Weekly Update 8

HeadStart offers our deepest condolences to Her Majesty the Queen and the people of Thailand on the passing of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej. His devotion to his people will be remembered for generations to come.

On Friday, the 14th of October, staff came to school dressed in black and observed 2 minutes of silence in honour of His Majesty the King.

Announcements

Notice from ISAT (International School Association of Thailand)

We have received confirmation from the Permanent Secretary for Education and Head of Office of Private Education Commission (OPEC) approved by the Minister of Education that International schools should, out of respect for His Majesty:

• Close for one day, Friday 14th October

• Fly the flag of Thailand at half mast for 30 days

• Refrain from public festivities or entertainment events for 30 days

• Uphold a time of mourning for one year

Further details on how HeadStart will participate in the mourning of King Bhumipol Adulyadej will follow once we receive more information from OPEC but for now please observe that Halloween parties that have been planned are now cancelled.

School Holiday Notice

Please note that students are due to come back to school on the 25th of October, 2016. This is due to the fact that teachers are in INSET training on Monday.

Parent Committee Meeting

The Parent Committee Meeting will take place on Thursday, October 27th at 8.15 am. If you have points that you would like the committee to discuss in the meeting please write to a member of the committee by the 20th of October. You can find the contact information for the committee members on the Parent Committee tab on the website.

HeadStart’s Got Talent

The much anticipated ‘HeadStart’s Got Talent’ competition which was due to take place on Friday the 14th of October will be postponed until further notice.

Reflective Vests for Security

Thank you to the Student Council who suggested our security and driver teams wear reflective vests for safety.

Reporting Systems Meeting

Over 120 people attended the ‘Reporting Systems’ meeting which took place on Tuesday, the 11th of October. Attending parent meetings helps you keep up to date with what is happening in school enabling you to be a better support to your child. Should you have further inquiries please direct them to our Academic Director, Mr Drew, at [email protected]

Wai Kru Ceremony

Foundation and Year 1 celebrated Wai Kru (Teacher Appreciation) day on the morning of 12th of October. Students brought in lovely flowers to show appreciation for their teachers. Little Sammy in Year 1 made a wonderful speech in Thai as well as Joshua from Year 1 in English. Well done to all who participated. It was a meaningful occasion of showing appreciation to our hard working teachers who care so much for our students.

Primary and Secondary celebrated Wai Kru (Teacher Appreciation Day) on the 13th of October between 8:30 and 9:30 am. Fleur Sauter in Year 6, who has been at HeadStart since she was 18 months old, and Fura Prachumpan in Year 5 made lovely speeches of appreciation to their teachers in English and Thai. Lucy Mester and Tanadon Thantivit, who has been at HeadStart for the last 7 years, also made touching speeches speaking kind words to our hard working and dedicated teachers for all that they contribute to the students on a daily basis helping them to achieve their goals.

Students joined in singing the Wai Kru song named ‘Pa Jay Ya’ along with Palita Leensakul in Year 6 who gave a beautiful performance in front of all of her peers.

Speeches were made by the heads of Primary and Secondary as they thanked the teachers for their hard work and valiant efforts to make HeadStart the thriving educational community it is today.

After the Wai Kru Ceremony, our Year 9 students went to give the flowers to patients at Vachira Hospital in Phuket town. Compassion for others forms a central part of Thai culture and in their Thai class, our students got to learn just that.

CAPA Week

This week we celebrated the Creative and Performing Arts at HeadStart. Our students from Foundation to Year 13 had the chance to participate in the various activities we had on offer. Map Abday’s artwork was displayed in the atrium together with some artwork from our students. Every morning we were entertained by singers, dancers and actors in the atrium.

In assembly on Monday morning we were all wowed by the acrobatic performance by Sasha, our ballet teacher. Vlad from Reprizzo then entertained us with some comedy. During lunch students danced and sang Latin songs with Veronica Barboza.

The Year 7 and 8 students showed off their beautiful recycled creations during the ‘Trashion Show’! The ‘Trashion Show’ winners were…

• Opal from the Red House in first place!

• Stella from the Blue House in second place

• Jacen and Jessica in tied third for the Blue and Green Houses. Congratulations!

Our senior Art students went on a very informative trip on Tuesday and the Year 11 Music students demonstrated their ‘Makey Makey’ creations.

Bob Haya did some drumming with our students during music lessons on Wednesday and everyone got to join in in a drum circle during lunch.

On Tuesday, October 11th, the primary thespians performed their comic melodrama of CURSES! FOILED AGAIN! in which Nasty Colfax tries to prevent the marriage of heroine Nell to hero Bruce, but his dastardly deed is foiled by Sheriff Oliver Badge and the good citizens of Friendly Gables.

This was followed by three comic scenes from the secondary students, THE BIG LIE, ANGER MANAGEMENT and SOMEWHERE NOWHERE. All the kids did a fantastic job!

In the morning in the Atrium a group of secondary mimes in white face trained by Ms. Hayley Milner presented a series of mimes put to music and based around the theme of being trapped in an invisible box. The students did a great job.

Primary News

Let’s Dance!–Ms Armstrong

In 6 Yellow we have been embracing CAPA and felt inspired after watching all the performances in the atrium every morning. Following this, we decided to start our day in homeroom by dancing! ‘Just Dance’ provides us with videos of dance moves to follow, and we danced along to our favourite songs. We know that being active really wakes up our brains and prepares us mentally for a day of learning.

Cootie Catchers in Year 6–Ms Armstrong

We are coming to the end of our biology unit in Year 6 so we have spent lessons summarising what we have learned about the environment, systems of the human body and plants. We made our very own ‘Cootie Catchers’ (a recent obsession!) which we can use to test each other with tricky questions.

Secondary News

Update from Head of Secondary–Elizabeth Mason

This half term has been a wonderful time. Teachers and students have worked and we have reaped the benefits with many students achieving well in their half termly assessments. These assessments in some cases can act as an early warning system for teacher’s parents and students. Students that are below in some subjects now have plenty of time to review and refine their work and look forward to an improved report for the end of term.

Thank You

I would personally like to express my thanks to student and staff involved in the DofE weekends, Tournament of Minds team (TOM) which are presently in Australia, CAPA (Creative and Performing Arts team) with many staff going above and beyond their normal duties to enrich our students.

Secondary Achievements

Teachers have taken on new ideas and development with gusto. All new staff settled in quickly, many having to deal with new systems and showing resilience when having to start from scratch. We have a fantastic team of professionals that I now feel are going from strength to strength. As a team we have produced:

• A very hard working and cohesive team

• More robust quality assurance systems

• Better marking and feedback to our students

• Improved assessment and tracking systems that feedback directly to students

• Mentoring of A/B grade students student by Senior members of management

• Progression framework and progression marker system that works as well, if not better, than National Curriculum Levels.

As a team we are keeping our eye on the prize of 30% A/A* at IGCSE and 100% pass rate at AS level A-G.

DofE Training–Craig O’Nions

Last weekend saw the first DofE training weekend take place at Ao Yon beach. Students learnt a range of camp craft skills, water safety, team work and how to kayak efficiently. Ms Bekker and Mr O’Hagan both enjoyed seeing the students develop and mature in an out-of-school context and the students are looking forward to the next DofE weekend! An added bonus was that the weather held out, mostly!

Electricity in Year 9–Patrick Brown

Year 9 have just started a topic on electricity so these are pictures of them experimenting with the van der graaf static electricity generator and getting great amusement from giving each other electric shocks.

P.E. and Sports Department News

Football News–Senior Boys Claim Victory over BISP School Team

Our Senior boys football team were in action this week when they played against the BISP school team. They came out convincing winners 9-1! The boys have often played the BISP Cruzeiro academy and often been convincingly beaten by their very string side. So this was the first time we had played their school teams. An excellent individual performance by Brendon Edouard who helped secure a string win for the boys.

Basketball News

Our senior girls were also in action this week again against the senior Girls Basketball team at BISP. They unfortunately came up short losing 15-6 in what was actually very close fought game. The girls get better game on game which is encouraging to see. They have a big tournament in November that they are now preparing for so good luck girls.

Swimming News

Training is going well in preparation for the next round of the PISAC Swim League and the ‘Super Sprint’ meet in late October. We are also looking ahead to the Bangkok Patana ‘Feeding Frenzy’ swim meet in December. Can parents please ensure full payment is made by October 25th. There will be No training over half term so all swimmers are advised to carry out their own individual training over the break. We look forward to resuming team training after half term.

Girls Sports Club–Get Involved!

After the mid-term break there will be a girls only sports club on Monday lunchtime in the Sports Hall. This is open to Primary and Secondary girls only in order to encourage girls to get involved in sports. Ms Greenwell and Mrs Whittaker will be supervising and organising a variety of friendly and fun sports events aimed at encouraging more girls to get involved in sport outside of lessons.