Mr Ian Battersby Weekly Update - 14th October 2022

Specialist Open Morning

It was wonderful to see over 100 parents join us for our Specialist Open Classrooms event on Wednesday morning at the Early Years and Infant Campus. Following a short presentation from our specialist leaders, parents had the freedom to visit classes and see the specialist lessons taking place and find out more about what our specialist teachers do.

You can view the presentation slides here.

At BIS, we have two types of specialist teachers; subject specialists and support specialists.

Subject Specialists

Subject specialists teach the whole class a specific area of the curriculum where they have a higher level of expertise. In primary (EY&I and Juniors), our subject specialists teach physical education (PE), music, information and communication technology (ICT), modern foreign languages (MFL) and library skills.

Support Specialists

Support specialists work with small groups of children or individuals who need additional support in a particular area. Our English as an Additional Language (EAL) teachers teach children who join BIS without the level of English to fully access the curriculum. Our Learning Support (LS) teachers brief is much wider, giving a boost to children who may have joined the school and have gaps in their learning, or helping those who may be having a particular difficulty in a certain area of the curriculum.

Thank you to everyone who attended on Wednesday; it was super to hear such positive feedback from parents and teachers alike. A quote from a parent email after the open morning “Thank you for showing us more of the fantastic facilities and talented teachers this morning. I can see why my son always comes home happy. He couldn't be at a better school.”

F3’s Happily Ever After Picnic

Once upon a time in F3, there was... Jill on her hill, Incy Wincy and his spout, Little Bo Peep who had luckily found her sheep, Cinderella who was no longer cleaning up after others, Humpty Dumpty with no cracks, Twinkle Twinkle sparkling everywhere, the Wicked Witches casting spells, fairies and butterflies sprinkling lots of positivity and some other innovative characters. Over the last 4 weeks, we have learnt lots about different Nursery Rhymes- some old and some new as part of our T4W book ‘Each Peach Pear Plum’. The children have been dressing up as different characters featured in the story, singing along to rhymes, using actions to retell the story before collaboratively drawing story maps and finally innovating a new version using our dress-up costumes to create our very first F3 Story Book. We have had a fantastic day celebrating and spending time as a whole F3 year group on the roof having a wonderful picnic, made by the children. We had jam sandwiches, cheese & cucumber, butter and some with all the fillings! What a way to end our very first term in F3.

Jo Powell
Head of F3

BLUE DRAGON CHILDREN’S FOUNDATION: PARENT WORKSHOP AND PRESENTATION

• Tuesday 25th October 2022
• 09:00am - 10:00am
• BIS Secondary Theatre - 6th Floor

We are delighted to invite you to join us for a presentation by Ms Kim Miller (BDCF Schools and Partnership Coordinator) who will be sharing more about the life-changing work that Blue Dragon Children's Foundation are involved in and how they are tackling issues such as human trafficking, child labour, modern slavery, the cycle of poverty, migration, homelessness, gender inequality, and environmental justice impacting children across Vietnam.

BIS has a close partnership with Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation, who, since being established in 2005, have rescued hundreds of young women from forced marriage and brothels as well as transformed the lives of thousands of street kids and children in crisis. They have built homes, reunited runaways with their families, sent children back to school and training as well as provided shelters to girls and boys all the while, advocating for significant legal reform in Vietnam.

We look forward to seeing you for what promises to be a meaningful and informative session!

Please register your attendance here.

Tracey Brownrigg
Co-Curricular Coordinator and
Community Service Project Manager

Marvellous Musicians at the
Early Years Tea Time Recital

Last Friday we were treated to 15 wonderful performances from students in Year 1 and Year 2. Violin, piano and vocal performances were shared with a large and very appreciative audience of family members and teachers.

Students had been working hard to prepare pieces and developed further understanding of the art of performance. We think they very much enjoyed the flowers and treats at the end to celebrate everyone’s hard work.

Mr Ian commented ‘What a wonderful way to spend our Friday afternoon’.

Anna Hogan
Primary Music Leader

Fundinotots - Our Parent,
Baby and Toddler Programme

Do you know about our Fundinotots programme? Open to all parents and their children aged 0 to 36 months, it’s the ideal way to connect with the BIS community, enjoy time in a stimulating environment with your little one and make friendships and connections with parents of children of a similar age. To find out more about the programme or to organise a visit, contact Sarah Bonner at Sarah.Bonner@bisvietnam.com

EXAMINATION INVIGILATORS -
Part-time opportunity at
BIS HCMC

Secondary Campus are looking to recruit to our current team of exam invigilators. We are looking for reliable and confident people to assist throughout our busy examination periods of January and May/June each year.

The role will include invigilation of IGCSE and IBDP examination and will require close team work with our Examinations Officer, Mrs Abbie Astbury.

Responsibilities include:

• Preparing the examination venue prior to examinations in accordance with regulations
• Distribution of scripts and strict supervision of students during examinations

We are looking for:

• Team players and people who are flexible in their approach.
• Parents/ Spouses of staff who have no children currently in examination years.

You do not require experience as full training will be provided and the position is on a casual basis with days/hours being variable depending on examination demands. The pay is 300,000VND per hour.

If you are interested and would like further information about how to become an invigilator, please contact Abbie Astbury (Examinations Officer) Abbie.Astbury@bisvietnam.com

Dates for your diary

Reminders

PTG

Dear BIS Parents!

Happy Friday!  We are very excited about the upcoming PTG events and hope lots of BIS parents will join us and we will be able to meet more parents in person.

Please save the date for our upcoming events and let’s enjoy together our BIS community!

Dates to remember:

• Bake sale:  27th October 2022
• Family Fun Evening: 19th November 2022
• Teachers´ Day: 21st November 2022

Bake sales

Everyone loves a sweet treat, don’t they?  Let’s enjoy eating yummy things while we raise much needed funds for a community partner at the same time!  Our goal is to raise funds to help Poussieres de Vie (PdV) purchase much needed school equipment for an education initiative they run helping disadvantaged children.

We would like to invite you to donate baked goods (cakes, cookies, brownies, donuts etc) for us to sell during pick up at both Early Years and Junior Campus, on Thursday 27th October.  You are welcome to bake, make or donate items to sell, and perhaps you could even decorate them in some way to celebrate our 25th Anniversary?!

• Donations can be dropped at either EYIC or Junior Campus between 8-11am on Thurs 27th Oct.
• Come back between 2-4pm (or send some money with your nanny or children!) and enjoy the delicious treats! 
• Do not forget to bring your container so that you can take extra goodies home to share with the whole family.
• Please minimise the amount of plastic used when donating products.

You can label your container and collect them from reception the following day.  

Chắc chắn rằng ai trong chúng ta cũng đều yêu thích những món ăn có hương vị ngọt ngào phải không Quý Phụ huynh? Vậy thì còn chần chờ gì nữa, hội phụ huynh trường BIS trân trọng kính mời toàn thể phụ huynh tham gia chương trình đóng góp các loại bánh để đồng hành cùng tổ chức Poussieres de Vie gây quỹ mua trang thiết bị cần thiết, phục vụ việc học cũng như giúp đỡ các em học sinh nghèo, gặp khó khăn trong cuộc sống.

Để tham gia chương trình gây quỹ, phụ huynh vui lòng mua hoặc tự làm các loại bánh như bánh bông lan, bánh quy, bánh hạnh nhân, bánh khoai mì, bánh da lợn…, và gửi đến trường BIS, Cơ sở EYIC hoặc Junior trong khung giờ từ 8 giờ đến 11 giờ, thứ năm ngày 27 tháng 10. Chương trình bán bánh sẽ diễn ra cùng ngày, trong giờ các em tan học. Phụ huynh có thể trang trí bánh theo chủ đề kỷ niệm 25 năm ngày thành lập trường BIS.

• Chương trình bán bánh diễn ra từ 2 giờ đến 4 giờ, mời Quý Phụ huynh tích cực tham gia để công tác quyên góp của chúng ta được thành công hơn! Nếu phụ huynh không sắp xếp được thời gian để tham gia chương trình, phụ huynh có thể cho các con tiền để các con mua bánh sau giờ học; hoặc phụ huynh cũng có thể gửi tiền cho người giúp việc để các cô chú mua bánh về cho gia đình mình cùng thưởng thức
• Phụ huynh lưu ý mang theo hộp khi đến mua bánh
• Để góp phần bảo vệ môi trường, phụ huynh hạn chế sử dụng hộp nhựa khi đóng góp bánh cho chương trình. Phụ huynh dán tên mình lên hộp đựng bánh để nhà trường trả lại hộp cho phụ huynh sau khi chương trình kết thúc.
• Phụ huynh vui lòng không đóng góp các loại bánh làm từ hạt.

And Finally…

When I asked in assembly this morning who was ready for a holiday, every single hand was raised, and that included the teachers and teaching assistants.  It has been a busy term, and I want to take this opportunity to thank you, our parents, for all your support and positivity over the last nine weeks. I hope you will all be able to take some time to relax over the holiday and ‘recharge the batteries’, and I look forward to seeing you all back at school on Monday 24th October.

Ian Battersby
Headteacher