Ms Deirdre Grimshaw: Weekly Update 27/08/2021

Our Junior students are settling into their new classes and routines.

It was wonderful to welcome so many of you to the Parents Information Evening on Wednesday.  We hope you found both the whole school and class sessions informative.  One of the key messages that we wanted everyone to hear, is that although we are not face to face on the school premises with the children, the learning continues and our focus, as always, remains to provide high quality learning and teaching underpinned by excellent pastoral and wellbeing care for all students.

The link to the main presentation can be found here.

Class slides or presentations will be shared via Seesaw or the Year Group Learning Letter.

I have been extremely impressed with the level of engagement and learning happening in all the classes. Thank you to all the parents for your support in ensuring the children are ready for learning, on time for their lessons, in an environment conducive to learning and actively engaging with the tasks.  Mr Neil, Mr Chris and I have had the pleasure of visiting all the classes across primary and it is great to see everyone there.

Primary Parent Teacher Student Conferences

The teachers are looking forward to meeting with all of the parents during our Virtual Parent Teacher Student Conferences that will take place on Wednesday 8^th and Thursday 9^th September. Only just over a week away, these meetings will provide you with an excellent opportunity to speak one to one with your child’s class teacher.  A letter was sent to all parents today with more details.

Primary Virtual Co Curricular Programme

Whilst we continue to be incredibly proud of our academic results here at BIS HCMC, our goal is very much on helping to develop the whole child. This includes providing extended opportunities outside of the classroom to help our students build further experiences in areas such as Art, Technology, Sport, Music and Technology. To achieve this goal, we rely heavily on our Co-Curricular Activities, or CCAs, for the extra experiences which enrich a child’s development. Our CCAs are an integral part of the education offered at BIS HCMC and provide our students with a broad range of learning opportunities which impact positively on many facets of their development. In a year without the challenges we face presently, CCAs are a focal point after school, and the movement of students rushing to their chosen club on any given day is refreshing to see.

Therefore, this term, more so than any other, we wish to encourage our students to engage with our new Virtual CCAs (VCCAs) in order to provide them with as close to a regular experience as possible. Furthermore, to work with students and teachers outside of the group they would see on a day-to-day basis during our Virtual Schooling is a highly desired chance for social experiences. We are very excited to be offering our students an entirely new CCA experience, and we hope to see them take advantage of the great opportunities on offer. Especially exciting is the large amount of outside providers who are offering activities that are sure to be well subscribed.

You will have received the VCCA booklet on Wednesday, and will likely have signed in to SchoolsBuddy to make the selections of those activities your child is hoping to take part in. But if not, consider doing so over the weekend as the sign-up period ends at 12pm on Tuesday the 31^st of August. Whilst all allocations are random, we wish your child the best of luck in gaining their club of choice. Keep an eye on your email for confirmation of clubs on Wednesday, along with details of what to do next.

Key Dates

Sign Up:

• Thursday 26^th of August at 8.00am, until
• Tuesday 31^st August at 12.00pm (noon)

Notification of successful CCAs:

• Wednesday 1st September

Payments:

• Wednesday 1st September, until
• Monday 6th September at 12:00pm

If payments have not been made, we will chase these up, but after Thursday, if we have not been able to locate payment, the space will be cancelled.

To sign up you need to have SchoolsBuddy. Instructions can be found in the handbook. If you are having technical difficulties you can watch the help webinar that was delivered earlier today - click here or please contact Ms Thanh Thanh.Nguyen1@bisvietnam.com  or Mr Chris Christopher.McKelvie@bisvietnam.com

Mr Chris McKelvie, Deputy Headteacher

Primary Sports Teams this Term

Unfortunately, we cannot play matches against other schools in Season 1 sports this term. However, just because we cannot play for those teams, does not mean that we cannot continue learning.  It is the plan of the coaches of BIS to still run squad CCA sessions to promote knowledge and understanding of the BIS philosophy in each of our sports. For example, activities will include:

• Styles of play
• Formations, positions and tactics
• Set plays
• Position analysis
• Match analysis

In order to be stronger and more familiar with key skills and specific rules when competitive sport resumes, we encourage as many people as possible to learn how this is approached at BIS. In particular we invite the following players:

• Those who were in the squads last year
• Those who want to be in the squads in the future
• New students to the school

Sign up will start soon for Season 1 (September - October) sports, so be sure to sign up if you want to be a BIS Sports Star in the above Season 1 Sports ( VCCAs).

Sign up for the Season 2 (November - December) sports will not take place until October.  

Good luck for learning in the seasons ahead.  It will not be long until you get the chance to wear the BIS Jersey with pride once more.

Mr Phil Husband, Whole School, Director Of Sports

Instrumental Lessons for Primary Students

We are very happy to share the following information with parents regarding Instrumental Lessons for your children. As you know, we unfortunately cannot offer our usual Instrumental Lessons Programme at BIS this term.  However, several of our instrumental teachers are offering online lessons. 

