Community Farewells

Dear Parents,

As I approach the end of my 5 years at BIS Hanoi, I have started to reflect on some of the excellent community links our school have made. On Tuesday, Mr. Halpin, Ms. Quynh and I went to Hy Vong school for the disabled to say goodbye to some of the children and staff who have become friends over the years.

Our firm belief is that through building positive, longstanding relationships with organisations, we can see sustained development and improvement in the lives of others. The children from Hy Vong had prepared a short dance for us to watch in the room where the stage and curtains, purchased by the BIS community, were proudly situated. Artwork, completed by the children during several of their visits to Year 6 at BIS, adorned the walls. These are wonderful to see however, when Ms. Huong the Vice Principal, spoke about the increased confidence of the children over the three years they have been visiting BIS, this was incredibly powerful. Success stories of a child who jumped on our public piano and played and another who was amazing at badminton when no one knew their talents; children who had been withdrawn at school and refused to speak were starting to respond in class and those who had lacked motivation have become animated in ways they had never thought possible.

For our BIS children, the benefits of working with others has also been clear to see. Year 6 have shown patience, perseverance and understanding for those with disabilities. Above all, they have shown respect and care in how they have nurtured relationships and devoted time to making sure our friends have fun. I am sure that this relationship will continue long after Mr Halpin and I have left, and I look forward to hearing about future projects as they unfold.

Graduation

Last weekend, it was my pleasure to join with our Year 13 students, their families and teachers for the graduation ceremony. Our honoured guest speaker this year was Steve Price-Thomas OBE, Oxfam International's global Director of Advocacy, Campaigns and Public Engagement.

For seven of our students their time at BIS started in 2012, our very first year of opening: Khoi, Thai An, Tue Linh, Bao Son, Hoang Duc, Minh Ngoc, Giang and Truong Minh. They have seen our school develop through many phases: from a campus of 300 students to over 1000; from a dual language campus to an international school; from A’ levels to IBDP and through the acquisition by Nord Anglia Education.

Reflecting on all those years at BIS, you may have reached the same conclusion as I have, this year has been the strangest of them all! Not, a specific reference to our Class of 2020, although I do know that they are renowned for their collective sense of humour, but due to the global pandemic resulting in the creation of our Virtual School.  I really admire and respect every one of our graduates for their resilience and adaptability during the period of school closure. I firmly believe that you don’t become enormously successful without encountering a number of challenging problems.  This year could justifiably be counted as one of these!

My hope for our graduates is that they pursue their dreams. To quote Oprah Winfrey, “Create the highest grandest vision possible for your life, because you become what you believe”

I am incredibly proud of our graduates and would like to leave them with one final thought for their journey ahead: ‘People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did but people will not forget how you make them feel’ (Maya Angelou).