Secondary School Updates (4 November 2022)

Key Dates | NAE Tanzania Expedition | Secondary Learning Showcase

Weekly update from Head of Secondary

Dear Parents,

I am pleased to invite you to attend the first sessions in our Parent Connect series, beginning next week.  

Parent Connect includes workshops, presentations, blog posts, and other events aimed at engaging Parents with the outstanding teaching, learning, and pastoral care in the Secondary School. 

We would like to invite you to our first event: Assessment and Reflection Workshop for Years 7-9 Parents. 

This is an information session for parents to look more closely at the following areas of our Year 7-9 curriculum: 

• Our new look academic reports 
• Our assessment approach 
• Understanding how we are developing effective effort 

The workshop will be held in the Library Conference Room at the following times: 

• Wednesday 9th November:  1.30 pm (delivered in Korean)  
• Thursday 10th November: 9.00 am (Vietnamese translation available)

Please RSVP to the above event by completing  this form. 

Further upcoming events 

For your information, more workshops are coming this month: 

1. Assessment Workshop (Years 10-13): Tuesday 15th  November 5:30 - 6:15pm - Library. 
2. How to Talk to Your Child About their report – led Student Leaders: Monday 21st November 5.30 - 6.15pm - Library. 

 More detail will be sent to you later in the month. You are welcome to attend as many workshops as you wish. 

We look forward to connecting with you during these Parents Connect Sessions. 

Chris Newman 

Head of Secondary 

Key Dates

• Wednesday 9 November: Assessment and Reflection Workshop for Years 7-9 Parents (delivered in Korean)  
• Thursday 10 November: Assessment and Reflection Workshop for Years 7-9 Parents (Vietnamese translation available)

• Friday 11 November: Remembrance Service Cua Bac Church

• Sunday 13th - Thursday 17th November: U15 FOBISIA Sport Trip 

• Tuesday 15 November: Assessment Workshop (Years 10-13)

• Friday 18th - Sunday 20th November: International Award Bronze/Silver  

•  Monday 21st November: How to Talk to Your Child About their report – led Student Leaders

• Thursday 24th November: Year 11 Parents' Evening  

• Friday 25th November: University Guidance 11-13- Parent Coffee morning 

• Tuesday 1st December: Year 13 Parents' Evening  

• Monday 7th - Tuesday 8th December: Chicago Production 

• Wednesday 14th December: Winter Concert 

Tanzania Expedition - February 2023 

There are only days left to secure your child's place on the Nord Anglia Tanzania Expedition in February 2023! The trip is open to anyone 13 years old and above.  

This expedition is a life-changing experience and an opportunity to make a lasting impact on the local communities and villages around Maji ya Chai, in the Arusha region of Tanzania.   

The eight days our students will spend in Tanzania will see them travel around the Arusha region, participating in a highly rewarding programme of community service, learning about sustainable development and exploring the Tarangire National Park where they will discover the diverse range of Tanzanian flora and fauna.   

The initial payment needs to be received by Monday 7th November 2022. 

For a letter with more information, including payment details, please contact Ms Embling at victoria.embling@bishanoi.com 

Secondary Learning Showcase

Korean | MFL | Computer Science | English 

Year 12 & Year 13 Korean Literature  

IBDP Individual Oral Sharing Day  

Students who take part in active learning learn more than they think they do. Year 13 Korean students had an opportunity to present their individual oral to the current Year 12 Korean students. Korean Individual Oral Assessment can take place while they have finished studying at least two areas of exploration. Year 12 listened to Year 13’s Individual oral and wrote some comments based on criteria D(Language). They could learn about upcoming literary works that they will visit in the future. On the other hand, Year 13 students could gain higher-order thinking skills by teaching and presenting their knowledge of chosen literature to Year 12 students. They also shared practical tips and approaches to learning skills in IBDP Korean A subject. It was an excellent opportunity to see how students take part in active learning within the classroom.   

Ms Song and Ms An 

Korean Teacher

MFL 

A spotlight on Year 7: 

This term the French and Spanish Year 7 classes will be looking at Free time activities. This will build on the foundation of French or Spanish that they learnt in Term 1A. By teaching a topic such as free time activities it really allows the teachers to know about the preferences that our students have and more about their life outside of school. Furthermore, we have a key focus on our students developing good speaking skills, with the objective of students being able recognise and respond to questions in Spanish with a developed answer.

Further along the term, students will learn cultural knowledge of the target language countries, more specifically about weather and weather patterns in these countries and how Christmas is celebrated. 

We hope our students thoroughly enjoy their next topic in Year 7! 

Ms Finch 

MFL Teacher

Whole School Computer Science initiative 

For 5 weeks throughout Term 1B, four teams of intrepid BIS Hanoi coders worked diligently on the FOBISIA Minecraft competition, which was run by Bangkok Patana school.  In the competition, each group had to create a Golf Course using only limited features within Minecraft, and supported by Mr Labelle and me.   

The competition results came out last week and sadly we did not win any prizes, but to thank our hard-working students, we held a pizza party this afternoon, to reward their great efforts. Being the thoughtful and generous types, Mr Labelle and I also checked that the pizzas were good enough quality too 😊 

We’d like to thank the following students in particular… 

From Primary: 

Nhat Minh, Quang Long, Minh Hieu, Jinwook, Sunwoo Choi, Sunwoo Lee, Henry, Oliver and Jong woo 

And from Secondary: 

Pham Gia Duc Nguyen and Junseong Choi 

Well done, all of you! 

Mr Shepley and Mr Labelle 

Computer Science department

English 

This week and last week our Year 13 Language & Literature students have been preparing for their upcoming IOCs. The students have been developing their analytical skills using both film and poetry. To help them to prepare, and practice making links between different sections of the works, students collaborated in making graphic organisers to help them establish and remember links between texts. This planning allows students to discuss their ideas and develop their Global Issue as a means for exploring the extracts from the texts they have chosen.

Students speaking and listening skills are developed and assessed throughout the English curriculum at BIS. Beginning in Key Stage 3, continuing through both the Second and First Language iGCSE courses, students are able to develop their proficiency in organising and presenting their ideas effectively. 

Mr Hoare 

English Teacher