Weekly Highlights 03/02/2023

Mr. Simon Higham, Principal

Dear Parents

On behalf of everyone at BVIS, I wish you a warm welcome back to school and trust that you and your family had a wonderful Tet holiday.

Welcome also to all our new families whose child(ren) have begun their new educational journey(s) at our school. We thank you for the partnership you have shown in enrolling in our school and remind you of the following contacts should you have any questions - no matter how big or small:

• For all Primary Enquiries, please call /email Ms Chi:
  (028) 3758 0709 / ext. 111 or
  primaryreception@bvisvietnam.com
   
• For all Secondary Enquiries, please call / email Ms Chi:
  (028) 3758 0717 / ext. 211 or
  secondaryreception@bvisvietnam.com

Additionally, parents may also find it useful to contact their child’s class teacher(s) or form tutor either via Class Dojo (EYFS and Primary) or email. Individual contact details can be found in your child’s school diary or via the school receptionists.  

Parent Satisfaction Survey (PSS)

This week, we were pleased to launch the 2022-23 Parent Satisfaction Survey which will remain live until Friday 3rd March 2023.

As a forward looking and innovative school, we are constantly looking for ways to improve and your feedback is vital to this process. Our annual parent satisfaction survey helps us better understand how we are performing in key areas, what we are doing well and help indicate opportunities for improvement to inform our future strategic planning.

This year, our aim is to exceed last year’s 60% response rate so please take time to click on the link in your email inbox and complete the survey. Please note that you only need to respond once if you have more than one child at school.

All responses and feedback will be combined with those of other parents at our school and will remain anonymous. Results will be shared with you later in the academic year.

BVIS Alumnus – Highest A Level Marks in Vietnam

At BVIS, we are extremely proud of all of our students’ achievements – both academic and non-academic. However, we have recently received confirmation that An Khang, one of our Year 13 graduates last year, achieved the highest mark in the whole of Vietnam for his A Level Mathematics (Pearson Edexcel), Physics (Cambridge Assessment International Education) and Computer Science (Cambridge Assessment International Education)

Congratulations to An Khang on this incredible achievement and upholding the highest standards in all that we do at BVIS. 

Well done!

Parent Essentials on our School Website

All parents are able to access and engage with important school information through the ‘Parent Essentials’ section on the Homepage of our school website.

Over the weekend, take time to look through this valuable resource where you can:

• Download the 2022-23 and 2023-24 academic calendars

• Read through the EYFS, Primary and Secondary Parent Handbooks

• Plan your child(s) lunch at school through the four different age-related menus

• Order new items of school uniform and have them delivered directly to your own home.

Thank you for taking time to read this week’s Highlights (and subsequent editions) that are sent to your email every Friday afternoon during term time.

I would personally like to wish you all a very pleasant weekend ahead.

Mrs Mary McAloon, Head of Primary

At BVIS we are all learners

Before the students returned from their Tet holiday the teachers and teaching assistants spent a day together sharing best practice and learning from one another to continue delivering excellence in education.  The foci during Tuesday’s training day were “Challenge for all”, “Best practices in the teaching and assessment of reading” and “Emotional literacy and wellbeing”.  

All three topics were specifically selected as a result of our ongoing reflection and evaluation of our BVIS learners’ needs and our teaching approaches – something that our recent CIS evaluation commended the academic team for as part of the accreditation report.

Season 3 Club Programme

After a short break in clubs, Season 3 will soon commence on Monday 13th February.  These clubs are selected specifically to broaden students’ interests and experiences.  From arts and crafts to sports and robotics, there is something fun and new for all to try.  Please note, all outstanding club fee payments are due by Wednesday 8th February to secure the club places for your child(ren).  We look forward to seeing the activities in action from Monday 13th February. 

Talk for Writing 

This week we welcomed a special visitor to our classrooms, Ms Jo Pearce, our consultant for the literacy programme, ‘Talk for Writing’, that we follow.  BVIS selected this programme for Early Years to Year 6 as the perfect approach for our bilingual students to learn and develop within literacy.  It is used in both Vietnamese and English literacy lessons allowing students to translanguage with ease while they focus upon content, together with their reading and writing skills.

Below is a summary of the Talk for Writing approach that was reviewed and modelled this week in the classrooms with Ms Jo to ensure our students are experiencing the best learning structures and routines to continuously achieve in all literacy lessons.

“The Talk for Writing approach enables children to read and write independently for a variety of audiences and purposes within different subjects. A key feature is that children internalise the language structures needed to write through ‘talking the text’, as well as close reading. The approach moves from dependence towards independence, with the teacher using shared and guided teaching to develop the ability in children to write creatively and powerfully.”  (Talk for writing, 2023)

We would like to thank Ms Jo for her time spent with the teachers and students.  It has been an extremely valuable and worthwhile week together. We look forward to seeing the impact of this training in the students’ outcomes and achievements, as the next steps evolve in the classrooms.

Upcoming Events 

• 13/02/23: Season 3 clubs begin
  
  
• 15/02/23: Y5 Residential Trip
  
  
• 16/02/23: Y4 Residential Trip
  
  
• 21/02/23 and 23/02/23: Parents Evening for B and I classes
  
  
• 27/02/23 to 03/03/23: Book Week Celebration
  
  
• 28/02/23 and 02/03/23: Parents Evening for V and S classes
  
  
• 01/03/23: Positive Parenting Workshop 5: Wearing your firm parenting hat for Upper Primary
  
  
• 03/03/23: World Book Day dress-up celebration
  
  
• 07/03/23: Y6 Residential Trip
  
  
• 07/03/23: EYFS Sports Morning

• 15/03/23: Positive Parenting Workshop 5: Wearing your firm parenting hat for Lower Primary

Mr Toby Bate, Head of Secondary

As you are aware, this is my first year at BVIS and my first opportunity to experience Tet in Ho Chi Minh City, as my family and I decided to stay here for the holiday. 

Source: VnExpress 

I was completely blown away by how calm and quiet the city became and how beautiful the celebrations were in the city. The creations all the way down ‘Flower Street’ were incredible, celebrating the different animals associated with different years and the fireworks to celebrate the actual day were mesmerizing. Everyone we met during the break seemed very happy and relaxed, it was a wonderful vacation in this great city.

I hope you enjoyed celebrating Tet with your family, wherever you chose to spend it, I very much did. 

Source: VnExpress

CAIE Exam Award Winners 

Every year Cambridge Assessment International Education (CAIE) produce a list of students who have either produced an exceptional performance or scored the highest score in a particular subject in a specific country for their international examinations. This year we are fortunate enough to have several awards granted to BVIS students from the IGCSE, AS and A level examinations last summer. 

The below students received a high achievement award for the named subjects: 

• Thanh Ngan – Drama – IGCSE 
   
• Gia Bao – Geography – A Level 

The below students achieved the highest scores in Vietnam for the named subject: 

• Thanh Ngan – Economics – IGCSE 
   
• Minh Quan – Geography – IGCSE 
   
• Vi Phong – Psychology – AS Level 

Finally, Phuong Nghi achieved a first place in Vietnam across eight IGCSE subjects which is a truly exceptional performance. 

A huge congratulations to all our award winners from last summers’ exam series. We are all very proud of their achievements and have inspired all our students to do as well, or better, in this summer’s coming exams. 

Upcoming Events 

• 10/02/23: RMIT Visit for Y13 students planning on attending
  
  
• 10-12/02/23: FOBISIA Leadership Conference in Bangkok
  
  
• 13/02/23: Y11 and Y13 Mock grades sent home
  
  
• 13/02/2023: Season 3 clubs start
  
  
• 14/02/23: Y11 Parents Evening

• 21/02/23: Y13 Parents Evening

• 23-27/02/23: U13 FOBISIA Games

• 03/03/23: World Book Day

• 03/03/23: Y7-10 Grade reports sent home

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: