Weekly Highlights 11/10/2024

Mr. Simon Higham, Principal

Dear Parents

Welcome to the final Highlights of this half term and thank you once again for engaging and connecting with us. As always, your time is both respected and much appreciated. 

A Focus Upon our Core Values  

Last week, I challenged you and your family to reflect upon aspects of the school year so far. Taking time to reflect should, in my view, always form a vital part in each of our days as it allows us to stop, think and engage upon what we have learned and then help formulate the next steps for our learning.

Reflection is just one of our 6 core values that are embedded within our school culture. This week, I would like to challenge you to think about the core value of ‘care’. 

There are many different definitions of care, however the one that resonates with me the most is from the Oxford English Dictionary. It states that care is: 

‘The process of caring for somebody/something and providing what they need for their health or protection.’ 

Each day across our school community, we see care in action. Whether this be from EYFS parents bringing their youngest child to the classroom each morning to ensure they are safe and secure for their day’s learning to our oldest Secondary students running engaging and well attended clubs for younger students - this is BVIS care in action. 

Over the last few weeks, our whole school community has come together to help ensure that care is given to families affected by Typhoon Yagi across Northern Vietnam.  

At BVIS, we place the care of ourselves and others as a top priority for everyone who is part of our school and wider community. As Dr Martin Luther King Jr said: Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?' 

Over the half term holiday period, take time to talk with your chid(ren) using the questions below: 

1. When was the last time you saw someone showing care? 
2. What did they do and how did this make you feel? 
3. How have you shown care to both yourself, those you know and those who you don’t? 
4. How did this make you feel? 
5. When you return to school, what one thing are you going to focus upon that shows care towards yourself and others? 

As always, I would be very interested to find out the responses you heard. 

Sleep - The Key to Helping Students Flourish 

Sleep is an essential way to further care for your mind and body. Yet... 

• Are you and your child(ren) getting enough sleep?  
• Why is sleep important to your health, well-being and overall learning journey?  
• How much sleep is recommended for you and your child(ren) to have? 

To find out the answers to these questions and more, read this post from our school website – hopefully, you will find it both interesting and useful and you may see someone familiar in the piece itself! 

After all, according to the U.S. psychologist Lisa Damour: ‘Sleep is the glue that holds us together.’ 

Welcome to our New Teachers 

Meet the teaching team for the new school year: Mr. Samuel Chapman - Primary Inclusion Leader. 

Qualifications 
- Master of Arts in Special Educational Needs & Inclusion, University of Northampton (2020) 
- Postgraduate Certificate in Special Educational Needs Coordination at the University of Northampton (2019) 

Before joining BVIS, Sam worked in a range of different school settings in Thailand, including both mainstream international schools and special needs settings. In these roles, he has taught across Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 and has experience working in Key Stage 3 from his time as a whole school learning support teacher, as well as SENCO ( Special Educational Needs Coordinator). In his role as a special needs teacher at a specialist school in Bangkok, he worked with a range of students with significant barriers to learning and participation, including autism, ADHD, physical disabilities, and students with social, emotional, and mental health needs. These experiences helped Sam develop his ability to support a diverse group of learners. 

After this, he moved back into a mainstream school setting as a Special Educational Needs Coordinator. Over the past five years, in his role as SENCO, Sam has played a pivotal role in driving inclusion initiatives at two different international schools. Sam joins BVIS from Koh Samui, Thailand, where his work to improve inclusion in his school culminated in the school and department receiving the highest mark of outstanding on their latest inspection. With a Masters in Special Educational Needs & Inclusion and a Postgraduate Certificate in Special Educational Needs Coordination (The National Award for Special Educational Needs Coordination), Sam brings a wealth of expertise to his new role. 

Sam has visited Vietnam many times and is keen to learn the language and experience more of the country. In his free time, he enjoys playing football, as well as outdoor pursuits like running, hiking, climbing, and exploring new cultures through travel. 

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 Parent's Handbooks or via our Primary/Secondary Receptionists.   

On behalf of all of us at BVIS, I wish you a very pleasant and caring focused half-term holiday and already, I am looking forward to seeing you all again on Monday 21st October. 

Stay kind and caring to yourself and others – it really does matter! 

Mrs Mary McAloon, Head of Primary

FOBISIA Code-Breaking Challenge

The FOBISIA Mathematics Code Breaking Challenge is a great opportunity for students to apply their mathematical skills, understanding and critical thinking to challenges outside of the traditional daily lessons in mathematics.  On 25^th September, 79 students from Year 4, 5 and 6 participated in the FOBISIA Mathematics Code Breaking Challenge 2024.  Participating students applied their fantastic mathematical skills in problem solving, logical reasoning and perseverance, making them brilliant code breakers.

Over 125 schools and 22,500 students entered this competition, and we are pleased to announce that our 79 BVIS primary students, along with students from our Secondary years, placed BVIS in 14th position for Level 2A of the challenge. Our school’s overall ranking is 28 out of 125 schools.  

In addition, 86% of our 79 BVIS primary students successfully completed the level 1A challenge or above.  Finally, we are proud to share that 9 of those students completed the level 2 challenge, which is aimed at Year 7 students and above!  Congratulations to Hung Long (4I), Tri Hien (4I), The Danh (4S), Truong An (5B), Phuc Nguyen (5B), Thien Ha (5V), Minh Kien (6V), Duy Phong (6I) and Thien Bao (6I) for this fantastic code-breaking achievement!

EYFS Invite Their Families To Play

This week we held, ‘Stay Play and Learn All Together’ sessions in our EYFS classes for families to join.  Following our 'Helping at Home' workshop, themed around developing children's play at home, the theme for this stay and play was, 'We Love to Play!'  The classrooms were set up with activities and opportunities for the students to explore and experience together with their families.  Children were able to show their families how they play at school and what they like to play with.  Before the classroom doors opened, the students were filled with excitement to show their loved ones how they learn and develop at school.

The purpose of these sessions is to reinforce the importance of building the necessary foundation blocks during a child’s early years for a successful learning journey ahead across BVIS.  In addition, parents were offered ‘top tips’ as a takeaway of how to reinforce the particular learning skills and development that their children need at this age to be best prepared for an enriched academic learning journey.

Thank you to all our families who joined this week.  The children and teaching team enjoyed sharing their daily routines and special elements of their learning and development.

BVIS Belonging Bears – Year 1 Entry Point 

On Friday, Year 1 students invited their parents to join them for the very first BVIS Belonging Bears event.  During this special Lien Ket Entry Point, parents and children participated in a variety of fun activities and crafts designed to foster a deeper understanding of belonging.  A sense of belonging is essential to our well-being, and this event promoted team spirit, strengthened connections, and instilled a feeling of being part of the BVIS community.  At BVIS we believe it is important not only for children but for families to also feel they are an integral part of BVIS.  We hope that all of the students' teddy bears and capybaras felt a sense of belonging, too! 

Upcoming Events

1. 14 – 18/10/24: School Closed for Half Term Holiday
   
2. 21/10/24 - 08:25: School Resumes
3. 25/10/24 - 15:30: Friends of BVIS event – Halloween Movie Night
   
4. 29/10/24 - 08:30: Helping your child at home for EYFS parents – focusing on meaningful interactions and supporting children's ‘big emotions’
   
5. 03/11/24: Club block 1A ends
   
6. 04/11/24 - 08/11/24: SISAC Championship Week
   
7. 11/11/24: Club block 1B begins

Mr Toby Bate, Head of Secondary

Alumni Interview

Last week, our university ambassadors had an opportunity to interview one of the outstanding alumni – Phan Toan Vinh. He is an enthusiastic BVIS alumnus from the class of 2021 and is currently studying his final year of his Psychology major at the University of Manchester (part of the prestigious Russell Group and the largest single-site university in the United Kingdom). 

Sharing about his experiences living in Manchester and how studying A Levels at BVIS helped to support his university study, Toan mentioned that it was difficult to adapt to the lifestyle in Manchester at first. However, he and his friends quickly learnt that by exploring the city and making new friends from joining diverse groups and communities could really help them to fit into the city. He commented, “A Level courses are very academic, which is very similar to the university experience, as you have to learn the knowledge very deeply. Along with that, you also must do a lot of experiments and reports on what you are studying.” Although Toan did not apply for a scholarship, he mentioned that students can apply for specific scholarships for Southeast Asia students at the University of Manchester.

To the current BVIS students planning to study abroad, he shared some tips to help them prepare including:

• Learn soft skills – Develop essential skills such as managing money, cooking, and being independent. These will be essential skills students need to develop that will really help them when living independently in foreign countries.
  
• Make a plan – Universities usually provide deadlines and schedules before the academic year starts. Understanding which task should be prioritised allows you to better plan your schedule.
  
• Take breaks – Rest is crucial for maintaining focus and optimizing your study time. Do not ignore self-care.
  
• Join online groups – Join Facebook or other social media groups to better understand the city you will be living in. This will make it easier to adapt to the lifestyle where you are living
  
• Track your expenses – Use tools like Money Note or MS Excel to keep track of your spending and stay within the budget you set for yourself. 
  
• Apply for jobs early – The employment market in the United Kingdom is highly competitive, so students should be prepared and start applying for jobs during the final year of university.

FOBISIA Online Maths Codebreaking Event

Following on from Ms Mary’s FOBISIA Codebreaking update, I am please to report of many secondary student successes too.

This year, there were 4 levels of challenge:

• Level 1 was intended for KS2 and KS3
  
• Level 2 was intended for KS3 and KS4
  
• Levels 3 and 4 were intended for KS5 students.

271 students completed Level 1, 221 students completed Level 2, 14 students completed Level 3 and only ONE student completed Level 4.

Special mentions to Nam Nguyen (Y8) who completed Level 3 and to Leo Phung (Y8) who was the only student at BVIS to complete the Level 4 challenge – this is an outstanding achievement.

Thank you to BISP for hosting such a phenomenal event – I know that students and teachers enjoyed the codebreaking challenge, and we are already looking forward to next year’s event.

BVIS Battle of the Bands

The annual competition, pitting band against band, is back! Sign-up is now open for all bands to battle it out for the right to represent BVIS in the HCMC city wide competition. Please encourage your child(ren) to speak to Ms Amos for more details.

House Sways 

The links below display the House Sways, which are put together by our House student leaders. As the term progresses different posts and updates will be added displaying the relevant news for each of the Houses. 

Dalat - Dalat House News 
Hanoi - Hanoi House News  
Hue - Hue House News 
Saigon - Saigon House News 

Coming soon the University Ambassadors Sway!

Sparx Maths Champions 

The Sparx Maths Weekly Champion is the student who is the top XP earner in each year group. 
 
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 

Huge congratulations go to our Top XP earners this week, who are:

Bedrock Champions  

This week’s bedrock champions are:  

Year 7 - Duong Duc Anh  
Year 8 - Le Hong Minh Quang
Year 9 - Tran Tuyet Anh  
Year 10 - Nguyen Chi Hieu
Year 11 - Ngo Khanh Ngoc
Year 12 - Tran Khanh Nhi

Congratulations to all the above students who came up on top in their respective Year groups. A special well done to Mraz (Le Hong Minh Quang) who achieved the highest Bedrock points total across the whole of Secondary! 

Champion of the week

This week’s champion is...

Congratulations and well done Bella!

Champion Tutor Group

This week's Champion tutor group is...

Congratulations to everyone in Hanoi3, well done!

Housepoint Totals

Dalat overtake Hue to move into third place, but there is no change at the top of the table with Hanoi staying out in front.

Upcoming Events