Weekly Highlights 13/12/2024

Mr. Simon Higham, Principal

Dear Parents

Welcome to the final Weekly Highlights of Term 1 that focuses upon ‘thanks’, ‘gratitude’ and looking forward to what’s coming soon.

As always, every member of our BVIS staff has gratitude for your engagement and connection with our school. Whether that is through your attendance at your child(ren’s) parent/teacher meetings, helping out as part of Friends of BVIS (it has been a real pleasure to see FoBVIS grow this year) or simply by taking time to read through the Highlights each week, we give you our thanks.

As we move towards our Term 1 holiday, I ask that you take time to reflect upon how you can further strengthen this partnership in Term 2 and how you can spread this message across our wider community. 

Parent Satisfaction Survey Update – Thank You

I fully understand that over the last few weeks, we have been hounding you to complete our Parent Satisfaction Survey and as always, our BVIS community have helped to support us.

I am pleased to report that when the survey closed last Friday, we achieved a 46% response rate which was 1% ahead of our school target and 3% ahead of last year’s total. 

My heartfilled thanks to all parents who completed the survey, offering their feedback and thoughts on what areas of the school we do well at and what areas of improvement we need to focus upon in the future.

We look forward to sharing our headline results and next steps with you in Term 2. 

BVIS Christmas Fayre – See You There

My thanks to everyone who has helped to support in the organisation of this year’s BVIS Christmas Fayre. I am looking forward to seeing you all at this showcase event to help continue to bring the spirt of Christmas to both you and your family.

Remember to buy your raffle tickets – we have over 100 amazing prizes to be won this year. All proceeds will go to Saigon Children’s Charity, one of our well established community partnerships.

Tet Festival 2025 – Embracing Vietnamese  Perspective and Heritage

On Tuesday this week, all parents received an email about our biggest event of the calendar year – Tet Festival 2025.

We invite all members of our school community to join the Tet Festival with the theme ‘Embracing Vietnamese Perspective & Heritage,’ held on campus at 8:30 AM on Sunday, 12th January 2025.

This year’s festival celebrates Vietnamese heritage and traditional arts, offering unique experiences that capture the essence and spirit of Vietnam. Our community will have the opportunity to explore and preserve the beauty of Vietnamese cultural traditions through the following activities:

• Discover traditional craft villages that represent Vietnam’s rich cultural heritage.
  
• Participate in making Bat Trang pottery, printing Dong Ho paintings, and crafting coconut leaf art under the guidance of skilled artisans.
  
• Enjoy traditional Tet folk games and much, much, more.
  
• Experience vibrant New Year performances by students and Friends of BVIS, featuring a variety of unique acts.
  
• Exciting activity booths operated by students and teachers across our 4 Houses and also by our school's community partners.
  
• Receiving attractive TET gifts at check in.

Invitations to Attend

Invitations will be sent to families from 8^th to 10^th January 2025. To ensure the security and safety of the event, we need to control the number of distributed invitations. 

All families will receive 02 parent invitations ALONG WITH 01 invitation for each student attending the school.

If you wish to receive additional invitations to invite friends or relatives (maximum of 02 guests) to attend the event, please register and collect invitations at the Primary / Secondary Reception Office from now until 11.00am on Wednesday 18th December 2024. As the number of invitations are limited, they will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. 

Should you have any questions related to the event, please contact Ms. Nhien Ngo, Events Manager, via email: nhien.ngo@bvisvietnam.com or hotline 0906 880 005.

Picture Day – Update

Following this terms individual and class photographs taken by Picture Day, we are expecting these to be ready for purchase via the Picture Day website by the beginning of Term 2.

Once we have more information from them, we will share this with you immediately.

Welcome to our New Teachers

Ms. Hayley Allison – Secondary Psychology Teacher

Qualifications
- Bachelor of Economic and Social Studies, Swansea University (2010)
- Postgraduate Certificate in Education at the University of South Wales (2015)
- Masters in Clinical Psychology

Hayley completed her Masters in Clinical Psychology and her PGCE in the UK. She has spent the last 5 years in China teaching Psychology A-levels to mainly Chinese students. Alongside this role Hayley worked as a Boarding Houseparent, managing the girls boarding house. Hayley is passionate about mental health and wellbeing leading many initiatives in her previous school.

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 the BVIS staff, I wish you a very peaceful and relaxing weekend ahead.

Mrs Mary McAloon, Head of Primary

A Celebration of Learning

This week we welcomed many parents into school to join their children in a celebration of the learning and progress that they have achieved throughout their topics this term. Students in EYFS and primary have shown commitment and enthusiasm in the enriching activities that they have completed, showcasing their development of knowledge, skills and understanding. From creativity and exploration in EYFS and Transport and Rainforests in Lower Primary, to climate change and Ancient Greece in Upper Primary, there was so much to celebrate with parents, students and teachers this week through the planned ‘Exit Points’.

At BVIS we follow the International Primary Curriculum (IPC) in both English and Vietnamese, which encourages research, creativity and critical thinking.  The topics planned by our innovative teachers take students on great learning journeys which we believe deserves to be celebrated in a memorable way. I would like to thank all families who joined us this week to create these special memories for our students.

Progression and Achievement over the Primary Years

I received a clip of Emily in Y6 performing on stage in front of 200 employees from her mother’s company year-end party. Emily was part of a dance that shared the message of sustainability and how we should be more mindful of our actions in order to protect earth and live harmoniously with nature. Emily’s mother shared this with me with such pride for Emily’s confidence and ability. Alongside this, Emily’s mother also shared her gratitude for how BVIS has nurtured and guided Emily to develop and progress by providing great and varied opportunities for growth.  

At school, we are also very proud of the courage and resilience that Emily displayed during her performance. Speaking with clarity and confidence, Emily shared the key message of sustainability following the spectacular dance performance. Well done, Emily!

We love to hear about all students’ achievements outside of school, so please do share these with us so we can celebrate with you.

Upper Primary Sports Day

This week the whole of Upper Primary came together in their house teams – Dalat, Hanoi, Hue and Saigon – to compete in the annual Sports Day led by Ms Lucy Kent and her PE Team. The excitement filled the air as the students and teaching team embarked on the buses to make their way to the Sports Stadium set up ready for the fun-filled morning ahead.  With activities like sprint shuttles, javelin launch and football challenge, the students were prepared to build up their house points to work towards being named the Champion House of the Year for the Upper Primary Sports Day. The students thoroughly enjoyed the experience and made memories to keep forever.  

A heartfelt thank you to Ms. Lucy Kent and the entire PE department for organising such an exhilarating day of sports.  The dedication and hard work of the PE teachers and teaching assistants in encouraging our students to embrace sports as a hobby, and for some, to aspire to become expert athletes, is appreciated. We also extend our gratitude to the families who came to cheer and support the sporting events

Congratulations to our winning house: Saigon!

Upcoming Events

1. 18/12/24: Term 1 ends at 11:30 am
   
2. 08/01/25: Term 2 starts
   
3. 12/01/25: Tet Fair

Mr Toby Bate, Head of Secondary

Year 11 Geography Trip

Last weekend Year 11 Geography students embarked on a trip to Mui Ne, starting with a visit to Hai Thang Fish Sauce Factory. They conducted tourism fieldwork along Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street and studied the Red Sand Dunes. The next day included fieldwork at Fairy Stream and coastal management studies at Sea Links Resort. 

The final day focused on coastal management along Ham Tien Beach. This trip provided hands-on experience in various geographical techniques and fieldwork skills, preparing them for their fieldwork examination paper in May and consolidated knowledge of rivers, coasts and tourism that are all studied in class. Aside from learning a lot about practical geography, they also had a great time!

University Guidance Counselling weekly update

There are many benefits in obtaining high grades in A-level or IGCSE qualifications. However, one question that is asked a lot to the UGC team is “Where are these qualifications recognised?”

In response to this and some other common questions, the University Guidance Counselling department has published the handbook to assist parents and students in navigating these challenges. For further details, please refer to the handbook available in both English and Vietnamese. It is also featured in our ambassador newsletter.

Last week, Singapore Management University (SMU) joined us virtually to provide students with insights into further opportunities at one of Singapore's top public universities. Singapore has been recently trending as one of the top current destinations for students seeking educational opportunities abroad.

December Live Lunch

Today saw a festive version of Live Lunch. Performances from our wonderful students together with a staff performance of ‘Winter Wonderland’. Thank you to all those who performed and to the festive audience

Instrumental Music Lessons

Sign-up is now open to register for Instrumental Music Lessons. Lessons are available to students in Years 3-13 who are interested in learning an instrument (we currently offer violin, guitar, ukulele, piano, drum kit and singing (vocals).

Click here to register or find out more information.

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 - Ho Le Phuc Lam  
Year 8 - Le Hong Minh Quang
Year 9 - Tran Tuyet Anh
Year 10 - Mai Kim Ngan   
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 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 to Finn!

Champion Tutor Group

This week's Champion tutor group is...

Congratulations to 789v/Hanoi4 , well done again!

Housepoint Totals

The Housepoint totals will now be hidden until the final assembly of the term.

Upcoming Events