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While it has been a quiet week on campus, it has been a busy week across the homes of BIS students as they have continued to wow us with their amazing efforts and engagement. Seeing their work on seesaw, the time and energy they are putting into lessons and activities, the support of parents reminds us why our BIS community is such a special place.
There are countless articles and columns dedicated to supporting students, staff and families through this time. In summary, for our community I hope the following will help.
Experts recommended developing an optimistic attitude. “We have experienced these types of pandemics multiple times, yet we have successfully overcome these pandemics,” as Mr Anthony Rowlands often says; this too will pass.
Experts also recommended to concentrate on long-term goals. Here at BIS, although the children are not at Face to Face school right now, we know that in the coming weeks, months and even years, we will do all we can to ensure their academic progress and pastoral care is prioritised and our teachers are dedicated to this end goal.
The most common psychological recommendation was to establish a sense of agency — to find a way to remain in charge of your day-to-day life, despite pandemic uncertainty. Research in psychology shows that such mental focus can help regulate emotions in the face of uncertainty. It includes finding ways to reframe the pandemic as a manageable challenge, to find “something that you want to get out of bed for, or to establish structure and habits to compensate for lack of external structure in a lockdown-imposed work from home.
As such, we have asked children to continue wearing their uniforms, to continue with the structure of lessons and timetables where possible and to ensure that the children have a school routine established, albeit from home.
Finally, the most frequent recommendation for coming through the pandemic concerned social connectedness. This theme includes “creating small little traditions within your closest family circle” and protecting “loved ones, friends, and neighbours.” Importance of social connectedness in the World After Covid plays a protective role for mental health, including during times of disaster. Here at BIS, we are prioritising regular well being check ins with children and PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) lessons to ensure we are meeting the needs of our students and families. We encourage all our families to contact class teachers and/or leadership teams if you have any concerns and in particular with regards to the well being of your children, we are here to support.
Resource Delivery May 17th
One small way we connected with families this week was through the resource distribution on Monday. Through the period of online learning we will continue to evaluate what we are doing and look for ways to improve our provision. It was great to have Year 1 and Year 2 children able to benefit from the distribution of resources this time round. Ms Sarah, who coordinated the distribution, tells us more in this post:
In the next week or so Mr Rowlands will be sharing with you details regarding the upgrading of our facilities in June and July which along with the current COVID situation will limit our ability to do a holiday sports programme. However, pending COVID restrictions we may be able to offer a sports programme on the EY&IC for younger students.
A reminder that registration is open for the Global Virtual Walk which takes place this Sunday 23rd May 2021 in support of Christina Noble Children’s Foundation who are raising much needed funds to help protect and support vulnerable children. The cost is just VND 150,000 and you will also receive a complimentary Children’s Walk For Hope bandana in recognition of your participation.
Tracey Brownrigg
BIS Co-Curricular Coordinator and
Community Service Project Manager
Exciting news for all our students – The BISVF is Back!
View the video above to see some of the amazing action from last year’s event!
Get ready for the 2021 British International School 2021 Virtual Film Festival. All information will be released on Monday the 24th of May at 12pm.
Week 3 – Read a story in your mother language - Launch date 21.05.2021
We are now in Week 3 of the LiF Mother Language Challenge. This week, we are asking you to raid your bookshelves and share a story in your mother language.
Watch the video below for instructions on this week’s challenge.
LiF Mother Language Challenge Week 3
Remember, if your home language is English, you can read in English. Post any videos and photos into this Google folder.
If you haven't done the challenges from Week 1 & 2 yet, don't worry! It's not too late - you can still do them, any time.
To see the latest brilliant entries from Week 2, click here.
Kathy Paine
EAL Teacher
Term 2
All events are subject to change or cancellation due to the COVID situation
03/06/21 Headteachers’ Coffee Morning and PTG AGM
w/c 07/06/21 Reports available on iSAMS - more details to follow
11/06/21 F3 Summer Show
11/06/21 Vietnamese lessons finish
13/06/21 CCAs finish
18/06/21 Term 3 Ends @ 11.50
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.
There are discounts available signing up early; more details can be found by clicking on this link:
Staff in school are following the 5K measures and we encourage you also to stay safe at home and follow the 5K measures.
Once again I would like to thank the BIS community for the engagement in learning over the past two weeks. It was marvellous to see the number of families who signed up to receive resources to use at home with their children, and see everyone during the collection process. A common question I was asked was when the children would be returning to face-to-face learning. It is difficult to answer this question but we are optimistic that the children will be back on campus. As soon as we have any updates, we will inform you.
Have a safe and restful weekend.
Ian Battersby
Head of the Early Years and Infant Campus
Joining BIS HCMC in Foundation Stage 2 (F2) is a fantastic age to begin a lifetime love for learning, encouraged and nurtured by our experienced and committed class and specialist teachers, who personalise learning unique to every child. We look back at what our F2s have experienced in less than one term already at BIS HCMC.
The weekly update from Ian Battersby, Headteacher of the Early Years and Infant Campus highlighting some of the events that have taken place this week.