Secondary School Update (26 May 2023)

Key Dates 

• May 27th: Year 13 Graduation ceremony at Sheraton Hotel, 1:30pm - 5:00pm
• May 31st: Performing Arts Summer Spectacular 
• June 5th : Art & STEAM Exhibition begins 
• June 5th: Year 9 Tutor Connect 
• June 6th: Year 7 Tutor Connect 
• June 7th: Year 10 Tutor Connect 
• June 8th: Year 12 Tutor Connect 
• June 8th: Year 12 Group 4 Project 
• June 8th : Prom (Years 10-12), 5:30pm - 9:30pm 
• June 9th: Year 8 Tutor Connect 
• June 12th-14th: Year 11 Trip 
• June 13th: Years 7-9 Party 
• June 15th-16th: IB Headstart Days 
• June 23rd: Final Day of School, students leave at 12:35pm  

Pastoral Update

Firstly, a big thank you to all parents, staff members, and students who took part in this year’s Mental Health Awareness (MHA) Week programme. This year we aimed to be more ambitious in our approach, focusing not only on staff and students but also on parents, to reflect the new BIS Community Wellbeing Committee, which involves representation from all members of the school community. I believe we succeeded in that goal.

One of the common obstacles to engaging with our Wellbeing is a lack of time and space to focus on it. BIS is a busy place for all members of its community, and the impact of other events such as exams can mean that looking after our Mental Health is pushed to the bottom of our to-do list. This brings to mind an unattributed Buddhist quote on busyness.

You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day. Unless you are very busy, in which case you should sit for an hour.  

This quote may seem facetious, but I believe it makes a valid point: that when our minds are full and our time is more precious than ever, attending to ourselves becomes essential to our survival but also helps us to focus and perform better.  

Some great examples of this in MHA Week were the Parent Workshop and the Open Mic live performance. During our Parent Workshop, students and parents discussed why focusing on our own self-care is so important to us and our children. We also looked at a range of strategies to support our own wellbeing as parents. Finally, we discussed the things that may get in the way of our own Wellbeing and how we can overcome these blocks. Look out for an upcoming blog post about this Parent Workshop on our website.

The Open Mic was an excellent counterpoint to the more reflective elements of MHA week. It was a gift to see the energy and joy that accompanied the performances, and it was a real pleasure to witness the talents of staff and students unearthed in such a supportive environment. These are the sorts of nights that some students will remember forever. Thank you to Ms. Macdonald for making this evening special.

The process of reflecting and planning for next year has already begun. To embed Mental Health into the fabric of our school, the Wellbeing Team would like to see our events spread out over the course of the school year and become part of our routine. This will hopefully ensure that events such as the Mindful Walk are already familiar and that students, staff, and parents will have the skill-set to get the most out of them. Next year, we would also like to develop the opportunity to use exercise and sport as ways of improving our self-esteem and bringing more and more people into the Wellbeing tent.

We are all on our own Wellbeing journey. It’s not so important where we are on that journey; it's more important that we keep moving forward!

Secondary Learning Showcase

Art Week

This week has been Art and Design Week, a chance to celebrate these subjects and get creative. We decided to invite some primary students from years 3, 4, 5 and 6 to some special lunchtime workshops so they could have a taste of the kind of things we do in Secondary Art and STEAM. In Art, they completed a Styrofoam print inspired by Mexican art and culture. In STEAM, students completed a stop-motion animation about space. It was lovely to have the younger students in the Art and Design departments, and I hope to organize more workshops like this with them again soon. Here are some photos of the wonderful work that was produced.

Computer Science 

Year 7s have spent several weeks developing their coding skills with our MBots, and this week the unit culminated in a House competition in which the MBots were programmed to complete a complex maze.

Each House team was given a single MBot and applied the Computational Thinking skills they have developed throughout the year to create and test their code. This process, known as "stepwise refinement", involved lots of trial and error as the students grappled with different angles, speeds, and measurements to come up with the perfect algorithm. There was much angst and gnashing of teeth (mainly from me) and even some claims that the MBots had a mind of their own! Dalat came very close to completing the maze with 15 minutes to go, only to break their code whilst trying to perfect it... such a life.

The final standings for the competition are below: 

• Hanoi 100 points 
• Hue 90 points 
• Dalat 80 points 
• Saigon 70 points 

Even though none of the teams managed to complete the maze in its entirety, the most important aspect of this unit was seeing the students having so much fun and really engaging with each other, as well as the collaborative learning task at hand. Well done, Year 7!

Robert Shepley 

Head of Computer Science

Year 13 Residential Trip – Quan Lan Island

To celebrate the end of their time at BIS Hanoi Year 13 has been taken on a residential trip to the beautiful island of Quan Lan. It has been wonderful to see the students relax after the rigours of the IB course and their exams, smiling, reminiscing, hanging out together, and even learning new skills. We spent the days exploring the island, from its beaches with seaside activities, to clifftops with spectacular views, the students and teachers enjoying each other's company in a new setting. 

A particular highlight was on Wednesday morning, when teachers and students alike all became new learners, trying to master the art of stand-up paddleboarding in choppy waves off Minh Chau beach. A lot of laughing, falling in, struggling to get back on board, and even a few successful stand-ups (though not for long) filled the time before we all became exhausted!

Many of the students on this trip have been at BIS Hanoi for a long time, some for its entire history, and others are newer members of our family, having joined in Year 12. For all of them, it has been a long time since they were last able to participate in a school trip, thanks to the pandemic. To be able to provide and share in this experience with this fabulous group of young people so soon before they part ways and spread across the world has been wonderful and somewhat poignant. Looking forward to their graduation this Saturday!