Ms Deirdre Grimshaw: Weekly Update 02/04/2021

From little seeds grow big trees, change your words, change your mindset.

The photos in this weekly update are taken from a display outside the Learning Support Rooms and have been created by the LS team.  I truly believe that all the statements on the tree can be applied to each one of us. It has been a tough year for many.   Maintaining optimism and positivity has been difficult for many of us at times.  Having a positive and growth mindset is hugely important in helping us to navigate our way through.  It’s been lovely to watch the children stop and read the statements on the trees and see how they can apply them to their own lives. 

Here at the Junior Campus, we embrace failure. We teach the children that getting it wrong is ok.   Making mistakes is part of learning.  It is ok and children are encouraged to ask for help. Our teachers are brilliant at allowing the children to explore different ways of doing things, not limiting children to one route in their learning.  Please take the time this weekend to ask your children how they learn, how you can help them? What helps them to learn and what doesn’t?

Nord Anglia South East Asia STEAM Festival - Mission Control

A wonderful example of embracing challenge and sometimes failure was the NAE South East Asia STEAM Festival which BIS HCMC hosted. Seeing our 8 students from across KS2 and KS3 tackling the challenges as part of the NAE Steam Challenge was a joy to watch and an exercise in perseverance and resilience for all taking part. Over 2 days, the children worked brilliantly together, listening, challenging but most importantly working collaboratively to solve the many challenges they were presented with.   My sincere thanks to Mr Luke Dyer, Whole School Steam Coordinator for putting this competition together for all NAE schools in South East Asia.  A mammoth task, with countless hours spent making it work for over 100 children from all our NAE schools. A huge achievement Mr Luke, something to be extremely proud of.

BYOD Webinar for Parents in Year 3 and Year 4

We had a very successful webinar for all Year 3 and Year 4 parents this week on our new Bring Your Own Device (iPad) that will begin in August 2021. Our panel of experts were able to answer the questions posted by parents and the presentation was recorded.  You can access the presentation here if you were unable to attend.

 A shorter video is available here with an overview of what BYOD – ipads means here at BIS

Year 3 Visual Representations-Unlocking our Creativity

 Year 3 have been exploring different types of visual representations and learning about different art movements and styles throughout the term. They have created their own versions of a selection of these movements. Find out more and see their beautiful work in this post by Mr John Copley, Year 3 teacher.

Your Child’s Health and Wellbeing

  As teachers, parents often ask us for advice on how they can best support their children. In the current climate, this is even more important in terms of their health and wellbeing. Ms Shaheena Pall has penned an excellent article with some top tips to help you as parents better support your children.  Please access the article here.

BVIS Summer School

Our Sister school, BVIS, will be running a summer school in District 7. Applications are open for all BVIS (and BIS) students, including those who have signed up to start in August 21.

The first Early Bird discount ends on 31^st March (30%) but other discounts remain available after this time.  More details can be found by clicking on this link  BVIS Summer School 2021

IB Art Exhibition

Please join our Year 13s in celebrating the excellent work they have done this year at their IB Visual Arts Exhibition.

The exhibition is being held at Nha Tien which is a 5-minute walk from Secondary at 205B Nguyen Van Huong. It is open to the public next Wednesday 7/4 and Thursday 8/4, so please come along any time between 9am and 10pm. Suitable for all ages.

Health Declaration Forms for parents

A reminder to all parents that if you are coming on site for any event, you will need to complete another Health Declaration form. This is to ensure that we have up to date information with regards to all our BIS Community should anything happen.  Thank you for your support and cooperation with this.  Health Declaration forms will be sent via links for specific events and paper copies are available at all campuses.

Primary Parent Teacher Coffee Morning

It has been a long time since our parent community could socialise at school, so the PTG are thrilled to invite you to a Parent Coffee morning at EYIC on Thurs 8^th April.

It will be the perfect chance to welcome new families who joined earlier this year, and of course connect with familiar faces!  

During the coffee morning the PTG would like take a few minutes to update on some changes to the PTG core team and vacant positions, share some ideas we have for next year AND hopefully inspire new volunteers to support us in building an even stronger BIS community!

So whether you just want to socialise OR you’d like to learn more about the PTG, there will be plenty of refreshments and yummy treats to enjoy!

Please register via the Sign Up Genius link here and we look forward to seeing you there!

Many thanks as always.

Primary PTG Coordinators

Health and Safety

COVID Procedures at the Junior Campus

Key points to remember are:

• If your child is sick with a cough, temperature or cold, please keep them off school. Please notify Ms Nhi  Nhi.Mai@bisvietnam.com  028 3744 4551 in the office and their class teacher of their absence.
• Temperature checks on arrival. Students coming to school with a temperature above 37.8 degrees celsius will be checked twice more and if their temperature is still high, parents will be asked to take them home.
• Masks must be worn at all times, except in classrooms.  All children should have their own mask and a spare, preferably labelled with their name. If you would prefer that your child continues to wear a mask in the classroom, we are very happy to accommodate this.
• Year 3 and 4 Students to enter through Gate A
• Year 5 and 6 Students to enter through Gate B
• Bus children to enter via Gate C
• All parents must wear a mask on site and will only be allowed to come on site at the end of the day to pick up children from the designated areas, (small field Year 3 - 5 and basketball court, Year 6). All parents should enter through Gate A and exit through Gate B.
• Parents must have an appointment if they need to come on site at any other time.  Please email or call Ms Nhi. Nhi.Mai@bisvietnam.com  028 3744 4551

02/04/21                               Closing Date for Global Art Competition

03/04/21                               Community Football Tournament (Year 5 & 6)

07/04/21                               Year 5 GeoBee Final

08/04/21                               Primary PTG Coffee Morning.

09/04/21                               JC Recitals for Music Students

15/04/21                               Science Day at Primary

22/3/21- End of Term         Invitational PTSCs. Teachers will be in touch with new families and/or other families to arrange meetings if needed.

16/04/21                               Term 2 ends @ 11.30am

26/04/21                              School resumes for term 3

26 – 29/04/21                    Book Week at BIS

28/04/21                              Book Week Dress Up Day – Children to come dressed as book character

And Finally,

A reminder that the calendar dates have changed for this academic year and the Spring (End of Term 2) holiday will be 1 week.  The children will finish school at 11.30am on April 16^th and return to school on Monday 26^th April.

Wishing you all a very Happy Easter Weekend for those celebrating.  I hope that there is an abundance of chocolate for all!