Student Highlights & Success Stories (10/11 - 14/11/25)

Dear Families

Last weekend BVIS hosted the FOBISIA Teaching Community Conference here in Hanoi. We had over 130 educators from 36 top schools across Asia joining us to share some amazing teaching practice. I would also like to say a huge thanks to the primary and secondary students who performed at the conference. It was a very proud moment for us all.

I am delighted to announce that we have two sports teams that have won the HAC Hanoi Athletic conference for both Volleyball (KS4) and Basketball (KS3). They competed against top international schools during the season and came out as tournament champions. An amazing achievement by both teams. Congratulations and you can read more about this in the secondary section below.

Just a reminder please, if you have not done so already to complete the parent satisfaction survey. Your views really matter and I would really like to hear from you. This year for every survey completed we will donate 80,000VND to help the flood relief campaign in central Vietnam. Thank you.

We are really looking forward to the Christmas Fair on the 6th December. Please register for your tickets to avoid disappointment.

I wish you all a very relaxing weekend ahead.

The Cycle of Life

In Early Years, the children have been busy harvesting vegetables in the garden.

Toys from the Past and Present

This week, Year 1 learned all about toys from the past and present! The children explored the differences between old and new toys, learning how materials, colours, and designs have changed over time. They looked closely at what toys were made of long ago, such as wood and metal, and compared them to the plastic toys we play with today. The children had great discussions about which toys they liked best and why!

Superhumans

In Year 2, the children continued their English and IPC learning through exciting hands-on experiments and instruction writing. As part of their topic ‘Superhumans’, they explored the digestive system and learned how our bodies process food. To deepen their understanding, the children followed and wrote their own instructions to carry out a “poo experiment,” demonstrating how food travels through the digestive system.

Year 3’s Friendship Assembly

Today, our Year 3 students shone brightly during their Friendship Assembly! They spoke confidently in English, performed lively dances and cheerful songs, and shared lots of useful information with the audience. The assembly was full of positive messages about kindness and teamwork, showing how strong and caring their friendships have become. We are so proud of their creativity, enthusiasm, and the wonderful spirit of friendship in Year 3!

Grammar

In Year 4 this week, in English and Vietnamese classes, students learned about imperative verbs.

Speaking and Listening

Year 5 have been showing great enthusiasm for word games! They successfully boosted their English Speaking and Listening, practicing vocabulary and showing strong pronunciation skills. We were impressed by their focus on clear end sounds. Great confidence Year 5!

Communication, encryption, and technology

In STEAM, Year 6 have been learning all about the history of communication, and the development of the technology involved. Designing, prototyping, testing, and improving their own telegraph machines.

UKMT Success

On Friday 10th October, 51 students took part in the UKMT Senior Mathematics Challenge. This is a worldwide competition which tests mathematical knowledge and tests problem solving skills and is aimed at year 12 and 13 students.

Awards are assigned as follows: The top 50% of all students who entered the competition gain a gold, silver or bronze certificate. These are allocated in a 1:2:3 ratio. I am delighted to tell you that the results have been released, and the students did fantastically well. 82% of our students gained a gold, silver or bronze certificate.

11 students gained a gold certificate which is much higher than the typical 8%. A huge thank you to MinJun Bae and JungWoo Bae who helped run the ECA dedicated to the preparation for this competition.

A special well done to our year 11 and 10 participants who did exceptionally well considering this was a competition for sixth form students. From this group of younger students, three were Gold certificate winners, Hyeseung and YunHoo in year 11 and Quang Dung in year 10. What an incredible achievement!

Basketball Success

Following our first outing in a number of years at a KS3 festival event last weekend, it was time for the competitive teams to take centre stage at their end of season HAC tournaments at Concordia and UNIS respectively. After a season packed with fixtures and practices it was an opportunity for them to test themselves in a more competitive arena.

The girls tipped off against an HIS side that had narrowly beaten them earlier in the season and after a tight game they lost very narrowly in closing stages of the first round. This put them into the playoff bracket of the competition where they lost by 1 point to BIS in the last play of the game. Their resilience, effort and energy never left them and they continued to smile despite these narrow loses. They were rewarded by a win in their final game of the day to round off a tough day, but one full of learning experiences.

The boys echoed the attitude, resilience and effort level of the girls. They also faced off against HIS, who they lost to early in the season, however this time their determination and drive was too much for the opponents to keep up with. They followed this early round victory with a dramatic overtime winner against Concordia in the semi final. This game was a true reflection of Dragons sporting culture and the boys refusal to give in. The energy they brought to the court was getting the crowd off their feet. Onwards to the final in a match up against the hosts UNIS who beat them not 4 days before. During the final the boys were down on points and were under pressure, but once again their attitude, energy and sheer will, brought the game to overtime, where the Dragons emerged as HAC champions for the first time. Drama, delight and determination were rewarded with a title the Dragons have been seeking for a while. Congratulations to all involved, who showed us all what hard work, energy and effort can achieve!

BVIS Codebreaking Challenge

BVIS students, from KS2 to KS5, completed code-breaking challenges alongside other schools in FOBISEA last month. Students learnt about different codes and ciphers that can be used to secretly send messages, as well as tested their problem solving skills to deduce patterns and crack the codes.

All students who completed each level received a certificate. A special mention to the following students who completed the challenging level 3 codes:

• NGUYEN Huong Giang Y12
• LE Vu Lam Y8
• TRAN Nhat Ha Y9

We look forward to running the competition again next year!

History Ambassadors

Our brilliant subject ambassadors for History did an excellent job for the Poppy Appeal with roughly 9 million raised. They also attended a special remembrance service on Tuesday and Nguyen Huong Giang said “The Remembrance Service was a very sobering experience and allowed us to reflect on those that lost their lives in all wars”.

PSHE

As part of their PSHE lesson on physical activity and nutrition last week, year 12 students made these fantastic storyboards for adverts to encourage children to eat more vegetables.

Y9I and the Flame Test

The students have been practising the use of the Bunsen burners and observing the different chemical reactions occurring when burning salts.

BVIS Staff and Students race!

On Sunday 9th November Ms Deana, Ms Mary, Ms Angharad and Mr Will ran at the Trang An Marathon race and bumped into Thanh Lam from Year 13 at the finish! Mr Will ran an amazing full marathon, Ms Mary, Ms Deana and Ms Angharad ran the half marathon, and Thanh Lam completed the 10km race.

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