Welcome back to term 3, I hope that everyone had a good break over the recent holiday. It has been lovely hearing about how the students at school spent their holiday, from going on holidays abroad, to spending time with family, or even just having used the time to study - I know that some of the students who are going to the global roud of the World Scholars Cup next month have been doing a lot of preparation work over the holiday. The start of the summer term heralds the exam season. Our Year 11, 12 and 13 students are now deep into their IGCSE and A Level exams, having done as much preparation as possible to give themselves the best chance of fulfilling their potential. Once again I and all of us in the BVIS community wish them the best of luck. Last weekend we hosted the Hanoi Athletic Conference Volleyball tournament. 22 teams from all over Hanoi were competing and it was a terrific success. The event was so well organised and a joy to be a part of. My thanks to Ms. Smith, Mr. Walsh and Mr. Leak for giving their time to make this event so successful. My congratulations as well to our students who performed so well in the competition. On Thursday of this week we were delighted to welcome Rebecca Crookshank to school. Rebecca is a renowned UK actor, writer and director for both stage and TV. She has been working in Hanoi this week and was good enough to come to school to speak with some of our Drama students in Year 9 and 10. It gave our students the chance to ask her questions about all aspects of dramatic production, and get useful tips as they embark on their own acting and writing futures. Rebecca then conducted a writing workshop, in which the students were challenged to write their own monologues. It was an inspirational session and we thank her for taking the time out of her busy schedule to come and see us. So delighted with the work of our students was she, that she has said she would like to come back again next year! My thanks to Ms. Hutchinson for organising this visit. Today we had a wonderful assembly, organised by our EAL department, on bilingualism. We heard from teachers who are bi and tri lingual and we saw a video from students on why they believe acquiring a new language is so important. The most moving section was when three Year 9 students individually spoke about the struggles they have had in learning English, and shared some tips with the rest of the school that they have found helpful. My thanks to all the Year 9 students who took part, and to Ms Nghia Phan and the rest of the EAL team for organising it. It was lovely to greet so many Year 8 Parents this week for Parents Evening. Next week I look forward to meeting as many Year 9 Parents as they too come to school to discuss their children’s progress. I hope you have a great week ahead.
