Mr Simon Higham: Weekly Update 05/05/2017

Following this week’s public holidays, we hope that you all had a very enjoyable and relaxing extended weekend.

On returning to school on Wednesday (and thinking it was Monday!), it was great to hear about the many stories from our children regarding their exciting travels, new friendships and varied adventures that they have recently experienced.

Although this has been a much shorter week than usual, it has not stopped the many learning opportunities that have been taking place both within and outside of our classrooms.

Our FOBISIA squad is working hard on the field during the early morning and after school sessions. Please ensure that you look out for posts in the forthcoming weeks when they travel to the Nord Anglia International School, Shanghai, Pudong this month.

Well done to all of our Year 1 children, who ventured outside of the school gates this week for a walk to observe our local area as part of their new IPC topic ‘Buildings and Structures’. As always, they were impeccably behaved and great ambassadors of our school. This visit with form the basis of future work within this IPC topic.

We would like to remind you that next week is the start of our Term 3 Extra-Curricular Clubs programme. Thank you all parents who signed their children up for a club and for your promptness of payment for our paid club provision. Please access the Term 3 booklet, to check pick up times and venues of clubs in readiness for next week.

Vietnamese Clubs at APP

In order to give non-speaking Vietnamese children an opportunity to speak Vietnamese language and understand about Vietnamese culture and lifestyle while they are living in Vietnam, APP campus offers Vietnamese clubs for students from Year 1 to Year 6 every term. Read more about these clubs in this post by Ms Phuong Pham, Primary Vietnamese Coordinator

FOBISIA Writing Competition Winners Workshop 2017

The FOBISIA Writing Competition winners from APP, TX and BVIS gathered together on Friday 28th April for a creative writing workshop in the Imaginarium at BVIS. This was wonderful recognition for all our winners.

Read more about what make their imaginations run wild in this post by Ms Emma Spencer, Year 6 Teacher and English Leader (APP).

A huge congratulations to Raghav Dwivedi from Year 6 at APP, who was selected as the overall winner of the FOBISIA Short Story Competition! In addition to this achievement, Raghav was also named the NAE Junior Writer of the Year.  Look out for more details of Raghav’s success in a future Weekly Update and we’re all very proud of his achievements.

Paul Murphy Visit – Julliard School Mentor

This week, Mr Paul Murphy visited our school for the third time this year. Paul, a qualified teacher and Julliard musician, is our designated Julliard school mentor whose role is to work alongside our children and music teachers to ensure that they are receiving the very best of what a BIS, HCMC and Julliard music curriculum can offer.  It was a pleasure to have him visit our school again and look forward to his next visit.

We are pleased to announce that our Julliard mascot has now got his official name. Please say ‘hello’ to Pianissimo when you see him around our campus.

Instrumental Lessons at An Phu Primary

Term 3 Instrumental Lessons will start again this coming Monday, 8^th May. If you would like your child to begin having lessons, please complete the online form by accessing the link below:

https://goo.gl/forms/gj4Nfz5YwyJvL3EB3

For further details, please do not hesitate to contact Ms Frances Amos, Music Teacher and Instrumental Leader at the following email address:

(francesamos@bisvietnam.com)

Community Football Tournament

The Annual Community Football Tournament is a wonderful way to connect students from all three campuses as well as the community partners that we work closely with throughout the year.  Read more about this extremely successful event that brought a community together through sport,

in this post by Ms Samantha Baker, EAL Teacher and Community Service Leader.

Staying Safe

If, during your visit to school, you have any reason to be concerned about the safety of a young person, please contact the Designated Safeguarding Person (Ms Dee Grimshaw) or the Head teacher (Mr Simon Higham)

Please note that CCTV cameras are in operation at all times across the campus.

With the impending wet season on our doorstep, please can you take time to discuss the following Driver’s Code of Conduct with your own driver so that we can continue to improve the traffic flow outside of school at peak times:

In order to keep our children safe on the roads outside BIS, both before and after school and keep the traffic flowing down Nguyen Van Huong Street, please can you ensure that:

• No cars should be parked for long periods of time outside of school – ask your driver to meet you at a convenient location away from the school gates and please ask them to never double park as this stops the flow of traffic.

Have you considered the idea of car pooling?

Do you live in a compound with other BIS HCMC students?

Talk with friends and neighbours to take it in turns to bring them to school in just one car. This will reduce the amount of traffic on the roads around school and further help to keep the traffic flowing.

We’d love to hear news of families that are currently carpooling and how this has benefitted them. If you would like to share your experiences, please email here so that I can share the information with our community in future Weekly Updates and via Social Media.

We all have a small part to play to help solve a much bigger problem.

PTG Update

Parent Liaison Volunteer, Ms Ying bisvnptgap1@gmail.com

PTG Volunteer Coordinator 

We are currently looking for a new PTG Volunteer Coordinator to help lead with the organisation of our PTG for the benefit of our children, teachers and community.

If you would like to find out more about the role and how you would be supported, please refer to the role description below and contact either Ying Mckenzie (current PTG Volunteer Coordinator) or Mr Simon directly.

Role Description

• Work closely with Head Teacher to bring together the school community - via Class Representatives, Country Representatives and holding PTG events
• Set up Events Committees for each PTG event (organise an Event Leader)
• Brief committees and support them with their event (kick off meeting, answer questions, find solutions, support with advice)
• Use Sign Up Genius to help set up simple rosters
• Set up Class Representatives and Country Representatives system via Sign Up Genius at the beginning of the school year
• Assist in writing PTG articles for the Weekly Update - this job is often delegated to the Event Leader
• Write articles for Spectrum (school magazine) - one per term
• Write a brief report for the AGM (one per year)
• Coordinate with the Treasurer and Community Service Department on how PTG funds should be allocated to community groups

PTG Events for Term 3

• 15^th June – PTG Disco

Key Upcoming Dates for your Diary

May

• Monday 8^th: Term 3 Clubs begin
• Wednesday 17^th: Headteacher’s Coffee Morning (8.15am)
• w/b 22^nd and w/b 29^th: Year 6 Residential trip to Malaysia
• Monday 22^nd – Friday 26^th: Draft class lists for 2017/18 to parents
• Thursday 25^th – Sunday 28^th: FOBISIA Games

For all of the dates in this year’s academic calendar, please click here to take you to the front page of the ‘News and Insights’ section of our school website.

And Finally………

At this time of the academic year, our thoughts and best wishes go out to all of the Year 11 and Year 13 students who are currently beginning their iGCSE and IB final examinations. Many of these students have moved through our school from primary and into their secondary years and I am sure that their experiences at BIS HCMC will stand them in good stead for a successful future that lies ahead.

Good luck to you all.

Mr Simon Higham, Head Teacher, An Phu Primary Campus