Weekly Updates on 02/02/2024

Dear Parents

A very warm welcome back and Chuc Mung Nam Moi!

It was great to see all the students back to school and we have had a very positive start to the half term.You will have heard before the break that BVIS Hanoi has won the ISC International School Award 2024. During the holiday I am pleased to say I have also received this letter from the CEO of FOBISIA.

As you are aware, I am always keen to share with you what is happening in the school and to hear your views. With this in mind, I am going to be hosting “Parent & Principal meeting: 2023-2024 BVIS Hanoi - Recognition, progress and future plans” to present to you and hear more of your views about our school. I hope many of you will be able to attend one of the sessions outlined below:

• Session 1: Thursday, 7th March 2024 | 2:30 pm - 4:00 pm
• Session 2: Friday, 8th March 2024 | 8:45 am - 10:15 am

You can register to join the meeting by filling this form. Hope to meet and discuss with you on the day.

As you are aware we have been working hard on our CIS/WASC evaluation. We will have a full team visiting the school on 1st – 5th April and we look forward to welcoming them to the school. Many of you have contributed to this process through completing surveys or focus groups and I would like to thank you for your support. I will update you nearer the time on the next steps with CIS/WASC.

Next week we will be hosting the largest regional Teaching and Learning Conference here in Hanoi in collaboration with our sister school BIS. We will have nearly 200 delegates from across the South East Asia, Middle East and India region. We are looking forward to welcoming them and there will be some amazing teaching and learning development happening across our school with our staff.

I wish you all a very relaxing weekend ahead.

Understanding Global Citizenship

Happy New Year and a wonderful welcome back to school. The Early Years Centre was full of smiles and laughter as we re-connected with our friends and teachers this week. The children shared their holiday photographs and stories with each other. This collaborative activity promotes the concepts of identity and belonging – something we will focus on much this term as we delve deeper into understanding Global Citizenship on an Early Years level. 

Sharing and comparing

It's wonderful to see the radiant faces and enthusiasm of Year 1 students when they share about their Tet holiday on the first day back to school! This week, the children had Hook lesson in English and Vietnamese subject, where they learn about the information text by making paper house, as well as learn about different types of houses. In Maths they learned about comparing lengths and heights through engaging activities such as scavenger hunts and grouping to compare heights among their peers. 

Quests and Adventures

Returning after the Tet holiday, the students were very excited to share about their vacation in front of the class, ask and answer questions about their feelings in groups in the program to develop speaking and presentation skills of Year 2. In addition, the students were also very excited to participate in the poster making and overcome the challenges in the opening topic of Quests and Adventures. 

Persuasive writing about chocolate

Year 3 have started their new literacy topic all about persuasive writing which blends in perfectly with our topic: Chocolate. We looked at lots of examples of advertising for candy and chocolate bars and the features they used to make us really want to buy them!

School value: Enquiry - An exploration of river structure

In IPC, Year 4 students engaged in an exploration of river structure. Collaboratively, they constructed a detailed river model, labeling and identifying its various components. 

School value: Reflection - Designing labyrinths 

This week, Year 5 has been learning the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. To get them excited about the topic, they designed their own labyrinths, using Minecraft. 

Vietnamese Perspective

In the last week before the holiday, Year 6 confidently mixed tradition and modernity in their skillful and entertaining Tet performance. 

 

School value VIETNAMESE PERSPECTIVE

We express our gratitude to the parents and students who generously contributed to the Tet appeal. Your donations have made a profound difference in the lives of underprivileged families, allowing them to celebrate Tet with joy and dignity. Your support and active participation in fundraising activities have showcased your empathy and commitment to making a positive impact in our community. Thank you for your kindness, unity, and compassion.

In Key stage 3 last term we were working on a Tet project. For the Year of the Dragon they have been designing and creating dragons that appear to be made out of stained glass, they all look magnificent, well done Key Stage 3! 

School value ENQUIRY and GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Just before the TET holiday over 90 of our year 9, 10 and 11 students took part in the UKMT Mathematics Challenge. 

This is a highly regarded and recognized international mathematics competition.The results are in, and I am delighted to share with you some phenomenal achievements from our students.

To gain a Silver certification you need to achieve in the top 25% of all students. We are delighted that 23 of our students gained a Silver certification.

Even better, 12 of our students achieved a Gold certification. This puts them in the top 8% of all students taking part.

And for the first time ever, we have had one student invited to take part in the follow up Maclaurin Olympiad competition. Invitations are sent to the top 0.4% of students. This is an amazing achievement for Quang Lam. I know you will join me in wishing Quang Lam all the best of luck in the next stage of the competition.

And a special mention goes to Quang Dung who was the only year 8 student taking part. A Silver award for Quang Dung – which is unbelievable in year 8. Well done Quang Dung!

Lastly, none of this would be possible without the support of the maths team. Thanks to all of the maths teachers for encouraging and supporting our students. A special thank you to Mr. Henry Willetts for organizing the event, providing materials, running workshops and supporting the students.

A huge congratulations to Duy Khoi Nguyen in Year 7 and Phuong Chi Nguyen in Year 8 who have been judged as this years BVIS internal winners of the Global Campus International Film Festival! Their film entitled ‘The Future of Connectivity’ is a brilliant example of creativity and innovation, and their entry will now be entered in the Global Round, where it will be judged with other winning school entries from Nord Anglia schools around the world. 

Congratulations Duy Khoi and Phuong Chi, and we all wish you the best of luck in the Global Round!

School value ENQUIRY and GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

School value ENQUIRY, REFLECTION and GLOBAL CITIZEN

Our Year 12s in History presented on The Terror of the French Revolution in class recently. Their depth of research and elocution of their presentations was superb. The standard of these presentations was of First Year University level and shows what a great group of A-level historians we have at BVIS. We even had two ex A* History students in on that day and they commented how fantastic the students were and how they missed studying history!

School value PERSERVERANCE and REFLECTION

In Year 11 EAL, we have witnessed a remarkable improvement in the writing skills of many of our students in Second Language English, as evidenced by last week's examinations. The majority of the students have truly impressed us by successfully incorporating all the essential improvements into their written pieces and have made significant progress since the beginning of the year. A particular mention goes to the following students, who have exceeded our expectations:

• Duc Minh
• Huu Manh
• Vinh Khanh
• JaeHoon
• Thai Son
• Yoonje
• Hyunjin
  

We wish you all a very relaxing weekend!

Senior Leadership Team from BVIS Hanoi