am incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to study here! Moving 6,000 miles across the globe was definitely not easy and required a drastic increase of maturity and responsibility. Moving into a shared house with so many people coming from different backgrounds has been a highlight and we have become like a family creating many good memories. The events here are never ending; from University events to Christmas Markets and a Carnival Week in the city. It’s been really nice to be exposed to a new culture and environment. Seeing snow for the first time in my life was amazing!
Learning to balance my studies, work and social life has definitely been important. I have learned to handle things on my own such as buying groceries, cleaning and washing laundry. I have also taken up a part-time student job to help me feel an additional sense of responsibility and appreciate the importance of hard earned money. I have also had the opportunity to travel around Europe since Maastricht is centrally located. I have been to Belgium, Germany and London so far which was incredible.
It has been such a unique experience that I am so grateful for and I can’t wait to continue my amazing University life here!
Jeong Hoon
HeadStart Alumni post featuring Jeong Hoon, studying in South Korea
“I was very nervous yet excited to start a new chapter of my life after graduating from HeadStart. I got accepted into studying International Relations at the University of Foreign Studies in Korea and was planning to do my mandatory military service after the first semester. However, my first year in university has been a bit mundane as my study started at the same time as the COVID-19 outbreak in South Korea. This resulted in online classes for the entire semester, which means I did not get to see any of my classmates or attend any of the orientation for the freshmen.
Nonetheless, I’m still excited for what the future has for me even if it has had a rocky start. I also very much miss my friends and teachers at HeadStart and am extremely grateful to have been a part of such an amazing community. I wish everyone all the best and most importantly stay safe!”
| Creative and Performing Arts Week Wrap Up |
We had our first virtual CAPA week on our HeadStart Facebook page. The HeadStart Community took part in the Getty challenge, a photography competition, a virtual Art gallery as well as many Music, Art and Design and Technology activities during online lessons. On our Facebook page you were also able to relive some of our great performances from our Dance and Drama students.
This week ended on a bang with our two HeadStart’s Got Talent finals. We had so many entry videos this year that we decided to split the competition in two. On Thursday the 28th of May we saw the live broadcast of the Primary competition. Congratulations to everyone who took part. The Secondary finals took place on Friday the 29th of May. Our 5 celebrity judges were completely blown away with the amount of talent we have in our school. Their comments to our students were really helpful as it came from people in the industry. Again, congratulations to everyone who took part and entertained us last week. You are all superstars! The results:
| Primary | |
| 1st place | Mona Year 3 |
| 2nd place | Jomp Year 6 |
| 3rd place | Deedee Year 3 |
| Secondary | |
| 1st place | Wanwin Year 9 |
| 2nd place | Alicia M Year 10 |
| 3rd place | Nutcha Year 12 |
A big thank you to our CAPA team for putting on yet another fantastic week.
| Student News |
Year 1 students in Mandarin class made mini country flags with Chinese names for their country flags project. They are having fun learning and playing with these flags! -Ms Wang
| Year 3 Letter Writing |
This week in Year 3 the children have been learning how to type formal emails to their teacher. We asked the children to come up with a new set of rules, as a kind of ‘digital classroom’ charter, especially as the children are becoming better and better at using Google Classroom and Google Meets. Here’s a few of the email conversations between Mr Jackson and his pupils:
Dear Mr Jackson I am writing to you because I want the meeting to be brave.I want our meeting to be fun and I like us to be funny. But I still want to learn all the things you have. I hope you follow my rules.🙂
Your sincerely, Mudmee
Dear Mr Ian Jackson, I would like it if you put one of my ideas into the class charter:
. To be sensible. . To be nice to ache under. . To not look into the scream too much. . To listen to the teacher.
Dear Mr.Jackson, I am writing to you to tell you my suggestions for the online class charter.I hope you put my suggestions on the class charter.
Firstly, everyone should be sensible in the chat and turn off their microphones when they are not asked a question. If anyone wants to speak they need to send a message in the chat and don’t send too many emojis. We should not always turn off our cameras because teachers will not see if we are listening. Parents should not interrupt when the teacher is talking. Teachers should remember to present the screen when their teaching.
Yours sincerely Ashley
Dear Mr Jackson, I am replying to your email on the subject of a new Class Charter. I do not think that the is any need to change the existing Class Charter. I look forward to the School opening again,so that we can all interact in the Class
Yours Sincerely,Luuk Bua
Dear Mr. Jackson,
I am writing to you because I came up with some rules that I hope you will add.
My 1st rule is to sit properly while you are talking/teaching even when your camera is off because it’s not polite to not listen to the person who’s talking. The 2nd rule is to concentrate while the teacher is teaching so when they ask a question you can answer it. Finally, the 3rd rule is not to go somewhere else while you are in the meeting because the teacher might ask you a question and you can’t answer it because you are somewhere else.
Your sincerely, Punn Pongpoonlarp
Dear Mr Jackson,
I am writing this letter to you because I will tell you some useful rules to help our online learning get better,and hope you put some of my rules in.
Firstly, our online learning is a bit too silly and noisy,so we should say or ask something one by one. Secondly,some people are too silly,so they should listen more to the teacher. Thirdly, be kind and don’t say something mean, and people should learn to be kind and don’t talk behind their backs.Fourthly, people talk in their background when the teacher is talking, so people should only talk when they have a question and listen when you turn your camera off.
| PE Department News |
This week Year 4 and Year 6 completed four different superhero themed workouts in their live online PE lessons. All students performed really well and we even had some dress up in their superhero costumes! Mr Sadler and Mr Woods are both looking forward to seeing Year 5 on Monday for their superhero PE lesson. -Mr Jamie Sadler
This week Year 10 IGCSE PE students were asked to collaborate in small groups in order to create revision materials for their end of year exam. They were tasked with rewriting the Cambridge IGCSE Physical Education textbook so that the content was presented online in an easy to understand format. In order to do so, they had to draw on their knowledge and experience of the course since August 2019. What they have created is a fantastic revision resource that both current and future HeadStart students can use when studying for their IGCSE PE exams. Here is a small example of some of the pages from the IGCSE PE Student Textbook. -Mr George Woods
Once again, Y10 students have excelled themselves by producing some fantastic development pieces for their portraiture project. Students researched 2 artists including Van Gogh, Francoise Nielly, Josh Bryan to name a few, before attempting to take inspiration from both in order to create their own style. I am so impressed with their independence and confidence with this task as developing your own style is always a challenge. The outcomes are stunning! -Ms Samantha Gill
