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Although we have not been able to welcome the students back onto the school campus before the end of term, there are still many other successes to celebrate in this final weekly update.

For many families, the first Nord Anglia school their child joins is only the beginning of their international education journey. In this blog we are interviewing Anne, a parent within the Nord Anglia community, who shares the experience of her family and their relocations around the world.

Each year, towards the end of term, BIS Primary students participate in an assessment week to support the teacher’s judgement of student attainment over the year. This year, it has moved online and for the last two weeks, our teachers and teaching assistants have been extremely busy carrying out individual student assessments, the results of which will be shared with you in the student reports soon.

This weekend we look forward to celebrating the Graduation of our Year 13 students. They have worked extremely hard over the last two years, and it will be wonderful to celebrate together online tomorrow. Caps and gowns were delivered to students today so that everyone is ready, and we hope that all our families and friends of Year 13 students have a fantastic day.

Congratulations and well done to all Year 13 students who have now completed their exams. Thursday brought a close to the IB examination session and all our students should be applauded for their focus and hard work through this intense period. I hope you can all relax now as you begin to prepare for the next phase of your lives. We look forward to celebrating your graduation next weekend with you all.

Even when the students are learning at home due to the pandemic, they need to maintain practising reading and writing, as these skills are essential to every child. This week, we would like to offer a few practical tips and advice for assisting your children’s literacy learning at home.

On Tuesday morning, our teachers and support staff were already set-to-go for Virtual School. Although we would always rather be teaching face-to-face, we all understand safety comes first and so our second phase of Virtual School begins. Our average attendance of over 96% across the school shows how students of all ages have made this seamless switch into an alternate way of learning.

This weekend the news broke that students across Hanoi would once again be learning from home to help prevent and control a new COVID–19 wave. As a community, we have adapted seamlessly back to online learning and our students have continued to show great perseverance and a fabulous attitude towards their studies. As Maths Curriculum Leaders, we wanted to take this opportunity to share some tips and advice for helping your children with Mathematics at home.

English as an Additional Language (EAL) is a vital support system at BIS Hanoi. In order to support our students at BIS Hanoi, we have several EAL teachers who work with students of all abilities to help develop their English language skills, specifically: reading, writing, speaking and listening.

Most of our students have ambitions for moving abroad following Sixth Form to study at university. Every year these graduates follow in the footsteps of our alumni who have attended some of the world’s best universities and whose success stories are inspiring proof of the exciting pathways which await them. We have prepared hundreds of past students for the transition from school to university, and have long perfected the recipe for ensuring them the best future international pathway. So, what’s key to setting them up for success?

I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that time is just flying by at the moment. It feels that we start each week on Monday morning with lots of time ahead of us, and suddenly it is Friday again! I suppose that is just a sign of a busy life and a purposeful school.

I’m sitting in my office this morning, feeling so proud of our students, that I can’t stop smiling! It has been an incredible week, one in which we have seen the very best of our students and a glimpse of their future selves.

In Theory of Knowledge (ToK), we challenge our students and teachers to take a step back from their subjects and examine their knowledge critically. Simply put this means to ask ‘how do we know what we know?’ This can seem a daunting task where students are required to peel back the layers of their knowledge to examine the deeper roots of how they have acquired their world view. The result of this over the two years is far more critical and reflective thinkers.

What a week it has been! There has been so much going on in school, with many exciting opportunities for our students to get involved in experiences and learning beyond the formal curriculum.

At BIS Hanoi, we think and talk a lot about preparing our students for the future. In a rapidly changing world, it can be challenging to try to predict what that future might look like, but what we do know is that our students will need to be true global citizens, able to appreciate the views of others and show empathy, in a proactive manner, if we are to hope to improve our world.

Let’s meet our second teacher of our “Meet the Teacher” series: Mr. David Burke shares about his passion for STEAM and how he develops a global perspective to inspire his students.

It was wonderful on Tuesday to be able to welcome all our students back to school following our two weeks of VSE and a two-week holiday for Tet. At the main entrance on Tuesday morning I was met with many pairs of smiling eyes – I could not see their smiling mouths because of the masks everyone is wearing! There was a real buzz around the school as students reconnected with their friends and teachers, and got back down to face-to-face learning.

The Extended Essay is a 400-word dissertation style essay, which forms part of the core of the IB Diploma, along with TOK and CAS. Following a course teaching research and essay writing skills, the Essay is written on a topic of the student’s choosing. Completing the Extended Essay (EE) gives students the opportunity to produce a unique piece of work on a subject of interest to them, as well as to develop skills which will be extremely useful when they reach University.

For all of our students at BIS Hanoi, our university counsellor plays a key role in helping them to understand and successfully navigate the pathway to their university of choice. Taking the step from Sixth Form to university is an exciting challenge for students, but there are many big decisions which sit between these two milestones. It is the role of the university counsellor to provide support and guidance to students so that these decisions are informed, manageable, and ultimately lead our students to securing a place at a university which suits their ambitions for the future.

Your child’s natural desire to learn, experiment and question is fundamentally important to their education and development, so at BIS Hanoi we don’t give our students all of the answers. Instead, we give them some of life’s most interesting questions and challenges, and the tools to tackle them. Our aim for your child is that they learn creativity and resilience throughout their education with us. When they leave school and take their first steps into university and beyond, we want them to do so with the confidence of real global citizens. The question is, how do we teach that?