Student's voice in action

Dear Parents,

On Wednesday, our school community wore blue, the UNICEF colour, to focus our thoughts on the Convention of the Rights of the Child. This week’s UNICEF focus ended today with a powerful Secondary assembly lead by our UN ambassadors, Ha Minh and Sung Woo in conjunction with Mrs Greenwood.

 All children do have rights to amongst other things; an education, food, clothing, a safe home and protection from exploitation, trafficking and sexual abuse. This morning we heard from two guests from Blue Dragon who experienced a very different life as a child in Vietnam. Vi spoke about his life as a young boy living in a rural area as part of a poor family of rice farmers. At 14 years of age he ran away to Hanoi with the aim of making a better life. Following a few months, trying to get money as a shoe-shine boy and living on the streets, he was found by Blue Dragon Foundation. When describing the life he had, he talked about his fears: fear of being physically or sexually abused by gangs.  Viet Anh had a similar story of the life he had when, at the age of 5 years, his mother and grandmother were sent to prison. Following a life of begging, he was found by Blue Dragon and received shelter, food and care. Vi and Viet Anh are now working for Blue Dragon and helping other street children. Blue Dragon is one of our BIS Community Partners and which we will continue to support in their quest to make a better life for street children.

Another Right of the Child is that children’s opinions matter and that their views should be respected 14 of our students were recognised in assembly for their action last weekend, as they took part in a UNICEF convention in collaboration with UNIS. As leaders, our students guided group activities and discussions to find out the key areas of focus that children in Vietnam want to impact. UNICEF listened to all contributions and have chosen 4 main initiatives to work on. As part of the assembly, 4 primary children also voiced their concerns about our protecting our environment, in order to halt to climate change. Congratulations to all our students for having a voice this week – you are truly inspirational!

BIS Achievements

At BIS we are firm believers that when we are ambitious, we can achieve more than we ever thought possible. Today, in assembly, we celebrated the following achievements:

• Phuong Anh who has been awarded the prestigious title of ‘Top in the World’ by Cambridge International for an excellent mark in her IGCSE Mathematics.
• Bao Linh, Kim Ngan and Quynh Anh who have returned from Yale University with a plethora of medals after competing in the Tournament of Champions, the finals of The World Scholar’s Cup.
• Silver Duke of Edinburgh Awards were formally celebrated this morning through the presentation of official medals and certificates. This global award recognises the importance of learning outside the classroom and really develops a sense of responsibility, commitment and integrity.

Congratulations also go to the Under 15s FOBISIA Games team. I had the pleasure of meeting the 24 students who competed this year and hearing about their successes. Thank you to their coaches, Mr and Mrs Petricca and Mr Hooley who were very complimentary about our students conduct and drive. They have worked incredibly hard in training and certainly gave their very best.