Weekly Update 8, 13 October

Dates for Your Diary

Upcoming events can be found on the HeadStart calendar on the website School Life → Calendar but we have outlined upcoming events here for easy reference.

Parent Committee

We would like to issue a last call for parents who would like to be involved in the HeadStart Parent’s committee. If you would like to know more about the committee, the roles and responsibilities, please click here Parent Committee. Once you have read over the information and would like to apply for a position in the committee, please email Khun Yong at [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you and have fresh ideas and perspectives from new members for the coming academic year.

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DoE Beach Clean Up Details

A Term 1 beach clean up schedule has been posted to the website for easy reference. DoE Beach Clean Up Schedule

The school has organised transportation as a way of supporting the students with the exception of the beach clean up that will take place on 21 October. Parents are advised to organise their own transportation to Naithorn beach as the drivers have been given the day off due to the period of mourning for the late King of Thailand. Please arrive at 3:30 pm at the beach. Questions or concerns can be directed to the DoE coordinator, Mr Duncan Peake by writing to [email protected].

Welcome to this year’s Halloween activities! On 3 November all students to come in to school dressed up in Halloween costumes and look forward to the following horrors!

• Photo booth in the atrium where you can relive your worst nightmares!

• A ‘ghoulishly disgusting’ Halloween themed lunch and snacks. (Don’t worry. Only the names are horrible!)

• Halloween treasure hunt for forbidden treasures.

• ‘Wrap the Mummy’ game during lunch break

• Pumpkin Carving and Best Halloween Snack competition. Students stand a chance to win House points if participating.

Important Note: Carved pumpkins and home made Halloween snacks must be prepared at home and stored in classrooms until lunch time at which point students should bring them to the tables in the atrium to be judged by Mr Carter.

Don’t delay, start looking for your horrible costume today!

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House News

By Mr Nick Carter, House Coordinator

Weigh Your Waste winners: The Red Phoenixes won in stupendous fashion, wasting only 2.2kg of food. This equals the current school record, which means the Phoenixes receive double points!

The House Quiz winners: The Blue Tigers

Primary lunchtime darts activity winners: The Blue Tigers

Secondary House competition ‘Beat The Teacher’: Secondary students participated in 15 activities, pitting themselves against their teachers in order to try and win point for their Houses. The overall winners were The Green Dragons.

Radio Club News!

The HeadStart Radio Club is getting active and will broadcast their first live show on Nov. 11! In the meantime, they have been busy recording with Mr. Byron Jones for broadcast on Phuket Island Radio. They’ve prepared both tributes to HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej for the month of October and promos for the upcoming Addams Family Musical. Listen for them in English and Thai. Here’s Nutcha recording with Mr. Jones while Khun Jit coaches her Thai.

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P.E. Department News

Upcoming Super Sprint Swimming Competition

By Coach Zak Brown

October 28-29th the Aqua Panthers are heading to Thanyapura for the annual Super Sprint competition. This is 2 days filled with short fast races to see who has the quickest reaction time and can get to the wall first. Meet runs from 8:00 - 5:00 pm on Saturday and 8:00 - 12:00 pm on Sunday. Come and check out the action!

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Sports Faculty Week News

By Mr Richard Lukats, Athletics Director

I would like to remind you that the PYDFL will begin on Saturday 4th November and that there is still time to join in. It is a great opportunity for children to play competitive Football in teams made up of players from across the Island. The games are played in a festival atmosphere and children that take part, not only thoroughly enjoy it, but they also develop as Footballers by playing in teams with players they have not played with before. Please see the notes below and the attached poster and letter.

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Phuket Youth Development Football League News

The young football players of Phuket were delighted to be back in action last Saturday for the 2nd Phuket Youth Development Football League. This event is organized by Cruzeiro Soccer Schools, hosted and sponsored by HeadStart International School, and in association with other Phuket International Schools Athletics Conference (PISAC) schools. Participation in the PYDFL includes a kit, participation medal, access to HeadStarts 2 astroturf pitches for all matches. The League’s emphasis is on creating a fun and challenging but supportive event for the football community and players from all around the island.

The deadline to register is Sunday October 15th, so if you would like to participate, please contact events manager Nicole Harris at [email protected] to sign up today!

Sports Faculty Week

From Friday 6th October to Thursday 12th October, the school has been holding its annual Sports Week, ‘Have Fun & Be Active’. This year there have been even more activities and fun stuff for everyone in the school to have a go at and compete in. Every morning the school community has been greeted by the Cheer-leading Teams as they have demonstrated their skills, filled us with energy for the day ahead and let us see some of the routines they are working on for their competitions in Bangkok later this year.

In The Foundation School, children have been doing activities in their classrooms to get them active and improve coordination. At lunchtimes they have had the opportunity to explore play with lots of different types of equipment that encourage eye hand coordination and different types of movement. In their PE Lessons they have been involved in swimming activities that have encouraged participation and working together, as well as being great fun, whilst in their PE lessons they have been doing lots of fun circuits that have developed all aspects of physical activity.

The Primary School has had an exhausting array of activities going on throughout the week. Year One and Two have been involved in swimming sessions that have been using their swimming skills to perform unusual and fun tasks in teams. In their lessons they have been involved in House Activities which have worked on all aspects of their physical and skill development. At lunchtime they have had a different themed activity for each day, Tag Games, Target Games, Movement Circuits and Free Play. Year Three to Year Six have been entertained every lunchtime with ‘Beat The Teacher Competitions’, ranging from Rugby to Badminton and also one of our parents who challenged the students all week in Table Tennis (Mile a Year 5 Parent). In their PE Lessons children have been competing in Bench Ball and Hoop Ball House Competitions all week (it is a game based on Netball Rules and skills) and in their Swimming Lessons they have been working on Team Building Activities e.g Boat Relays, Horse Relays, Sharks and Minions etc….. On Thursday morning in assembly the whole of the Primary School was involved in a exercise session led by Coach Lana, where even some parents were spotted joining in!

Sports Week for the Secondary School saw all years involved in Bench Ball/Hoop Ball House Competitions and fun swimming activities. The whole of Secondary school was involved in Beat The Teacher Activities on the Friday afternoon ranging from Keep Ups and Tennis to Boules!

The P.E. Department would like to thank all the students at HeadStart for making the week such a fantastic fun filled week and for continuously putting a smile on our faces every day we have the pleasure of teaching HeadStart Students. We would also like to thank all the staff and parents at HeadStart who have participated in the activities over the week or came to watch and support.Keep Active!

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Floating on unusual toys and objects in the pool!

Learning how to work in pairs is a lot of fun!

Jumping on bubble wrap and hearing it pop!

Lots of different beat the teacher events held at lunchtimes during Sports Faculty Week!

Primary School students joined in with a 10 minute Physical Work Out to start the day during Sports Week with Ms Lanna.

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Foundation Department News

By Ms Fiona Scott, Deputy Head of Foundation

A big well done to this week’s Stars of the Week in Reception. Nawit and Ingfah from Reception Yellow received their awards for working hard with their phonics and reading skills. Amarin and Nawa both received an award for trying hard in all lessons. Well done Reception, keep up the good work!

In Early Years we’ve been learning about Healthy Eating, so we made yummy healthy smoothies! We like being independent and being given responsibilities, so we did lots of the tasks by ourselves. We cut the fruit, put the fruit in the Blender jug and turned on the blender button. Then we drank them! Some of us liked them, but some of us thought they were a bit lumpy. By Miss Holly & Miss Amy

In Early Years we’ve been learning about Healthy Eating so we decided to plant our own cress! The children were shown a time lapse video of seeds growing. The Teacher then demonstrated how to plant seeds in stages: 1. put cotton wool into cup 2. pour a little bit of water in 3. take a pinch of seeds and sprinkle over the top of the cotton wool. The children then had a chance to show that they could remember and complete the instructions. They tried to be very careful when pouring the water and sprinkling the seeds. Then we tasted our cress! Some of us liked it, but some of us thought it didn’t taste very nice. By Ms Holly & Ms Amy

This week in Early Years Blue we have been learning about how to keep our teeth healthy. We talked about the different foods and routines that make our teeth bad or keep them shiny and white. Today we experimented with coca-cola and egg shells to see what happens to our teeth after drinking fizzy drinks. The children were shocked to see how brown and dirty the coca-cola had made their ‘teeth’. They now understand how important it is to brush their teeth at least twice a day. By Ms Holly

This week we had a lovely Teddy Bear’s picnic. Children shared their snacks with the teddies and we played fun games. We really love learning about toys and bringing them to school to show our friends. By Ms Smithie

We have been learning about toys in Reception and last week the children were able to write a shopping list of toys they want in their toyboxes by copying words from the toys dictionary. By Ms Smithie

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Primary Department News

By Mr Andrew Whittaker, Head of Foundation and Primary

Well, it is still hard to believe that we are already at the end of our first half-term of this academic year; 8 long weeks for the pupils and 9 weeks for the teachers.

There has been lots, as ever, to celebrate throughout this half-term. I have been especially delighted with all of the pupils who have come to my office to show me their wonderful work that they are, quite rightly, so very proud of. Great Inspire Maths work using number bonds, part-whole method, bar models, concrete/pictoral/abstract methods; wonderful poems; fantastic creative and descriptive writing pieces; reciting interesting facts about Tutankhamen; learning about teeth, to name but a few.

We have so much to enjoy and celebrate, it really is a pleasure being a part of such a super community as HeadStart.

I wish all of our families a well deserved holiday and enjoy your quality time together.

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Year 1 Blue shared their ideas on a spidergraph in preparation for an acrostic poem. By Ms Nicola Fallows

The Year 4 students learned about Microhabitats in their Science lessons and had a great time exploring the playground. By Ms Dickie

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Secondary Department News

By Ms Elizabeth Mason, Head of Secondary

Another busy half term has flown by. Thank you to all the parents that attended this week’s very successful Year 7 Parent Teacher Conference (PTC). It was great to talk to many of you regarding the curriculum. Many parents were interested in our pathway offer of both IGCSE’s and A levels in our 6th form. If any parent would like more information please book an appointment to see Ms Heather Lucass by writing to [email protected].

My thoughts are with all our Thai families in this month of mourning for his late majesty and I wish you all well at this very difficult time.

I look forward to seeing student back refreshed after the half term break. Thank you for your continued support of the Secondary school.

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DoE Group 1 Trip

Business, Computing & Technology Faculty News

By Mr Peter Mason, Head of Faculty

This first half-term has certainly flown by quickly. It is surprising how well our new students have settled it to their courses in Year 7 Computer Systems, Year 12 AS Information Technology and Year 12 AS Business Studies. This is down to the hard work and dedication of our new ICT & Computing teacher Miss Hayley Jean, our well regarded and respected IGCSE ICT and AS IT Teacher Mr James Barker and our well-established Business Studies teacher Mr Michael Hurley.

I would like to congratulate Mr Hurley and thank him for all of his hard work and diligence that contributed to one of our students achieving the Cambridge ‘Top in Thailand’ award for AS Business Studies.

Whilst we wish our students a restful and reflective half-term break, we eagerly await their return with new topics and concepts to learn and some exciting new projects to attempt and experiment with in our After School Programmes.

Yes, it has been a pretty fun-packed and exciting start to the year for our students. Below are details from each of our departments:

Year 6 Programming

Students have been learning about Computational Thinking and they’ve been able to:

• Analyze information to draw conclusions

• Match identical portions of similar phrases to match patterns

• Identify differences in similar phrases and abstract them out

• They’ve also been delving deeper into programming creating flexible solutions to complex problems creating interactive games using Code.org.

Year 7 Understanding Computers

Students have been learning about the basic principles of computer architecture and the use of binary. Students have been able to distinguish between hardware and software, give examples of computer hardware and software, draw a block diagram showing CPU, input, output and storage devices, name different types of permanent storage device, suggest appropriate input and output devices for a simple scenario, explain what RAM and ROM are used for and finally show how numbers and text can be represented in binary.

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Year 8 Computer Crime and Cyber Security

Students have been learning about the legal safeguards regarding computer use, including overviews of the computer misuse act, data protection act and copyright law and their implications for computer use. Phishing scams and other email frauds, hacking, “data harvesting” and identity theft as well as ways of protecting online identity and privacy and Health and Safety Law. Students have been able to name the major Acts concerning computer use, describe briefly some of the dangers of putting personal data on social networking sites, describe briefly ways of protecting online identity and how to report concerns, identify some of the signs of fraudulent emails and respond appropriately, adhere to Copyright Law when using written text, downloading music etc., list some of the Health and Safety hazards associated with computer use and describe how to safely dispose of an old computer.

Below are some booklets the students made on the topic.

Year 9 Web Design

Students have been learning how to create a simple series of connected web pages, incorporating links to other pages and to other websites, and creating some basic navigation through their own pages. They learned about the the basics of HTML coding and importance of user friendly websites and target audience. Students have been able to create a series of connected web pages, use hyperlinks to link pages, implement links to other internet sites, investigate insert images using advanced HTML, demonstrate user awareness and explain the benefits and uses of HTML Code.

Year 10 IGCSE: Components of a Computer System and Communication

Students have been learning about hardware and software that is required to make the computer work, looking closely at the operating systems, CPU and memory types required for this process. Pupils have also investigated some of the emerging technologies in this field and are able to recall these, linking them to existing and past technologies.

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Year 12-13 Business Studies News

By Mr Michael Hurley

Students have been introduced to the four chapters of production of goods and services, costs, scale of production and break-even analysis and achieving quality production. The students in Year 12 AS Business Studies have been introduced to ‘People in Business’. This topic area is concerned with understanding the nature and purpose of business activity and identifying the structures, functions, cultures and objectives of different business organisations. The Year 13 A2 Business Studies students have been introduced to the impact of political, economic, social, technological, legal, environmental and ethical factors and how these might influence business activity is considered.