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Despite the rainy end to the week, it has been a glorious week of events here at the EY&I and Junior Campuses with children performing, exploring, investigating and much more across all ages and stages.
‘Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.’ - Helen Keller
These events in school, along with a fabulous PTG social evening on Wednesday, are all examples of how as a community we are coming together once again and making the connections that will enable us to achieve even more as we look forward to the rest of Term 3.
The ‘Year 2 Legend Lives’ involved our music department, Cat Malloy (our director of performing arts), Ms Kirstie (one of our IPC leaders), Ms Siao Tong and Ms Marta (two of our Modern Foreign Language teachers) as well as all the Year 2 team collaborating to provide a memorable ‘entry point’ for our Year 2 children and their parents.
Perseverance was at the heart of the Young Musician of the Year competition on Thursday, with BIS music staff, parents, instrumental teachers, accompanists, judges (including Ms Pippa from ABC International school) watching as the hours and hours of practice resulted in a most amazing evening of stunning performances.
Parents had an opportunity to connect with each other at Lubu on Wednesday. The number of tickets sold was a real indication of how we have missed seeing each other and it was so good to see Year 13 parents whose children will be moving on this year talking to parents of children in the Early Years and Infant Campus who have only just begun their educational journey. It was a super evening, rounded off with an auction of two pieces of artwork produced by Vi Trang and Tu Tu (from our secondary campus) which raised an incredible 21,000,000 VND for our community partners.
This week, Year 2 has been transported to the distant lands and times of Ancient Egypt, Spain and Chinese Dynasties through a magic portal for their IPC Entry Point! At the beginning of each new IPC unit, the children experience an exciting introduction to hook them into their learning and build authentic enthusiasm and engagement, and this was no different! The new learning, called ‘Stories People Tell’, will delve into legends from modern and ancient history, and explore what it takes to be a ‘legend’. Art and Design was another key component of this event as the children planned and designed their adventurer’s outfit, which included new skills such as fringing, beading and graffiti street art. The children also astounded their audience with two musical performances, singing and using two different instruments.
A particular highlight of this Entry Point was its highly collaborative nature. Staff from different year groups and departments across all three campuses were eager to get involved and lead the children on their mysterious adventure to the past. Moreover, it was the first Entry Point to include our wonderful families and community members since Covid-19 restrictions were implemented. A huge thank you to our Year 2 families who were able to come and celebrate this new and thrilling event, and to the Year 2 and Specialist teams for their creativity and enthusiasm!
Year 3 students kicked off their new IPC unit with an exciting day revolving around Rainforests. The day began with the students dressing as avid explorers ready to search the depths of the rainforests. They were treated to a delicious breakfast that gave them the energy to explore the campus for hidden animals who are typically found in rainforests. Many used homemade binoculars to find those animals who were hidden amongst the foliage. Inside the classrooms, the students helped build their own mini rainforests as they identified the layers of the rainforest including the emerging layers and the canopy. Others were busy crafting their miniature versions of the animals they had spotted using clay and plasticine; these were added to small world rainforest displays. To ensure the students didn’t lose energy, they made their own fruit kebabs to share amongst their classmates to continue their day of exploration.
The very next morning, Year 3 students returned to school to find their classroom rainforests destroyed and chopped off. This began a further conversation about the human destruction of the world’s rainforests and what needs to be done to protect them, linking to the UN Global Goals 15 and 17.
Well done to all of the Year 3 teaching team for putting in so much effort in designing such an exciting and engaging IPC Entry Point. We cannot wait to find out all the amazing things the Year 3 students will learn by their Exit Point. Well done to all of the Year 3 students for really getting involved in the activities and exciting challenges.
Ms Kirstie Stockley and Mr Oliver Dowden | IPC Subject Leaders
On Thursday evening, students, parents and staff gathered together to enjoy the Final of BIS Young Musician of the Year. The final performances were stunning, with a rich variety of instruments and genres on display. After 108 First Round auditions and 30 Semi-Final performances, it came down to 12 very impressive finalists:
Hanna Miyadera 3B Jun Shin 3V
Elly Nguyen 4C Nuala Wardell 3N
Bento Tran 4N Erin Shin 3N
Lucy Hwang 6I Emily Bui 6H
DaKyeom Lee 6I Robbie Lin 5B
SeoHyun Park 5I Hana Shimoyama 6C
The following students received a special mention for their performances:
Bento Tran, Nuala Wardell and Lucy Hwang
And finally, congratulations to our two winners:
Erin Shin – Year 3&4
Hana Shimoyama – Year 5&6
Our thanks go to the esteemed judges who had the toughest job of the evening and to all the parents and families that came along to share in this magical evening of music and joy.
Ms Kate Gale on behalf of the Primary Music Team.
What tourist attractions spring to mind when you think of Vietnam? Or South Korea? Or Japan? Or the UK? Each country has its own amazing sights for tourists to experience and enjoy! For the Language in Focus (LIF) challenge this term, we are asking you to promote the wonderful tourist attractions in your country or city! To take part in this competition, draw or paint a tourism poster of a special place in your country or city. More details will be provided in assembly this Friday (29/4) and on Seesaw.
Children can give their posters to any EAL teacher by Friday 27th May. Winners will be announced the following week. You can find out more about the Language in Focus initiative on the Google Site here.
The upcoming webinar aims to show parents and students how they can access the amazing resources found on TigTag to support further research, home learning tasks, and learning conversations that may take place at home. The webinar will be an informative and interactive experience for parents who want to know how they can support their child's learning in Science and IPC.
Join us on Wednesday 4th May via Zoom at 4pm.
Join us for a lovely lunch for all primary parents of both campuses. See the poster for more details.
Do you have books you no longer need? Are you ready to add some new (preloved!) books to your collection?? WE HOPE SO!!! The PTG are so happy to be running a book sale event, that we hope will enable us to Raise some much-needed funds for a very important community partner, Thuy’s Dream Foundation.
BIS has supported Thuy's Dream Foundation for more than 10 years. The foundation works to enrich the lives of children battling cancer and offers long term support to them and their families. Raising funds for Thuy's Dream is usually a highlight event of our year, but Covid has drastically affected everyone’s fundraising abilities, and the work the foundation has been able to do these last 2 years.
As our lives start to return to some degree of normality, we hope you will help us make a big difference to the lives of some very poorly children and their families.
There are two ways you can help!
Firstly, if you have any unwanted books you would like to donate for the event you can drop them at the guards house/Gate A at either EY campus, or Junior campus, every day from Wednesday 4th May.
Secondly, we invite you to visit our book sale during pick up time, on either Tues 24th May at EYIC, or Wednesday 25th May at Junior campus, choose the books you want, and make a donation of your choice. All proceeds raised will go directly to Thuy's Dream foundation.
If you wish to volunteer to help prepare for the event, or have any questions, please do reach out to the PTG via primaryptgbis@gmail.com
Thank you as always for your kind support
Pamela & the Primary PTG
02/05/22 - 03/05/22 Labour Day and Reunification Day Holidays (School closed)
04/05/22 Tig Tag Science Webinar for Parents
13/05/22 EY&I Teatime Recital
19/& 20/05/22 STEAM Festival ( Y6/7/8)
19/05/22 Primary Parents Potluck Lunch
23&24/05/22 Primary PTG Book Donation.
24/05/22 Year 5 Speech Competition Final
24 - 26/05/22 F2 Teddy Bears Picnics
25- 27/05/22 F3 Little Red Riding Hood Picnics
25/05/22 Year 6 to Year 7 Transition Morning for Parents
31/05/22 Year 2 to Year 3 Transition Meeting for Parents
Symptomatic (Any Cold/Flu/Covid Symptoms) - stay off school until symptom free.
Take a precautionary Rapid Antigen Test at home prior to return and keep the school informed.
Any concern you have at home with the health of your child, and include the Health and Safety Leads of each campus (EYIC Ms Sarah Curran sarah.curran@bisvietnam.com and JC Mr Chris McKelvie Christopher.mckelvie@bisvietnam.com.
It is vital, also, that you inform the office of any positive case within your family – these are called ‘household close contacts’.
If your child needs the School Nurse to administer any prescribed medication during the school day please do not put medication in the school bag but contact the School Nurse and sign the appropriate form.
Ms Sarah Curran and Mr Chris McKelvie, Deputy Headteachers
If you are, and are interested in doing some supply/cover teaching at BIS, please contact either Chris McKelvie (christopher.mckelvie@bisvietnam.com) or Sarah Curran (sarah.curran@bisvietnam.com). They will arrange to meet and talk you through what is required in order to join those who we call upon to cover classes when the teacher is unable to be there.
Do you have a baby or toddler at home? If so you may be interested in joining Fundinotots.
Fundinotots is a friendly place to meet other parents with young children. It provides an informal play based environment that enables children to have opportunities to interact with their peers and flourish within our creative school setting. Sand and water play, painting, large play apparatus, story time and music sessions are just a selection of the activities on offer.
Fundinotot sessions are held each morning in our purpose designed Fundinotots unit and provide a great opportunity for parents to come together and support each other during these formative early years.
We are very hopeful that we will be able to restart Fundinotot sessions later this term (exact date will be confirmed at a later date). So, if you are interested in joining Fundinotots either this term or for the next academic year that start in August 2022 please contact Sarah Bonner (sarah.bonner@bisvietnam.com).
To the Muslim members of our community, we wish you ‘Eid al Fitr Mubarak!’ for Monday and Tuesday, and to everyone here in Vietnam we hope that you have a relaxing long weekend as we celebrate Labour Day and Reunification Day.
Kindest regards,
Ian Battersby & Dee Grimshaw, Headteachers
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.