The school is run by Jazon and Miki Edouard, who are the founders of the school and their journey to opening up HeadStart is an inspirational one.
Their journey began when they decided to open up a small homeschool centre for their five boys back in 2004. Other families began to express interest and soon enough the centre grew and the couple began accepting other children into the centre.
Once it hit around 60 students, they moved across to opposite Makro near Central Festival Phuket, where they spent the next six years developing and expanding into what it is known today: HeadStart International School.
The last two years they have been working on developing the brand-new facility, located near The Base Condominium on Wichit Songkram Rd. Upon arrival, it was abundantly clear how much work had been put into the making of this state-of-the-art new campus.
The project was based on a two-year construction plan but only took around 18 months in the end. Although the major work is now complete, campus development is still ongoing.
What’s really inspiring is the way the school aims at teaching students outside of the box. So for example, during ICT lessons, kids will learn how to make programmes, or anything that might be worthy later on in life, rather than focus on simplistic and mundane tasks.
The primary children’s area is one that would put even the most protective parent at ease, as the classrooms and the dining area are located in a large, bright and comfortable section, ensuring that the teachers know where the little ones are at all times; thus creating a safe yet happy, warm environment.
The school is designed in its school colours, yellow and grey. But one thing that is really noticeable as you walk around the campus is the natural light shining throughout each level. The open aired construction allows for this and gives the facility a real warm and at home feeling, something which is crucial for encouraging the kids to look forward to school and learning.
One of the most attractive features ofthe brand-new campus is the exciting array of sports largely available to both the students, staff and parents.
The school’s aim is to provide the students with as many fun, safe and motivating sporting opportunities both within the curriculum and through extra-curricular programmes.
The school has brand-new outstanding sporting facilities including two 3G artificial turf all weather floodlit football pitches, a large and attractive fitness gymnasium, dance studio, sports hall, 25m swimming pool and infant pool, fitness room for yoga and pilates and mixed martial arts, outdoor basketball court and tennis court, and if that weren’t enough, an outstanding athletics track.
To complement and lead on from the PE curriculum, the school has also introduced After School Sports programme, which runs every day from 3-4pm with the aim of providing students with many sporting opportunities.
Mr Darren Beanland, Head of Sports, explained that the school currently provides 15 different sports and activities for students from three and up. However, the school in fact went beyond this and invested and launched their very own Sports Academies.
“This is for their top sports performers and school representative athletes only and from 10 years old up,” Darren said.
They currently have two sports academies, one in football and one in swimming. They run every day from 4-6pm and on Saturday mornings also.
“This development pathway creates further opportunities for children to further develop skills in the core sports and in turn ensure the competitive school teams develop and are successful,” says Darren.
They provide professional head coaches for each academy backed up by a very experienced coaching staff in both sports. The school also hopes to further develop this academy pathway by adding more sports in the future.
One student has largely benefited already from the introduction to the Sports Academies.
“There was a big change in PE this year which has definitely been great. A lot of new sports have been added and the facilities are so professional and amazing. The Sports Academies is a great experience, so if you’re invited in, it’s a big deal,” says the student, Darren.
The school also provides completely free fitness classes for parents every weekday morning and after school. These are run by the fully qualified fitness instructor at the school and include classes in yoga, cross-training and pilates. Not only that but all the parents have access to the gym every morning until 9:30am, after school from 4-8pm and at weekends.
“We believe that the more parents work out and exercise, then the more energy they will have with their children. This is something we are trying to introduce across the school,” Jazon explains.
Indeed, the launch of the new academy, sports facilities, the concept of the gym for parents and trying to get parents involved is extremely special and pretty unique on the island.
The fact that the use of these extraordinary facilities is included in the school fee reflects largely on the nature of the school and how its sole purpose is to inspire a love of learning, rather than anything money-related. This is something that comes across strongly and is a valuable trait of the school.
The school has given the students the opportunity to excel in subjects in which they both thrive off and enjoy, which includes arts and humanities as well as the more traditional subjects.
“So if drama is their thing, then they come and grow and develop in the drama studio that we have designed, and believe will complement the students,” Jazon explains.
Overall, it seems the time taken to develop and design the new campus had indeed been worth the wait. From the level of professionalism that the teachers and staff convey, to the classrooms, to the sports facilities, to the lunch hall, to the building design itself, the team have done an impeccable job at producing a school that really does inspire a love of learning.