Weekly Highlights 10/11/2023

Mr. Simon Higham, Principal

Dear Parents

Many thanks again for engaging and connecting with our school community through the Weekly Highlights – it's our pleasure to share with you the many events, successes and achievements that have taken place across our BVIS community this week.

FOBISIA Leaders Conference – ‘Shaping the Future Together’

As outlined in last week’s Highlights, over the weekend 5 other BVIS leaders and I represented our school at the annual FOBISIA Leadership Conference held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

BVIS has been a member of FOBISIA (Federation of British International Schools in Asia) since 2015.

Across Saturday and Sunday, we attended a variety of workshops ranging from AI to Wellbeing, Redefining Education to Safeguarding.

Additionally, this year’s headline speakers were as follows:

Sir Clive Woodward – most famous for coaching the English rugby team to World Cup success in 2003 and leading team GB athletes to gold across 3 Olympic Games, Sir Clive’s talk was entitled ‘DNA of a Champion’.

Inspiring and thought provoking, this keynote speech introduced us all to TCUP – Thinking Correctly Under Pressure and how as leaders, we can coach ourselves, teachers and students to perform better.

He wrote his autobiography ‘Winning’ in 2004.

Lisa Tregale is currently Director of the BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales and in charge of Wales’ only professional symphony orchestra.

Her keynote was based around the importance of creativity in leadership and why the arts are so important in the educational development of our students. Her words were very reassuring, given our NAE collaboration with Juilliard and the importance we place on developing music, drama and dance across our BVIS curriculum.

Stuart Lawrence is best known for being the younger brother of Stephen Lawrence who was brutally murdered in an unprovoked racist attack in London back in 1993.

His keynote told the story of his personal journey after his brother was killed and how we as leaders, should empower students to embrace innovation and leverage technology. As he put it, ‘those in IT usually win’.

As a university student in 1993, I personally remember the Stephen Lawrence murder and how it affected and influenced well needed reforms across UK society. Read more about Stuart in this 2021 interview with The Guardian newspaper.

The final keynote of the weekend was delivered by Tim Jarvis, a British-Australian environmental explorer, adventurer, climber, author and documentary filmmaker.



Jarvis talked of the lessons he had learned in leadership from retracing Ernest Shackleton’s epic journey from Antarctica to South Georgia. Furthermore, his keynote focused upon how effective leadership is built around the ability to problem solve, resilience, teamwork, motivation and goal setting. Jarvis is without doubt, an extraordinary human being who is campaigning hard to make positive change for our global environment and the future of our children.

Click here to read more about Shackleton’s epic Antarctic journey of survival in 1916 and how Tim Jarvis and his team attempted to recreate that exact journey in 2013.

School Photographs

Please be reminded that next week is when our school photographs will be taken.

Date: Monday 13^th November to Friday 17^th November 2023
 
Venue: BVIS Sport’s Hall on the 3rd floor 

I would encourage you to carefully check the schedule below to ensure that you know when your child(ren’s) photos will be taken.

Group family photographs are available as an optional extra on a first come first served basis. This additional service takes place in the Sport’s Hall and is available Monday – Thursday, from 3.15pm to 4.15pm. Please note that all students having a family photograph must be supervised by a parent.

#LoveBVISWeek

Yes, #LoveBVIS is back and will take place next week from November 13^th to 17^th, with the theme ‘Spread the BVIS Love: Embrace Our Core Values.’ 
 
We would like to extend an invitation to all parents for a special event during the week - ‘The Essence of BVIS’ Art Exhibition. 
 
Time: 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM on 15^th, 16^th, and 17^th November, 2023 

Location: Main Hall 

When you attend the Art Exhibition you will be able to:

• view the incredible artwork from our competition ‘The Essence of BVIS: Celebrating our Core Values through Art’
• listen to captivating student musical performances
• make handmade cards with Friends of BVIS (FoBVIS) in celebration of Vietnamese Teachers' Day (20th November) 

Additionally, for the very first time, BVIS is delighted to release a desk calendar featuring winning artwork from our competition that was held earlier in the school year and celebrated in the Highlights last month.



Calendars will be available to buy at the exhibition on a first come, first served basis. All profits will go to the Saigon Children’s Charity scholarship programme.

Get there early as once they’re gone......they’re gone forever!  

Introducing our Amazing New Teachers

Ms Lucy Wilson

BSc in Sport and Exercise Science, Teesside University, UK 

MSc Sport and Exercise Psychology, Teesside University, UK 
 
PGCE (QTS) Physical Education, University of Staffordshire, UK

Lucy began her teaching career in the UK and taught Physical Education there for 8 years before beginning her international teaching career in Asia in 2019. She has had a range of leadership positions throughout her career and joins BVIS as Deputy Director of Sport from Thailand where she has been working for the past 4 years. 

Lucy has a passion for sport and a keen interest in fitness. She is looking forward to new experiences living in Ho Chi Minh City and exploring Vietnam.

Contact Us

Should you wish to contact your child’s Class Teacher(s) or Form Tutor directly, we encourage communication to be written in the language you most feel confident to use. 

Parents may also find it useful to contact their child’s class teacher(s) or form tutor directly for all individual queries about their academic work/social and emotional wellbeing in school.  Individual contact details can be found in the Parents' Handbooks or via our Primary/Secondary Receptionists.  

Wishing all of our BVIS community, a very peaceful and family-orientated weekend ahead.

Mrs Mary McAloon, Head of Primary

Upper Primary Upcoming Residentials

In Term 2, Years 4, 5 and 6 will experience the annual residential trips.  These events are planned for students to build many life skills, such as resilience, independence and confidence to name a few.  Students not only have the opportunity to grow and mature but also develop their friendships through team-building activities.  Preparation for these residential trips is key to their success.  This includes teachers visiting the venue prior to the trip, assessing the activities and ensuring all measures are in place for a safe and enjoyable experience.  Another part of this preparation is the parent meetings where trip leaders share the excitement that is in store for their children and have the opportunity to ask questions.
 
I would like to thank those parents who attended the Year 4 residential trip meeting this week and I look forward to welcoming our Year 5 and 6 parents to next week’s meetings on Thursday 16th November, 14:00 and 15:30 respectively.
 

Year 4residential trip last year

City Championships 

We had four Bulldogs football teams compete in four separate championships this week and last.  Last week I gave a summary of the U11 Boys and Girls teams, in this week’s Highlights I will summarise the U9 Boys and Girls teams efforts and successes.
 
Our U9 Girls and U9 Boys teams played exceptionally well throughout the season. Three teams competed across U9 Boys A & B and U9 Girls A tournaments.  Through exceptional preparation, application and attitude our teams were able to capture two victories and one fourth place finish.  The success and disappointment of friendly fixtures as well as the championship tournaments have been excellent learning opportunities for all our students.  Winning is always enjoyable, losing helps us to learn and improve.  All our students should be incredibly proud of their progress and development this term and we hope for more success in the year ahead.

Let’s go Bulldogs!

Live Lunches

Imagine a world without music.  There is a soundtrack to much of what we do in life – celebrations, events and experiences are almost always accompanied by music.  Music brings out the creativity in people, it helps us to build memories, think differently, feel calm and become excited.

Last weekend at the FOBISIA Senior Leadership Conference in Kuala Lumpur, I had the privilege of listening to Lisa Tregale’s story, the Director of the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales.  Lisa’s journey with music has given her so much success.  After completing her iGCSEs and A Levels just like our BVIS students, Lisa went on to study at York University where she achieved a Bachelor degree in music.  Her career began as an orchestra manager which laid the tracks for her career path to now being the first female Director of the famous BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales, Great Britain.  Alongside this role, Lisa is also trained as a saxophonist, vocalist, clarinettist and flautist.  

Lisa’s journey is a reminder of how important it is for our students to explore and experience musical instruments.  Playing a musical instrument or singing as a child not only may become a passion to take them onto a lucrative career in musical leadership, but it also has many benefits including, increased patience, self-esteem and coordination, plus it improves reading, maths and memory capacity.  With the number of benefits of learning to play an instrument, I would encourage students to consider starting instrumental lessons.  

Over these few weeks at school, we have held ‘Live lunches’ for students to practice their musical skills with an audience.  Interested students sign up with Ms Heather to play or sing their musical pieces to their peers and teachers, providing them with the experiences required to grow in confidence and encourage them to persevere with being musically creative.  Well done and thank you to all students who have performed or will perform in this round of live lunches.

Upcoming Events

1. 13-17/11/23 – School Photograph Week
   
   
2. 16/11/23 – Maths Workshop for Y3 & Y4 Parents
   
   
3. 22/11/23 – Reading Workshop for EYFS Parents
   
   
4. 30/11/23 – Reading Workshop for Lower Primary Parents
   
   
5. 9/12/23 – Christmas Fun Day for families (tickets required)

Mr Toby Bate, Head of Secondary  

It has been another great week with so much happening across Secondary. It was great to see the House Badminton competition earlier in the week and to see so many students taking part! We have also seen many of our amazing students travel to Thailand to take part in the Under 15s FOBISIA sports competition. It is great to have so many students wanting to represent our school and show off how proud they are to wear our school badge. 

Speaking of trips, please can all parents be reminded that the Year 7-10 trips payments should be made by the end of this week.

