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Mr. Simon Higham, Principal
Dear Parents
Thanks again for engaging and connecting with us via the Weekly Highlights. Remember that all editions can be found in the ‘News’ section of our school website.
This week, I have been in London attending the Nord Anglia Education run Operational Leadership Programme (OLP).
This has been a great opportunity to take part in higher level training to look at how, as a global group of school leaders, we can further develop strategies to make a difference to the lives of our students, parents and wider communities. As always, it’s a privilege to be able to spend time with some inspirational educationalists and NAE senior leaders.
When teaching and non-teaching staff join BVIS and become part of the wider NAE family, their own professional development is a huge priority for us. We constantly strive to ensure that all staff, no matter what their role in school, become better at what they do, to positively impact student learning – both academic and pastoral.
In addition to the OLP, we grow and develop our own leaders across the school in many varied and individualised ways.
Here are just 3 ways that we do this:
Those who are new to leadership can take part in the Middle Leadership Programme (MLP), designed to develop our senior leaders of the future. Currently we have x4 BVIS staff members who are accessing this course.
Furthermore, more experienced leaders can take part in the Senior Leadership Programme (SLP). This course is geared towards leaders who already have a senior role in school and want to further develop and enhance their leadership skills. Currently, we have x2 BVIS staff members accessing this course.
Finally, in order to grow our NAE leaders into Principals, we run the Aspiring Principals Leadership Programme (APLP), that helps to support and train Principals of the future. Currently, we have x1 member of our BVIS staff who is accessing this programme.
Following my own training this week, I thought it would be of interest to highlight just some of the many professional learning courses that are currently running across our school and the wider NAE community. At BVIS, we always want the best, to keep the best and to support the best to become even better – that's what our students deserve!
Recently, we had the opportunity to connect with Nhat Minh, an alumna from the Class of 2023, who is currently pursuing a specialised Business major at New York University (NYU) with a scholarship worth over $165,000 (nearly 4 billion VND). NYU is a prestigious institution ranked 33rd in the 2025 World University Rankings by The Times Higher Education.
Read more about Nhat Minh’s success and how her A Level studies have helped her to shorten her study time by 1.5 semesters by clicking on this link.
As mentioned in last week’s Highlights, this week has been the first week of this year’s #LoveBVIS event that has been packed with different activities.
#LoveBVIS allows our community the opportunity to celebrate the love they have towards our school through meaningful actions.
Have you shown your love for our community yet? To find out more about how you can show your love towards BVIS, click here to find all the information you need.
Thank you as always, for your ongoing support!
If you did not have chance to read the email that I shared with all parents last month about the results and next step actions from our latest Parent Satisfaction Survey, then click here to find out more.
Your feedback from our annual Parent Satisfaction Survey helps us improve our understanding of how parents think we are performing in key areas across the school. We do this to ascertain what areas you think we are doing well in and what areas we can further improve.
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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.
Have an amazing weekend ahead and see you back at the gate on Monday morning!
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Mrs Mary McAloon, Head of Primary
We have had an incredible week in primary celebrating the world of books! On Monday as the students walked into school, they were welcomed by book experts from FAHASA, a local bookstore. FAHASA were busy over the weekend creating us our very own bookstore to peruse the wide range of texts from fiction to non-fiction along with some useful stationary to support our own story writing at home. The week continued on an exciting adventure where students explored the magic of story writing and storytelling. Included in the week was story time with Ms Mary, Mr Darragh and Ms Khuyen, a mobile library at playtimes and a visit from author Nawal Kalra. The finale of the week saw everyone dressed as animals from stories in a very special ‘Book Parade’.
Thank you to our Literacy Leaders Ms Ha and Ms Rioghnach, and to our Head Librarian, Ms Ngoc Anh, for the array of celebratory activities that they planned and prepared for our community. It’s confirmed – books are great!
Complementing Book Week, our primary community seized the opportunity to express gratitude to those who make each day a valuable and enriching learning experience. #LOVEBVIS week is a dedicated time when our school celebrates positivity, thankfulness and recognition. Creating time to pause, consider, reflect and share is profoundly meaningful—not only for those who receive our messages but also for us as messengers. This practice instills intrinsic happiness and contentment, leading to a healthier, more positive outlook on life.
Within school, we encourage students to acknowledge and praise themselves and others for the positivity they bring to learning and daily life. We trust deeply in the power of positive thinking, sharing this simple yet impactful message with students to foster values like perseverance and self-esteem: "If you believe you can, then you will."
If you have not yet had chance, please help to spread a little more positivity and write a Google review for the BVIS community to read! Once submitted, your child will receive a special gift of thanks from school for sharing your positivity.
I am increasingly proud of our students with the healthy choices they are making to try new sports at school. Over the recent years, our BVIS sports team, named “Bulldogs” after the British Bulldog, have multiplied in members and branched out into more sports due to their enthusiasm and motivation. The PE team, led by Ms Lucy Kent as Director of PE and Sport, have worked hard to create an environment where students feel secure and comfortable to try new sports. One recent addition to our Bulldogs sports is an Under 9 (U9) Basketball practice run during Golden Time on a Friday afternoon. Students who are eligible to play in this age category choose to join the PE teachers and assistants in the sports hall to practice and hone their basketball skills.
Building healthy habits in sports at an early age not only improves physical well-being but also instills essential life skills such as discipline, teamwork and self-confidence. These foundational skills contribute to a positive mindset and a resilient attitude, setting children on a lifelong path to both personal and academic success. With these benefits, I urge you to encourage your children to play sport and stay active!
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Mr Toby Bate, Head of Secondary
On Monday of this week, musicians from the Year 11 IGCSE Music class took to the stage to share their performing prowess. Students are required to perform both a solo piece and an ensemble piece for their examination and were happy to share the culmination of their hard work and dedication to the craft with friends, family and staff from across our BVIS community. From Brahms to Hans Zimmer, Mozart to Yann Tiersen our young people shone.
Thank you to everyone involved, and an especially big congratulations to the students who shared their music.
Last week, our Year 11 students went on a day trip to Ho Chi Minh City to hone their fieldwork skills on settlement & tourism issues, which will help them prepare for their final exams.
Despite the hot temperatures, the students worked diligently and in good spirits. They conducted surveys, analyzed urban development, and interviewed local residents and tourists to understand more about urban settlements.
Their hard work and commitment in these challenging conditions are commendable. We are proud of their efforts and this experience, alongside the field trip to Mui Ne in December, will be invaluable for their final examinations.
On Wednesday 19th March we welcome Mr. Hamish Davies to BVIS. Mr Davies is Senior Regional Admissions Manager (Asia) for Nord Anglia Education’s summer programmes, orgainsed by Bucksmore. He will be talking in detail about Bucksmore and their summer programmes that are available across the globe for your child to take part in.
For further details please see Bucksmore Education Group | UK English Summer & Language Learning
BVIS Secondary dove right into Book Week with the theme "The Books That Made Us", celebrating the stories that shaped who we are and who will we be!
The week kicked off with a page-turning assembly that explored how famous figures have been inspired by literature. At lunchtime, students booked themselves in for fun activities, from a delightful Che sale to nostalgic childhood games.
On Friday, our Year 7, 8, 9 and 10 students took part in specialist lessons on inspirational literature - discovering how the books they read today can plot the course of their futures.
It was a bestseller of a week, with students reflecting on their own reading and learning journeys.
This Monday all the houses started training to prepare for the upcoming house football competition, which will start next week. House captains have been running training sessions for students in all year groups to get ready for the first match which takes place on 10th March.
Another exciting initiative happening has been the launch of the BVIS Young Changemakers ECA. This student lead club works in house teams with the goal of creating an environmental initiative that will positively impact both the school and the wider community.
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.
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
Huge congratulations go to our Top XP earners this week, who are:
| Year Group | Name | Class |
| 7 | Vinh Nguyen | 7B |
| 8 |
Finn Hua Steven Tong |
8zMat2x 8zMat3 |
| 9 | Anna Quach | 9zMat2x |
| 10 | Quoc An Nguyen | 10zMat1 |
| 11 | Emma Nguyen | 11zMat2y |
This week’s bedrock champions are:
Year 7 - Nguyen Ngoc Thien Huong
Year 8 - Le Hong Minh Quang
Year 9 - Chung Quang Huy
Year 10 - Mai Kim Ngoc
Year 11 - Ngo Khanh Ngoc
Year 12 - Kensuke Yamamura
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 the secondary school for this week!
This week’s champion is...
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Congratulations and well-done to Koutaro!
This week’s Champion tutor group is
Congratulations to 789i/hue4 well done!
Congratulations to Hanoi house who are still leading the house point challenge.
The health, safety and wellbeing of our students remains the number one priority at BVIS HCMC.
Should you have a concern for the welfare of any child in our school, please refer to our Safeguarding poster below:
