Special Gratitude Letter from BVIS Family to the School

Shared by Ms Dieu Thuy and Mr Duy Phan

Parent of Vinh Phuc (Peter), Year 13 and Vinh Khanh (Tony), Year 11

Both of my children have spent 5 years studying at school with a lot of joy and excitement. I still remember vividly the first day I took Peter to visit the school. After receiving a brief introduction from the admissions office, we were taken on a tour around the campus. As we passed by the Principal's Office while listening to the introduction, and immediately I saw the principal appearing at the door with a very cheerful smile, inviting my son into the office for a chat. The conversation was very close, intimate, and there seemed to be no barrier between the principal and my child. Then, the principal personally escorted my son to the Head of Secondary Office to continue the conversation. After that, we started visiting classrooms, laboratories, and the school swimming pool. My son loves sports, so when we passed by the gym, he ran straight in to watch older students play basketball. Immediately, 4 to 5 students turned around and greeted him. I began to see the excitement in my son's eyes from that moment on. After a tour, we left the school with plans to arrange a test schedule for my son (this was after careful consideration because at this time I still had visits scheduled for 3 other schools and couldn't make an immediate decision). When we reached the lobby, we met the principal who was preparing to bid farewell to the students leaving school. He looked at us and said, "You look very familiar!" This phrase was perhaps a prelude because just 2 months later, my children officially became a member of the BVIS family.

After leaving the school, we continued to visit two other schools. When we were about to visit another one, my son turned to me and said, "Mom, I think visiting the school is enough, I decide to choose BVIS because out of all the schools we visited today (about 10 schools), only this school's principal came out to meet and talk directly with me, only this school's students greeted me even though I was clearly wearing the uniform of another school...."

I respect my child's decision and schedule a test with the admissions office the next day.

In the first days of the first academic year, my children were all excited and happy after school. Peter often came home to tell stories about his friends, teachers at school for us to listen to. Tony is quieter, but when asked, he always replies, "school is great, mom." My husband and I feel very happy and reassured. Until one day, before the parent meeting, Peter said to me, "Mom, my new form tutor seems not to like me, whatever I say, he always says it's wrong and doesn't support me." I asked my son and learned that the teacher was both his tutor and Chemistry teacher.

The next day was the parent meeting, and we met his teacher to hear his assessment of the overall academic situation and the results of my child's Chemistry subject. Then I discussed with the teacher about my child's recent transfer from a public school to BVIS, he had never studied Chemistry before so mainly self-studied from books to understand what his classmates had learned before, so he lacked a lot of knowledge and understood some things based on personal thoughts only. So I really hoped that the teacher could guide him more. On speaking to the teacher, he almost immediately understood the problem with my child and just a few days later Peter came home and boasted, "I started studying Chemistry after school." Since then, his teacher's name has always been mentioned in my child's daily stories, and every period with no lesson or after school, my child goes to his tutor room to study, even when studying for other subjects. My child's Chemistry has visibly improved, and the form tutor has become an idol in his eyes for a long time. The day he heard the news that his tutor was leaving and no longer teaching at the school, Peter was very sad and nostalgic. He spent 3 days thinking about what gift to give to the teacher and how to write a postcard. On the day of farewell to the teacher, Peter bought a box of pastries to bring to school, he said, "I think pastries are the sweetest gift for him, and as for the postcard, I don't know what to write because there are so many things to thank him for; thanks to him, my Chemistry has improved to what it is today. Not only me, but the whole class is grateful for him, and he doesn't want to say goodbye."

My second son, Tony, is quite the opposite of his older brother, he is introverted, quieter, and feels very shy to speak up in front of the class. Because he is introverted, in the first two years of school, he had very few close friends. Every parent-teacher meeting, the teachers always talked about how little he spoke, how passive he was in class. Every year, his tutor (who was with him for 4 years), emphasized this issue, through the way she spoke. I felt like she was worried about the possibility that my child had a communication disorder. I discussed more with her privately after the parent-teacher meetings to try to improve the situation for my child. After a year, my child's proactive speaking had improved significantly in class. When hearing that from his teacher, I was very happy and silently thanked her efforts a lot; however, in other subjects Tony still felt quite shy. He said, "Mom, I don't know why, I feel confident now in my tutor’s class. I'm not afraid to speak up in other subjects, but when it comes to raising my hand to speak, I feel nervous so I still can't do it...". However, the good thing is that Tony, despite being quiet and reserved, loves studying at school, respects and appreciates teachers, and classmates. Going to school for him is always a daily desire, and he has never complained about anything about school. That's something I find very happy and satisfied with.

Five years of studying may not be long, but it has brought a lot of good things to my children. My children have been studying in a professional, international and educational environment, but also very open, friendly, with all the material facilities to meet the learning needs of all students in the school. I am impressed with the way BVIS receives feedback from parents and makes positive changes, such as renovating the library, swimming pool, lunch hours... From the parents' perspective, I understand that to make such changes is not easy for both the school operation system and students, but BVIS has done it. Personally, I feel extremely grateful!

This year is the last year my two children will be studying at the school. Next year Peter will go to university, and Tony will go to college. So, I want to write this letter to share my feelings about BVIS and thank the Principal and all the teachers in the school for educating my children to grow up in terms of knowledge, awareness, and personality as they are today.

I would like to especially thank the Principal who created trust from the first moments so that I could completely trust my children to BVIS. Thank you to all the teachers who are enthusiastic and dedicated teachers who have guided my children from the first steps into the school to today when they can stand firm and confident on the new academic path.

As one of the teachers is no longer teaches at the school, I hope the school will help convey this gratitude to him.

Once again, I sincerely thank the Principal and all the teachers of BVIS.