Weekly Highlights 07/06/2024

Mr. Simon Higham, Principal

Dear Parents 

Thank you for again taking time to read through this week’s Highlights – it is very much appreciated as we value your efforts to fully engage and connect between school and home.

Last Friday members of our Senior Leadership team and their partners had the pleasure to represent BVIS at the annual BritCham (British Chamber of Commerce) Gala Dinner Awards that were held at the Reverie Hotel.

Over the past 2 years, we have come away from the event with awards for ‘Great Innovation in Education’ and ‘Great Employer’. This year, although we did not win any award, we were nominated in the categories for ‘Innovation in Technology’ and ‘Leadership’. These nominations by BritCham recognize the hard work and efforts of all staff across BVIS and for this, we all should be immensely proud of our school and wider school community.

One of my favourite sayings by the former athlete, Mary Lou Retton is: ‘Trophies carry dust, memories last forever’. We continue to look forward to a very exciting future in school that promises to give every BVIS student, individual memories that will truly last a lifetime.

This weekend, ask your child(ren) the following questions and would love to hear about what replies you receive:

1. What is your most favourite memory of being at BVIS and why?
2. If you could give any award to our school, what would it be and why?
   
3. If you could give any award to your parents, what would it be and why?
   
4. If you could give any award to yourself, what would it be and why?

I would encourage all parents to also reflect upon question 4 and look forward to hearing your thoughts.  

Year 3 Students Combine Dinosaurs and Chocolate in Creative Design Technology Project.

Our Year 3 students recently embarked on an exciting project that ingeniously combined their previous unit on dinosaurs with their current unit on chocolate. This innovative cross-curricular endeavor transported the students into the Secondary Design Technology classrooms, where they were introduced to the principles of identifying problems and using the design process to create solutions.  

To read more about this project and see pictures of our students in action, click here to access the post from our school website.

BVIS Summer Music Concert

I would like to personally invite all parents to attend our upcoming Summer Music Concert. The concert will take place on Thursday 13th June, 4.00 - 5.00pm in the BVIS Theatre. 

To attend, please register your interest via the Microsoft Form: Audience Registration

The Summer Music Concert is an opportunity for our students across Primary and Secondary to share their love of music. Soloists and ensembles will perform their summer-feeling music, helping us to all get in the mood for a happy and relaxing end to the academic year.

Primary and Secondary musicians from our extracurricular programme will showcase their work from this term, as well as soloists from our BVIS Instrumental Programme, in association with the Auftdart Academy of Music and Performing Arts who will also share their musical development on the violin, guitar and piano. 

We look forward to seeing you at the concert.

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.  

I would like to personally wish you all a very safe and family orientated weekend ahead.

Mrs Mary McAloon, Head of Primary

Primary Excursions

This week saw the last of this year’s primary excursions with Year 5 visiting the HCMC History Museum and Saigon Zoo and the final class of F1 visiting the Kawaii Play Café. Day trips like these are purposefully planned to enhance student learning.  

During the time spent at the HCMC History Museum and Saigon Zoo, Year 5 developed their knowledge to use in their Lien Ket learning about the ’Evolution of Life’. Whilst out on their trip, they engaged in many activities including team-building activities and exploring the history of HCMC.  

The final class of F1 enjoyed applying their learning in a new environment, which enabled them to show how much confidence, courage and independence they have developed throughout this academic year. The trip was a great success where students built on and consolidated their F1 learning.

Thank you to the teaching teams who planned and facilitated these great learning opportunities and most importantly, well done to our students who proudly represented the BVIS values.

Moving on up!

At this time of year, we begin talking to the students about the next steps in their educational journey to help prepare them for the challenges ahead. A few weeks ago, Ms Yen Tran and Ms Ruth Bowler, upper primary teachers, hosted a parent information workshop for families whose children will be moving from lower to upper primary in August. Last week I led an assembly for our lower primary students where student council representatives shared their experiences of the changes they noticed as they moved from one year group to another. Insights like these help students to visualise the differences and prepare for the changes so that they are ready in August to challenge themselves in their learning.  

At school, we believe it is important for parents to also understand the changes ahead to equip them to support and discuss these with their children. That’s why this week, Mr Max Coupland and Ms Huyen Nguyen, lower primary teachers, brought our F3 families together to share insights into the journey ahead for their children as they exit the Early Years Foundation Stage and begin their primary years. Thank you to all parents who attended this valuable event. If you have any further questions about your child’s transition, please contact your class teachers as they are happy to help and advise.

Clubs draw to a close

This week saw the last of our extra-curricular clubs for the year as we prepare for the upcoming summer holidays. It is wonderful to have seen so many students actively participate in various activities, exploring their passions and developing new skills. I would like to extend thanks to parents for supporting and encouraging their children to participate in these extra-curricular activities. The next primary club programme will begin in September of the new academic year 2024-25. In preparation for this, next week the PE department is running the squad trials. If you would like your child to have the opportunity to join a sports team next year, please encourage them to sign up for the trials through the form link.  

Throughout the upcoming summer holiday break, we encourage parents to foster their child's love for learning through various recreational activities. I recommend considering registering your child for the BVIS Summer School programme, which runs for full days in the first three weeks of the summer holidays.

Summer school provides students with enriching and active learning activities and a chance to consolidate their learning from the year. Alternatively, Rising Star Football Academy is running a summer camp throughout the holiday. The football camp provides an opportunity for students to be active every day and practice their football skills. Please contact primary reception if you are interested in registering your children for either of these opportunities.

Upcoming Events

1. 13/06/24 - 16:00 – Whole School Music Concert
   
2. 19/06/24 - 17:30 – Sports Awards in the Main Hall
   
3. 21/06/24 - 14:00 – End of EYFS Celebration
   
4. 24/06/24 - Transition day for primary
5. 25/06/24 -16:00 – Year 6 Celebration
6. 26/06/24 -11:30 – Term 3 Ends  

Mr Toby Bate, Head of Secondary

Holocaust Survivor Talk

On Wednesday, students and staff members had the fantastic opportunity to listen to Paul Sved, a Hungarian survivor of the Holocaust, talk about his experiences of one of the most significant and tragic events of history. 

Giving an account of his struggles to survive as a young boy in Nazi-occupied Hungary, students listened with great respect as he imparted upon them the lessons we can learn from the past, and how best to use our knowledge of it to help prevent similar tragedies occurring again. This was then followed by a Q/A session, were students asked some very insightful questions to Paul which served to expand their horizons and empathy towards other people’s lives and struggles. 

Overall, students were truly great ambassadors for the school in this historical and cross-cultural experience and were given much to reflect on and think about. In particular, the fact that through our knowledge of the past and its mistakes, we can better understand our present situation, and chart a better path for the future than the ones before us have taken.

Pastoral Update

The annual Year 9 House Drama Competition is back! This year each form has tackled a section of David Almond’s award winning play 'Skellig', working in teams to create the set, direct, act and design atmospheric lighting and sound.

Performances will take place Monday 10th , Tuesday 11th , Wednesday 12th  and Friday 14th June during lunchtimes in the theatre. Tickets will be on sale from reception, with all proceeds going to Saigon Children’s charity. Please encourage your child(ren) to attend this exciting opportunity to support their year group and a good cause! The winning house will be the performance voted for by the creative arts teachers in terms of overall quality, teamwork and effort during rehearsals.

Sports Awards Evening 

On Wednesday the 19th of June we will be conducting our annual sports awards evening for students who have been part of squads this year. We invite all parents of children participating in sports clubs to attend and personal invitations have been sent via email to everyone involved. We are looking forward to welcoming you to this year's Sports Awards Ceremony.

It has been a fantastic year for Sport at BVIS and we are keen to celebrate both individual and team performances as we look back throughout the year.

More information will be shared once the winners have been announced at the event.

June Live Lunch

Sign-up is now open for the final Live Lunch of the academic year. All students are encouraged to share their summer beach vibes to help us all celebrate a wonderful year. (Your son/daughter are able to sign-up via the Microsoft Form that is available in the Secondary Announcements Team).

House Sways

Champion of the Week 

This week’s champion student is:

Minh Khang (Leo) - 7S! Congratulations and well done to Leo  

Champion Tutor Group

This week’s Champion tutor group is 7I. Well done to everyone in the tutor group who worked together to achieve more house points than anyone else last week. 

House point update

The housepoint totals will be hidden between now and the final announcement at the end of the year. We encourage all our students to keep trying right up until the very end, a single housepoint could make the difference!

Upcoming Events