Secondary School Updates (23 September 2022)

Key Dates | University Counselling | Secondary Learning Showcase

Weekly update from Head of Secondary

Dear Parents,

This year we continue our re-accreditation with the Council of International School (CIS) and the Western Academy of Schools and Colleges (WASC). 

Re-accreditation is an internationally recognised, standards-based evaluation process, with the school’s guiding statements at the heart, and is designed to be internally driven while externally validated. Generally, it is a reassurance of the quality of schooling. More specifically, and for us as a school, we use re-accreditation as a level for improvement. 

A key part of the overall process is the Community Survey. The survey is based on the latest educational research. It goes out to all members of our community: parents, students, teachers, support staff, alumni, and governors. We hope to gather as many responses as possible in order to identify the strengths of our school and areas for improvement.  

So, please take a moment to complete the Community Survey. The survey will take approximately 10 minutes to complete. You should complete one survey per child enrolled in the school before 7 October.

For your ease and comfort, the survey is available in multiple languages including English, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. 

Please access the survey through the link: Parent Community Survey.

Chris Newman 

Head of Secondary

Key Dates

• Monday 26 September: Co-curricular Activities start 

• Thursday 6 October: Year 9 and 11 Options Evening 

• Saturday 8 October: International Festival

• Week beginning 10 October: International Week 

University Counselling 

This academic year BIS Hanoi again will be hosting university visits, fairs and webinars. We have already and will be welcoming more university representatives to visit and speak to our students. Some universities will be holding webinars to inform our students about studying at their university or country.  

These are great opportunities to find out more about the world of higher education. Even if you are unsure about what you want to do after the IB, you can talk to the universities about your interests and see what related courses/pathways they have on offer. Maybe ask them what the university environment or city is like, to get a better picture of the place. Ask about the style of teaching and if there are other opportunities like a study abroad year, internships and scholarships. 

Please join as many visits, fairs and webinars as you can, so you get a better idea of what these universities can offer you in the future. Click HERE for the schedule and to sign up for the webinars. Parents are also invited to join the fairs and webinars.  Hopefully see you at as many of these events as possible. 

Secondary Learning Showcase

MFL | English | Korean | Music

English 

This week in year 10 English Literature the students are studying the poem “The Horses’ by Ted Hughes. In order to track key themes and images in the poem, the students are working in groups to examine the themes of Light, Sound, Movement and Emotion. They will then present their findings to the class before they answer the question “How does Ted Hughes use Imagery to present The Natural World in ‘The Horses’? 

Music

Alongside an intensive week of listening exams and coursework focus for Year 11 and Year 13, this week saw the first in-class Solo Performance recording for Year 10. Only four weeks into the course each of our IGCSE musicians performed a complete piece of music as a solo performer, experiencing for the first time, the feeling performing to each other and learning about the process of recording including the technical aspects that go into compiling high-quality coursework at this level. Each student showed excellent maturity in their preparations, the quality of their performances and their support of one another, turning a moment of challenge and pressure into a respectful and rewarding experience.   

MFL 

Our Key Stage 3 Spanish students have had a fantastic start to the year, with a consistent focus on Hispanic Culture alongside the essential grammar and vocabulary. We have used a plethora of different learning platforms online to support and enhance learning, and students will have the opportunity to do some discovery learning during their projects this term too.  

Year 9s have been focusing on Hispanic role models and celebrities, whilst learning the language related to sports, international competitions and descriptions of appearances and character. They have also been developing the skill of reading and comprehension, drawing on cognates and prior knowledge for additional support.  

Year 8s have hit the ground running with a focus on the preterite (past) tense and they have been using a wide range of verbs and question words in order to answer lots of different questions in Spanish about a past holiday. They will have the opportunity to showcase what they have learnt through some fun speaking games next week! 

Year 7s have had a fantastic start to the year, learning and relearning knowledge about how to describe ourselves, talking about birthdays and family members, along with greetings and basic expressions and questions.  

We are immensely proud of the work that Key Stage 3 Spanish classes are doing inside and outside of the classroom, they are motivated, enthusiastic and inquisitive both about language and about Hispanic culture.  

Keep it up everyone! 

Korean

Students in Year 7 created posters reflecting VIA strengths and MBTI. Students need to understand themselves in order to explore the world of literature. Students had a quick presentation within a small group and voted for the representative of the group. Students expressed their characteristics of personality and shared a famous person whom they long for. In addition, students set their learning goals for this year in relation to their personality’s weaknesses and strengths. It was a great time to exchange information about themselves by becoming confident communicators.