13 Sep 2017

Weekly5 years ago

Weekly Update 4, 15 Sept. 2017

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.

Date	Time	Event	Location
15 September	4:30-6:00 pm	Addams Family Production Practice	Fitness/Music Rooms
16 September	All day	Thanyapura Open Swim League 1	Thanyapura
19 September	8:30 am	Introduction to Foundation Parent Meeting	Sixth Form
20 September	After School	U13 & U15 Football vs Kajonkiet	HeadStart
22 September	All Day	House competitions	HeadStart
23 September	9:00-11:00 am	Saturday Thai Culture club	HeadStart
26 September	All day	Languages Day	HeadStart
29 September	All day	House Competition Day	HeadStart
29 September	2:30-5:00 pm	Friday Market	HeadStart

Annual Events Calendar

In order to be aware of the upcoming events for the year, we have created an Annual Events calendar. We recommend you download it and post it on your fridge.

Annual Events 2017 2018 .pdf, 358 KB

Thank you to our very helpful Thai teachers who will help students get out of their cars and into school on rainy days so as to keep the traffic flowing.

‘Introduction to Foundation’ Parent Meeting Invitation

All parents with children in Preschool, Early Years and Reception are warmly invited to an information meeting ‘An Introduction to Foundation’ on Tuesday 19 September at 8:30 am. The meeting will cover;

EYFS Curriculum and Assessment
Parent / Teacher expectations
Support at home
Developing self-care and independent skills
The new pick up policy
Birthday parties

Foundation Safety and Well Being Announcement

It’s hard to believe that next week will be week 5 of our academic term. Most of the children in Foundation are now settled and eagerly take part in all lessons throughout the day. Some classes are on the move at 8.30am and are lined up ready for lessons elsewhere around the school. With this in mind, and to ensure a high level of security in Foundation, parents will not be able to take their child to the homeroom later than 8.30am. If you arrive late into school, cuddles and goodbyes must be given and said at the Foundation gates and children will be escorted to their rooms by a member of staff on duty. Children arriving after 8.30am are still required to get their temperature checked and to thoroughly wash their hands before going to their classrooms. Thank you for your support to ensure that the Foundation department remains as a safe and secure learning environment for all children in our care.

Parents bringing in forgotten PE kits, snacks or water bottles, must take the items to the school office, where they will be brought to the classroom by a member of the Admin team.

After School Programme (ASP) Notices

By Ms Anisa Van Der Laan

The online Parent Portal which includes sign up and registration for the After School programmes, is fully functional and once we sort out any remaining technical difficulties, our systems will run much more smoothly for the long run. Over 200 adjustments have been made to accommodate parent and student requests within the first week of starting school. We would like to in form you that after 22 September 2017, we will no longer take requests for changes or sign ups to the ASPs.

The following Q&A section may be helpful to you. is email has been generated to answer common questions asked. If the topics covered in this section do not answer your question, please contact Ms Anisa Van Der Laan via email ([email protected]) or in person in the front office for further assistance.

Question 1 I have not received an email response regarding my child’s enrolment in a paid programme.

This may be due to a technical glitch which we have asked the systems administrator to look into. In order to enrol your child without delay, we recommend that you contact the coaches directly and request confirmation.

Paid ASP Provider	Contact information
Russian School	[email protected]
Alliance Francaise	[email protected]
Judo/German	[email protected]
Dance Academy	[email protected]
Mandarin	[email protected]
Tennis	[email protected]

Question 2 I have not received an email response regarding my child’s enrolment in a free programme.

This also could be due to a technical glitch but more likely due to the fact that the programme that you require is already fully booked. If you are unsure and wish to have an answer regarding this issue, please contact Anisa via email or in person.

Question 3 I would like my child to attend a Booster but I have not received an email with a Booster recommendation. How can I go about enroling my child?

As a school policy, the child must be recommended for a Booster by the Homeroom teacher or Head of Faculty. Please contact the child’s Homeroom teacher (Primary) or the Head of faculty (Secondary) in order to enrol. When you meet with the teacher you can discuss your child’s academic level and whether or not the child does need the extra classes.

Question 4 I have just enrolled my child in the school. I would like information on when I can enrol my child in the After School Programme (ASP).

Please allow for a two week waiting period before you apply for the ASP programme. This will give the Homeroom teachers time to assess your child and determine if he/she must attend academic Boosters.

Addams Family Rehearsals Notice

As previously announced the Addams Family cast will rehearse every Friday from 4:30-6:00 pm. We have added the following times as well as on the following Saturdays:

September 16th, 9:00-12:00 pm (only Addams and Beinekes, no ancestors)

September 30th, 9:00-3:00 pm

October 13th, 8:00-12:00 pm (Friday)

House News

By Mr Nick Carter, House Coordinator

last weeks Year 10, 11, 12 and 13 Tug of War winners were once again the Blue Tigers. The Tigers also won the House Quiz, so a second week of victories helps solidify their second place spot; not far behind our leaders, the Yellow Cheetahs.

The Red Phoenixes snagged a much-needed victory in the Weigh Your Waste event, wasting only 3.4kg of food!

This week, the Primary lunchtime event was Connect 4 (4 in a row). The overall winners were the Yellow Cheetahs!

Lastly, next week, on Tuesday, 19th September it’s ‘ITLAPD’ (International talk Like A Pirate Day) and all students are welcome to wear their Pirate hats, patches and hooks during break times and everyone should also talk like a Pirate. There will also be a House competition at lunchtime on Tuesday, whereby the students should tell their best Piratey joke. The punch line must include a deep, gruff piratey voice that says, ‘aaaaaaaaaar!’ Here are some examples:

‘What’s a Pirates favourite food? … (dramatic pause) … Aaaaaaartichokes!’

‘What’s a Pirates favourite music? … (dramatic pause) … Aaaaaaar & B!’

‘Who’s a Pirates favourite teacher? … (dramatic pause) … Mr Barkaaaaaaaar!’

Foundation Department News

By Ms Fiona Scott, Deputy Head of Foundation

We are pleased to say that all the children now seem settled and happy in their specialist PE Classes and with their PE Teachers and Deputy Teachers. After the long holiday all the children are now back in routine and are following instructions well, so we are now able to start taking them into the pool environment. Starting next week the children will need to bring their swimming kit and it is suggested you bring it into school on the Monday ready for the swimming lesson on Tuesday for Yellow and Thursday for Blue. Monday remains a normal PE Lesson for both groups.

If the weather does turn cold and wet we will still do water based activities but it may be in smaller groups for less time so that the children do not get cold and they then still enjoy the lesson.

We would like to remind you that Swimming is a compulsory part of the curriculum here at HeadStart and all children will be expected to take part. If your child is unable to swim/go in water for any reason please email your Homeroom Teacher at the beginning of the day explaining the reason. Should your child miss 3 lessons we will need a medical certificate from your Doctor. If you have any queries about swimming please see Head Coach Mr Zak Brown or Miss Fiona or Mr Lukats.

A named swimming bag containing: Swimwear, goggles, swim towel, named plastic bag, swimming hat and hair band for long hair.

We do provide extra swimming lesson opportunities for children on a Saturday morning, if you are interested in this please see Anisa in the School Office.

A big well - done to our Reception ‘Stars of the Week’. They worked hard in class to achieve their awards and we look forward to finding who next week’s hard working stars will be.

The Foundation children had lots of fun in music class with Ms Myriam this week. They were playing the drums and learning to stop and start with the music. They danced with scarves and had a great time to the beat of the music. By Ms Danielle Jones and Ms Holly Strawbridge

We started our after school enrichment. For our ‘Book adventures’ enrichment we read the story Elmer and the Lost Teddy then made our own colourful teddy or elephant collage. By Ms Holly Strawbridge

‘Marvelous Me’ in Early Years

This week in our ‘Marvellous Me’ topic we have been learning about babies, how to take care of them and looking at how much we have progressed since we were all babies. We started by looking at pictures of the children when they were small, then the children thought of things their parents/carers used to have to help them with - eating, drinking, going to the toilet and getting dressed. We talked about how they can now do these things independently! They then learnt how to take care of a baby.

Year 5 Yellow could not swim due to thunder and lightning, so some of them kindly helped out with the little Preschool pupils do their P.E. lesson. This experience helped make the Preschool pupils more independent with different people and the one on one help with the ball skills proved very successful. The Year 5 students thoroughly enjoyed the session and would love to do it again. By Ms Fiona Whittaker

The Early Years students always show their best manners before entering Thai class with Kru Sue.

Primary Department News

Years 1 and 2 are creating collages inspired by Matisse’s use of line shape and colour. By Ms Kamillah Bilbe

Year 1 Blue working together in pairs to solve number bond problems during Maths lessons.By Ms Nicola Fallows

Year 1 students in the ‘Thai as a Second Language class’ learned about “Sara A” (the A vowel). They played a game where they had to find the words. by Kru Dia

Year 5 Blue have been investigating the reflection of light in a mirror. They used a mirror and a torch to look for the incident ray and the reflected ray. They found out that the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection. By Ms Lindsay Williams.

In their Science class, Year 4 Yellow and Blue were learning about the digestive system. They made comparisons to the digestive system using house hold items. By Ms Katherine Dickie

In Year 6 Blue Summer and Jewelry wrote a poem called the Arctic Wolf. By Mr Tim Eke

‘As white as snow, as powerful as a beast, I see the magnificent creature on a mountain in between the trees, I spot a pair of eyes, it runs like a storm. It’s breathing heavily, I spot an Arctic Wolf!’

Year 6 have started their new book, ‘The Eye of the Wolf’, in English. Some of the children had a great time creating a role play of one of the scenes from the story. By Ms Sophie Webb

Secondary Department News

By Ms Elizabeth Mason, Head of Secondary

Doing my walk about and drop ins this week has been very interesting. The active learning is in full swing and students are busy preparing for the Addams Family musical which will take place on the 3-4 November, 2017 in the evening. It is all very exciting and students seem happy with their choices.

On the 25th of September we will start our quality assurance schedule with a book look for Year 7 and 10. We will be monitoring to see if books are marked with appropriate feedback and that students have settled in well in these year groups. People involved in the book look are the teachers and heads of faculty as well as our new SENCO. The Deputy Head of Primary is also involved as he helps us to check that there is enough stretch and challenge in Years 6 and 7.

I would like to remind the Year 7 parents that there will be a Parent Teacher Conference on 11 October between 3:35-5:00 pm in the Sports Hall.

The students in Year 7 and 9 are working on the props for The Addams Family performance during their Active Learning mornings.

Design and Technology and Art classes combine for active learning in the morning. By Mr Duncan Peake

Last Thursday evening Miss Lucass and some Sixth Form students attended a talk at BISP with six selective US Universities about admissions and ensuring you are competitive and compelling in your application. Seventeen students attended the talk with universities such as Columbia, Princeton and Vanderbilt.

Students were really inspired by the speakers and it has helped them to gain a greater understanding of how to access education, financial aid and courses at top US universities. Students spoke confidently to admissions advisors and asked a range of interesting and well thought out questions which definitely impressed those present.

Well done to those students. who attended. We are looking forward to attending the main fair on the 25th of September with all Sixth Form students.