Weekly Highlights 01/10/2021

Mr. Simon Higham, Principal

Dear Parents  

As we move towards what I hope will be a ‘new normal’, I continue to thank all parents and teachers for their ongoing support and efforts during these challenging times. Recently, one Year 12 student explained to me that these are not challenges we face, but opportunities we must take. This shows the resilience of the school community we are part of. 

Having the ability to achieve the very best, whatever situations we face, does not happen by chance. As every BVIS student moves along their educational journey, I have been thinking about what helps to develop a child’s individual, personalised success? 

In my view, there are many contributing factors to success at school, however strong, resilient partnerships between school, home and the individual child are  crucial to ensure that every child progresses to the best of their own ability. 

Teachers teach better when they build strong links with both their students and their parents. Parents understand more about how they can support their child at home through engaging and connecting with school. Children/students learn more effectively when they are supported equally between school and home to celebrate their successes and understand their individual next steps for learning.

This weekend, take time to reflect upon the following questions and talk them through with your child(ren): 

1. Who was your stand out teacher when you were at school and why did they have a positive influence on your learning? 

2. How can you become more involved in your child’s learning and how as a school, can we support this? 

Parent Meetings 

Thank you to all primary parents who, over the last 2 weeks, attended the first parent-teacher meetings of the year and to parents of Year 11 students who will join their meetings next week. 

In addtion, it was great to see so many parents attending the recent Phonics and Reading Coffee Workshops and also the recent Options Evenings for Year 9 and Year 11 students.

Outstanding A Level Results - High Achievers 2021 

To reach the outstanding A* - A grades for all exam papers, students are required to accumulate a strong subject knowledge for each subject together with practical revision strategies and sound time management.  

Our students gained our best ever grades during their 2021 examinations, during challenging times that included a hybrid of both face to face and online learning.   

Find our more about our top A-Level achievers by clicking here.  

Explore our 5 star educational apps in Primary 

In order to continue to devlop further opportunities for learning, we continue to use a range of software to support our Virtual School Experience (VSE) to ensure that every child is progressing academically, socially and emotionally. As a school we have invested in a number of 5 STAR applications, including: Nearpod, FlipGrid, Redaing Eggs and much, much more. 

Read more about these apps and others that are currently being used across our Primary classes in this post from our school website. 

Meet our New Teachers 

This week, it is our pleasure to introduce Mr Shaun Kennedy who joined BVIS this year as a Secondary Maths Teacher. Welcome to BVIS Mr Kennedy – it's great to have you part of our team! 

Additional Support for Parents - Working Together as One 

For support with any technical aspects of our Virtual School, email our BVIS Help Desk: it.servicedesk@nordanglia.com 

To learn more from our technology ‘How to’ guides, visit the ‘VSE Technical Support’ in the  ‘Parent Essentials’ section on our school website. 

For all individual queries about your child’s academic work/social and emotional wellbeing, contact their form/class teachers directly via email or Dojo. 

• For all additional Primary Enquiries, please call /email:  

              (028) 3758 0709 / ext. 111 or 

               primaryreception@bvisvietnam.com 

• For all additional Secondary Enquiries, please call / email 

              (028) 3758 0717 / ext. 211 or 

              secondaryreception@bvisvietnam.com 

We continue to wish you and all of your family the best of health and happiness over the coming weekend. Stay strong and continue to look forward as brighter times are coming soon. 

Mrs Mary McAloon, Head of Primary

Bilingual Month 

“We are bilingual” is such an important phrase for us at BVIS, one that we are very proud of, which is why we celebrate bilingual month every year in October.  Today marks the beginning of our celebrations of bilingualism.  In this week’s assembly, Mr Preston and the EAL team launched the exciting activities planned for the month. Mr Preston challenged Mr Oliver, Ms Khuyen and I to say bilingual tongue twisters and count in Vietnamese to 20.  Naturally, Ms Khuyen found these challenges a breeze being such a bilingual genius.  However, Mr Oliver and I had to persevere when practising to pronounce the Vietnamese tongue twisters correctly and we almost said the numbers accurately!   

There will be a range of bilingual activities and challenges set over the coming weeks. Look out for these on ClassDojo for children to complete during their independent study time. 

STEAM Island Residences 

Once again, the STEAM Challengers did not rest last week.  Children were set the task to design and make a skyscraper for the island’s population to reside in.  There were some remarkable innovations that amazed Mr James Chandler, our whole school STEAM coordinator, who truly is an expert in this field. To amaze Mr James is extremely credible; well done children!   

Take a look at the selection of this week’s STEAM Challenge creations in the photos below. 

The next challenge was to create a shelter for residents of the island to use in emergency situations. Look out for these in next week’s highlights. 

Parent Webinars 

Reading has been the theme of our webinars recently and this continues over the next two weeks. For bilingual students, reading daily in both languages makes such a positive impact on their language acquisition. As parents, it is so valuable to learn and understand more about the techniques of learning to read and how to support children to develop their reading skills.   

Mr Ben and Ms Van led the second part of the phonics and reading webinars for Years 1 to 3 this week.  Parents who attended picked up some useful tips of how to support their children when reading at home.  If you missed this opportunity, the webinar recording will be shared in due course with parents via email.  

Next week we have a further reading webinar that explains the reading resources available to our Years 3 to 6 children. We look forward to welcoming parents once again to this Wednesday Webinar. 

Upcoming Events 

• 6/10/21 @ 15:30 – Reading Webinar 1 for Years 3 to 6 (focusing on the online platforms used) 

• 13/10/21 @ 15:30 – Reading Webinar 2 for Years 1 to 6 (focusing on supporting reading at home) 

• 27/10/21 @ 15:30 – Maths Webinar for Primary Parents 

Mr Jack Rudin, Head of Secondary

Update from the Drama Department 

Year 11 IGCSE students have been preparing to study the text ‘Moliere’ by Mikhail Bulgakov as part of their examinations. They researched the social, political and historical context of the play and author then created detailed presentations to teach each other about the production. 

 Update from the Science Department 

Biology

The Year 11 Co-ordinated Science students have not let studying from home stop them learning all about how plants respond to stimuli.  

These pictures taken from student’s homes show a variety of plants showing phototropic and geotropic responses i.e growing towards light and responding to the force of gravity.  

Following the completion of their 1,000 word essays about the use and overuse of antibiotics, some of our Year 12 students undertook their own experiments at home. New student Thuc Nhi Nguyen (Mandy) succeeded in growing penicillin mold in the same way as Sir Alexander Fleming did in this exact week in 1928, when he recorded a bacteria-killing mold growing in his lab. Rather than throw the dish away, he decided to observe it under a microscope.  

 Physics

Our new physics teacher, Mr Chaurasia managed to get his Year 10 class to successfully carry out a centre of mass experiment using a range of household objects. The students really enjoyed being able to carry out their practical experiments from home.  

Attendance 

Last week saw the best attendance so far during virtual learning for our Secondary students demonstrating the commitment and dedication of all towards their studies! The average was 98% across all classes which is even better than expected when we are face to face. 

Keep up the great work everyone! 

VSE Champion of the Week 

Congratulations to NGUYEN, Bao Linh (13V) who is this week’s Champion of the Week.  

It’s very pleasing to see yet another Sixth Form student winner which proves that our older students love to collect Housepoints as much as any other year group! Well done Bao Linh! 

Tutor Groups of the Week 

Well done also to 11S who collected over 200 Housepoints  this week and to 12S who have had an incredible attendance record so far this term. No matter what situations they face, our students continue to show amazing efforts in all that they do. 

Student Council - Global Goals Competition 

Our commitment towards the Global Goals continues to go from strength to strength as we have received some great entries for our recent competition from students and  teachers, who have submitted some amazing recordings for us to help ‘Guess the Word’ this week.  

Over the weekend ahead, please remind your child(ren) to check  the Secondary VSE TEAMs channel to ensure they see the notifications about each activity that are sent to them from our student leaders.  

Update from the PE Department  

Students have been working hard during PE lessons this term on a virtual athletics unit. They have been learning the components of fitness required for running, throwing and jumping events.  

Students have been creative in uploading a range of Flipgrid videos to demonstrate exercises that athletes could use to improve components of fitness such as power, speed, coordination and balance. The PE department have also released weekly challenges and daily tips and guidance on the new PE & health TEAMs channel for students to complete and this week launched the new fitness based club to help everyone stay active at home.  

Students have been very engaged in finding ways to ensure they remain fit and healthy during our Virtual School Experience.  

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: