Weekly Highlights 12/05/2023

Mr. Simon Higham, Principal

Dear Parents 

A warm welcome back to the Weekly Highlights following a shorter school week last week due to the 3 consecutive public holidays. 

As the British Vietnamese International School, the colours red, white and blue were seen across the school last Friday to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III. All students and staff also sampled the tasty delights of British culture with a feast literally fit for a King. Choices included: fish and chips, shepherd’s pie, Yorkshire puddings, sausage and gravy and of course, the full English!

I hope that you managed to see some of the coronation event on your TV screens as an event such as this has not been seen for 70 years.  

Looking Back at this Week 

Our first full week back after the long weekend break was extremely busy and productive. As part of our ongoing commitment to developing our staff to become future leaders, we were host to over 20 delegates from across our Nord Anglia Education schools for the annual Middle Leader Programme (MLP). Facilitated by Ms Mary and Mr Shooter alongside other senior NAE colleagues, it is extremely important for us to help support the growth of future school leaders.  

Well done to Mr Cooper, Ms Stanley, Mr Moroney and Ms Huyen (Communications Manager) from our school who successfully completed the 4-day course.

On Tuesday we provided a Maths workshop for Primary parents which was well attended. Parents were able to understand more about the way in which children learn mathematics at BVIS and left with some great ideas on how to support their child(ren) at home with their mathematical learning. 

This week, we welcomed new and prospective parents into school for our Primary Open Day, which as always was very well attended. 

Finally, our Year 11, 12 and 13 students have had another very busy week of iGCSE, AS and A level examinations. Well done to them for their continued perseverance, positive mindset and overall efforts. 

Update on ‘Friends of BVIS’

Thank you for taking time to complete our most recent survey and offering your support to the ‘Friends of BVIS’ initiative. 

Following the launch of our Survey at the Principal’s Afternoon Tea event and further advertising through the Weekly Highlights, I am pleased to confirm that we have had 23 responses. 

The most popular category that parents offered their support for was ‘enrichment for parents’ – emails will be sent to those parents who offered their help in this area to arrange a further meeting. 

Look out for more information about the outcome of this meeting in future editions of the Highlights. 

If you would like to further engage and connect with our school community, it’s not too late. Simply complete this Form to register how you can support. 

We’d love you to get onboard! 

Update on Parent Satisfaction Survey 2022/23  

Many thanks to everyone who completed this year’s Parent Satisfaction Survey. With an overall school response rate of 50%, we have been able to collect a large amount of data which is currently being analysed and will be shared with you via email, next week.  

Constructive parental feedback is essential for us to further understand more about what you think we are doing well and which areas of our school you think we should further improve upon. 

Student Success Stories 

Our BVIS students are amazing and to showcase their incredible achievements, I invite you all to read about 4 individual success stories by clicking on the links below:

In this post, read more about Se Yeon a current Year 13 student who recently had the opportunity to present her business ideas at the FOBISIA Student Leadership Conference in Bangkok. 

After graduating with a Bachelor of Honours degree from Monash University (ranked 57 in the world according to QS Ranking 2023), Phuong Uyen, a member of the BVIS Class of 2017, is currently working as a Junior Software Engineer at Liftango, Australia.  Read more about Phuong Uyen and her successes in this post. 

Minh Quan, a Year 12 student at BVIS achieved outstanding academic performance in the June 2022 IGCSE exams, with 9 A* grades across all subjects These included: Mathematics, Additional Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Geography, Cambridge IGCSE English as a First Language, English Literature, and Music.  Click on this link to read more about his individual journey at BVIS.  

For Mai Thao Linh, a Year 12 student at BVIS, the subjects in the Performing Arts programme - Art, Drama, and Music - have always held a special attraction and opened up a world of inspiration for her. Read more about her story here. 

U11 FOBISIA Games

Congratulations to all of our returning athletes who took part in last weekend's U11 FOBISIA Games in Bangkok. Read more about their individual and collective successes in this post with more information also in Ms Mary’s section of today’s Highlights. 

Contact Us 

Mrs Mary McAloon, Head of Primary

FOBISIA U11 Games

Last weekend our U11 boys and girls teams made their way to Bangkok to compete in this year’s FOBISIA U11 Games.  With 10 girls and 10 boys in the team, there was a great amount of excitement and sporting passion in the air as they arrived at their base camp for the 5 days.  The students competed in a number of events including swimming, athletics, tee-ball and football.  Each day there were plenty of successes to celebrate with many individual and team medals being won.   

A special mention to the students for their amazing achievements in the football tournament.  Our BVIS Bulldogs Boys Team came third in their tournament and our BVIS Bulldogs Girls Team came first place, with Cherry (Y6) being awarded the overall top Girls Footballer of the tournament!  This is a magnificent achievement that we are all very proud of. 

Congratulations to all the students who participated, helping to make the Bulldogs’ appearance at this year’s FOBISIA games a huge success! 

Speech and Poetry Competition 

This week we celebrated the success of our semi-finalists from Year 1 to Year 6.  With well over 100 entries into the competition, it is an incredible achievement to be named a semi-finalist in this year’s BVIS Speech and Poetry Competition.  Each participant put effort and time into their practice to perfect their skills at speaking aloud to an audience and expressing the emotive language within their speeches and poems.  We are extremely proud of their performances and congratulate their progress and success. 

