Weekly Update #2, 31 August 2018

Here is a sneak peek of what the HeadStart coffee shop will look like once it is finished in September 2018! Due to the fact that we do not want the sound of construction to disturb classes, the progress seems to be slow but once it is complete, it will be a wonderful place to sit with family and friends.

Dates for Your Diary

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

For daily updates and news follow the HeadStart Facebook Page

Announcements

ASP Notice (After School Programmes)

Fee Paying ASPs

After an introduction to the fee paying programmes in the atrium last week, the fee paying ASPs have now started. There are still places available and students can still sign up until 7 September. Please wait to pay for the fee paying activities as our accountant will send you an invoice on 17 September, 2018.

Free ASPs

The booking period for Free ASPs is between 30 August to 4 September, 10:00am via the Parent Portal. Click HERE for easy access to the portal. If you are having trouble accessing the portal, please write to [email protected].

Students who have been identified as needing additional academic support have been assigned Boosters on various days. As a school, we highly recommended that you support your child and encourage him/her to attend the classes. If your child has been assigned a Booster, they will not be able to book into other activities on that day/time slot. To clarify any information regarding this issue, please contact the child’s homeroom/subject teacher or the ASP manager, Ms Anisa Van Der Laan in the front office.

You will receive a notification via the Parent Portal regarding the ASPs that your son/daughter has been enroled into on the 8th of September. Free ASPs begin on 10 September.

YAMAHA Music Lessons in School: COMING SOON!

We are very excited to announce that Yamaha music school will be offering instrumental and vocal lessons at HeadStart. At the moment we are looking at offering voice, drums, keyboard and guitar lessons. We are aiming for lessons to start on the 17th of September. These will be running as individual or group sessions after school. In our assembly on Friday the 7th we will have the teachers from Yamaha showcase these instruments. They will also have a booth in the atrium where you can sign up. See the download below for more detailed information.

CAPA (Creative and Performing Arts Academy) Auditions

Can you sing, dance or act? We are looking for the most talented students at HeadStart to audition to become part of our CAPA Academy. The Academy is open to students from Year 5 - 13 with a talent in Music, Drama or Dance. We rehearse every Tuesday from 4:30 - 6pm in the Dance and Drama hall on the 4th floor.

Auditions will take place on Tuesday 4 September at 4:30pm in the Dance and Drama room. Sign up on the door to the Dance and Drama room by Monday the 3rd. You need to prepare a song/ dance or monologue from a movie for the audition. Come prepared and show us what you can do! By MS Erika Cramp

Thai Parent Meeting Invitation

I would like to cordially invite you all to a meeting about After School Programme. The purpose of this meeting is to give information about the after school policy such as sign up, pick up and drop off policy and answer the questions you may have. The meeting will take place on 4th September 2018, starting at 8:15 and finish at 9:15. It will be held at Secondary Hall (the 4th floor) and will be presented in Thai. We look forward to seeing you there. By Kru Dia

Fast ForWord Learning Programme

This invitation is geared towards parents whose son/daughter has been on the Fast ForWord programme or we have identified your son/daughter as somebody who would benefit from being on our Fast ForWord programme. I would like you to come to a parent meeting about Fast ForWord on Friday 7th September 2018 from 8.10-9.15am in the Secondary Hall at HeadStart School. At the meeting you will find out all about the programme and the impact it is having on learners here in Thailand and around the world and also how the programme works. Mr. Naresh Indhewat the licensee for Fast ForWord in Thailand will be leading the presentation and going through the benefits this programme will have for your child.

The Fast ForWord programme is an evidence-based program that uses a revolutionary 3-step intervention model to directly target and fix the root causes of language and reading difficulty so learners make fast improvements that continue even after they finish the program. No other intervention does this. Designed by renowned neuroscientists, Fast ForWord is the ideal solution for Year 2-Year 13 intervention, at-home intervention, or clinical support intervention. You can read more about this amazing programme here by clicking HERE. At HeadStart we passionately believe this is the best vehicle for developing students English Language and reading skills here at the school, so they can better access our English First Language Cambridge Curriculum.

As the programme is an optional addition to our existing EAL provision, the Fast ForWord programme does incur additional costs. It will be delivered through a combination of school based sessions and home learning. As we will be running and administering the programme at school we are able to reduce significantly the costs to parents, compared to those who do it independently.

I look forward to seeing you at the meeting and working with you in getting the best learning outcomes for your child at HeadStart.

By Mr Richard Lukats

University Application Programme

This week saw the official launch of HeadStart’s university applications programme. With our biggest ever Year 13 cohort, it promises to be a busy time in Sixth Form over the next few months. Our students are setting their sights on a diverse range of destinations, planning applications to a record 15 different countries for 2019. The most popular destinations this year are the UK and Canada, closely followed by the USA and Australia. Even more pleasingly, our students are planning on entering a fantastic array of disciplines, from Medicine to Creative Writing, and from Political Science to Engineering. We will be working hard to help everyone get onto the course of their dreams.

We kicked off today with the UK applicants learning how to apply using UCAS, whilst North American candidates will get their turn on Common Application next week. If you’d like to know more about how HeadStart helps students with university applications, or have any questions about how to plan for life after school - no matter the age of your child, just get in touch with Gemma Caines in the Sixth Form by writing to [email protected]

Bidding a Temporary Farewell

Dear Parents and Staff,

As you may already know, I am pregnant and expecting my first child in two weeks time. I am writing to inform you all that I shall be taking my maternity leave starting this coming Monday, 3rd September. I hope to resume my work at HeadStart on Monday, 3rd December 2018.

Should you need to contact me during this time regarding any aspect of Thai regulations or Thai education programmes at HeadStart, then in my absence, please contact either Dr. Parimon Phaisamran (Khun Jit), our School Licensee at [email protected], or Ms Pailin Issalam (Kru Dia), our Head of Thai at [email protected]. I am confident that they will be able to support you and discuss any concerns you may have during my time off.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish the whole HeadStart community a successful academic year. I look forward to seeing you all soon. Thank you all very much for all your good wishes and words of support.

Regards, Sontana Baci (Kru Nee) School Director

Sports Department News

By Mr Nick Carter, Athletics Director

Please note that ALL primary students MUST also bring their water bottles to swimming classes. Students have been informed that their water bottles are THE MOST ESSENTIAL component of their PE / Swim kits (if they forget any kit, we can loan them some spare kit…but we do not keep spare water bottles). It is important that students remain hydrated and are given the opportunity for water breaks. So, please remind students to bring their water bottles to both PE and Swim classes.

Academy News

All academy athletes have been informed verbally whether they have been accepted into the academy or not. By now, parents will have received a contract to sign. Deadline for the return of the contracts is Monday, September 10th. Below are training days for each age group. These will be the Football Academy days for the remainder of the year.

Academy Practice Sessions

Don’t forget, Football and Swimming Academies are running from 3:30-5:00pm until normal ASP’s begin on Monday, September 10th. Thereafter, Academy sessions will run from 4:30-6:00pm on the same days stipulated below. These will be the Swimming Academy days for the remainder of the year.

Summer Swim Meet Invitation

BISP is hosting a beginner swim meet on September 22nd. If your child is part of the pre-academy or academy team and they need a refresher on how a meet runs, it is highly recommended they attend. Cost is 500 Baht. Please sign up via this link: https://goo.gl/forms/9D8mLyPygXPtdPh43

Girl’s Football Try Outs

This week Miss Dunne held some girls football tryouts. If you missed the tryouts or were unable to attend, it’s totally fine. Just come and see Miss Dunne to express your interest in playing! At this stage, the tryouts are not for a ‘HeadStart Girls Academy’. However, the girls will be strongly advised to sign up for the Girls ASP’s this year (Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s from 3.30-4.20 and open for Years 5-13).

Both of the girls ASP football sessions will be Head Coached by our fantastic female members of staff (Miss Dunne and Miss Brelstaff); both of whom have a lot of experience with playing/coaching football. The objective is for them (as well as all of us) to help inspire as many girls as possible to start playing football. The selected students will then be considered for upcoming fixtures / matches / tournaments, and the plan is to include Girls in the HeadStart Football Academy next year; firstly, after increasing girls participation.

So, let’s all encourage our HeadStart girls to get involved in football! Go and see Miss Dunne or Miss Brelstaff for more information!

Basketball

Last Friday, our Girls Basketball team traveled to Sapan Hin to play against Satree Phuket School. Here’s a match report from the team captain, Natasha in Year 13:

On the 24th of August the Girl’s basketball team played their first game of the school year against Satree School. The girls played well after a long summer break but unfortunately lost the tough game. However they have shown great improvements in their movement around the court, passing and shooting and will only get better through experiences like these. Well done to the team, it was a great start to the year!’ By Natasha Chaloemtoem, Team Captain

Foundation Department News

By Ms Fiona Scott, Deputy Head of Foundation

Health Alert

As we mentioned in our Parent Orientation meeting, it is usually around the second - third week of a new term that some children may fall sick. This is perfectly normal and I have seen it happen over many years of teaching. The reasons are usually down to the children becoming used to the school routine after a long holiday, mixing with new friends and becoming a little tired as they readjust to school life. This mixed with unsettled weather can lead to viruses spreading more easily amongst children. This week we have had a few children absent with coughs and colds, which is all perfectly normal for the time of year. As a school we pride ourselves on the cleanliness of the department and work hard to reduce the spread of any infections that come into school. The easiest way to reduce the spread of germs and bacteria in children is by thoroughly washing hands with soap. Please support us by ensuring that your children washes their hands over the weekend if they have been out playing, before and after eating food and using the toilet.

Hand Foot and Mouth Disease

Did you know that adults can also carry the disease? Please ensure that you also follow good hygiene practices at home and wash your hands, with soap, with your children so it becomes an easy, everyday habit. Did you know that the virus can live on surfaces for several days, even supermarket shopping trolleys! If you don’t carry them already, then pop a packet of anti bacterial wipes or alcohol spray in your bag before heading to the supermarket this weekend, and make sure your little ones clean their hands if they have been sitting in the trolley during your shopping trip.

Primary Department News

Dear Parents,

I hope you have all had a pleasant and productive week.

As HeadStart has grown in size over the last few years the numbers of teachers and managers at the school has also increased. This year, I am fortunate to have working alongside me my new Deputy Head, Mr James Hornby. I thought this weekly bulletin would be a good opportunity for James to introduce himself to you all.

Can I take this opportunity to wish you all a safe, happy and fun weekend.

Sam Khan, Head of Foundation and Primary

Message from Mr James Hornby, Deputy Head of Primary

Good afternoon, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself as the new Deputy Head of Primary, James Hornby. I will be working with Mr Khan and Mrs Scott as part of the Primary Management Team.

My role is largely a pastoral one, supporting students at school, ensuring their well-being and helping them to be effective learners. As part of this, I will be looking at the punctuality of the pupils and communicating with parents in order to offer support where necessary. Being on time for school is important so that the children arrive in the correct frame of mind rather than being rushed and flustered. Being punctual means that our pupils are present for the lesson’s introduction so know what is expected of them and how to achieve the learning objectives. I will also be checking attendance and I may on occasions contact parents to see if there is any way in which the school can offer support, in order to ensure that children do not miss valuable time at school which will impact on their progress.

If at any stage you feel that your child needs extra support, or there are things that are affecting their learning at HeadStart, please do not hesitate to contact me so that we can take steps to address any concerns.

One of HeadStart’s many strengths is the partnership between our HeadStart parents and our HeadStart teachers. Over the coming days and months, I hope to play my part in strengthening and developing this ‘bridge’ between home and school. When we all work together; our children are best placed to enjoy and achieve.

Kind regards, James Hornby

Student News

The Preschool children had lots of fun in their first water play lesson today. They were enjoying playing with water to help them gain confidence before heading to the swimming pool next week. By Miss Danielle and Miss Cardell

Reception Fun House Challenge

Today we hosted our first Fun Friday House Challenge for Reception. A lot of fun was had today in the space hopper races, running relays and target throwing activities. The children worked very well in their teams and our overall winners were the Green Team. A big well done to all in Reception for listening well and trying their very best.

Reception are really enjoying their swimming lessons. Thank you Miss Cardelle for a super fun swimming class! By Ms Hannah Kuusik

Our Reception Messy Monday’s have been a lot of fun! The children are encouraged to get messy and wet while exploring the various activities for them. These lessons teach the children many valuable lessons so we do encourage that all children take part. Learning through play is the best way to learn! By Ms Candice Smithie

Reception students enjoyed role playing characters from a book called “The Smelly Bear” in Thai class. By Kru Sue

Reception love outdoor interactive learning! We have been playing lots of fun phonics and maths games, practicing finding different sounds and numbers then sorting them into the matching groups. The children have impressed us with their quick recall and enthusiasm! By Ms Hannah Kuusik

Reception blue had a lot of fun today in Maths. We played many number recognition and counting games. We also practiced number formation! The children are settling really well into Reception. By Ms Candice Smithie

The Year 2 ‘Thai as a first language’ students started the second week of school learning the ‘ee’ vowel by playing a fun card game. What a fun way to start a new academic year! By Kru Way

Year 5 were watching what happens to our pupils when the light changes. By Ms Charlotte Moulsher

In Year 6 Yellow this week, the students have been completing electrical circuit challenges. They had to create working circuits with 1 bulb, then 2 bulbs, then 2 cells and were challenged to create their own switches and make a parallel circuit where two bulbs work independently of one another. They learnt that when we add more cells, the components work harder. By Ms Sophie Webb

Year 7 Yellow worked really hard today whilst learning about how to keep safe online. They also produced some fantastic work based around cyber bullying as part of their PSHE studies.

House News

By Ms Nadine Brelstaff, House Coordinator

The lunch time house activities kicked off this term with Connect 4. The students had lots of fun competing against the House Captains and trying to win points for their teams. The new House Captains did a fantastic job organising the students and encouraging others to come and join in. They have settled into their new roles exceptionally well, demonstrating brilliant leadership skills.

Minimising food waste is very is very important at HeadStart, that is why our weigh your waste competition is continuing this year. The yellow Cheetahs are renowned for winning weigh your waste, can anyone knock them off the top spot! Here are the house point standings so far this term…

New Feature: Film Review

Dear all at HeadStart,

My name is David Pollicutt and I am the new Head of English and Humanities Faculty from Years 7-13 at HeadStart International School. The faculty is looking at delivering many new and exciting experiential learning opportunities this year for all students as well as continuing and building on the strong academic showings in previous years. I myself am pleased to be in Phuket, sampling the wonders of Phuketian cuisine and discovering both the island and language in general.

Two of my passions are writing and film, so I thought by way of introducing myself, parents might like to read a review I wrote of a movie I saw last weekend in Central Festival. I’m just sorry the film was so atrocious!

I look forward to meeting you around the campus.

Crazy Rich Asians

Rating: One and a Half Stars

Jackson Pollock became much lauded figure in the Art world for his ’drip painting’ technique- a scattershot releasing of paint of all hues and consistencies at a canvas in free, wild arcs of creativity and producing his famous ‘action painting’ pieces.

Crazy Rich Asians is irrefutable proof, were it to be needed, that such a technique does not translate to celluloid.

The rice paper thin plot follows Rachel Chu (a doe- eyed Constance Wu), an impossibly young NYU professor of Economics being invited by her boyfriend, Nick Young (Henry Golding), to come to Singapore to meet his family. We knows she’s clever, because of the way she defeats an undergraduate in a lecture theatre, at, erm, poker, which, like totally shows she’s up on her Keynsian theories. This scene does server, however, to foreshadow in the heaviest handed way possible a game of Mahjong played between Rachel and Nick’s mother later in the film. Predictably enough, the family’s traditional ways are at odds with Rachel’s modern outlook and social standing, and the relationship is put in jeopardy. Oh no!

Only it’s not ‘oh no’. for everything is shorthand, but not in a way which compliments the audience’s powers of inference, more one that smacks of a lazy millennial lack of rigour, as if scenes have been designed to play to an audience who use terms such as ‘instagrammable’ and probably dream in 140 characters or fewer.

Not that it starts awfully. Perhaps not auspiciously, but not awfully. The opening scenes show in flashback haughty Londonite receptionists refusing A bedraggled Chinese speaking Young family a room they had booked, clearly on the base of their ethnicity. ‘OK,’ we think, ‘some potentially interesting, if rather heavy handed things might be said in this film about race relations’ (even though I am pretty sure that most people’s money was good in Mayfair circa 1995, as Mohammed Al Fayed could tell you).

That’s when the ‘Jackson Technique’ kicks into full swing. An excruciatingly transparent extended advert for Singapore itself lurches towards a below par montage hacked straight from The Hangover of the groom’s bachelor party, interspersed with disingenuous, tonally discordant cuts to scenes featuring a harrumphing Nick’s mother (Michelle Yeoh). She disapproves of Nick’s intended for no other reason aside from snobbery (although the screenwriters try to tie in some vague and culturally relativist fluff about Chinese tradition’). The only unifying aspect about these scenes is a fetishizing over consumerism which is frankly both unsavoury and gleeful . I waited for the undercut, I really did, the ironic aside, hell, even a Disneyfied moral message that ‘there’s more to life than Balenciaga’-alas, it was in vain…

So the film veers like a runaway rickshaw from set piece to underdeveloped subplots , all the time using dialogue written by Google Translate which is unintentionally smile inducing. In their desire to create expository scenes in which the writers want to indicate a close bond between long term bffs Nick and Colin (Chris Pang) , rather than finding an askance way of demonstrating their connection, or developing naturalistic dialogue around a plausible situation they instead opt for wince inducing clunkfests such as:

Nick : I met a girl, I fell in love and I want to marry her

Colin: You’re Nick Young. You’re untouchable. But Rachel’s not.

People just don’t talk like this and as a result, you’re taken out of the film. Scenes intended to pack an emotional gut punch are rendered limper than a week old bok choi.

Despite all this, the film rallies towards its third act, and does have some sweet moments buried among the frankly bizarre and incongruous ones (a bride in knee length boots striding down the aisle while guests wave lighted baubles at her?!) Nick’s final dash to confess his predictably gushing Hallmark Card proclamations of undying lurve do contain a touch of the climactic moments seen in Richard Cutis romcoms, complete with the toe- tapping cheesefest soundtrack trilled spunkily in Mandarin.

And if you’re a sentimental sort like me, you may even get the smallest of lumps in your throat, at least one the size of the tiniest jiao.

However, just like a jiao, inevitable feelings of nausea follow coupled with a whimsical reflection of how you’re two hours older but in receipt of rather less wisdom than you could hope to find in a fortune cookie.

Crazy Rich Asians is showing and Central Festival and Jungceylon

World Clean Up Day Call to Action

Organised by Mr Richard Cramp

Please join Trash Hero Phuket as they take part in The World Cleanup Day! On the 15th of September, millions of volunteers in a 150-country network will unite to clean the world in a single day, cleaning up litter and mismanaged waste from our beaches, rivers, forests, and streets.

If you want to be part of this world record breaking civic action, join Trash Hero Phuket at Karon Beach on Saturday September 15th at 9am. Just bring yourselves, they will provide everything you need. Click on the link to join the event and see you there! https://www.phuket.net/…/world-cleanup-day-trash-hero-phuk…/