Year 11 Prom – 12 June 2015

The Year 11 Prom took place last Friday night in the stunning location of The Thao Dien Village. The night was a celebration of the many years of work that our students have done towards their IGCSE examinations these past six weeks. Students started arriving at 6.30pm and they certainly dressed to impress. One passer-by thought Oscars night had arrived here in our very own Ho Chi Minh City as the glamour would not have been out of the place on the red carpet of Hollywood. The bespoke dresses and suits worn by the students certainly celebrated the tailoring talents of Vietnam.

After the arrival drinks, students sat down to a sumptuous three-course buffet and the crispy prawns should get special mention. A real buzz was whipped up by the students throughout the meal and there was a sense of great anticipation when Mr Dyer and Mr Gillmore came to the stage to present the Year 11 academic, sporting and performing arts awards. I read out the Form Awards first and it was a clean sweep by the girls with each of the respective Form Representatives winning their Form Award.   The boys redressed the balance during the subject prizes and twenty-six trophies were awarded in total with special mention to Josh Kazzi for taking three awards (Business Studies, IGCSE PE and PE) and Adya Rao scooping a spectacular five awards (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Economics and History). Anna Huynh won the overall Girls Football Award and Ben Bieri won the Performing Arts Award. The much coveted Victrix Ludorum Award, for the top sporting girl at BIS, went to Maya Schmitt, a thoroughly deserved winner.

Once the official awards were given out, it was time for some fun awards that were voted by the students. ‘Most likely to be Head of the UN’ went to both Jisoo Chung and Hae On Yoon whereas Josho Tanaka picked up the ‘Biggest Gossip Queen’ award. There were even some awards for teachers and Mrs Sheema Dolan won the much coveted ‘Teacher Most Likely to Dance or Sing in a Lesson’ award. After all the awards were given out there were some important words from Mr Dyer, the music started. First up was the impressive music duo of Lan Anh Dinh and Rebecca Jones who were supported by Anh Hao from Year 10. There was a musical debut for Vincent Kwok when he sang the timeless ‘Stand By Me’ with the support of Anna Huynh. DJ Alexine Yap took over the proceedings for the next ninety minutes as the students danced the night away and probably could have stayed dancing all night long! Eventually, we had to pack up and go home at 10.15pm but it was a fantastic night and a great way to end the year. This has been the most enjoyable Prom that I have ever been involved with and I wish our Year 11 students the very best for the future. They now deserve a good summer’s break after the exertions of many weeks of study and I’m sure a plethora of fantastic results await them in August.

I would like to say a special thanks to Vivi Nguyen for making the fantastic Prom tickets, Alexine Yap for providing the dancing music, Anna Huynh, Rebecca Jones, Lan Anh Dinh and Vincent Kwok for providing vocals on the night, our cashier Ms Chieu for her accountancy skills, all the teachers who were able to attend, Mr Dyer for presenting the awards and Mr Gillmore who helped me organise the entire event.

Rob Bergin, Head of Year 11 & Head of Middle Secondary