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Weekly Update #4, 16 September 2022
Upcoming events can be found on the website under School Life → Calendar and are outlined here for easy reference. If you have questions or require further assistance please email [email protected]
| Date | Time | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 September | 9.00am to 12.00 | Saturday Thai Culture Club | To be announced |
| 17 & 18 September | TBA | Phuket Basketball 21 Tournament | Saphan Hin |
| 20 September | 8.15-9.15am | Parent meeting: Thai Curriculum at HeadStart for New Parents | Secondary Hall |
| 22 September | 8.15-9.15am | UPrep Drop in & Future Ready Workshops | Primary Hall |
| 24 September | 9.00am - 12.00pm | Chinese Language Day | To be announced |
| 27 September | 8.15-9.15am | Parent meeting: Introduction to the IGCSE Curriculum | Secondary Hall |
| 28-29 September | TBA | Foundation ‘Stay & Play’ | Foundation building |
| 29 September | 8.15-9.15am | UPrep Talk 2 - Your Child’s 5 Year Plan | Primary Hall |
| 3-7 October | PE & Sports Faculty week | ||
| 04 October | Under 9 & 11 Cross country | at BISP | |
| 8.15am | Parents meeting: for Year 1 Parents | Secondary Hall | |
| 05 October | Under 13, 15 and Over 15 Cross Country | at BISP | |
| 06 October | 8.15am | UPrep Drop in & Future Ready Workshops | Primary Hall |
| Announcements |
Scheduled Fire Drill
At HeadStart International School Phuket, the safety and wellbeing of our students, staff and school community is always at the forefront of everything we do. Regular fire and evacuation drills are an essential component of ensuring the safety of our community. At 10:45am on Wednesday, we had our first drill of the academic year. Escorted and monitored by our team of fire marshalls, everyone evacuated in a safe, calm and sensible manner and successfully mustered on the Astro Pitch. The management team will now gather staff feedback on today’s fire drill, as we continually look to improve our policies and procedures. Well done everyone! -Mr Tony Williams
Over 15 Basketball
The HeadStart Over 15 Boys basketball team will be competing on Saturday and Sunday at Saphan Hin in the Basketball 21 Tournament. The schedule hasn’t been released at the time of writing, but you can search Facebook: Phuket Basketball for updates. Let’s go panthers! -Coach Curtis, Head Coach
| Parent Fitness |
From Effortless Running Coch Bohm, also an active member of the parents sporting community at HeadStart: Such an amazing turnout to the HeadStart parent classes in the past weeks!! Well done to all for getting up and being active. HeadStart Parents lead by example. The HeadStart Parent classes are on every Monday - Friday from 8:00am to 9:00am. Join this lovely community for a wonderful way to start your day! All levels are welcome. Our amazing parent-teachers are able to adjust sessions to cater to your fitness level and ability.
| Monday | Effortless Running with Erik Böhm (at the athletics track) |
| Circuits with Suzanne Van de Venne (Fitness studio) | |
| Tuesday | Yoga with BT (Fitness studio) |
| Wednesday | Pilates with Maya (Fitness studio) |
| Thursday | HIIT with Suzanne Van de Venne (Fitness studio) |
| Friday | Yoga with BT (Fitness studio) |
| Meetings |
Secondary EAL Parent Information Morning - 14.09.22
Thank you to all who attended our Information Morning on Wednesday 14th where I explained the EAL programme and Mrs. Davidson shared some more details of the FastForWord programme and gave parents an opportunity to try it themselves! It is our hope that EAL students take full advantage of the range of support in place for them both at school and home in order to become proficient users of English. -Mr. Pollicutt, Head of English & EAL
UPrep Session on 15.09.22 and Upcoming Drop In Session
The first parent UPrep session went well and we hope the parents found it useful and informative. We had over 20 parents which was great to see and we shared our schedule with them for upcoming UPrep sessions. If you missed the presentation please see the downloads below. We are excited to have our first drop in session next week on Thursday, 22nd September. The Drop In session will be in the Primary Hall from 08.15 - 09.15 am. If you have questions or would like some advice on university preparation and enrolment, please come along and our team of UPrep advisors will be glad to assist you. To fins out more about our UPrep programme visit our webpage here!
| Upcoming Events |
We are holding our first Chinese Language Day on Sep.24 from 9:00 to 12:00, this activity is open to Mandarin speaking families only. Please contact Ms Wei Wang [email protected] for sign up. The deadline for signing up is Sep.20. Places are limited, sign up now to avoid disappointment！
9月24日星期六9:00-12:00HeadStart将开展第一届中文语言日活动，这次的活动主要针对母语为中文的学生，名额有限。有意向参加的学生请联系王薇老师[email protected]报名，报名截止日期为9月20日，请在报名时注明学生的姓名及年级。
| Alumni News |
Nikol Smirnova - Degree in Law with Honours
Please join all of the teachers and management at HeadStart as we congratulate HeadStart alumna Nikol Smirnova on achieving a Bachelor’s Degree in LLB Law with Honours at Manchester University. We are so very proud of this accomplishment and we wish Nikol the very best in her next venture: studying for a Master’s Degree in Corporate Law.
Natasha Chaloemtoem - Degree in Chemistry with Cum Laude Distinction
Congratulations to Natasha Chaloemtoem, graduating class of 2019 and Head Girl from 2018-2019, on completing her bachelor degree of Science in Chemistry with a Cum Laude distinction at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. We are so proud of you and wish you the best of luck as you start your professional life as a lab technician.
From Natasha: “Hi everyone! I am staying in Maastricht as I have just started working full time as a lab technician for a start-up company innovating portable mass spectrometers. In basic terms, I am an analytical chemist testing machines. I am leaving a Masters Degree as an option for later on but would love to do a masters in Food Science in the future.”
| Introducing Secondary Head Girl and Head Boy for 2022-2023 |
The Head Boy & Head Girl are considered to be role models and must act accordingly. They are chosen from students who exemplify good behaviour, grades and attendance. The Head Boy & Girl may be asked to represent the school at public events and may be asked to make speeches. It is the highest honour the school can give to any student.
The role of Head boy and Head Girl includes jobs such as running and organising the Student Council and supervising the Prefects. In addition, the Head Boy & Head Girl will participate in flag raising, talking to the whole school about various issues, giving speeches at award ceremonies and other events in the school throughout the year. To find out more about Head Girl and Boy roles and responsibilities, visit our webpage: Student Leadership
Keira Brain
Hello, my name is Keira, and I'm going to be Headgirl for the upcoming academic school year. First of all I would like to give a huge congratulations to all the award winners! All of your awards are well deserved and you should feel incredibly proud. Due to COVID-19, Headstart's students and teachers have undoubtedly faced difficulties this school year. Despite this, our outstanding team and students have been able to adjust to and overcome these difficulties, such as when online learning was required. But even with these challenges we have faced, the head girl and head boy alongside an incredible leadership team have managed to provide HeadStart with exciting events for its community, which I’m sure you can agree, we all appreciate and cherish. So, please join me in offering a special appreciation to Nutcha, Calvin, Gemma, Esther, Sara, and Anya for putting on a variety of events for us and consistently going above and beyond when organizing activities for the school. This year Carry and I have had the pleasures of working under Calvin and Nutcha and getting to experience first hand how they are able to successfully bring a team together, work collaboratively and produce an astonishing outcome. I would like to give a special mention to Nutcha, although she could not be here today, I think it’s important that we acknowledge her contribution to HeadStart.There is absolutely no doubt that Nutch is an extremely accomplished and multi-skilled student, from her excellent academic achievements to her beautiful singing voice and stage presence. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have learnt from such a friendly and open hearted Head Girl who puts an enormous amount of effort into her role as she has such love and devotion for the students here and the school as a whole. You will be missed dearly and we wish you all the best at Cambridge (which is again another outstanding achievement). I am so incredibly excited to have the opportunity to be taking over from you as HeadGirl. You have inspired me to put as much time, effort, and love into this school as you have, and I hope I can carry on your legacy by upholding the same principles and standards you have established during your time here. Thank you!
My name is Keira Brain and I’m going to be the Head Girl for the upcoming year. I have been at HeadStart International School for 5 years, and throughout the years the atmosphere at HeadStart has always been very warm and welcoming with an amazing supportive community. I have made plenty of friends and have been lucky enough to be taught by some truly amazing and inspiring teachers which I’m most thankful for. The school has developed me immensely and I have become more determined and ambitious as an individual due to the motivating environment at HeadStart. As a thank you to the school, I would like to give back to the community by helping to maintain and improve HeadStart.
Kairu Zhang
Ni hao everyone. My name is Carry. I am deputy head boy in this academic year. First of all, I would like to thank you all for attending the secondary award ceremony. I want to congratulate those that won an award today. By this I mean everybody, everybody that is sitting here deserves to own a unique award for themselves, because I believe different individuals shine differently. So well done everyone. As you all know Calvin is our Head boy for this academic year, unfortunately he couldn't be here with us today, but I have something i want to say about him. Calvin is definitely a great leader that I admire. He has helped me a lot since I first met him. Speaking about Calvin, the first thing that everybody knows about him (probably everybody in the school) will definitely say that Calvin is a very enthusiastic and responsible leader, the one that you know always got your back, the one that always cares about everybody’s feelings. I actually met him 6 years ago when I joined Headstart summer camp. I was a big kid compared to other students in the class and I didn't have many friends in the class at that time. Calvin was the first one that came up to me and started talking with me and made friends with me, from then on he was always there for me. There are so many more good qualities he has that I can think of, and that’s what makes him such a great leader. He is always the one that I look up to, and always the one that earns people's respect. What I learned from him is that when I become Headboy next academic year I will need to think and care more about people’s feelings when I make decisions and try my best to be there for students when they are struggling and in need. We have done many things this academic year as student leaders such as Lunch bunch activities, Valentine roses, Second-hand sales, Kindness week, Food packing and so much more countless activities and events. I would like to say thank you to all the teachers, prefects, student councils, and all the other students that contributed to the school. Without any of you guys, we would not have such a successful achievement. Overall, this academic year we’ve achieved many things but I am sure there are more to come next academic year. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift that is why we call it present. Live in the present and make the best out of it and enjoy life. Thank you for listening and I am looking forward to working with all of you next academic year. Thank you.
Hello everyone, my name is Kairui Zhang (Carry) and I am going to be the Head Boy for this academic year. I have been in HeadStart International School since year 9. I am super grateful to HeadStart for making me into the person who I am today, as thanks to the school I would like to try my hardest to improve the community by contributing as much as possible to the improvement of the school. I believe that one of the most important qualities to become successful in life is to always be motivated, which is what I want to show to all the students in this academic year as the leader of the school.
| Primary Student Leadership |
We were extremely impressed by the quality of applications received for the roles of Primary Deputy Head Boy and Deputy Head Girl. The roles were opened up to any members of Year 5 to apply for following the promotion of the previous post holders. Congratulations to John Chadwick and Seoha Im on their new roles within the Primary Student Leadership Team as Head Boy and Head Girl.
Pupils completed applications based on a full job description and included personal qualities that would support them in their role if successful. There were some excellent ideas on how they could contribute to the school community and how they would promote themselves as positive role models. Based on the strength of applications in the initial sift, it was decided that the sixteen candidates would meet with Mr. Khan to discuss their applications over lunch in the Conference Room. Both the Deputy Head Boy and Girl have now been selected and will be announced at Flag Raising on Monday 19th September. Class elections take place next week to recruit members of the School Council who will support both the Heads and Deputies. -Ms Rebeca Ross
| Thai Etiquette Competition |
On September 8th and 9th, HeadStart entered eight students into the annual Thai Etiquette Competition at Sapan Hin stadium. The event was organised by the Phuket Municipality office and over 350 students from Thai schools in Phuket competed in this competition. The students that represented our school and performed very well are Tiger and Sophie (Year 1), Sense and Gail (Year 4), Kwankao and Prem (Year 5), Sam (Year 9) and Baikao (Year 10). HeadStart was once again the only international school who participated and won numerous awards at this competition for the 5th year running. Congratulations to Sense, Kwankao and Baikao for winning 2nd place in their age categories. Well done!
A big thank you to Kru Way and Kru Pla for training and preparing these polite young students and the excellent effort they put into making this project a great success. We are really proud of all of the students and very thankful for the support we had from this group of Thai parents during the training and competition. -Ms Sontana Baci, School Director
| Student News |
This week primary celebrated Roald Dahl day. Activities in class were based on some of his most celebrated books. Children also had the opportunity to win a book by taking part in a scavenger hunt around school. We hope that by celebrating Roald Dahl Day our children have been inspired to pick up a Roald Dahl book and let their imagination run wild with his incredible stories! -Ms Donna Wintersgill
| English as a Second Language (EAL) Update |
Using adjectives is paramount to making our spoken and written English more descriptive and interesting. Saying “That is a lovely red leather bag” sounds like a nice compliment to native English speakers, however, if you said; “That’s a leather lovely red bag” it sounds a bit odd. This is because native speakers of English intuitively know that there is an order for adjectives - they MUST follow the order of opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose- noun.
For non-native speakers, this adjective word order has to be learned and can be tricky to master. Our KS4 ESL students practiced using the correct adjective word order when describing clothing by dressing up in some extremely fashionable outfits and describing them to one another. -Ms Lauren Davidson
| Creative & Performing Arts (CAPA) |
CAPA Star of the Week!
This week our Star was Enzo in year 6. Enzo has demonstrated outstanding enthusiasm and positivity throughout our Chicago rehearsals and is demonstrating confidence and drive beyond his years! Well done Enzo!
Design & Technology
Our secondary school students receive a broad and exciting range of activities and topics through our after school programme. In DT this term students in our Robotics Club have been designing and building robots. They have been working collaboratively to problem solve and make considered decisions. Students have shown insightful and creative approaches already! -Dean Wells-DT Co-ordinator
Chicago
Here is a behind the scenes, sneak peek at the preparation for our production: Chicago. It ‘takes a village’ to make these endeavours successful and we are so lucky to have a fantastic faculty, working together to make magic! Here are a couple of examples of what the DT department have been working on. -Patrick Graham Music Co-ordinator
Music
Our Year 10 students have been working hard on their IGCSE pieces. We are only 4 weeks in but they have already made excellent progress and are demonstrating such a great commitment to their studies and to working collaboratively. This term they have been rocking out to some Queen songs and doing a fantastic job. -Patrick Graham Music Co-ordinator
