BIS Hanoi Secondary Book Week 2015

We are coming to the end of another pulsating Book Week and once again we have crammed a wide variety of book-related activities into the timetable. As always in our ‘themed week’ events, this was about much more than one department or year group and saw a real coming together of the different parts of the school.

Primary had their own set of Book Week events, which crossed over with Secondary’s in the visit by the internationally acclaimed author and performance partnership ‘The Two Steves’. Their workshops brought a beautiful combination of laughter and learning to Years 7, 8 and 9 on Tuesday.

Year 9 with the Two Steves

The Two Steves in Viking mode

The different stages of the school linked up again in visits by English classes to Primary and Early Years. Visits covered a range of year groups, from F1 up to Y4 and both the Secondary students and the younger children they were visiting benefited richly. Activities were focussed around reading but also took in performance, musical interludes, model volcanoes and the making of dinosaurs!

Year 8 visit F1 and F2

Year 8 visit F1 and F2

Year 8 visit year 4

Year 9 with Year 2

The English department took the lead on Book Week but other departments got enthusiastically involved, including book reviews, a historical fiction competition and a bookmark designing competition in the History department; a series of Harry Potter themed ‘potions’ lessons by a topically dressed Science department; and an Alice in Wonderland based extravaganza by the Maths department, with exotic costumes to match.

Maths Alice Extravangaza
Every teacher in Secondary had an A4 poster of the cover of their favourite books on the door which gave a real insight into many teachers’ personalities. A wide range of genres and formats were represented and teachers engaged their students with a discussion of why they enjoyed their chosen books so much.

The week culminated in a whole of secondary assembly on Friday, in which we talked about the fun and value of reading and celebrated the range of events that had taken place throughout the school week, using audio and video montages. The English club produced three parts of the assembly, sharing famous quotes on reading, conducting a literature quiz which was won by Hanoi house and performing a drama in which characters from different literature classics came together in an unusual setting. The climax of the assembly was the announcement of the winners and runners up of the Microfiction competition. There were three categories: 50 words, 100 words and Staff, which were blind marked by the English department. The quality of entries was very high and the points tally was very close, particularly in the 100 words competition. The staff competition was jointly won by Mr. Spall and Mr. Dunwell, and the student competition results were as follows:

100 words

1st Nguyen Ngoc Minh (12I)
2nd Sam Nguyen-Jones (7S)
3rd Nguyen Phuong Chi (10B)

50 words

1st Nguyen Ngoc Minh (12I)
2nd Kieu Quoc Thai (9S)
3rd Tran Minh Thuan (10B)

Students received housepoints and certificates, and the first place winners received the mouthwatering prize of lunch for themselves and a friend in the Almaz centre. As Ngoc Minh won both competitions, the closest second place competitor Quoc Thai, received the other first prize.

Assembly ended, fittingly, with the 4 winning entries being read to the assembled staff and students.
The final slide reminded all present: A book is for life, not just for book week.

Rob Glossop, English Teacher