BIS Book Week 2021

What a wonderful week we had celebrating all things to do with books, from fiction to nonfiction to illustrations and everything in between!

For BIS Book Week 2021, we were thrilled to be joined by Dao Van Hoang, a Vietnamese artist and illustrator, and someone who strives to teach the next generation about nature and the environment. Hoang worked with all the children in the Primary School, from F1 to Year 6, demonstrating how to draw a turtle before surprising the children with the real thing! An expert from Saigon Zoo brought in a range of tortoises and turtles from around the world into school for children to observe. Mr. Hoang showed the children the structure of the shell and the children had a chance to ask questions so they could find out more about the beautiful creatures. Both the students and staff learned new illustrating skills that they can apply to support their writing. To learn more about Hoang, visit his website or view his artwork displayed at Gallery Le Petit Musee in District 2.

There were additional Book Week events for our youngest and oldest children. On Tuesday, the F1 children enjoyed a pajama and story party. They cuddled up to their favourite teddies and listened beautifully to a story before enjoying hot chocolate with marshmallows. How wonderful! Our Year 5 and Year 6 students attended a special assembly with our resident published children’s author, Mr. Owen McDevitt, an English teacher in the Secondary Campus. The students were enthralled as Mr. Owen read his picture book, ‘Uncle Simon’s Stories’ and explained the inspiration and process of writing, illustrating and publishing a book. We are very proud to have such a gifted writer as a member of our school community.

This year we were able to coordinate our ever-popular ‘Dress-Up Day’ across all three campuses. The children and staff were invited to dress up as their favourite book or book character. Parades were held on both campuses to allow everyone to show off their costumes. On the Junior Campus, the parade was organised by the Student Council Executive Committee, who confidently MCed as all classes paraded along the stage in their fabulous costumes. Meanwhile, at the Early Years and Infant Campus, a conga line was formed starting with our Mini-Council in the library before embarking past Year 2 and all the way down to F1! The children danced their way through the school and it was so wonderful to admire all of the colours and costumes as we headed onto the playground for a whole campus photograph!

Throughout the week, our libraries were also very busy with book-related activities. Each lunchtime, members of our senior management team featured as special guest storytellers, sharing magical stories with the children. Furthermore, our friends from FAHASA hosted book stalls in the EY&I and Junior Campuses with a fabulous range of books for all ages. Both children and adults were able to browse the selection and purchase a new book to enjoy over the holiday weekend. Furthermore, our Specialist departments, including MFL, EAL, LS and Vietnamese planned special storytelling sessions for their students.

Our amazing PTG have also been busy sorting and organising the Community Book Swap. Alongside children from BIS choosing new books to share at home the rest will be donated to our community partners. We were inundated with high-quality books from across the Primary school, and we would like to extend our thanks to children and parents who took the time to sort through their bookshelves to support the PTG.

At the end of Book Week, the English team toured the campuses to judge the ‘Story in a Jar’ competition and were astounded by the entries- the creativity and ingenuity has been wonderful. The entries will be displayed in the libraries on both campuses for everyone to admire. The winners from each year group will be announced shortly, and special prizes given out next week.

Overall, BIS Book Week 2021 was a huge success filled with fantastic book-related experiences for all our pupils. As a school, we place an extremely high value on reading for enjoyment and the past week truly encapsulated what joy books can bring to our lives.

For more information on the importance of reading and how you can support your child at home, please follow these links:  

Useful Links

●     The recording and slides from our English webinar on reading at home

●     A guide to reading with children by Pearson publishers

●     The Book Trust’s Top 100 books for ages 0 - 14

●     A list of free Amazon e-books

Carli Holbrook, Claire Hanson and John Lee, English Leader Team