Student Highlights & Success Stories (26/05 - 30/05/25)

Dear Families

It was wonderful to see such amazing events at the end of last week in Primary. The awards assembly and talent show were fantastic.

Thank you to everyone who donated recently to the Myanmar earthquake fund. Thanks to the NAE/UNICEF Earthquake Appeal, nearly $100,000 USD has been raised so far, alongside an additional $100,000 USD was donated by Nord Anglia Education. This remarkable total is already making a real impact - providing emergency shelter, clean water, healthcare, safe spaces for children, and support for rebuilding efforts.

Please see message below from our school in Yangon:

I would like to share with you a recent article published in the local press about the BVIS school model. I hope you enjoy reading it:

The quality of BVIS school model

A reminder that this weekend BVIS is hosting an event for EYFS and Year One. Full details below:

Summer school places are filling fast. If you want to be part of the exciting program, please sign up as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Moving on up!

This week in Early Years, the F3 classes have been fully immersed in their transition program as they prepare for the exciting journey ahead. The children were thrilled to visit Co Phuong, our STEAM teacher, who engaged them in hands-on scientific enquiry, sparking their curiosity and love for learning. Meanwhile, all classes have been energetically practising and gearing up for one of the highlights of the year – the Early Years Parent and Child Sports Day taking place next week!

Encouraging Curiosity and Care for the Natural World

As part of our English story this term, Year 1 has been planting tomatoes—an exciting hands-on activity that brought the story to life! This experience has also supported our IPC topic on food groups, as children explored where food comes from. They are showing great care and responsibility by watering the plants and closely monitoring their growth. It has been a fantastic way to blend literacy, science, and wellbeing, while encouraging curiosity and care for the natural world.

Connecting Geography Skills with Real-World Contexts

Year 2 continued exploring their Treasure Islands topic with a focus on geography. The children learned how to use atlases and globes to locate continents and countries, thinking about how pirates might have used maps to plan their journeys. They then investigated where different fruits come from around the world and linked this learning to the kinds of goods pirates may have encountered while travelling across oceans. The children enjoyed plotting trade routes and imagining how long pirate journeys would have taken in the past compared to how food is transported today. It was a great opportunity for them to connect geography skills with real-world contexts in a fun and engaging way.

Understanding and Appreciate Vietnam’s Cultural Heritage

In Vietnamese Humanities, Year 3 students learned about the costume of the Nguyen Dynasty. They worked together to create models of costumes, including royal robes and traditional accessories. The students collaborated well and showed great interest in the activity. This hands-on experience helped them better understand and appreciate Vietnam’s cultural heritage.

Sharing Ideas and Solving Problems Together

In Maths, Year 4 students had a fantastic time joining the Poly Hunt Adventure with five exciting stations: Poly Sort, Poly Count, Poly Draw, Poly Hunt, and Poly Craft. In groups, they worked together to sort, count, draw, search for polygons, and even created their own polygon crafts. The activities not only helped students master geometry but also strengthened their teamwork, communication, and creative thinking. It was wonderful to see how each group shared ideas, solved problems together, and celebrated every little success. Maths truly becomes more meaningful when we learn and laugh together!

Year 5 Sports Day

On Thursday, 22nd May, Year 5 enjoyed an action-packed Sports Day! The children took part in 3v3 Basketball, Dodgeball, and a variety of relay races.

It was fantastic to see all students fully engaged, showing perseverance, teamwork, and great enthusiasm throughout the day. As always, there was a strong emphasis on demonstrating our school values and good sportsmanship.

Well done to all the students for their positive attitude and effort – you made the day a great success! 

Making Maths Visible and Real-World

This week in Maths, students explored how data collection and representation connect to the real world. They started by conducting a class survey to find out the month of everyone's birth. Using a tally table, they recorded the results—making sure every mark counted! Then, they transferred their data into a double bar chart to clearly compare and analyse the information.

This hands-on activity helped students understand how we use maths to organise, represent, and interpret real-world data in meaningful ways. Plus, it was a fun way to learn more about each other!

Self-Evaluation Coffee Mornings with Ms Claire

I have very much enjoyed meeting parents at our two recent self-evaluation coffee mornings. These offered parents the opportunity to come into school, hear about recent developments, future plans and importantly, contribute views and ideas. Some of the ideas shared from parents which we will be taking forward include:

1. Suggestions around how to improve the format of reports and information included in them

2. Approaches to improve the consistency of how we issue house points

3. Approaches to support parents around digital devices and parental control

4. Supporting younger students to better understand A level pathways and how they lead you to universities around the world.

Exciting Transition Experience for Our Year 6 Students

This week, we were thrilled to welcome our Year 6 students into the Year 7 classrooms as part of their transition into secondary school. To make the experience engaging and meaningful, each Year 6 student was paired with a Year 7 buddy, and together they spent the day immersing themselves in life at BVIS.

Throughout the day, our young visitors followed typical Year 7 timetables and attended a variety of lessons across the school. They experienced six different classes, including Physical Education, where they enjoyed a lively game of bench ball, and Digital Society, where they explored a wide range of internet services.

A highlight of the day for 6V was the Mathematics challenge, where students from Years 6 and 7 collaborated to design a bedroom. They calculated the area of the floor and walls, selected furniture within a set budget, and arranged their items in a scale drawing to ensure everything fit perfectly. This task emphasized teamwork, careful planning, and a methodical approach to meet the challenge successfully.

Additionally, the Year 6 students experienced secondary break and lunchtime routines, enjoying the lively atmosphere and the fun of navigating new environments alongside their peers. The Secondary team is eagerly looking forward to welcoming our new Year 7 students in August.

We hope that this exciting transition day has provided them with a glimpse of what life at BVIS Secondary will be like, sparking enthusiasm for their upcoming journey.

Floating Village

This week, our Year 9 students’ team had their service-learning trip at Floating village. Alongside the dedicated staff from Think Playgrounds and the residents, they have rolled up their sleeves to build new walls for eight floating houses. These innovative materials not only boost the strength and resilience of the houses but do so without adding too much extra weight!

This initiative was sparked by our Year 9 students, who spent time brainstorming in class about how they could lend a hand to the Floating Village community ahead of the storm season. They've also constructed brand-new outdoor steps leading from the road down to the riverbank for three families, significantly enhancing access and safety for everyone living there.

Through this hands-on experience, our students have gained invaluable insights into the challenges faced by vulnerable communities. It also deepened their understanding of sustainable practices and the importance of community resilience in the face of climate change. This project has been a powerful lesson in empathy and social responsibility, showcasing BVIS Hanoi’s commitment to support local communities sustainably and improving living conditions at Floating Village.

Visit to the Polish Embassy

As a student, I often get bored or frequently zone out when listen to a long and informative speech. However, the table turns when it comes to Ms Joanna Skoczek’s workshop about women in diplomacy, I was completely hooked in during the conversations and the whole experience. When we first arrived and even when we left, the polish delegation always displayed a great hospitality, they created a friendly atmosphere that immediately stimulate our desire us to learn more. Even though I didn’t fully utilise my opportunity to have a direct conversation with any diplomats, their sharing of perspective and personal anecdotes was truly valuable. One thing that I specifically interested was when the limitations of women in diplomacy was brought up. Besides some obvious reason like discrimination or physique, it was interesting how some of the drawbacks come from the woman’s mindset herself. That’s when the issue of self-confidence was discuss and many students started to share their thoughts along with Ms Joanna. Another notable discussion that I’m impressed with was the explicit conversation about the complexity in discrimination. A polish diplomat shared her story about her friend who is also a woman diplomat, which directly point out a hidden trouble of discrimination. When a woman diplomat presents her speech, she received comments like “Wow! You’re so brave!” etc but when a man diplomat finished his speech, there is no comment even close to that. It raised questions about unconsciously create a barrier of gender, like “why is it so surprising for a woman to accomplished something normal for her job, which is just the same as the men’s?”. It came to me that gender equality is not just about honouring or respecting the women more, it is about being treated the same, undifferentiated and normally. Overall, I’m delighted to had such an enjoyable experience, not only it offers me a comfortable time learning new things but it was also truly valuable.

By Nguyen Duong Thao Anh

An Afternoon of the Arts

We would like to draw your attention to this upcoming event on Wednesday 11th June. It promises to be a fantastic afternoon celebrating the Arts at BVIS.

Upcoming Events

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Primary

Secondary