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Another busy week here at the Junior Campus!
Yesterday was a riot of colour across the campus as we celebrated Moon Festival. Beginning with the Dragon Dance, the whole campus with special guests from Thao Dien School for the Disabled, enjoyed their dramatic displays. We also had 2 fantastic assemblies. In them we learned about some of the legends associated with Moon Festival. Ably performed by the students in 6N, there was comedy, dancing, drama and much more. More details can be found further on but sincere thanks go to all our Vietnamese staff who were involved in all aspects of the day.
Thank you to all the parents that attended our Parent Teacher Student Conferences this week. We were delighted with the turn out and engagement and commitment by you, the parents, in working with us to support your child’s learning. Please do remember that if you have any questions or concerns, to see your child’s class teacher as soon as possible. Our doors are always open and we look forward to continuing to work with you all.
If you are a parent that uses Gate C to enter or exit from school or who has a nanny or driver that takes your children that way, please can we remind you that you need to use the footbridge if you want to cross the road. We do not have guards on duty there to help people cross and with a lot of traffic coming around that corner quite quickly, we must keep the area clear. Please can you heed the requests from staff when they ask you to use the bridge to cross. Thank you for your support.
Home Learning, also known as Homework can play a key role in expanding a child’s understanding beyond the classroom. It can provide opportunities for independent exploration of thoughts and ideas, as well test self-discipline, organisation and meeting deadlines. Find out what Year 5 have been getting up to with their Home Learning projects in this article by Mr Greg Wilde, Year 5 Leader.
Our MFL department are excited to be back and working with the students. Click on this article by Ms Sophie Tighzer, MFL Leader, to find a host of useful sites and Apps that your children can use at home to support their MFL learning.
Across Primary yesterday and today, we celebrated Moon Festival. Click on this link to the article by Ms Vy Bui, Vietnamese Coordinator, to find more details of the special events that took place and to see all the wonderful photographs of these special days.
In the coming weeks, we will be introducing our new teachers to you. In their own words, they will tell us a little about themselves and their journey here to BIS, HCMC. Our first two teachers are Ms Eileen Nonis, Learning Support Teacher and Ms Siao Tong, MFL Teacher.
My name is Eileen Nonis and I’m very excited to be working as a Learning Support teacher at BIS! I am in Vietnam with my two children, Erin, who is in Year 6 and Jake, who is in Year 3. We have spent the last few weeks in a whirlwind, finding our feet, both in Ho Chi Minh and at BIS; the common consensus, as a family so far though, is that we think we’re going to love our experience in Vietnam!
I am originally from a small town in Yorkshire, Ilkley, which is famous for stunning moorland and a famous song! I have been a teacher for 14 years, first being inspired to teach as a small child when I got my first A4 lined pad and realised that I enjoyed taking the register for my toys, and then as I reached early adulthood being inspired by some of my amazing teachers. I taught in London for the first 10 years of my career, predominantly in Key Stage Two. Whilst in London, I developed an interest in Special Needs and was SENCo at two schools. Other than teaching in London, I have taught in Cairo, in Egypt, which was my first international experience, and in Yorkshire.
When I am not working, I love playing netball, reading, hiking and travelling to new places with my family!
I am Malaysian Chinese and was raised on the great Borneo Island, the second biggest rainforest in the world. My grandparents were from China, they moved to Borneo about 80 years ago. I have always enjoyed working with children; I even started to teach when I was 10 years old, as a volunteer with the Early Years children. I love the Chinese culture so I have learnt to play Chinese instruments, performing cross talk (ask me about this and I will happily explain), traditional dance and also calligraphy. I went to Shanghai University where I went even deeper into the culture.
Most recently, I was a teacher in British School of Kuala Lumpur for seven years. I really enjoyed teaching the students about the language and the culture. Teaching traditional folk dance is one of my favourite things to do in the school. I am so impressed with Vietnam because the culture here is very similar to China; I do love languages and I hope I will be fluent in Vietnamese soon.
We're hosting our second annual World Clean Up Day Event on Saturday 21st September at our Early Years and Infants Campus between 8.45 and 11.30am and we'd love for you to join us. At BIS we believe in Thinking Global and Acting Local, and cleaning up our area of Thao Dien is just one small pledge that we have made as part of the Clean Up Vietnam initiative. If everyone in our community takes part, then just think of what can be achieved!
Not only will you be doing your bit towards cleaning up our planet you'll also gain House Points for participation which count towards the House Points total for the year. In fact, the more family members and friends you bring along, the more points you'll receive.
There will also be other activities taking place, including a rubbish sort and plastic cleaning, and Eco-friendly items and refreshments for sale. We'll be collecting plastic separately to use in our plastic shredder as part of our Precious Plastic project; find out more by following this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KlW_WmV3Bw
The clean-up will be managed in small teams with a staged leaving time:
Please be on time for the Group you select as there will be a safety briefing before you leave.
Please note: we have a small number of clean-up kits available to borrow, however we strongly recommend that you bring your own gloves (gardening style, not plastic or rubber) and tongs for picking up the rubbish.
Children from our Primary Campuses must be accompanied by an adult. Though we have a number of BIS staff attending the event they will be taking part in the event themselves.
Please sign up using this form. If you are signing up as a family or group then please only complete one form and add all of the names in the relevant question in section. We look forward to seeing you on the 21st!
If you enjoy singing and would like to join Community Choir rehearsals start in very soon this term.
Thursday 19th September 7am in the Secondary Theatre
Friday 20th September 1:15pm in Room 110, Junior Campus
We will be performing at the Christmas Concerts in December.
On Sunday September 29th we hope to see a huge gathering once more of our BIS Community to support the annual BBGV Funrun. The BBGV contributes to projects which cover a wide range of charitable fields. They give priority to projects which meet the needs of disadvantaged children and the elderly and also to projects that have an educational dimension. The most recent projects they supported were Hue Help with their Swimming class in Soc Son Hanoi and Scholarships for school girls in Hau Giang with Bong Sen Centre for Community Development. We, as a school, are delighted to be part of this wonderful event. BBGV race numbers and shirts can be collected from the cashiers at each campus. BIS event shirts are 150,000 and race numbers are free to BIS families.
Our PTG Committee for 2019 – 2020 is up and running and they are now looking for willing volunteers to help on various subcommittees and to act as parent class reps and country reps. Please do consider joining the team. Click here to access their weekly post with more details.
We would like to remind all parents about our Drivers Code of Conduct and once more ask for your assistance and cooperation in helping to make the BIS traffic flow with ease between the campuses and in the general vicinity of the school. Using the Code of Conduct, with key information in both English and Vietnamese, we aim to further educate our drivers to make better choices when they enter the areas around our school campuses and within the Thao Dien area as a whole.
Please take time to talk to you drivers about the this and ensure that it is visible in your car at all times. This will serve as a reminder about our expectations for all drivers when they are bringing our children to school in the morning and picking them up at the end of the day.
If, during your visit to school, you have any reason to be concerned about the safety of a young person, please contact the Designated Safeguarding Person.
Please note that CCTV cameras are in operation at all times across the campus.
Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy Moon Festival celebrations with your families.
Ms Deirdre Grimshaw, Headteacher of Junior Campus
The weekly update from Dee Grimshaw, Headteacher of the Junior Campus, highlighting some of the events that have taken place this week.