Weekly Updates on 06/12/2024

Dear Parents

Last night I had the pleasure of attending the secondary production of the 'Wizard of Oz'. What an amazing performance. A huge congratulations to all the cast members and a huge thank you to all the staff for supporting the students to such a magnificent performance.

I am very excited to be attending our very first Christmas Fair tomorrow morning. It promises to be a fun filled event and I look forward to seeing many of you there.

I was delighted to see that our students had a great time at the FOBISIA Games last week. Well done to all the students who represented the school with incredible pride and had some amazing successes. Well done all.

Last weekend some of our students took part in the World Scholars Cup competition. I was delighted to see that there were many successes. A huge congratulations to all those students who took part.

A big thank you to everyone who completed the parent satisfaction survey. Once we receive the results we will use these to help inform our development plan to continue our drive to ensure BVIS is one of the best schools in Hanoi. There is still the final chance to complete if you have not done so already.

Please click THIS LINK to see our published school calendar for the academic year 2025-2026.

I wish you all a fun-filled weekend ahead.

Communication Skills
As the season of Christmas approaches, the Early Years team uses this opportunity to further the learning through the children’s interests. Communication is the key in any language to successful relationships and development whether it be verbal or by gesture. In these ever so precious formative years, we try to incorporate both. Makaton is a worldwide registered communication tool which supports children by using signs to represent words. Children use the signs whether they are reluctant verbal communicators or bilingual or trilingual learners looking for support to be understood. This week we have focused on practising our Christmas play songs using Makaton. The children cannot wait to show you all.

The Value of Reading
Library time in Year 1 is a wonderful opportunity for children to build a reading culture. They have the independence to choose their own books, allowing them to explore different genres and topics that interest them. In addition to whole-class story time, they are encouraged to select books to read and share with their friends. This not only enhances their love for reading but also fosters discussions and sparks their imagination as they narrate stories based on the images in the books. This opportunity nurtures creativity and develops important skills such as critical thinking and collaboration.

Developing Poetry
This week, our Year 2 class will begin an exciting new topic: poetry. The focus will be on exploring rhyming words and how they can be used to create patterns and rhythm in writing. Through a variety of engaging activities, the children will practice identifying and using rhymes, laying the foundation for their own poetry. We’re looking forward to seeing their creativity grow as they explore this expressive form of writing.

Meaningful Maths
In Maths, the students eagerly embrace the British methods of learning Maths, finding joy in mastering multiplication and division. They enthusiastically practice mental Maths strategies, sharpening their skills through engaging activities. Solving word problems has become their favorite challenge, as they apply logic and reasoning learned from interactive lessons. They explore real-life applications of multiplication and division, making their Maths journey both meaningful and practical.

Preparing Performances
Christmas is just around the corner, filling Year 4 classrooms with a festive buzz! The children are eagerly and busily preparing special performances, ready to shine in the upcoming Christmas showcase. Parents, don’t miss the chance to join BVIS students in embracing the warm and joyful Christmas spirit on December 13th!

A Reason for Writing
During IPC, Year 5 has been considering the difficulties of living in space. How do astronauts have enough air to breathe and water to drink on board the International Space Station? After doing some research, the students made informational posters.
During English, Year 5 have been writing their Hot Tasks. With guidance from their teachers, they have also been editing and improving their work.

Exploring Proportions: Enlarging Shapes with Scale Factors
In Maths, Y6 students have been using scale factors to enlarge shapes, a fun and practical way to understand proportions and ratios. By applying a scale factor, students multiply the dimensions of an original shape to create a larger, proportional version. This activity helps students grasp the concept of scaling in real-world applications, such as resizing images, creating models, and understanding maps.

Secondary Weekly Update 29/11/2024

An update from Ms Claire

It has been an extremely busy week in BVIS Secondary. It was lovely to see so many parents at the Year 13 Parent Teacher Conference (PTC) on Tuesday.

This week we welcomed back students from the History trip to HCMC. We will share more information about their trip next week.

This week we have been treated to spectacular performances of the Wizard of Oz, with the final one being this evening. We will share more information about the production in next week’s newsletter.

IGCSE Presentation Evening

Last Thursday we had a wonderful IGCSE Certificate presentation event for our Year 12 students. This was a fantastic opportunity to be able to reflect on their hard work and commitment during years 10 and 11 and celebrate their super achievements in the IGCSE exams.

FOBISIA

As a school, we fully believe that the fun and excitement that comes from sport is far more than winning medals and trophies. Our Dragon culture is built on the idea that true joy comes from discovering what can happen when you open your mind to new opportunities, push your limits and work alongside those with a similar goal. We try to embody the mantras of mastery over medals, growth over glory and people over performance. That can be hard when it comes to young student athletes who are surrounded by social media and messages focused on performance outcomes, wins or shiny medals.

One of the cornerstones of our philosophy is the power of showing up. Commitment, consistency and then once you're there – hard work. At this age group, students are in a formative period where developing strong habits can set the foundation for lifelong participation in sports or activity. Research has shown that "talent is not enough" and that consistent effort is a crucial element in achieving success. This then becomes a lifestyle habit that benefits all aspects of students' lives. This growth mindset highlights that abilities are not fixed and can be developed through dedication and perseverance. This means that people who value improvement over perfection create an environment where they can thrive, experiment, and embrace challenges without fear of failure. It encourages them to see mistakes as learning opportunities, not setbacks.

We encourage that mindset on a daily basis and a trip to participate in competitive sport is the ultimate proving ground for this culture. FOBISIA is perhaps the pinnacle of school sports for most of our students. So, when these mantras, cultures and behaviours are led by our young Dragons independently, then we know that we are on the right path! We had one of the most successful events in our history, with the Girls Basketball team going undefeated and winning the trophy and the Boys Basketball team coming in second place after a titanic final match. Multiple medals over the Athletics events and a resoundingly positive experience from all.

The stories and discussion with our student athletes coming back from Thailand shone through with examples of the pride in their effort, perseverance and team ethos as a central theme. The fact that it was this, as a focus, over the medals says a lot about the well-rounded student athletes that they are becoming. Go Dragons!

World Scholars Cup

A variety of students from Years 7-9 were very eager to take part in the World Scholar's cup this weekend. 31 students in total took part in 3 debates along with writing challenges on the Saturday. An example debate topic was "Should Country Leaders be encouraged to have an AI Advisor to help with the challenges of running their countries" - Students had to debate either 'for' or' against' each motion as directed by their own pathway through the event. They were scored on presentation, strategy and content of their argument. All the students worked diligently on their arguments and won many rounds resulting in lots of medals!
On the Sunday, students were involved in the Scholar's Bowl and Scholar's challenge. The Scholar's Bowl is where every team was in the theater with a clicker. Each question got harder than the one before and the teams worked together to solve analytic questions and multimedia challenges before the time ran out. The Challenge was multiple choice where students can mark more than one answer but will receive less points overall if they mark more than one.

Overall, it was a huge success so well done BVIS WSC Contestants 2024!

From GaEun, Year 8:

Being at WSC has made me realize a few things, one of those being that alpacas are actually pretty cute but that’s not the main point. It made me realize that the journey and effort put in is equally as important as the end goal. WSC truly does an amazing job at making everyone feel included and involved. My time there was truly fun and i definitely came out the other end with stronger bonds formed with my teammates, my friends, and the people there who were apart of my journey, whether it was the scholars who i debated against or the staff who helped us, they all made the experience incredibly enjoyable and most definitely memorable. From arguing over which answer to pick at the bowl to screaming(celebrating) at the top of our lungs after winning a debate, I really enjoyed my time at WSC and i would definitely recommend this experience to anyone who wants to enjoy a competition which not only focuses on the serious academic parts of it but also the experience and unfunny memes. My time there helped me to connect more with scholars from all over Vietnam, and helped me understand more about the culture of other parts. The experience overall was very wonderful and by the end of it I learned quite a lot. As final words i would like to thank my teammates for being there and Mr. Lincoln for helping us get ready for it. Spread the pwaa!

Wellbeing Activities
This week, our school Counsellors led a parent workshop on Cyberbullying

Educating children about cyber security is an important part of protecting children when participating in the technological era. They discussed how to help children be aware of and understand the potential risks on the internet and equipping them with the necessary skills to protect themselves when using the internet. Some important elements of cyber security education for children include:

1. Understanding online risks
2. Building basic security skills
3. Encouraging communication and sharing with parents
4. Teaching children how to identify and avoid risks
5. Limiting time spent online
6. Promoting positive and responsible online behavior
7. Monitoring and controlling online activity.

What’s been happening in Maths?

This week, 9B have become teachers to their classmates who were busy winning medals at the Fobisia competition last week. Students taught each other the new concepts covered in Mathematics. They explained formulae for area and perimeter and supported each other in their learning and consolidation of the unit. Great team work 9B!

For the last few weeks, Y7 have been learning about how Mathematics developed from a long time ago to the current metric system. They learnt about the Ancient Egyptians and their hieroglyphics notation, the Babylonians and their use of the base 60 system, the Indian number system which includes Lakhs and Crores, the Binary system, and more recently the Roman numeral system. Students practiced writing numbers in various scripts, along with calculations and problem solving. This week they will be creating infographic posters, in teams, about all they have learnt.

Updates from our Basketball Teams
The KS3 3v3 Basketball League will begin this week. Students select their own teams and compete against each other at lunch time on a Wednesday and Friday. This was hugely popular last year amongst students and often drew large crowds.

Our KS4 and KS5 Basketball teams played against our sister school BIS on Monday.
• The Girls KS4 team unfortunately lost in a tough game.
• The Boys KS4 team won in comfortable fashion, maintaining their unbeaten season.
• The Boys KS5 team won an incredible game; having been down by 13 points in the first half, they rallied and showed immense grit and effort to turn things around and took victory by over 20 points by the end of the game. Also maintaining their unbeaten record this season.

What’s been happening in English

The English department have been really impressed with our KS3 students’ revision in the build up to their assessments. They are forming excellent study habits ahead of KS4 and completing additional, optional independent revision to ensure they achieve their absolute best in their assessments. Here are some examples from some of our Year 9 students:

What’s been happening in Computer Science

This week, Year 10 students participated in a dart game, where they not only enjoyed the activity but also programmed the game and its rules in Python using a while loop. They also began exploring hardware units, engaging in a round-robin game to familiarize themselves with the key concepts of this new unit of study.

Year 12 and Year 13 diploma students have been collaborating on a variety of different activities to recap their knowledge. In order to get ready for their exam this week.

Student Spotlight
Congratulations to Thanh Van (10V) who achieved 5th place in the International Yoshine Music Festival.

Primary

Secondary

We wish you all a very relaxing weekend!

Senior Leadership Team from BVIS Hanoi