Building life skills for the future

On Tuesday evening this week, teachers in the Secondary section of the school held the Year 9 Parent Teacher meetings and IGCSE Options evening. This is always an important time for students and parents, when they can reflect on what their strengths are as well as areas on which they need to maintain a strong focus. It is also a time when students can start to think about where their studies might lead them in the future, whether that is following interests that might become life-long passions, or which might be the first steps on a future career path. Teachers, and some of our older students, set up and manned stalls, sharing information and enthusiasm for subjects across the full range of the curriculum. 

In Year 10, as well as focusing on a range of academic, aesthetic and physical subjects, students also have the opportunity to develop a wider range of skills, which will not only help to prepare them for the rigours of the IBDP, but also for the world of work in the future. ‘21st century skills’, as they are known, refer to certain core competencies such as communication, collaboration, digital literacy, critical thinking, creativity and problem-solving which increasingly are the essential requirements that will lead to academic success and which future employers are looking for. Whilst we may not know what jobs of the future will look like, we do know that these skills will be vital for success. 

FOBISIA Heads’ Conference

On Thursday, I spent day in HCMC attending the FOBISIA Heads’ Conference. Usually, these annual meetings are held in different locations around the region, with all the headteachers which represent British International Schools joining together to discuss shared issues. In the current situation this was obviously not possible this year, but we were able to gather the headteachers of all the Vietnamese British schools together in a hub, to join the virtual conference. These meetings provide a valuable opportunity to share thoughts and ideas, but also to create opportunities for our students to interact and collaborate. These challenging times have meant we have to be more creative than ever in finding ways in which we can give students chances to interact with peers beyond our own school, but we explored some ways in which this might be possible, whether virtually or face to face. Like everyone, we are hoping for easier times ahead, but are also keeping thinking ahead for as long as necessary to cope with the current situation.