Secondary School Updates (07 October 2022)

Secondary School Updates (07 October 2022) Next week we celebrate International Week, spending our energies reinforcing the principles that underpin global citizenship and intercultural learning. 

Key Dates | Pastoral Update | Secondary Learning Showcase

Weekly update from Head of Secondary

Dear Parents,

Next week we celebrate International Week, spending our energies reinforcing the principles that underpin global citizenship and intercultural learning. 

For the Secondary School, internationalism goes beyond flags, food, and national anthems, and instead gets right to the heart of our belief in the power of international education as a force for positive change in our world. 

The focus of the week is twofold. Firstly, to highlight the importance of instilling global competencies in our students. Secondly, to raise awareness of the UN Global Goals. 

As an international school, we are dedicated to:  

• understanding and respecting the similarities and differences of a range of individuals and peoples 
• acknowledging that there are multiple perspectives on local and global events and issues 
• the development of fluency in multiple languages, including mother tongues, used to communicate within and across cultures 
• serving the local and global community through engagement in meaningful service learning 
• local and global sustainability  

As global citizens learning together, we hope you can join us on Saturday 8 October at the International Festival from 9am to 1pm, and also on Monday 10 October for our International Parade at 8:50am. All are welcome.  

Chris Newman 

Head of Secondary

Key Dates

• Saturday 8 October: International Festival

• Week beginning 10 October: International Week 

• Monday 10 October: International Parade

• Monday 17 to Friday 21 October: Term 1 Break

Pastoral Update

As we approach the end of our first term in Secondary school, it’s a pleasure to take time to reflect on how well our Year 7 students and staff have settled into this academic year. Our students have just about got used to their very diverse and exciting timetables. Learning how to be organised and cope with the ever-changing learning environments of each classroom has been a challenge for some of us, but with the support of our caring and enthusiastic tutors, we are finally getting the hang of Secondary school life. 

Every morning we meet with our tutors and get set up for each day with different themes. We have ‘Motivation Monday’, ‘Book Club Tuesday’, ‘Wellbeing Wednesday’, ‘Reflection Thursday’ and ‘Quiz Time Friday’. Currently, our Year 7 quiz teams need to work on improving their quizzing skills in order to beat the very competitive Year 8 and 9 tutor groups!! 

Wellbeing lessons have been mainly focused on getting to know our tutor groups and form tutors. We have discovered our VIA Strengths, the unique mix of superpowers that makes each of us special, and how to activate them to become better classmates and learners. There was also the very productive ‘Tutor Connect’ day, where students and parents were invited to one-to-one meetings with their form tutor to uncover their aspirations and set some goals for the year ahead. Mr. Taylor led us in a house competition which included building and defending hula-hoop constructions from the enemy team’s destructive bean bags! More recently, we have begun our first topic of ‘Celebrating Diversity and Equality’. Over the next term, we will learn to understand our own identities and how to respect, tolerate, and champion the differences of others. 

I am already so proud to be the Head of Year for such a wonderful bunch of motivated, kind, and capable students! Watch out BIS…I predict great things from this cohort! 

Mrs. Emily Brawn 

Head of Year 7

Secondary Learning Showcase

MFL | Music | English | Library | History | Sports

English

DIRT work! 

One very important element of making progress in English is DIRT (Directed Improvement Reflection Time). Using green pens, students refine and improve their own work before sharing their work with peers. Using a purple pen, students in pairs, share feedback and areas for development. Here are Year 9 students reflecting on their analytical essays on the famous gothic novel, ‘The Woman in Black’. 

Joanna Shepley Clarke 

Head of English  

Year 7 English 

This week we have been studying the use of language in the story King Midas and the Golden Wish. The students have been looking into how words and phrases are used to present and describe characters and how to link their findings into a structured analytical paragraph. We introduced new key words like, “inference” and “impact” and the difference between surface and hidden meaning of words in literature.    

Michael Tchakov 

EAL & English  

Music

IGCSE Music: Brass Week  

This marks the 2nd stop in Year 10’s whistle-stop tour of the instruments of the orchestra and beyond. As brass is Mr. Scott’s specialism a wide variety of instruments were on display from his extensive collection, including a hand-made Baroque Trumpet, alongside a large number of the different brass instruments used by our Brass Club, including the Trumpet, Cornet, Horn, Euphonium, Trombone and Tuba. Year 10 were able to experience playing all of these instruments, starting with the P-Buzz, a plastic brass instrument that enabled them to produce the tone through vibrating their lips and change the pitch using a slide similar to a trombone. They then moved onto the Euphonium, sharing the same mouthpiece whilst learning the basic finger combinations needed to play different notes. Students made excellent comparisons between the instruments and showed a growing sense of musicianship in the way they explored the details of each instrument and enquired as to how they could recognize them without visual clues. This will be a valuable lesson, not just developing their aural skills, but also for their composer’s tool box: students learnt the range and playing techniques of each instrument, and explored the technicalities and demands presented in writing for this family of instruments. Next week is the final stop on our hands-on instrumental tour – percussion! 

