Primary Weekly Update 11/03/2022

Primary Weekly Update 11/03/2022 We talk about ‘community’ a lot at BIS, so it is very pleasing to see that according to the results of the latest Parent Satisfaction Survey, 93% of parents feel accepted into a warm and welcoming community.

We talk about ‘community’ a lot at BIS, so it is very pleasing to see that according to the results of the latest Parent Satisfaction Survey, 93% of parents feel accepted into a warm and welcoming community.

I believe that is due to the great work done by our admission team, the staff at BIS working to ensure that children settle quickly and parents are kept informed about that process, and our fabulous Parent Teacher Group (PTG), who reach out to new parents arriving at the school.

On Thursday morning, we held a virtual PTG coffee morning welcoming new families who joined us this term.  It also provided an opportunity to share some of the developments at the Early Years and Infant and Junior Campuses, and to provide an update on the recruitment process for 2022-2023.  This was followed by members of our core PTG team talking through their role in the school community and sharing about the events that we can look forward to.  If you were not able to attend or would like to see the presentation again, you can be clicking on the link below:

PTG Coffee Morning  March 2022.pdf

NAE Virtual Young Musician of the Year 2022 - results announced! 

• 7960 minutes or 5.5 days of musical performances
• 1370 Students
• 64 Schools
• 27 Judges

We didn’t think that Nord Anglia Educations Virtual Young Musician of the Year competition could get any bigger. We were wrong! 1,370 students from 64 schools shared outstanding musical performances for our team of global judges.  

We are so proud of all of our students who took the time to record their performances and share through the Global Campus site for the judges. Having the opportunity to connect with our global musical community challenges and inspires our young musicians and we are delighted to announce the results. 

Erin Shin in 3N came 1st place in the Classical Piano category for students aged 7-10 years old.  This is an incredible achievement and acknowledges the hours that Erin dedicates to her musical practice. Erin’s performance is now shared on the Global Campus site and can be viewed by logging in and going to this page.

We are also celebrating the achievement of Hanna Miyadera in 3B who received a special mentioned in the ‘String - Bowed - Classical’ category for her violin performance.   

We are looking forward to hearing live performances from all of our young musicians in the coming months and further developing and celebrating their performing skills. 

Global Campus Visual Arts Competition 2022

Today we are launching the Global Campus Visual Arts Competition 2022. The focus of this competition is Education OR Wellbeing. What does Education mean to you? What is Wellbeing and why is it important? Your task is to create a piece of art which represents either Education or Wellbeing. You can use paints, crayons, pencils, junk modelling, pastels, digital art etc. When you have finished your picture, write 50 words to explain what you have drawn and why it is important to you. Entries need to be submitted before Friday 25^th March. Give your work to your teacher and they will pass it on to Ms Jules (Y4) or Ms Eileen (Y5). Good luck and we look forward to seeing your work.

 For more information about the competition, please click on presentation link below:

 Visual Arts Competition

NAE Writer’s Award

What will the world look like in 100 years? That was the question behind this year’s Nord Anglia Writer’s Award. Through letters, diary entries, poems, comic strips, films, and photos, students from F3 to Y6 had a go at imagining the year 2121. Will we save all the endangered animals? Will we stop polluting the earth? Will we have robots to do our homework? No one has the answers, but one thing is for sure: some of our BIS students are destined to be authors, poets, illustrators, or filmmakers in the future! The English Team was incredibly impressed with all of the submissions and it was a difficult job to narrow down who will go on to represent BIS in the full competition with writers from school’s around the globe. There could only be one winner per category but we would also like to congratulate the runner’s up in each field and commend every child who took part- well done for your fantastic efforts!

Here are this years’ Nord Anglia Writer’s Award winners:

POEM CATEGORY:

FS-Y3 Winner: Nuala 3M

FS-Y3 Runner Up: Liam 3V

Y4-Y6 Winner: Lily 5B

Y4-Y6 Runner Up: Ariana 5I

 

LETTER CATEGORY:

FS-Y3 Winner: BeiBei 3I

FS-Y3 Runner Up: Nuala 3M

Y4-Y6 Winner: Ji Woo 6V

Y4-Y6 Runner Up: Shion 4H 

 

DIARY CATEGORY:

FS-Y3 Winner: Jaeshin 3H

FS-Y3 Runner Up: Sonali 1V

Y4-Y6 Winner: Rhys 4N 

Y4-Y6 Runner Up: Lucy 6I

 

COMIC STRIP CATEGORY:

FS-Y3 Winner: Jay 3I

FS-Y3 Runner Up:  Amelie 3H

Y4-Y6 Winner: Zaara 5S

Y4-Y6 Runner Up:Lavin 5M

 

FILM CATEGORY:

Y4-Y6 Winner: Anna 5N

Feeling inspired by the winners? There is still a chance to get your writing recognised! The FOBISIA Creative Writing Competition closes on Tuesday March 15th. The theme is ‘Memories’ and all students in Y3-6 are eligible to take part. Please see the recent Seesaw post for more details.

Inter-house PE Fun

To complete their first activity block, In PE lessons this week, the Year 3-6 children have been competing in House volleyball/badminton and Teeball competitions. These are current totals at the halfway stage, final results to be shared at the end of term.

Charity Cycle Adventure 2022

World Book Day at BIS Primary Campuses! 

This year World Book Day celebrated its 25th anniversary and it is always an important event in the BIS calendar. At BIS we know how important fostering a love of reading in our students is to provide them with a great start in their schooling. The aims of World Book Day are to build positive experiences of reading for the children and to promote reading for pleasure both of which are integral to our curriculum at BIS. The adults at BIS love reading too and our Senior Leadership team read some of their favourite books to inspire the children. 

We also had our annual Dress Up Day which meant that all three campuses were filled with creative and wonderful characters! The effort seen in the costumes was amazing and it was great to see the children recognising the different characters on the playgrounds. Across the school and online, reading was celebrated in different ways from creating potato book characters to sharing books in different languages from home. These different experiences will create lasting memories that will build positive attitudes towards reading and that the children can remember for years to come. Please find some photos here.

Ms Claire Hanson, Ms Lisa Rhodes and Ms Carli Holbrook, English Subject Leaders

Year 6 EAL Update

This half term, the Year 6 EAL students have been learning how to write a Journey Story. We have learnt that we can make our writing more interesting if we use Show not Tell. This is when we carefully choose language to show the reader how characters in a story are feeling. We considered how our bodies react when we’re scared, and used these ideas to do some short-burst writing, using Show not Tell to let the reader know the characters were afraid. Here are the students giving an excellent demonstration of how our bodies react to fear! 

Ms Sarah in the library needs your HELP!

There are a lot of books that have still not been returned to both the EY and I and Junior libraries from last school year.  Can you please have a look at home to see if you can find any books that need returning to school? If you find any library books, please send them back to school with your child.

Thank you for your help

Sarah Bonner, Acting Primary Librarian

Health and Safety Updates - Important - Please read!

We would like to thank you all for the support you have provided in ensuring we were able to have children back safely, but also in keeping with the current Decrees from both the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) and the Department of Education and Training (DOET) of Thu Duc City and the Ministry of Health. In fact, our preparedness far exceeds any expectations put on us by these organisations. Here are our latest updates.

Issued together with Official Letter No. 548/UBND-VX dated February 22, 2022 of the City People's Committee)

Covid Community Transmission Management, Reduction and Prevention Measures: A Summary

• Covid Positive - Self Isolate until entirely symptom free for a minimum of three full days.

Once ‘symptom free’ for a period of three full days, the return to school can occur once your child has either:

• PCR Test Result (Negative)
• A Medically Certified Rapid Antigen Test Result (Negative)
• Local Health Authority Release Certificate

• Close Contact - (Direct Physical Contact during transmission period). 7 (or 5 if your child is vaccinated) Full Days Self Isolation. Return is allowed with either a:
  • PCR Test Result (Negative)
  • A Medically Certified Rapid Antigen Test Result (Negative)

• Household Contact (Anyone living in the same home) - Self Isolate for 7 (or 5 if your child is vaccinated) Full Days from the date of last F0 case in the Household. Return is allowed with either a:
  • PCR Test Result (Negative)
  • A Medically Certified Rapid Antigen Test Result (Negative).
• Return from Abroad - after 4 to 8 days depending on vaccination status. Return is allowed with a:
  • PCR Test Result (Negative).
• Symptomatic (Any Cold/Flu/Covid Symptoms) - stay off school until symptom free. 
  • Take a precautionary Rapid Antigen Test at home prior to return and keep the school informed. 

As you will be aware we carry out randomised, contact tracing and cohort testing as part of our covid transmission management and reduction measures.  When a child is tested under these circumstances we will make contact with parents.

As a school we recommend regular testing at home.  The health of our community is everyone’s responsibility.  Through vigilance, monitoring, testing and following these points, we can all help to maintain safety and lessen the chances of community transmission.

Any concern you have at home with the health of your child, and include the Health and Safety Leads of each campus EYIC Ms Sarah Curran sarah.curran@bisvietnam.com  and JC Mr Chris McKelvie Christopher.mckelvie@bisvietnam.com .

It is vital, also, that you inform the office of any positive case within your family – these are called ‘household close contacts’ and children of a household close contact will be required to remain off school until such a time as a negative PCR is provided to the campus nurse. Whilst we do not expect this, it is highly recommended that you have a supply of Rapid Antigen Tests at hand and that you use them regularly within your family.

Ms Sarah Curran and Mr Chris McKelvie, Deputy Headteachers

Vaccinations for children aged 5 to 12 years

Thank you to all the parents that completed the Google Form regarding vaccinations.  For the families that have requested their details to be forwarded to the Ministry Of Health (MoH) and Department of Education and Training (DOET), we have completed this.  As and when we receive more information, we will share it with all parents.  Please note that we do not have information as to what the vaccine will be or when these vaccinations will take place.  It is also important to note that the vaccinations will not be mandatory for our students.

Early Years Car Park

Shortly BIS will not have access to the car park. We have been told that the last day we can use it will be Friday 18th March - next Friday.  We have made arrangements with the car park opposite for BIS families to park at the school's expense. If you use this car park you will need to say you are BIS as you enter the car park and collect a ticket from BIS when leaving.

When our current car park closes:

Gate A will be used for F1 and F2 children with their parents.

Gate B will continue to be used for F3, Year 1 and Year 2 children.

There will be space for limited bikes outside Bike B.

School Photos

We are pleased to inform you that school photographs for students and class groups at the EY&I Campus will be from March 25th to April 1st .  We are happy to advise that we will be partnering with Pret a Portrait this year for school photos.  To find out more about Pret a Portrait please follow the link here.

https://www.pret-a-portrait.net/our-services/a-fresh-approach-to-school-photography/

https://www.pret-a-portrait.net/our-services/siblings/

Please check your child’s learning letter/Class Seesaw Page that will state what day your child’s class and individual photograph will be taken. Please ensure your child is wearing the correct uniform at all times.

Uniform Expectations

A reminder about the expectations for uniform and shoes as we are back on campus;

• All children should be wearing black shoes.
• Socks should be white, black or grey in colour.
• All children with long hair should have it tied back neatly.
• Children should not be wearing jewellery except small stud earrings. Any exceptions due to faith or other, should be discussed with the class teacher.
• Smart watches that can act as telephones are not allowed.

Many thanks for your support.

Update from the PTG

New parents, if you would like to connect with your class rep or country rep then please email primaryptgbis@gmail.com

We are still looking for class and country reps. Let us not live in isolation anymore. Please sign up and help to connect the parents with each other. Let the new BIS parents feel they are welcomed to this existing family. Please use the SUG to see if your country has a rep. If not then please sign up here.

Thank you and we are looking forward to meeting you all soon.

Ms Gayatri Shankar, PTG Co Cordinator on behalf of the PTG Committee

17/03/22 - 18/03/22               FOBISIA Virtual Primary Maths Competition

24/03/22 - 01/04/22               EY&I School photos

01/04/22                                   End of Term 2

And Finally…

During these times of Covid-19, we would like to thank everyone for their patience and flexibility.  We are keeping very detailed records of when staff and children are absent either because they have tested positive or are a close contact of someone who has taken ill.  We have systems in place to cover absent teachers, but please be aware that they may not be able to answer Seesaw messages or emails.  If you do not receive an answer to an urgent question or request, can you please contact your child’s year group leader or the head of campus.

Wishing you a restful and relaxing weekend.

Kindest regards,

Ian Battersby & Dee Grimshaw, Headteachers