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Dear Parents,
The Christmas cheer was in abundance today. So many successes and achievements from Term 1 shaped our last day celebrations and all in a very festive atmosphere.
A firm favourite of these occasions is the update on the House Competitions and the current competition placings for our Houses was the source of much excitement….
It is also the time of fond farewells too. To the students who are leaving us at the end of this term for new homes and schools overseas we wished them well and showed our appreciation for their part in making BIS a special place.
Our best wishes travel with you and a warm welcome back awaits for your next visit!
Our assembly was accompanied throughout by some wonderful music as ever from Senior Choir, Concert Band and Big Band sounds as well as a festive student video, ‘Feliz Navidad’ that I invite you to enjoy here.
The traditional staff panto was the worst kept secret on campus (again) this year. This slice of British culture is a hugely anticipated event at the end of the Christmas term and this year’s ‘Snow White and the Ten Dwarves’ was another triumph(?). This peculiar brand of theatre and humour is now understood and even appreciated by many of our students who thoroughly enjoy the spectacle of their teachers in fairy tale mode.
My thanks to all the staff involved - they gave everyone a great deal to enjoy and sent us all off with laughter and smiles at the end of a long term. Bravo!
A special thank you to Bee Smith for writing and directing us through to the performance today - she is a very patient person indeed!
Christmas is also a time of change in our Sixth Form student leadership team. And so we marked the end of term by recognising and appreciating the contribution made by our outgoing prefect team (on the right of the image). They have been an amazing team to to work with and have achieved a great deal together.
Our outgoing prefects are:
Amber Jarigsma, Sienna Barstow, Seo Young Jung
Julia Aafjes, Marwin Keeratibunharn, Victoria Fethke
Ji Min Oh, Ana Samudio, Annie Joshi, Tom Lee
Daniel Kim, Doan Nguyen, Lena Chan, Minh Phung
Charlotte Jacqueman, Saebom Park, Win Dang
Navin Ranasinghe, Trang Dang, Jonathan Le, Anna Le, Celestine Koh.
Many congratulations to all for their amazing efforts in student leadership during their term of office.
Following a rigorous application process this term, including staff and student involvement, we have selected our new prefect team for 2019 (on the left of image above).
We welcome to the sixth form leadership team:
Daniel Battersby, Jasmine Burrage, Dan Champion
Jacqueline Chan, Eunice Choi, Cedric Chua
Carl De Liedekerke, Atharva Deshpande, Khoi Do
Ava Fitoussi, Serena Huang, Jina Jeon,
Kimberley Jewell, Christine Le, Alice Lee
Alois Luong, Will Manley, Matthew McKelvie
Rose Mincher, Adwaith Nair, Vy Nguyen
Viviena Nguyen, Chae Won Oh, Nina Pham
Aina Solis, Mai AnhTran, Sanny Wu
Congratulations to each of our new prefects who, by virtue of their appointment have already contributed much to the school community and demonstrated their capacity to provide added leadership and support for our younger students.
Congratulations to our Secondary PTG committee and all of their supporters in creating an excellent event to celebrate the Christmas Season.
Thank you so much for all of your efforts towards this year’s highly successful Christmas BISzaar.
We are educating a generation of changemakers with critical minds and compassion that makes their leadership skills even more effective.
Reem Mehanna, Community Service Project Manager
Community Service Project Manager Reem Mehanna provides a summary of community service year group projects, clubs and events during Term 1 2018-2019 at BIS HCMC.
We know that many of you were disappointed to find that the TEDx Youth@BISHCMC: On The Road tickets were sold out so quickly.
We are happy to say that the talks are now live and you can watch them and find out more by reading TEDx Youth@BISHCMC: On The Road
Our first ever Week Without Walls will take place for Year 9 students from 14th - 18th January during our usual Expeditions Week. As we’ve moved the Expedition for Year 9 to the end of the year (and to an exciting new destination - Borneo!) we have provided our students with even more opportunities to develop their leadership, problem solving, and collaborative skills, as well as the characteristics of perseverance, integrity and respect that we value so highly at BIS.
Our staff have been working hard to develop a range of activities for our Year 9 students, from Community focused projects through to working on our Juilliard collaboration, with a bit of action and academic challenge thrown in as well. Year 9 students have already selected their preferred options and a schedule (hopefully accommodating their choices) is being drafted.
A note on logistics: Students will attend school at the usual school times and be registered as normal each day, before they begin their activities. They should also attend in school uniform unless otherwise indicated by their activity organiser. Any Year 7, 8 and 10 students not attending expeditions are also expected to be in school during the week and will be allocated an activity programme.
We’re very excited to see how our students develop through the week!
There have still been a few matches this week and you can read the summaries of our students from the U14 Football and U19 Basketball matches here.
On Friday 4th January we will be hosting our 3rd Alumni Meet-Up event at The Flying Pig. This event is a fantastic way for us to reconnect with our alumni and hear their stories of life beyond BIS. We love getting this group together and encourage any of our alumni who are in the city at this time to attend. Please register via the Alumni Facebook group if you are able to join us.
Any questions can be sent to lauren.binnington@bisvietnam.com
Date: Friday 4th January
Time: 6-8 pm
Location: Flying Pig Saigon, 97 Xuan Thuy, District 2, Ho Chi Minh City
“We are the proof that wherever you come from, whatever language you speak, whatever your culture is, we can together deliver a marvellous message and a moment of love, sharing and happiness.”– Christine Avril, Chair of the Secondary PTG
As Term 1 comes to an end, Shweta Mangal from the Secondary PTG provides a summary of the final PTG event for the year and shares more about the first event for Term 2 in the Secondary PTG Update.
Come and catch up with everyone and welcome our new families to the school with a coffee and a chat.
Date: Monday 7th January
Time: from 8.15am
Location: Junior Campus Canteen, 225 Nguyen Van Huong Street.
Sign up for the PTG Bus tour and find out what’s new in HCMC.
Our annual Tet Collection began on Monday. This school wide project invites parents and students to ‘give back’ by donating various items to our Tet Collection. At the Secondary Campus, we will be collecting UHT milk. Please leave any donations of milk (please check the expiry date) at the Tet Tree collection point opposite Reception.
We thank you in advance for your generosity and support of our Annual Tet Collection.
Friday 4th January: Alumni Reunion Event; Flying Pig Saigon, by invitation
Monday 7th January: First Day of Term 2
Monday 14th to Friday 18th January: IGCSE & IB Mock Exams
Monday 14th to Friday 18th January: Expeditions Week
Monday 15th to Wednesday 23rd January: Expedition Les Martinets
Saturday 19th to Monday 21st January: Mekong Delta Honours Band
As the term draws to a close I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your continued support which has once again made this term such a great success. Our ongoing and close partnership is such an important part of making your child’s experience here a positive and successful one.
I wish you all a restful and relaxing break and very much look forward to welcoming you back on Monday 7th January for the start of an exciting Term 2.
Happy Christmas!
Carl Mincher
Head Teacher
Secondary Campus
We are incredibly proud of our Year 11 class of 2024, for their impressive IGCSE (International General Certificate of Secondary Education) results. This incredible cohort of 155 students, our largest IGCSE class in the history of the school, have significantly surpassed UK and international averages and were awarded 97% of all grades at A*-C. An incredible 62% of all grades awarded were at A*-A.
A whole world of possibilities awaits our graduating class of 2023. With 385 university offers so far, and many more still to come from Korea, Australia and Singapore, their remarkable IBDP achievements have opened pathways to some of the best universities and specialist institutions across the globe.