Weekly Highlights 21/05/2021

Mr. Simon Higham, Principal

Dear Parents

Welcome to this week’s Highlights and thank you for taking time to engage and connect with our school.

Thank You

We are pleased to inform you that our examination students have continued with their in-school learning and adhered effectively to all our enhanced health and safety measures in preparation for and completion of internal and external examinations.

Additionally, our teachers and teaching assistants have continued to deliver an effective and ever developing Virtual School Experience (VSE) for our Fundinotots to Year 9 students I am pleased to report that our overall attendance for VSE remains in line with averages for when all students are in school.

Many thanks for your continued support – it is both appreciated and respected. No matter if we are in school or online, we remain ready to offer support, help and guidance from our highly qualified teachers should you require it. In the first instance, never hesitate to contact your child’s class teachers or Form Tutor – no issue is ever too small.

For further online VSE support, please click here.

Uniform Update

Last week, I wrote to all our school community to inform them of our change in uniform from the next academic year.

Although at this present time we are unable to launch the new designs in school for you to see, we wanted to share these pictures below to give you a better idea of what the new uniform looks like.

With the input from our staff and student leadership teams, over the last 12 months we have designed the improved uniform based upon quality, functionality, style, diversity, equality and inclusion for all. Some of the key changes are:

EYFS and Primary (Foundation 1 to Year 6)

• A lighter, softer but durable shirt fabric

• One shirt for all Primary students that is gender neutral
• Lighter weight skorts and shorts that can be worn by both girls and boys
• A colour that is unique to BVIS students and identifies us as being part of the Nord Anglia Education family

Secondary, including 6^th Form (Year 7 to Year 13)

• One shirt for all Secondary and 6^th Form students that is gender neutral – no pocket
• A more modern cut shirt, with smaller collars and designed to be worn untucked for improved comfort
• For the first time, trousers may be worn by all Secondary students, with no gender bias
• A slimmer more modern cut trouser in a lighter weight material
• A new skort, designed by our student council that focuses upon comfort, style and takes safeguarding into consideration
• A colour and design that identifies us as being part of the Nord Anglia Education family

There is no change to the house T-Shirt/PE shirt and shorts.

Additional items that have previously been sold, such as BVIS fleeces will continue to be sold and used if required.

Please look out for more details before the end of the academic year with regards to how you will be able to conveniently purchase standard packs and individual items of our new uniform, both in school and online.

We are all very excited about seeing our students in their new uniform in August.

Contact Us

For all individual queries about your child’s academic work/social and emotional wellbeing in school or during this period of VSE, please contact their form/class teachers directly via email or Dojo.

Additionally:

For all additional Primary Enquiries, please call: 

(028) 3758 0709 / ext. 111 

For all additional Secondary Enquiries, please call:

(028) 3758 0717 / ext. 211

Mrs Mary McAloon, Head of Primary

Versatile Learners

Virtual School Experience (VSE) for our primary students is simply another approach to learning that they are now mastering. The differences that VSE brings to learning include a range of valuable life skills, as well as the opportunity to keep learning, irrespective of location.

Through the past 17 months, students and teachers have reflected on their experiences of VSE and made improvements to ensure we continually access the best methods available. As technology develops overtime, so too will the VSE provision at BVIS. I am impressed with the way our community have been incredibly versatile over this period of change. This began with acceptance of change and the need to embrace a new normal; we achieved this together and are now reaping the benefits of this strong and collaborative approach.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our students, parents and teachers for their combined efforts in achieving a successful VSE.

Perseverance

Last week teachers had a challenging decision to make when they were asked to choose one student from each class who represented ‘perseverance’ through their learning. These students were celebrated during our lower and upper primary assemblies and during PSHE time for our younger students. Being intrinsically motivated to learn more and try your best is key to being successful. During VSE, this motivation is even more important as the students carry out their asynchronous tasks – their independent tasks when learning offline. Congratulations to our role models highlighted last week!  To be recognised ‘persevering’ is a credit to you while you are learning with your teachers and peers remotely.

This week teachers have been looking for students using their ‘Enquiry’ skills. I look forward to sharing these examples with you in future Highlights.

Preparing for the new academic year

Thank you to those families who took the time to discuss with their children about who they learn best with and then completing the ‘Friendship Form’ with four of these friends.  The deadline has now past, and the children’s suggestions are now being considered by teachers during the class mixing process. By mixing the classes we provide children with the opportunity to build even more friendships within the year group and further develop their personal, social and emotional skills. We look forward to informing children of their new classes in the last week of term.

Mr Jack Rudin, Head of Secondary

Secondary Champion of the Week

Well done to Quang (HA, Nguon Khanh Quang) in 7S who is this week’s Champion of the Week with 21 house points. Saigon House will be very proud of you! Keep working hard until the very end of term as every house point counts!

In School this week

It has been great to have our Year 10-13 students working in school this week. The Year 11, 12 and 13s have been able to  follow their exam schedules which has been very beneficial to their overall learning journey. Lessons are still provided for all subjects where the exams are not finished for these year groups so please make sure your children are still attending these.

Year 10 are also working hard on preparing for their IGCSEs and their exams are scheduled to start on Monday 31^st May.

Virtual School Experience in Year 7-9

It has been wonderful to see how well how pupils have adapted to engage with our virtual classes. Well done to all houses who have all achieved an average of 96% attendance or above and especially to Dalat house who are currently in the lead with 97.32%. These percentages are in line with attendance data for when ‘in school’ learning is taking place.

As well as their school work many students have also been competing for their houses on Global Campus to gain house points by creating imaginative performances for the Shakespeare Challenge.

Safeguarding and Child Protection

The health, safety and wellbeing of our students remains the number one priority at BVIS HCMC.

Should you have a concern for the welfare of any child in our school, please refer to our Safeguarding poster below: