Weekly Highlights 24/03/2023

Mr. Simon Higham, Principal

Dear Parents

As we approach the Term 2 holiday, I hope that you enjoy reading today’s Highlights that celebrates the continued successes of everyone across our BVIS community. 

The secret sauce of this success is through creating the opportunity to be the best possible version of oneself across a variety of areas – academic, sport, creative arts, language, social and emotional (to name just a few). All successes related to these areas of opportunity can be found within this week’s final edition of the Highlights for Term 2. 

BVIS Students Return from the FOBISIA Primary Maths Competition.

I would like to extend a huge congratulations to our returning Primary FOBISIA Maths team.

Four young mathematicians, Cecilia, Susie, Leo and Nam, joined 100 other students from 26 British International schools across Asia in a 5-round competition from Thursday 16^th to Saturday 18^th March 2023.  

They showed outstanding performances in all the rounds – Maths Mastermind, Maths Amazing Race, Maths Individual Test, Maths Escape Room and Maths Live Buzzer.  There were four team activities where children worked together to solve challenging tasks belonging to a variety of topics in Mathematics. Our students achieved a high ranking in the individual test; Cecilia – 43^rd, Susie – 39^th, Leo – 30^th and Nam – 14^th.  Nam won the Silver Medal overall!

Throughout the competition, the children had the opportunity to demonstrate their brilliant maths knowledge, problem-solving strategies, logic and reasoning skills.  They also had a chance to meet and make friends with other students from different schools, which they enjoyed thoroughly. 

Congratulations to all four mathematicians - we are all very proud of their achievements.

BVIS Summer School 2023

Just a gentle reminder that Friday 31^st March is the final deadline for you to receive a 20% discount on your child’s place at this year’s Summer School. 

Places are limited and so far, we have had our best ever sign for this event. If you don’t want your child to miss out, please contact Ms. Thao Nguyen, Events Manager at: 090 6880 005 or email Marketing@bvisvietnam.com for further details.

You asked......we did. 
Back by Popular Demand

Following recent feedback from parents and this term’s successful reopening of the Sunken Garden for secondary students to have breakfast, from Wednesday 12^th April we now extend this invitation to BVIS parents, following the schedule below:

• Open from 7.15am – 8.00am (Monday – Friday) 
  
  
• Entrance and Exit of parents by Gate C only 
  
  
• In line with our well-established Safeguarding Procedures, parents must have a valid BVIS ID card to enter the school site 
  
  
• Primary students can join too but must be accompanied(supervised) by an adult / secondary sibling 
  
  
• Last orders will be taken at 8.00am with no food or drink sold after this time 
  
  
• All parents must leave the school site by 8:15am, ready for the school day to begin 

We are looking forward to seeing families joining us for breakfast from Wednesday 12^th April, after the Term 2 break.

Contact Us

For all enquiries regarding your child’s BVIS education, use the contact details below:

And Finally........

On behalf of everyone at BVIS, we hope that you have a great break and find the opportunity to spend the maximum amount of family time together.

We would like to wish all of our exam students the best of luck with their revision and please ensure that if you have a son/daughter who will be preparing for external examinations in Term 3, that like us, you will encourage them to gain a healthy study/life balance.

See you all again very soon and thank you for your continued support of our school and its wider community.

Mrs Mary McAloon, Head of Primary

Reading Seminar for EYFS to Y2 Parents

On Tuesday afternoon, Ms Truc and Mr Max welcomed parents into the library to share useful tips about how to use books to support a child’s emotional literacy.  Emotional literacy is all about being able to know how you are feeling and share this emotion with others so that they can support you.  All feelings are valid and it is important for children to learn how to manage them and self-regulate so as not to feel overwhelmed by any emotion.  

Through reading books, children are introduced to feelings that book characters convey and whilst reading with an adult, these feelings can be unpicked to better the children’s understanding of emotions.  Parents were shown how this can be done through examples that our expert librarian, Ms Truc, and our Lower Primary phase coordinator, Mr Max, shared.  

Thank you to all parents who attended this valuable session.  With the Term 2 holidays just around the corner, this provides a perfect opportunity to increase the amount of reading that you do with your children at home.  Keep a record of what you read together and share this with your child’s class teachers when we return for Term 3; teachers would love to learn about what you are reading at home.

Y4 production

Not all productions are just about singing and dancing: some have very powerful messages too. Over the last few weeks, the Year 4 students have been preparing to perform ‘The Big Green Adventure’.  All students played a part in the production, which involved learning lines, acting cues, song lyrics and projecting their voices – no mean feat for an adult let alone a child!  

This production was truly special as the performance linked to the theme of ‘reducing the impact we all have on our world’.  In Lien Ket, Year 4 have been studying food and farming and how choosing to eat locally sourced foods minimises the negative impact we can all have on our planet.  The passion in the students’ performance highlighted how important this theme is.  

The Year 4 teaching team would like to say a huge thank you to all those who have supported the children in their journey to put on such a fabulous production.  It is the BVIS community supporting the learning and development of all children that enables such talent to be shown.  

Well done Year 4, you were great! 

Y1 Go Searching for Landmarks

This week, Year 1 went on an exciting trip to Bitexco Tower!  Children have been learning about buildings and landmarks in their Lien Ket lessons, so this was a perfect trip for children to experience the landmarks of Saigon.  Children completed different activities on the Skydeck at Bitexco such as, drawing cityscapes, searching for landmarks and sketching the world-famous Landmark 81.  On the bus journey back to school, we took a route via the post office, Notre Dame Cathedral, Turtle Lake and the Independence Palace.  Year 1 were so excited and loved chatting with their friends about the different landmarks in their city.

This trip was a wonderful experience and especially well-deserved after the hard work they had put into their wonderful production last week. 

Well done to our Year 1 children for representing BVIS with integrity during the trip!

Upcoming Events

•  10/04/23 @ 08:25am: Term 3 Begins – school resumes
  
  
• 19/04/23 @ 08:45am: Year 2 parents meeting – preparing for BYOD
  
  
• 21/04/23: World Earth Day – Students invited to wear green for the day
  
  
• 28/04/23: School closed for students - Staff Training Day 
  
  
• 01-03/05/23: School closed for Public Holiday
  
  
• 04/05/23: School resumes

Mr Toby Bate, Head of Secondary

Headteacher’s breakfast

Some of our top performing students were invited to breakfast with me last Tuesday to celebrate their commitment to the school and their house during Term 2.  

Congratulations to Van Khanh (Heidi); Yen Khanh (Alice); Pemica; Bao Duy; Bao Duy; Ha My; Chuong Phan (James); Kien Nghiep; Ha Minh (Mary); Ke Phuc (Eddie). 

These are some of our most committed students who are keen to develop not only themselves, but our whole school community.

Secondary Housepoints update

As we reach the end of Term 2 we can check in with the Housepoint totals to see who is now in the lead in Secondary. 

This term finished with Saigon catching Hue in the last week and overtaking them!

Congratulations to all Saigon students for this huge effort in the last few weeks.

Space Week

This week, secondary students enjoyed a variety of space themed events.

Students had a wonderful time, talking to an alumnus of the school who is now a working astronomer, experimenting with liquid nitrogen and having the opportunity to learn more about space.

Please see some of the interesting costumes below that students and staff chose to wear on Thursday to celebrate Space Week.

Virtual Musician of the Year (VMoTY)

The VMoTY competition closes on 31st of March. All details can be found on Global Campus:

https://globalcampus.nae.school/course/index.php?categoryid=128

Students are free to enter as many categories as they wish within their age range so please encourage your son/daughter to take part. Good luck to all who enter.

An Update from our Vietnamese History Teachers

Year 7 students have just experienced a new and interesting form of testing through guiding students to prepare study materials by reading and organizing their knowledge systematically. 

On the day of the test, the teacher and the students sat facing each other, and the teacher asked each student 5 different skill level questions linked to recall, understanding and application. Through this form of assessment, teachers not only assessed the students' subject competence but also analysed their learning skills. 

The students were very diligent and serious in this evaluation, and we are all very proud of them!

Horticulture Club

This week the students of the Horticulture Club harvested their first crop of lettuce. They have been growing these plants since October, along with over 50 other kinds of plants!

They made a salad with tomatoes, and home-grown basil. It was a great celebration of their green fingered efforts.

House Basketball

Secondary students have been competing in the House Basketball Tournament for the last three weeks. It has been a thrilling and highly competitive event, with numerous students taking part and supporting their respective house teams.

The event began with the U19 tournament, where Hue dominated in both the girls' and boys' games, winning both tournaments for this age group. 

The following week, the U15 tournament took place, which was especially noteworthy as U19 students refereed the games. They did an exceptional job, and it was excellent to see some of our greatest BVIS sporting leaders in action. Saigon dominated and won both the boys' and girls' tournaments.

This week, the U19 students volunteered again to referee the U13 games, where teams compete for a final chance to win the overall House Basketball Cup.

Creative Gala

This week saw the Creative Arts Faculty open its doors to welcome students, staff and parents to see behind the scenes. Our young people have shared their passion and talents for the arts and helped to explain to parents and staff what actually happens during lessons, extra-curricular sessions and on a daily basis here at BVIS. 

Well done to all those involved and we all hope this has inspired everyone to both further develop and share their own creative side.

BVIS STAR of the Week

In honour of space week, we have temporarily  renamed the champion of the week to the ‘star’ of the week, and this week it is...

Bao Duy from 11S! Congratulations to her!

BVIS STAR tutor group of the Week

This week’s star tutor group is...

Who collectively earned a huge 167 Housepoints this week. Well done to everyone in 8B!

Upcoming Events 

• 10/04/23: Start of Term 3.
  
  
• 13/04/23: Year 9 Parents Evening.
  
  
• 17/04/23: Season 3 ECAs resume
  
  
• 17-19/04/23: AS Art Exam
  
  
• 18-19/04/23: IGCSE Art Exam
  
  
• 19/04/23: Secondary Open Morning
  
  
• 24-28/04/23: Psychology Week

• 26/04/23: Parent’s Workshop: Puberty

• 26/04/23: Principal’s afternoon tea
  
  
• 28/04/23: INSET day, no students in school
  
  
• 01-03/05/23: Reunification Day and Labour Day, school closed.

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: