Weekly Highlights 25/10/2024

Mr. Simon Higham, Principal

Dear Parents

Welcome back to the Weekly Highlights after our half term break. I trust that you all had a relaxing and enjoyable week and are ready for more great learning opportunities.

On Wednesday this week, I returned to school after attending the annual Nord Anglia Education SLT Conference in Switzerland. This year’s theme was ‘Leadership’ and it was both a pleasure and a privilege to represent BVIS HCMC. I wonder if you can spot me amongst the Southeast Asia, Middle East and India Principals below?

During the Conference, it was very pleasing to hear that the development of a strong school culture is currently at the forefront of educational thinking when assessing the success of great schools. Throughout the conference I reflected upon our own school culture and how, in my opinion, it has become a real strength across our whole school community. 

In my view, a positive school culture takes time to nurture and needs constant attention to ensure that it continues to grow and develop. It must have the support of all stakeholders – students, teachers and parents, as together, a strong culture becomes even stronger.

During one workshop at the conference, Dr Flossie Chua, Principal Investigator at Project Zero stated, ‘Learning and thinking are as much a collective enterprise, as an individual endeavour.’ She went on to emphasise the importance of how working together builds strong places to learn and thrive in.

Based upon this theme, I ask you, as parents, to reflect upon the following questions:

• How and when have you experienced the strong culture at BVIS?
  
• How much time could you offer to help further support the development of our BVIS community?
  
• What can school do to help support your involvement?

As always, I would be very happy to hear your responses through the following email address: jacy.nguyen@bvisvietnam.com or by contacting Ms Nhien: nhien.ngo@bvisvietnam.com who would be very happy to explain how you can become involved with FoBVIS (Friends of BVIS), our parent/teacher group in school.

As always, together we are stronger to ensure that the most important people in our school, our children, receive the best possible learning opportunities. 

Welcome to our New Teachers

Meet the teaching team for the new school year: Mr. Hao Dinh - secondary English teacher.

Qualifications

- Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature,University of Maryland (2013)
- Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction (2014)

Hao obtained a BA in English Language and Literature and an M.Ed in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Maryland. He lived and taught in the United States for two years before moving to Vietnam where he taught at the Vietnam-Finland International School and the American International School Vietnam.

Outside of teaching, Hao is a foodie who likes to burn off the calories on the rock-climbing wall. Hao is looking forward to embracing Vietnamese and British culture as a new member of the BVIS community!

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 everyone at BVIS, I wish you a very enjoyable weekend ahead. 

Mrs Mary McAloon, Head of Primary

Year 4 Launch Live Lunches 2024-25

Playing the piano both in and out of assemblies, our budding pianists showcase their evolving musical talent to the audience each week.  They are always thanked and celebrated for helping to create a relaxing and reflective start and end to each assembly.  This is an important opportunity for the students to hone their musical abilities in a performance situation.  Knowing the value of practicing this skill, each term Ms Heather our Primary Music Teacher, creates a lunchtime event for more musicians to perform to an audience.  Students volunteer to participate in the ‘Live Lunch’ events and are encouraged to play any instrument they wish or sing their chosen song.  In the past, we have heard students drumming, beat boxing, singing, playing the piano, xylophone, ukulele and more.  

This week Year 4 launched this term’s Live Lunches serving as a relaxing way to spend lunchtime in the foyer listening to the different sounds of music that the students have recently been learning.  Thank you to Ms Heather and the students who confidently took to the stage and showcased their talents.  

Upper Primary Residentials

During Term 2, Years 4, 5 and 6 students will experience their annual residential trip.  Residentials help students build life skills, such as resilience, independence and confidence.  Students grow and mature through the experience and develop friendships through team-building activities.  Naturally, 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 in store with parents and answer questions about the planned experiences.

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 in their upcoming meetings in November.  Look out for details of each meeting on ClassDojo.

Primary Canteen – Official Opening

Following the first successful half term of enjoying the newly renovated primary canteen, on Wednesday the primary student council’s President and Vice-Presidents joined key members of our BVIS community who were involved in the design and creation of this beautiful new facility to share their gratitude.  They marked the occasion by giving a speech of appreciation and cutting a ceremonial ribbon; the primary canteen has now been officially opened!  

Students thoroughly enjoy eating their lunch in the improved brightly coloured, spacious and comfortable environment.  They have shared many comments throughout the soft opening including, “It’s like a 5 star hotel!”  and “It’s a real restaurant!”  This is true testament to those responsible for the design and aesthetics created.  I would like to express my deepest thanks on behalf of all in primary to the design team and all support staff who helped to make this welcomed change come to life.

Upcoming Events

1. 29/10/24 - 08:30: Helping your child at home for EYFS parents – focusing on meaningful interactions and supporting children's ‘big emotions’
   
2. 03/11/24: Club block 1A ends
   
3. 04/11/24 - 08/11/24: SISAC Championship Week
   
4. 11/11/24: Club block 1B begins

Mr Toby Bate, Head of Secondary

From Junk to Jack-o-Lanterns 

This term, the Gardening and Horticulture club has been digging deep into their “reuse, recycle, and repurpose” skills!

They’ve mastered the art of propagation, turning cuttings into future plants, and have been sprouting fruit and veg from the “tops and tails” that usually hit the bin. Trellises were repaired with lolly-sticks (who knew popsicles could be so supportive?), and old containers have blossomed into perfect plant pots.

But the highlight for most? Crafting “spooky but cute” seasonal plant pots from empty formula cans. What an amazing "can-do" attitude!

Alumni Interview Series + University Ambassador Sway has Officially Opened!

Last week, one of the university ambassadors had a wonderful opportunity to interview Minh Vu, a former student of BVIS who is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Media Communication at one of the top universities in Australia – Monash University. He shared some essential yet fascinating content for studying at the university and how A-Level study, especially at Media Studies, has helped him at Monash University.

To read the full story, you can look at the University Ambassador sway – which has been officially opened!

English Faculty Update

Our annual 6 in 6 Reading Challenge is well underway, and we hope your child took advantage of the recent holiday break to immerse themselves in their chosen books! With over 200 students already participating, it's been an exciting start. If your child hasn’t joined yet, they can still get involved by visiting the English department to collect their reading record bookmark. Apart from the obvious benefits of reading, there are loads of great prizes and rewards for taking part this year. 

Reading daily remains essential, and we encourage you to keep supporting your child by maintaining a reading routine at home. Remember: you can get involved too! Discuss your favourite stories, explore new genres together, and continue fostering a love for literature. Let's make this challenge a success!

Animation Workshop with A Level Art & Design students

The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) hosted an Animation workshop for A-Level Art & Design students. Led by Sequential Design graduate June Dao, the students explored the principles and techniques of animation. To apply their newfound knowledge, they collaborated in small groups to create stop motion animations using the Stop Motion App. This workshop provided a valuable opportunity for students to enhance their design skills and create extracurricular works to showcase in their portfolios, particularly if they aspire to pursue creative studies at university.

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 

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 - Nguyen Ngoc Thien Huong
Year 8 - Le Hong Minh Quang
Year 9 - Kosuke Yamamura
Year 10 - Nguyen Hoang Tue Tran 
Year 11 - Ngo Khanh Ngoc 

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 Kha Vy!

Champion Tutor Group

This week's Champion tutor group is...

Congratulations to everyone in Hanoi3, well done!

Housepoint Totals

Hanoi hold on to their lead but Dalat are starting to catch up! 

Upcoming Events