We are already looking forward to next week for even more learning adventures!

An Update From our Humanities Department

Year 9 are studying climate change and the huge impact this has on Viet Nam, especially being one of the top 10 countries most affected by climate change. Students began by examining how the enhanced greenhouse effect works and will work up to a mock conference where they’ll represent different countries in the world to decide what each should do to try and limit the rise in global air and sea temperatures.

University News

On Tuesday, we hosted our own BVIS university fair that included 26 universities from Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland and the USA. Our students had the chance to interact with university representatives, explore various academic programs, and gain valuable insights into higher education abroad to further support them to attend the university of their choice.
 


This week, our students interested in attending a UK University had a great time talking with Khang Nguyen – a BVIS alumnus (class of 2018) who is currently studying for his PhD in Astronomy at Liverpool John Moores University.

Additionally, students interested in studying in Canada also had a chance to talk with a University Representative from the University of Toronto – ranked 1st in Canada.

Student Council News - World Vegan Day

In celebration of World Vegan Day (1st November), the Environment Committee hosted a sale aimed to promote delicious Vietnamese vegan dishes that included chè Bắp, bánh Chuối Hấp, and bánh Xếp Chiên chay. Thanks to all the support from students and teachers, the food was completely sold out! The total money raised from the sale was 2.5 million VND, which will all be donated to the Blue Dragon Foundation.

Besides the sale, the Environment Committee also created a fun short video, filming teachers trying out a meat burger and a vegan burger, then trying to figure out which was which. The purpose of this video was to bring awareness towards the possibility of replacing real meat with meat alternatives in our diets. 

An Update from our Vietnamese Department

When studying Vietnamese poetry, our Year 12 students had some exciting experiences, and the piece that captured their attention the most was an excerpt from the poem "Tien dan nguoi yeu” of Thai ethnic group. This poetic work, translated by Mac Phi, consists of 1846 lines, including nearly 400 lines of farewell advice. In the spirit of learning literary and exploring culture as well, the students not only engaged with literature through reading and analyzing texts but also had the opportunity to learn about the traditional clothing of the Thai ethnic group.

This traditional costume includes a blouse with a row of silver buttons, a beautifully woven green belt, and a Pieu scarf, which is considered a symbolic representation of affection, showcasing the skillful hands, as well as the colors and patterns that symbolize the mountainous and labor-intensive life of the Thai ethnic group in Vietnam. The students were highly enthusiastic about the practical activity of wrapping the Pieu scarf, which was organized as a competition among groups to determine who could wrap the Pieu scarf correctly, beautifully, and quickly. The group consisting of Sophia, My, and Dot (12V) received recognition from both teachers and fellow students for their outstanding performance in this Pieu scarf wrapping experience.

Sparx Maths Champions

Students earn XP by completing tasks in their Sparx Homework

Compulsory Tasks earn 60-80XP
XP Boost Tasks earn 120-150XP
Target Tasks earn 120-150XP
Independent Learning Tasks earn 100XP

Students reach a new Sparx Level every 10000XP

Top XP earners this week are:

Congratulations to the top Sparx students for this week!

Further to this, students at BVIS have climbed to THIRD place out of 2100 schools in the Sparx Maths ‘league table’

Well done to all students for their continued effort and hard work!

First News Champions 

Bedrock Champions 

This week’s bedrock champions are:

Year 12 – Tran Bao Duy – 12z/AcEB – 113 points
Year 11 – Michelle Kao – 11z/Eng3a – 205 points
Year 10 – Shunsuke Yamamura – 10z/Eng3a – 162 points
Year 9 – Grace Do – 9z/Eng2a – 271 points
Year 8 – Kosuke Yamamura – 8z/Eng3a – 213 points
Year 7 – Steven Tong – 7z/Eng2a – 249 points

Congratulations to all the above students who came up on top in their respective Year groups. A special well done to Grace Do who achieved the highest Bedrock points across the whole of Secondary.  

Housepoint totals

Champion of the Week

This week’s champion student is...

Cecilia in 7S is this week’s champion! Congratulations!

Upcoming Events

1. 14^th Nov 23: Year 12 parents evening
   
   
2. 20^th Nov – 8^th Dec 23: House Football
   
   
3. 28^th Nov 23: Year 7 parents evening
   
   
4. 30^th Nov 23: Y11/12/13 Parent Revision Support Workshop
   
   
5. 5^th Dec 23: Year 8 parents evening
   
   
6. 8^th Dec 23: Year 10-13 Term 1 Grade Reports: go home
   
   
7. 8^th Dec 23: Block 1 clubs end
   
   
8. 15^th Dec 23: Term 1 end at 11:30am
   
   
9. 10^th Jan 24: Term 2 starts

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: