Weekly Update #9, 30 October 2020

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.

Food Service

A new and improved menu has been uploaded to the website. Check out the full range of what we have on offer including an international option, a Thai option, a spicy Asian option, a vegetarian option and a full salad bar complete with salads, soup, bread, steamed veggies, pasta, fruits, beans and spreads. Click HERE to view the menu.

The Food Service Committee met on 23 October to discuss recent concerns that parents and students have brought up. They compiled a list of suggestions that will be passed on to School Management, as well as ideas to further improve the menu for Term 2. If you would like to contribute any suggestions regarding this topic, please send an email to [email protected]

Fire Evacuation Update

Since the recent fire evacuations have affected a large percentage of our students and parents, we wanted to give a short update on the situation so that everyone can have peace of mind knowing that the campus is safe and all systems are functioning properly. There have been four fire evacuations so far this term, which is more than we have ever experienced in such a short amount of time. On each occasion, the fire alarm system has responded as it should. The first three alarms were caused by smoke detected in the kitchen and the Science lab. There were no fires, only smoke. On the last occasion, the alarm was triggered by water entering the detector during a very dramatic storm.

The good news is that the system that has been installed is working at optimum capacity and is picking up signals that indicate the onset of a fire. On the opposite side of the spectrum, is that it is so sensitive that it is causing large disruptions to school life when there is no need for an evacuation.

After assessing what can be done, we have changed the process for detection and evacuation. If the alarm system detects an irregularity, our maintenance team will be alerted first after which they have three minutes to investigate the precise location of detection. The maintenance team will assess whether or not there is danger and report back to management on whether or not an evacuation is necessary. We hope that this process will help us avoid wasting time and that everyone will feel at ease knowing that our campus is secure.

Fitness Gym

We are pleased to announce that on the 5th of November our gym manager will be starting part-time work at the HeadStart fitness gym again. This will allow for our Year 10 (and above) students to safely access the gym on school days from 3.10-6.00pm. Parents should be reminded that any children Year 9 and below are not allowed to use the gym for safety reasons. The gym is open to parents from Monday to Friday between 7.30-9.30am and from 3.00-6.00pmas well as on Saturday from 9.00am to 2.00pm. Please note that the gym manager is no on duty on Saturday. If you have questions or require support in any way please contact our Athletic Director by writing to [email protected] or visit Mr Carter in his office in the Sports Hall.

Parent Committee Meeting

We were very pleased to be able to welcome existing and new members of the Parent Committee to our first meeting of the 2020-2021 academic year. Points discussed ranged from food service queries to student wellbeing and the meeting ended with Mr Drew giving an update on student behaviour and more details on the academic success of our students in their most recent exams. Mr Edouard encouraged the Parent Committee to get involved in school events starting with the Christmas Fair that will take place on 14 December. Another suggestion was put forth

Once school management has had the chance to meet regarding the issues presented, and the conclusions have been typed up, parents can expect to receive an email detailing meeting notes and the school’s response to each point. Once again, we would like to thank the members of the community, and specifically, members of the Parent Committee, who have contributed towards home and school communication.

Meeting Invitation ‘Introduction to Sixth Form’

We would like to invite you for a meeting on Tuesday 3rd of November 2020 in the Secondary Hall on the 4th floor at 08.30 - 09.15am. The topic of this meeting is ‘Introduction to the Sixth Form’. We will give an introduction about our AS Levels and A Levels curriculums in Sixth Form and the pathway for universities. The information will be presented in English by Mr Lukats (Head of Secondary), Ms Bedi (Deputy Head of Sixth Form & Staff Development) and translated into Thai by Kru Nee.

Phonics Workshop

This week our KS1 parents learned how to use phonics to help their children to read and spell. We discussed the importance of repetition when learning a new sound, and how to segment and blend sounds to help with reading and spelling. We learned about ‘tricky words’’ (which are words that we cannot use phonics to decode) and we all enjoyed listening to the delightfully catchy ‘‘tricky word song’’. Attached is a copy of some helpful resources parents received at this meeting. Please look through it and feel free to discuss any questions you may have with your child’s homeroom teacher. -Ms Lauren Rose

On 30 October, everyone at school enjoyed a full day of Halloween activities, themed food, and best of all a good old fashioned dress up! Thank you to all of our students, teachers and even quite a few parents for making a great effort to come up with such fantastic costumes. Halloween certainly has been a great community event. For full albums of pictures head over to the HeadStart Facebook Page

Football

The HeadStart Panthers U11s FC and Utd teams enjoyed some fantastic games last Saturday against the strong Borae Academy. It was great to see the boys back on the pitch playing some fun and entertaining football. Well done Boys! We now look forward to seeing all our Academy Boys and Girls teams playing against BCIS in the coming weeks.LET’S GO HEADSTART PANTHERS! -Coach Frost

The HeadStart Panthers U11 FC had a great game away at BCIS. The boys scored some lovely goals, including two stunning top corner goals. They also showed great bravery as two boys missed penalties but stepped up and scored at the second attempt. Our goalkeeper played outfield and our striker was 1 on 1 with the keeper but unselfishly passed as he wanted our goalkeeper to score. A game which was so much fun and played in the right spirit by both teams. Thanks for the great game BCIS. We can’t wait for the next one! -Coach Blaine

Year 1 Blue enjoyed going to Ao Yon beach for their first school trip. They spent the time walking down the beach, drawing things that they found interesting. The children drew shells, coral and even a crab that would not stay still! And of course, we could not go to the beach without playing in the sand and making sandcastles. -Sam Young

Last assembly, the Humanities Department’s teachers and students tipped their hats to Black History Month. This is an annual celebration of achievements by people of African descent and a time for recognizing the central role they have played in all our histories. Firstly, I hope we can all agree that we shouldn’t have to have a Black History Month. As Morgan Freeman says, black history is too important to be assigned to just one month. What next? A white history month? Hopefully, in the future, all of our diverse histories will be learnt in schools around the world - black, white, Asian, whatever - it’s human history, full stop.

We do, however, recognise the need for this in some parts of the world but I think we can be proud as a faculty (and as a school) in that we celebrate diversity in our curricula. In the Humanities Faculty (History, Geography, Travel and Tourism BTEC and IGCSE, Business Studies IGCSE and A Level, Business Studies BTEC) the very nature of our subjects demands us to focus on the rich tapestry of the world we live in and how we can move away from our divisive pasts.

We celebrated the following people of African descent who had either influenced our lives, the world, or both:

• Elmore James - blues musician and WW2 veteran.
• Mary Seacole - hero of The Crimeran War.
• ‘Lucy’ - a 3 million-year-old African hominid.
• Rosa Parks - Civil rights activist.
• Harriet Tubman - American abolitionist.
• Barack Obama - 44th President of the USA.
• Mansa Musa I of Mali - the wealthiest man of the Middle Ages.
• Jackie Robinson - American baseball player.

We live in turbulent and polarised times where true debate cannot exist without inclusivity. Racism is a belief system that is learnt and more often than not it exists through a subtle omission of the ‘other’ in our lives. I’ll leave you with this quote from Martin Luther King, who puts it very well:

“History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”

‘The Water Benders’

Over the last month or so everyone has taken the amount of water for granted! However, water has very unusual properties. Many people know it is essential for life and it is able to dissolve other substances such as sugar and salt. Also, most students know that the formula for water is H2O. Did you know that there are 6.023 x 10 23 water molecules in 18 grams of water. It is the special intermolecular forces between the water particles called ‘ Hydrogen bonding’ that is responsible for its special properties. For instance, why is it the most deflected liquid with a charged plastic rod. This is shown with my AS Chemistry students together with the molecular models. Mr Steven Finn

Medical Training Course

Miss Leamon’s Year 7 students have been working very hard the past two weeks, completing their ‘Medical Training Course’. The students have had to learn the organs, bones and muscles of the body, as well as diagnose common illnesses and complete dissections to become more familiar with the anatomy of organisms. At the end of the course this week they learnt how to do stitches on their patients. The students have done a fantastic job and all students have passed the course with flying colours. Many of the students this week have expressed their interest in going into some of the medical fields they have learnt about including nutritionist, neuroscientist, surgeon, anaesthetist and sports physiotherapist. Well done Year 7’s!

Sometimes in English, excellence takes many forms. Of course, we achieve excellent external examination results at the highest end of the spectrum (Top in Thailand for IGCSE Literature in 2019, students with 98% in A Level papers, 100% A-A* in A Level last year). However, the foundations of these excellent results are built on industry and improvement, often lower down in Secondary.

So today I would like to share with you a speech written by Pun Chaokijkha in Year 8. In a way it pains me to do so, as Pun’s purpose is to persuade his audience to support Arsenal, the mortal enemies of my team, the glorious Tottenham Hotspur. More importantly, though is to consider where Pun has come from. In Year 7, this was a student who wrote primarily in simple sentences, with little control over subject/ verb agreements or tenses, and with a limited vocabulary. But look at him now! Such rapid improvement is down to two main factors: the dedication and expertise of our teachers, and the hard work in and out of class and independent reading by our students. Is Pun the finished article yet? No, not yet. But unlike Arsenal, if he keeps going I have no doubt that one day he will be. -Mr. Pollicutt, Head of English

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“We love you Arsenal we do, we love you Arsenal we do, we love you Arsenal we do, oh, Arsenal, we love you!”

Historical, successful and attractive: these are the best words to describe the club with a surfeit of silverware.

A club from the same place as where Adele was born, the girl who sang ‘’I set fire to the rain’’ Yes, we did set fire to the rain; we beat Man Utd 2 two times at the Old Trashford and only once drew with them and we have the three factors that made us beat them. First, was playing the ball beautifully and the second and the third was because De Gea and Phill Jones were on their team. Well, seriously, would you rather watch boring harry kane goals or Aubameyang scoring acrobatic goals against their most bitter rivals? Of course- Aubameyang.

Oh, I actually realised harry kane doesn’t have a capital letter well, after all, is he really a person?

Arsenal started from that day when we were in Woolwich building the team then working up the way to premier league building the Emirates stadium. The Invincibles that we still see with pride today. We have legends coming in and out. We have famous managers managing and one of them was Arsene Wenger AKA Le Professeur. He brought in the style of play that we are famous for today he brought in culture, the modern football, the victories, the successes that we had and yes also the way to celebrate cups without beers. He created many players and he created much more for the club that even I could say this club (Arsenal) wouldn’t be Arsenal if there wasn’t Arsene Wenger.

There is proof that Arsene Wenger is the best manager in the world. 17 trophies in every major tournament that is impressive. Spurs haven’t won any yet! Premier League, FA Cup, European Cup and more. There is proof that the fans respect him and the player, the staff coach and even Gunnersaurus the mascot. There is proof that his style of play is trusted by his players. The iceberg-Denis Bergkamp once said “In my day, we knew that with our style we could hurt teams and win trophies too. But we did it our way, with the positional game, passing, movement.” And this is only one part of our success; we have other great managers as well from Charlie George’s to Aubameyang’s era.….we’ve won it all!

Finally, I want to say Arsenal is in a transition period right now from one era to another. Right now a great club but in the future, we could change it into the best club. It will take a lot to do so, the coach, the players, the tactics, the style and most of all- us, the fans. They need us and we need them, yes we really need them! Then why not join us and support this club? You could be part of this project and bring this club into the best it could be. By Pun in Year 7