Musical opportunities at BIS Hanoi

If music be the food of love…

This week the Primary school saw the start of our Junior Choir; this is a lunchtime ECA for children in Years 4-6. With around 40 young voices our inaugural choir rehearsal began and I’m delighted to say they are all keen to return next week. Our students are also looking forward to having the opportunity to perform later in the term.

Research has shown that singing in a choir has tremendous benefits for physical and mental well-being; in singing with others people enjoy a greater feeling of togetherness and being part of a group. A number of studies point out the mental health benefits of singing and that is can help to control stress and anxiety; there certainly is a feel-good factor when you are singing as part of a choir. 

There are many musical opportunities at British International School Hanoi for our students in addition to the Juilliard program which they follow in their music lessons. Singing is a regular feature of morning sessions in the Early Years Centre where children learn songs with actions which help to develop and build children’s language. Actions help connect their understanding to the words, as they do in Talk4Writing that we use in literacy lessons. Last week Ms. Isabelle was teaching the story song for ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ in assembly and every Wednesday our Early Years children take part in sing-a-long. 

After the Tet holiday Primary students will be able to sign up to perform in a series of lunch time concerts which will be held in our main foyer. It will be an opportunity for students to perform in a relaxed setting. We will send out the dates shortly but it would be lovely to see parents come along to enjoy the music and a beverage in our new coffee shop. 

In addition to singing being fun and the many benefits it provides, it is also a pleasure simply enjoy it as a member of the audience. The Secondary performance of Beauty and the Beast is  coming up and tickets are now on sale. Tickets are 50.000 VND and all money raised will be used to buy musical instruments for our community partner Nguyen Dinh Chieu School. I know our Primary students will be familiar with the story and songs and will thoroughly enjoy it so don’t forget to put the date in your diary. 

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.

Rebecca Carroll, Head of Primary

FINE DINING
Congratulations to our fine diners this week:
-    Vuong Nam 2B
-    Phu Hung 2B
-    Sun Woo 2I
-    Eun Chan 2I
-    Dovin 3B
-    Jamie 3B
-    Tuan Khoi 4I
-    Cong Thanh 4I