This weekly update is being delivered early due to Vietnam’s Independence Day Holiday.

At this time, many of us would be planning long weekend trips or looking forward to seeing the celebrations taking place in the city.  We appreciate that it is a difficult time for many in our BIS community.  Students, teachers and families have all been affected and we sincerely hope that you are all doing ok wherever you are. I have lived in this wonderful country for 7 years and I have no doubt that the resilience of the people and the efforts being made by everyone will see Ho Chi Minh City and all of Vietnam back on its feet soon.  In the meantime, please stay safe and well, everyone. We may not be together in person but we are together as a community.

Chúc mừng ngày Quốc khánh Việt Nam!

Happy Viet Nam National Independence Day!

Settling into Year 3

There are new expectations, procedures and various other things to learn. However, the newest children to the Junior Campus have been wowing their teachers since term began. They have settled into the virtual school environment amazingly and are following the rules and expectations expertly.

Both children and teachers have gotten stuck right in with the learning while adapting to the new challenges of starting a school year online. The Year 3 children, most of whom are seven-years-old turning eight, have had to interpret their new class timetables and ensure they are online at the right time with all the correct equipment, not only for their class teachers, but also Specialist teachers and, for some, EAL teachers. We have been so very impressed with the children being able to log into Google Meet calls using their correct school email account as this is new for them in Year 3.  They have shown resilience in navigating new learning platforms such as Pear Deck, Kahoot, Blooket as well as some familiar ones such as Reading Eggs and Timetables Rockstars.

I am sure you will agree that coping with the technology itself is a challenge. However, the children have also risen to the challenge of a new curriculum. Within English lessons, remarkable enthusiasm has been shown while learning the words and actions for our Talk for Write warning text ‘Kassim and the Greedy Dragon’, along with demonstrating their own nascent narrative writing talents when composing their first attempt at a warning story, ‘Be Careful Near the River’. They have shown off their place value knowledge in Maths and loved our virtual tour of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History to explore our ‘Dinosaurs’ IPC topic, with the children exhibiting the oral presentation skills of potential future curators of that storied institution. In all subjects, including Science, Vietnamese Culture and PSHE, the work teachers have received on Seesaw has been of an excellent quality. The children have shown their maturity by responding to teachers’ feedback, editing their work and even peer assessing, personifying our Aide Memoire attribute of reflection.

We have been so glad to see the children’s smiling faces on screen every day and truly are amazed at how well they have embodied the school attributes of care, integrity, respect, reflection, enquiry and perseverance while learning together. We often discuss the importance of mental health and wellbeing with the children during PSHE lessons, and the manner with which the children have begun Year 3, their diligence and enthusiasm, has certainly been a welcome tonic for their teachers’ wellbeing also.  What a great way to start the year.

Ms Aziza Williams, Year 3 Leader

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. Your login details have been sent in an email today.  Please ensure that you login and make an appointment with your child’s class teacher.  Please note only Vietnamese translation will be available.

Primary Virtual Co Curricular Programme

In the next few days, you will receive  an email with which VCCAs your child has been assigned. If you have been allocated a Paid VCCA then please follow the instructions for bank transfer.

Payments:

• Thursday 2nd September, until
• Monday 6th September at 12:00pm

VCCAs Begin

• Monday 20th September

VCCAs Finish

• Friday 22nd October

Any problems with payment please contact our cashier Ms Nhi, Nhi.Cao@bisvietnam.com

Mr Chris McKelvie, Deputy Headteacher

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.

This will also be shared via Seesaw the day before the coffee morning.  If you have any topics you would like to discuss or questions you would like us to address, please email Ms Dee (deirdre.grimshaw@bisvietnam.com) or me (ian.battersby@bisvietnam.com) by Tuesday 7th September.

The link to the meeting is below. 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

FOBISIA Schools Newsletter

BIS is a member of the Federation of British International Schools in Asia (FOBISIA).  Being a member allows us to enjoy many benefits including competitions and events for the children and professional training for our staff.  For more information, please see the newsletter below:

FOBISIA Newsletter

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

A call for Class Parent Representatives and Country Representatives!

The PTG coordinates Class Parent Representatives and Country Representatives across the Primary campuses.  These are roles adopted by parent volunteers that help the PTG Coordinators communicate, support and connect more personally with a wider network of parents.  Please read below for more information on these roles and if you are interested please use the Sign-Up Genius linke (SUG) to sign up. If you have any questions please email to "primaryptgbis@gmail.com".

 Class rep- SUG- Primary PTG BIS: BIS Primary Class Parent Rep_2021/22 (signupgenius.com)

Country rep SUG- Primary PTG BIS: BIS Country Rep 2021/22 (signupgenius.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

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…

Over the next few days, if you haven’t already, have a chat with your child and find out what has been their favourite lesson so far this year. Have they enjoyed their specialist lessons? What has been the trickiest?  Check out their work on Seesaw and enjoy all of their amazing efforts!

Wishing you all a wonderful Long Holiday Weekend ahead. 

Deirdre Grimshaw
Headteacher of Junior Campus