Secondary School Updates (25 February 2022)

Key Dates | Pastoral Update | Book Week | Learning Showcase

Weekly update from Head of Secondary

Dear Parents,

As the weather finally improves, there is not only spring in the air but also a spring in step of every student.

After 10 months of mandated virtual learning, there were smiles on faces (behind the masks of course) and I can confidently reported that the attitude of students and teachers to the challenges of reopening has been inspiring.

We always knew that when school did resume, there would be challenges and it would take time to adjust. I hope that we will soon see conditions in the city broadly improve and regulations around isolation ease.

May I thank everyone in the community for your ongoing support of our students and community during the last 2 weeks. These are extraordinary times. We will get through it and will be stronger for it. Please continue to stay in touch with the Secondary Office should you have any questions or concerns during this time.  

Yours sincerely, 

Chris Newman 

Head of Secondary 

Key Dates

• Monday 28 February - Friday 11 March: Year 10 and Year 12 Internal Exams  

• Tuesday 14 March: Year 11 Parents Evening

• Tuesday 28 March: Year 8 Parents Evening 

• Friday 1 April: Last day of Term 2 

Pastoral Update

It has been wonderful to see all students, both on campus and those accessing our hybrid school, supporting each other and working incredibly hard.

The students are doing a fantastic job adapting to our health and safety guidance and getting used to the school routine. During well-being activities this week, there has been a focus on VIA character strengths, where students have been creating visual displays that represent their strengths, personalities, and interests. There have also been some wonderfully supportive messages and videos from our Year 9 students that have been sent to the students in the Primary school.

Students in Key Stage 4 and the Sixth Form are busy preparing for their upcoming exams but have also been learning about the importance of balancing their time and looking at different strategies to support their well-being during this critical time in their academic journey. There has been a fantastic buzz around the school, and we’re all proud of our students for showing remarkable resilience and perseverance.

This week is also really exciting for our Year 7 students. They will be visiting the school on Friday afternoon to meet their tutors and participate in some campus introductory activities. We are so excited to see them in school! 

Mr James Trett 

Assistant Head of Secondary (Pastoral) 

Looking ahead to BIS Book Week 2022: w/c 28th February 

“Books train your mind to imagination to think big.” – Taylor Swift  

“A book is a dream that you hold in your hand.” – Neil Gaiman 

As we look ahead to BIS Book Week 2022 next week, as parents and teachers we all know the power, beauty and the escapism of a good book. It has been wonderful to see students in Years 8-13 once again visiting the Library and choosing books; we look forward to Year 7s soon also visiting the Library. 

Studies also have shown that reading for pleasure makes a big difference to children’s educational performance*. Evidence suggests that children who read for enjoyment every day not only perform better in reading tests than those who don’t, but also develop a broader vocabulary, increased general knowledge and a better understanding of other cultures. Research has shown that, in fact, reading for pleasure is more likely to determine whether a child does well at school than their social or economic background. Allowing a child to select their own reading material is also important.  

Before a child can actually read, as they learn to read and then become an independent reader, there are a number of ways at home to ensure a child is familiar with language and books. What’s really important is for children to see and experience how enjoyable reading is. Some of the things you can do include: 

• Reading together as a family – children who see adults reading, and enjoying it, are much more likely to want to read themselves; 
• Talking to your child about what they are reading (try reading the same book at the same time as them!); 
• Surrounding your child with books and reading material– you don't need hundreds of books and magazines/newspapers at home but easy access to reading material encourages reading to be a natural habit. 

Enjoy BIS Book Week 2022 in school and at home! 

(*For more information on the importance of reading and a summary of recent research) 

Learning Showcase

Maths | IGCSE Art | Vietnamese

Maths

It has been wonderful to welcome so many students back into the school over the past two weeks, and we look forward to welcoming the others back as soon as they are cleared. For the Accelerated Year 10 class, we have had a great deal to celebrate over the past two weeks. 

Attendance in school has been high – and for two lessons we even have all 16 students in. We have, as a class, adapted to hybrid learning well, although I am still in need of occasional reminders from the students to stop trying to talk to them through the whiteboard. We have also made big decisions in lieu of the amount of time spent with virtual learning and have opted to take the IGCSE Mathematics exam in November as opposed to May. 

Not that this has adjusted our pace of learning; the class this week was introduced to the process of differentiation from first principles, first used by Leibniz and Newton to develop their theory of Calculus. Year 10 are now exploring the use of differential calculus to analyse graphs and solve problems, a topic that will become much further explored in Additional Mathematics (which we still aim to begin by the end of Term 3) and their IB courses, or equivalent, beyond. Although differentiation from first principles is usually a topic best explored in groups on the whiteboards, current restrictions prevent us from doing that. Instead, the class worked together within their seating plan and maintained social distance, but we hope that these regulations are reduced soon. 

Working collaboratively is vital to help support understanding of mathematical concepts and methods amongst students and we have been flexible in our approaches during online teaching and hybrid learning. Still, the walls of our classroom still show the collaborative problem-solving work from Year 13 during their first, brief, return to school at the end of Term 1. They are a reminder of what we have to look forward to! 

IGCSE Art

The Year 10 art students have been working hard to complete the first board of their IGCSE coursework. IGCSE students spend one year on their coursework and the purpose of the initial boards is to explore and record ideas based on a theme. Year 10 students have chosen their theme and have used board 1 to record their ideas and experiment with a range of media for different effects. Here are some examples of the board 1s that they have created.

Vietnamese

Year 10 students have discussed global issues such as gender equality, women’s rights, prejudice against women,… as represented by caricatures of their own choosing. In addition, they read and discussed a number of articles related to the position of Vietnamese women before and today to gain social knowledge on this topic. 

Year 9 students have been learning about the novel “Tat den” written by Ngo Tat To. They have opportunities to learn about Vietnamese rural society in the early 20th century. In addition to discussion activities, students also role play, watch the movie from 1981 and debate some interesting topics. It's great that we have such moments of connection after such a long time! 

Ms Hong Tran 

Vietnamese Teacher