Introduction from Head of English at BIS Hanoi

I am delighted to introduce myself as the new Head of English at BIS Hanoi. As well as a love for Literature and the English language which makes my job as a teacher very enjoyable, the students at BIS and the teachers within the department are bubbling with enthusiasm and I am delighted to be a part of such a fantastic community. We start the year on a high after a Summer of exceptional results. For iGCSE Literature, the students achieved an impressive 89% pass rate, with 37% achieving A*-A. In iGCSE First Language, 50% achieved A*-A and iGCSE Second Language students achieved an 86% pass rate A*-C. Fantastic work from all the teachers and students!

As well as this year being an exciting year for me personally as the new Head of English, it already looks set to be an exciting year for the English department as a whole. We welcome two teachers to the department: Simon Hoare, who taught EAL here last year, and Alexandra Mackay, who will be teaching English, as well as EAL. We have a brand new KS3 curriculum for years 7-9, designed to equip students with the skills they need for iGCSE and IB, as well as promoting the school’s aide memoire and helping the students to become global citizens, by studying texts from different times and places.  A new IB course of Language and Literature A has been introduced for the new Year 12s, which will be taught alongside the Language B IB Diploma. We truly believe that our Year 7s-13s will experience an amazing variety of texts, language conventions, activities and themes in English and we hope that they enjoying being a part of the lessons as much as we enjoy teaching them!

This year we aim to really push reading for pleasure. Reading not only helps students’ language and grammar abilities, but it has been proven to heighten emotional intelligence and empathy levels. Working closely with the new librarian, Ms Hull, we hope to promote the importance of reading and the benefits it can have on all students. There will be regular Reading Doctor sessions set up where students can be ‘diagnosed’ a book that suits their interests and ability. Reading lists will also be created to help steer students in the right direction when choosing a book; this will also be available to parents to support reading at home. Additionally, we hope to set up a Book Club at lunchtimes where students are free to discuss books that they have enjoyed and find out about different genres or authors. We truly believe that reading for pleasure offers a huge range of benefits to children and really hope that students are regularly reading English books at home.

Kate Wilson, English Subject Leader

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions of queries at kate.wilson@bishanoi.com