MFL

Sixth Form Language Lectures  

A few weeks ago, the MFL Department hosted two University style lectures for our Year 12 and Year 13 Language B and Language Ab Initio students. These lectures were completely in French and Spanish and focused on an element of the IB Language course. These lectures are an excellent way to practise listening skills and to also learn more about the culture of the Spanish and French speaking worlds  

We are going to hear about this event from one of our Year 13 Spanish B students, Daniel, who has reflected on the lecture:  

We are so glad that these lectures allow our students to reflect on their own perspectives and allow them to discover a new culture in more depth! 

We look forward to the lectures again next year! 

Ms. Georgina Dorr 

Head of MFL  

So much reading in BIS Library! 

Secondary students can often be found reading in the BIS Library this year.  Individual and small group reading is taking place during Y7-9 English lessons, Y10-11 EAL lessons, Y7-12 Korean lessons and Y7-9 Vietnamese lessons.  All Y10 and Y11 tutor groups also come to the library every two weeks to relax and read.  It’s great seeing students and teachers alike enjoying a book in English or their mother tongue.  

With so much else to fill our days and our curriculums, why are we encouraging so much reading at BIS? According to research, there are many benefits to reading in English and/or one’s mother tongue.  Students who read “develop a broader vocabulary, increase general knowledge”¹ and have improved critical thinking skills². Reading improves a person’s ability to understand other cultures and empathise with different groups of people³. There are considerable benefits for our mental health from reading, as it allows us to relax and free our mind of worries⁴. Reading also has a positive impact on the development of language, improving students writing, comprehension and listening skills⁵. 

How can parents encourage their children’s reading?  Ask them what they have been reading in their English, Korean or Vietnamese lessons, and what books they have borrowed from the BIS Library.  You could also choose a time or place each week where you and your children turn off devices and spend time individually reading books near each other. Or you could read a book together or discuss what everyone has been reading over the dinner table.  After all, as reported in Time, reading “makes us smarter and nicer”3. 

Nerilee Hall 

Teacher-Librarian 

_{1. Pearson Education. (2015) Why is reading so important? Available at: https://www.pearson.com/uk/learners/primary-parents/learn-at-home/help-your-child-to-enjoy-reading/why-is-reading-so-important.html} 

_{2. Whitten, C., Labby, S. and Sullivan, S. (2016) The impact of pleasure reading on academic success, The Journal of Multidisciplinary Graduate Research, 2(4). Available at: https://jmgr-ojs-shsu.tdl.org/jmgr/article/view/11/10}  

_{3. Murphy-Paul, A. (2013) Reading literature makes us smarter and nicer, Time, Available at: https://ideas.time.com/2013/06/03/why-we-should-read-literature/} 

_{4. Marshall, R. (2020). Reading fiction: the benefits are numerous, British Journal of General Practice, 70 (691). Available at: https://bjgp.org/content/70/691/79.full}  

_{5. Tran, Y.T.N. (2018) The benefits of extensive reading for EFL Vietnamese Learners, The Fourth World Congress on Extensive Reading, Tokyo, Japan. Available at: https://jalt-publications.org/content/ index.php/jer/article/view/70}  

History

The Year 9’s have been working hard in History this week, working on their research and collaborative skills. They were tasked with creating and presenting their research on different areas of Trench Warfare, such as; gas attacks, shellshock and recruitment. Each group member had a specific role and they had one lesson to prepare for this. Students then presented these the following lessons and spent time discussing how the soldiers must have felt and how they would react if it were them. Ms. Embling was very impressed with you and is looking forward to holding a debate soon with Year 9 on General Haig- Does he deserve the title of ‘Butcher of the Somme’?

Sports

Good luck Ms. Flavin 

The P.E department, staff and students would like to wish Ms Flavin the best of luck at the Asian Gaelic Games 2022, being held this weekend in Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia.  Ms Flavin will be competing in the tournament as well as coaching her team, The Viet Celts Hanoi.  Good luck! 

BIS Lionhearts Sports

The Lionhearts sport teams have been working hard during training sessions and all teams are showing great sportsmanship and competitive spirit in the HAC league.  

The Varsity and Junior Varsity Volleyball teams have played their league matches honing their skills for the Tournaments at the end of October and early November.  

The Key stage 3 Basketball teams follow the great examples from the senior teams and all students can represent the school either in the festival teams or competitive teams. Both teams are also working hard to be at their best form for the 5th of November when their season finishes with a tournament.  

The Under 15 FOBISIA team has been training early mornings and late afternoons to get themselves mentally and physically prepared to be our first international sporting team for this year. The Team will represent BIS Hanoi in the Purple FOBISIA group in November in Thailand.  

The second season for HAC will kick off after the October break with trials for Varsity and Junior Varsity Basketball and Key stage 3 Football. 

The first season started well and the support the teams are receiving from students and parents and phenomenal. Hope the Lionhearts team can continue riding the wave of success.