If you have an instrument at home, and would like to have online lessons, please see the list below and contact the relevant teacher.  This opportunity is open to students, parents, and teachers of any musical level/ability.

Please note, this would be a private arrangement between you and your instrumental teacher, so you would need to sort out payments and lesson times with them directly.

Keziah Jacombs, Music Teacher and Head of Instrumental Programme

Primary Leadership Team Coffee Morning

We are delighted to share details with you of our first Primary Leadership Coffee Morning.  It will take place on Wednesday 8th September from 8.30 - 10am.and is an opportunity for parents to catch up with the leadership team, hear about the term ahead, hear from the PTG and meet some new faces among our parent community.

The link to the meeting is here. This will be shared via Seesaw the day before the coffee morning also.

Topic: Primary Leadership Coffee Morning

Time: Sep 8, 2021 08:30 AM Vietnam

Join Zoom Meeting here

Meeting ID: 899 5640 2841

Passcode: 344728

Year 5 and 6 Maths Success at Primary

At the beginning of this term we were delighted to receive news of some amazing Mathematicians from Primary. 

Towards the end of April, fifty of our finest Mathematicians competed in the UKMT Junior Mathematical Challenge, a global mathematics competition for children aged up to and including Year 8. Following this, UKMT invited those with scores in the highest 5% globally to a further competition named the UKMT Olympiad.

Two of our mathematicians, JeongWoo Ha and ByungJoon Kang, both from Year 5, qualified for this prestigious event. As the school closed in June they took the challenge of answering questions such as:

Undaunted, the boys performed exceptionally well with ByungJoon being awarded a Merit and JeongWoo being awarded the second highest grade possible, a Distinction. The school would like to congratulate the boys on their incredible achievement.

Mr Andy James, Year 5 Teacher and Maths Leader

BIS COMMUNITY SERVICE UPDATE

Supporting Vulnerable Families During the Summer Lockdown

As Vietnam experienced a surge in Covid-19 community transmission cases over the summer and imposed lockdown restrictions in Ho Chi Minh City, the situation became especially difficult for those in the more vulnerable communities.  Many lost their jobs and therefore their primary source of income and were unable to cover basic expenses such as food and rent.

Our community partner Planète Enfants & Développement (PE&D), who has social workers situated in these communities, identified 100 families with children under the age of 6 years in Thủ Đức and Tan Phu districts who were in desperate need of support.  In the beginning of June 2021 PE&D  reached out to the BIS Community Service department with a request to join them in funding the purchase and distribution of food packages.

We would like to thank the entire BIS community who have supported various events over the past two years such as the Community Book Sales, Community Clothing Swaps, Miscellaneous Parent Donations as well as the Virtual Community Quiz;we were able to pool the cash on hand to support the purchase of 100 food parcels which included:

● 2 bags of rice (10kg)

● 1 box of instant noodle (30 packs)

● 1 bottle of cooking oil (1l)

● 1 pack of sausage (160g)

● 1 bag of sugar (1kg)

● 1 bottle of fish sauce (900ml)

● 2 tins of fish (310g)

● 1 bottle of chili sauce (270g)

In collaboration with the Ho Chi Minh City Association for Children’s Rights Protection (HACRP), PE&D began the challenging task of arranging for the food to be distributed while ensuring that the 5K safety guidelines were complied with.  They also set up a hotline to support the beneficiaries and a flyer was printed out and attached to each of the packages with information on how to obtain support.

This is an ongoing project and we would encourage you to be on the lookout for more information which will be sent out by a group of Year 12 students who have adopted this cause and campaign as their IBDP CAS Project.  There will be opportunities for all to become involved.

Tracey Brownrigg, Co-Curricular Coordinator and Community Service Project Manager

PTG 2021 - 2022

Welcome to the new school year. We are looking forward to meeting with many of you soon. A particular warm welcome to our new families joining BIS. For more information about the PTG, to connect with us personally, or if you would like to  support as a volunteer, please email us directly on  primaryptgbis@gmail.com

We look forward to seeing you at the Primary Leadership Coffee Morning on Wednesday, September 8th.  Thank you for your continued support!  

Primary PTG Coordinators

30/08/21         Vietnamese Language Coffee Morning

31/08/21         Vietnamese Lessons Start

02/09/21-        Public Holiday

03/09/21         Public Holiday

08/09/21         Virtual Headteachers Coffee Morning @ 8.30am

08/09/21         Parent Teacher Student Conferences

09/09/21         Parent Teacher Student Conferences

20/09/21         Virtual Co-Curricular Activities: Block 1 Begins

15/10/21         Virtual Co-Curricular Activities: Block 1 Ends

16/10/21-        Half-term break

25/10/21         School Begins after the Half Term Break
 

And Finally…

A reminder that next week is a short week with no school on Thursday 2nd and Friday 3rd September as they are Vietnamese Public Holidays. We actively encourage our students and families to step away from screens on these days and recharge their batteries ahead of the busy term ahead.

Wishing all our families a wonderful weekend. Please stay safe and well in this challenging time.

Deirdre Grimshaw, Headteacher of Junior Campus