PTG Update 18/06/2021

Another year has gone by very quickly.

We could not organize some of our favourite events like Family Fun Evening or Spring Fair but still managed to introduce two new events like Vietnamese language workshop and our PTG Cultural Event which were well received by the parents.

We raised funds through our Vietnamese Language Workshop and the money was passed to Ms Tracey Brownrigg, The school’s Community Coordinator.

In Term 1 (November) we had our Teacher’s Day Potluck Lunch. The parents showed their love for the teachers by bringing plates filled with various types of food. We could not travel this year but the tables in both campuses felt like chefs from all over the world have visited!

Students enjoyed the Christmas Disco in December. The original plan was to bring DJs for the disco, but the plan had to be changed due to the social distancing regulations that were applied by the city Government. The PTG was about to call off the event but the heads of both the campuses couldn’t bring themselves to see the faces of disheartened kids and so conducted the event along with the teachers, on behalf of the PTG. This event usually generates good revenues. PTG as such doesn’t have funds allocated and certain funds collected from certain events helps PTG to run other events.

The funds raised from this event was used to support the Teacher’s Day event and TET envelopes for the non-teaching staff. These staff support the events whole heartedly and with smiling faces. This is our way of saying ‘thank you’ to these unsung heroes.

Every year we organize bus tours in Term 2 for the families joining us in January. We take them around Thao Dien as well as a few places in District 1. It was once again a real success!

One of the most awaited events every year is the Global Café as part of International Week. On these days, the Junior campus’ Gym is transformed into a magical world. This year’s theme was ‘Travel Without Boundaries’. In total, 27 countries participated in this event this year. Lily who is one of our core team members has been part of this event for the past 10 years. This year, sadly was her last year, as her child is moving to the Secondary campus. We are going to miss her next year.

Finally, just before we switched to virtual learning last month, we managed to organize one of the biggest ‘Book Swap’ events in the history of BIS HCMC. It was a huge success because of the books donated by the parents and the students. After the event, we were able to donate more than 2000 books to our community Coordinator Ms. Tracy who then sorts the books and donates them to the community partners.

The PTG are filled with pride to share all this information with all of you and this was possible because of the support given by the parents, teachers and the students. The PTG core team would like to thank all of you from the bottom of our hearts. You all inspire us to work better. This year was challenging for us, we faced problems in raising funds since we could not organize a lot of events due to the pandemic situation. Yet we did the best that we could.

Going into the new academic year starting in August, we would like to update you of some changes to the core PTG team. 3 of our members are leaving our team this year. As mentioned earlier Lily who has been a big asset to our team, is leaving as her children will be in the Secondary campus. We wish her and her children good luck. Ai, who was part of PTG team for the past two years has moved out of HCMC. We missed her presence during the ‘Book Swap’ event. Vivian, an enthusiastic member of PTG has become the mother of another beautiful girl and she has decided to take a break from the current role. Saying goodbye is never easy.

In the new academic year, we have a bigger team than this year. Myself, Ms. Pamela and Mr. Thomas will continue in the same role. Ms. Jana will be heading the Country Reps group and will be organizing Global café. New members joining us are Ms. Lenka, Ms. Jenn, Ms. Anchal, Ms. Tracy and Ms. Jen. We are planning on focusing on building a stronger BIS community where the opportunities of parents’ & teachers’ involvement is increased, and secondly to support our community partners. We are planning to organize monthly workshops and would request all of you to support the PTG team by participating in these workshops. Your presence will encourage us to do better.

If you would like to sign up for class rep or country rep please follow the link given below

Class Rep

Country Rep

Lastly, this year was challenging but we still survived. We hope the upcoming year would be interesting in a positive way. Team PTG would like to wish you all a happy summer break. Stay safe and see you all in August, hopefully in person.

Thank you,

Gayatri, Primary PTG Chairperson