On Thursday evening this week, we hosted the Speech and Poetry final with students from Years 1 to 4 performing poems and Years 5 and 6 presenting speeches on ‘Where I will go in my education’.  The audience was both in awe of the talent and confidence that the students showed and inspired by the content within the speeches. Every finalist was proud to share their written piece as the audience celebrated their success with huge applause and cheer.  Musicians from the primary years also treated the audience by performing their chosen pieces on the piano and guitar during the intervals.   

Congratulations to all our finalists and a special congratulations to the winners in each category of this year’s BVIS Speech and Poetry Competition. 

Term 3 Live Lunches Begin 

This week was the turn of Year 3 to showcase what they have been learning and how they have progressed in music since the last live lunches in Term 2.  Live lunch is performed in the foyer during the time when the year group has playtime, providing an informal and supportive environment for our budding musicians to experience performing to an audience.   

As a musician, opportunities to perform no matter what your level is part of the all-round experience of learning to play an instrument or learning to sing.  Live Lunches provide the students with the opportunity to begin to feel comfortable presenting their learning and also practice playing a piece of music or singing a song continuously to the end.  Each live lunch we have had this year, Ms Heather, our primary Music teacher, has had an increased number of students register to perform; this is evidence of the great impact that this initiative has had.  If your child is interested in starting a new hobby in music, consider signing them up for the individual instrumental lessons on offer at school.  The next sign-up will be in August for the new academic year. 

Congratulations to all the Year 3 performers this week; we look forward to hearing more from Years 4, 5 and 6 in the coming weeks. 

Upcoming Events 

• 22/05/23 @ 08:40 – Primary Parent Coffee Morning on ‘The Dangers of Social Media’ 
  
  
• 24/05/23 @ 08:40 – Positive Parenting Workshop 6 for Lower Primary: Wearing your playful hat 
  
  
• 31/05/23 @ 08:40 – Positive Parenting Workshop 6 for Upper Primary: Wearing your playful hat 
  
  
• 01/06/23 – Children’s Day celebrations in school (children are invited to wear their own clothes to celebrate) 
  
  
• 15/06/23 @ 14:00 – EYFS Parent meeting for the upcoming new academic year 

• 20/06/23 – Y6 Celebration Evening for Y6 students and families  

Mr Toby Bate, Head of Secondary

University Guidance Update

I am happy to be able to let you know that the Swiss Education Group - SEG | Best hospitality schools | Best hotel management schools in the world (swisseducation.com) - have confirmed they will admit students who achieve the BVIS High School Diploma (HSD). 

Swiss Education Group has a strong portfolio with 4 of its different schools ranked in the Top 8 Best hospitality institutions in the world. 

1. César Ritz Colleges Switzerland 
2. Culinary Arts Academy Switzerland 
3. HIM Hotel Institute Montreux 
4. SHMS Swiss Hotel Management School 

What this means is that BVIS diploma students interested in hospitality (Bachelor’s program) and wanting to study in Switzerland now have more opportunities, as by achieving the BVIS HSD they will be accepted into these top schools. 

In addition to the Swiss group schools, students with a BVIS diploma can also gain entry into all the community colleges in the USA, foundation programs at RMIT in Vietnam and in Melbourne – Australia. 

An Update from the Vietnamese Department 

This week, our students in Year 7, 8 and 9 finished their argumentative essays. Throughout this unit, they have all practiced some important skills such as expressing personal ideas about a social issue, providing appropriate and firm reasoning and using practical and correct evidence to convince the audience. Such are necessary skills for their journey of knowledge, critical thinking, and awareness of the future.  

Besides this, the unit has also helped them develop their critical thinking skills. Apart from essay practice times, they have also debated about hot and interesting social topics. Thanks to such lessons, our students have developed their confidence, and are more ready than ever to express themselves in public debate. 

Turn Back Time (A Collaborative Concert - VSAAP & ICOHCMC)  

It is with great pleasure that I write to you regarding the upcoming concert of Turn Back Time, premiering the work by Alexander L’Estrange of Ahoy! Sing for the Mary Rose. 

The concert will be held on Friday 19^th May, will begin at 7.30pm and take place  in the Youth Cultural House in District 1 (see poster below) . All parents, family members and friends are welcome to attend. Tickets will be available on the door by donation to the Saigon Children’s Charity. 

Student Champion of the week 

This week’s Champion is....

Shunsuke – 9V! Congratulations to Shunsuke on a great week. Well done!  

Secondary Champion Tutor Group of the Week 

This week’s highest scoring tutor group was... 

Well done to Shunsuke and everyone else in 9V who together managed to generate a huge 111 Housepoints! Congratulations!  

First News Update  

First news is an online resourse used across our Key Stage 3 classes. It allows our students  to read updated news articles at a variety of different levels of English. 

Each week, the students earn points for the work they complete and we are pleased to announce that this week, our winners for use of First News are: 

Year 7            Subin (7V) 2,290 points 

Year 8            Max (8I) 910 points 

Year 9            Johnny (9B) 4,285 points 
 
Especially well done to Johnny in 9B who had the highest score in the whole school.  

Upcoming Events   

• Ongoing: IGCSE; AS/A level exams 
  
  
• 11,12/ May/23: Juilliard Visit 
  
  
• 19/5/23: Reading Seminar for Secondary Parents 
  
  
• 9/6/23: Season 3 clubs end 
  
  
• 13 – 16/ June/ 23: Transition week for year 4,5,6 
  
  
• 17/ June/23: Year 13 Graduation Ceremony  

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: