Happy Holiday!

We are coming to the end of our academic year, and what an exciting and eventful year this has been! The following are a few achievements to indicate the progressive strides we have accomplished this year:

Our Foundation and Primary student enrollment has grown from 136 to 222 - Secondary student enrollment has grown from 53 to 76 - We now have a total of 298 students studying at HeadStart compared to last year’s 189 - We have opened 14 new classes - We built a science lab and six new classrooms - We became a recognised Cambridge International Examinations Centre - We met all of the necessary requirements of the Thai Ministry of Education and received our Secondary School License - We met all of the necessary requirements of the Thai Ministry of Education and received our Nursery license - Implemented a new school menu developed and recommended by Thomas Jakobi, the only chef in Phuket to earn 10 out of 10 in Thailand Tatler’s Best Restaurant Guide2011 - We introduced our first year of courses for the Cambridge International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) to be examined at HeadStart in November 2011

None of this would have been possible without our wonderful teachers and staff who work tirelessly to make HeadStart the vibrant, active and progressive school and learning environment it is today.

News for the 2011 – 2012 Academic Year ======================================

New Team Members —————-

HeadStart now has 52 full-time teaching staff. Next year, we are increasing our Team to 56. We are proud of the team that will be in place for next year and we are very confident that the increased experience and qualifications that these new teachers bring will make this the best team we’ve ever had! Working with a new, stronger team will enable us to improve our academic programmes and create an even stronger teaching and learning environment for your children. To facilitate the rapid expansion we are experiencing and to fill the places of the teachers who will be leaving, we have appointed 15 new teachers who will join the team on August 1. Please see the Teaching Team overview attached with teachers’ names, positions and nationalities. For those who would like to find out more about the qualified and dedicated professionals, who will soon be joining our team, please visit our website.

Teacher profiles will be updated in July.

Head of Primary —————

With our student enrollment and the number of classes and teachers growing, we have decided it is now time for us to have a dedicated Head of Primary. We are happy to announce that Els Bellon, will be taking on this challenge. Els has worked at HeadStart as the Year 1A teacher and Lead Key Stage 1 Teacher for the last 2 years. We believe Els’ patience, experience, expertise and energetic approach to teaching will be a great asset to students, and teachers alike.

Handbooks ———

We are working on writing up Parent Handbooks for Foundation, Primary and Secondary. This will enable parents and students to have a better understanding of the school and our policies. These Handbooks will become available for Parent Orientation Day (August 26). Parents will also be able to download these from our website.

Sport Programmes —————-

We are making a concerted effort to improve our sport programmes and facilities this will be achieved by having a stronger team, better facilities and making adjustments to our P.E. timetabling.

P.E. Team ———

Our new P.E. Team will be led by Jennifer Campbell, an Irish qualified PE coach and exercise enthusiast. Jennifer will be assisted by Ashwani Ranna who holds a Masters’ Degree in Sports Science and has 12 years teaching experience. Also joining the PE team is Alexandros Dimas. An Australian Swim Coach with six years’ experience coaching school and competitive swimming.

New Sport Facilities ——————–

The new ‘HeadStart Sport and Activity Centre’ is five minutes away from the school. We have rented the Chalekilee Sports Centre and we will be working on renovating the facilities from July 1st - August 26th.

The three-rai (4,200sqm) property will have the following facilities:

Mini Olympic pool with six lanes - Kids’ pool - Gym - Fitness centre - Six classrooms - Kids’ play centre - Driving range - Three-hole golf course - Massage and spa - Coffee shop - Ample parking - Purpose-built changing rooms with lockers - Trampolines and a bouncy castle - Gaming arcade

School Facilities —————–

We will also be making some improvements to the school building during the holidays. These improvements will be ready in time for the new academic year and include:

A covered walkway from the nursery and coffee shop to the main building - Moving year six classes into the Primary building - Finishing the football pitch - A new, bigger and better library with 2,000 titles, a librarian and a library check-out system so you and your children can have access to these wonderful books - An electronic library with hundreds of animated books for Foundation and Primary students. This library will enable teachers to assign books to be read by you and your children at home. See this link for more details http://www.raz-kids.com/ - We will be installing a new automated gate system to increase school security. - Building a bridge to connect the primary and secondary buildings - Constructing three new offices and two new storage rooms

I want to thank you all for your support and for being a part of the HeadStart community. I look forward to continuing to work together with you all throughout the coming academic year. We have come a long way this year and I believe that next year will also prove to be as eventful and successful!

Best Regards, Jazon Edouard School Director

[imagevue path=”/imagevue/content/gallery/End Of Year 2011/”]

To download the full-size image – Right click and select “Save Link As…”