Student Highlights & Success Stories (01/12 - 05/12/25)

Dear Families

On Thursday last week I had the pleasure of attending the IGCSE certificate presentation ceremony. A wonderful evening and a huge congratulations to our amazing record breaking students.

Last night I attended the first evening of the secondary school musical performance, 'The Addams Family'. We have an incredible cast of young people demonstrating great talent. It was a brilliant show. Well done to all the students and staff for a memorable show and good luck tonight for your final performance.

A final reminder that tomorrow is our Christmas Fair. We are looking forward to seeing many of you there to celebrate this very special time of the year. Remember there will be prizes for the best Christmas family outfit.

I would like to remind you about our family referral scheme. We have already received great interest and we hope many ore of you will be able to take up this great offer.

I wish you all a very happy weekend ahead.

Developing Independence

Children in EYFS are continuing to develop their independence during continuous provision. They are confidently choosing their own activities, exploring resources, and building important self-help skills throughout the day.

Developing Reading

In our library session, students chose their favourite books to read and then enjoyed a story read aloud by Ms. Ba. A calm and happy reading time!

Growing Confidence on Stage

Our Year 2 assembly on Superhumans was a wonderful celebration of the children’s learning this term. The students confidently showcased everything they had discovered about the amazing abilities of the human body through speaking, acting, and showing their work. We were so proud to see their enthusiasm, teamwork, and growing confidence on stage.

Speaking and Listening

In our Speaking and Listening lessons this week, Year 3 students combined their listening skills with their imagination. They listened carefully as their classmates described a monster with different features, and then drew the monster based on what they heard. They also had the opportunity to draw their own monster and explain to their friends how to draw it. This approach encouraged teamwork, active listening, and creativity, and the final drawings were fantastic!

Christmas is just around the corner!

Our Year 4 pupils are not only diligently rehearsing their special song and dance performances, but they are also eagerly preparing to decorate the stage and their classrooms. This promises to bring exciting surprises for everyone at the upcoming performance on Friday, 12th December.

Getting the Grammar Right

Year 5 showed great excitement practising their speaking and listening skills using the past-simple, past-continuous and past-perfect tense. They displayed excellent understanding and enthusiasm.

Design

Year 6 students finished prototyping their telegraph machine designs and begun evaluating and improving their machines and working on their product branding to make their machines visually appealing.

U15 FOBISIA Success

Report from Mr Chris Kitchen (Head of PE)

What an event! There were emotional highs and lows the likes of which only sport can provide. I can say I have been made incredibly proud by students at this school on numerous occasions but this team must rank right up there at the very top of that list.

They surprised us all on day 1 with a number and range of medals on the athletics field and swimming pool. They stepped in to fill roster gaps when injuries prevented their teammates from participating.

Day 2 was an even bigger surprise when the boys led the way all day only to be devastated in the last game and go from an unbeaten 1st place to 4th in one moment and the girls were able to snap up the silver medal with extraordinary discipline to follow their tactics.

Day 3 was full of intensity, determination and effort. There is not enough space on this newsletter to describe their energy and attitude, so I will not try. To walk away with gold and silver medals was inspiring to us as coaches and a reflection of the time and effort that all have put into this team.

These student athletes were exemplary on and off the courts, polite, humble, hard-working and very few backward steps taken. During the competition I was approached by a number of coaches from other schools who commented on the 'Grit' and the 'Heart' that our school plays with and that is something each student chooses for themselves. We cannot coach those values. We hope that these experiences live long with each student and are remembered fondly as they go on to bigger and better things.

HCMC History Trip

Year 11 came back fully knowledgeable about the American War after their recent visit to HCMC. Whilst there, students engaged in the array of stories and artifacts at the War Remnants museum, travelled along the narrow tunnels of củ chi and saw the numerous traps devised by the VC and visited the Reunification Palace. It was a very busy trip, but a very meaningful one. Bao Nam said “it was really interesting to see how complex the tunnel system was and how our ancestors fought the Americans. I encourage all students to visit such an important aspect of Vietnamese history".

Year 9 Fire Safety Project

This week, Year 9 completed their first chemistry project based task on fire safety. As part of the unit of study for C5: Reactions in Everyday Life, students investigated how fires start and spread, how different materials burn and how heat, smoke and oxygen move through a building. For the project component, they were tasked with designing a fire safe room, choosing suitable materials and adding safety features such as smoke control, escape routes and barriers. This project was designed to help students see how chemistry links directly to situations they may encounter in the real world. As part of the project, students also explored real case studies, including the Grenfell Tower fire in London (2017), the Torch Tower fire in Dubai (2015 and 2017) and the Hanoi apartment fire (2023). We also took students around the school to look at our own fire safety signage. They identified evacuation routes, extinguisher points and alarm locations, linking this to the safety features they were designing.

Sadly, while our students were working on their designs, news broke of the devastating apartment fire in Hong Kong and reports highlighted the role of flammable renovation materials, broken fire alarms and the difficulty residents faced as they attempted to escape. Although deeply upsetting, the event demonstrated to students why understanding fire behaviour is so important and why science, engineering and responsible decision making can save lives. In class, we approached the news with care, holding a minutes silence for the victims at the start of the lesson. Our students also reflected on how the scientific ideas they had been learning about appeared in the reports and we also discussed the importance of transparency, accountability and the ethical responsibilities that governments, contractors and engineers must uphold.

The project also connects to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: Sustainable Cities and Communities through safer building design, Good Health and Wellbeing by exploring how to reduce risks from smoke and toxic gases and Industry, innovation and infrastructure. 

Vietnamese Humanities

In Vietnamese Humanities class, our Year 7 students brought the legendary tale of Mị Châu – Trọng Thủy to life on stage. Their performance was truly outstanding, showcasing creativity, teamwork, and deep understanding of the story. Well done to all the students for this impressive achievement!

Y12 Business

Y12 Business students have been learning about leadership styles .Two groups were given a task to produce a tower using straws ,cups and balloons-the tower would be assessed by me on three criteria: beauty, strength and height at the end of the lesson. The task was to last for 40 minutes, and, at ten-minute stages, a new 'leader' was assigned to each group.

The 'leaders' were taken outside of the classroom and prepped on what the four leadership styles were: Autocratic, Paternalistic, Democratic and Laissez Faire. They then reentered the classroom and adopted the leadership style they were allocated. Through role play they enacted the leadership style allocated to them and we wrapped up with a whole class review of the advantages and disadvantages of each style, as well as identifying them.

Y10 English as a Second Language

Year 10 have been designing their own town maps to practice giving and receiving directions along with shopping vocabulary in English as a Second Language.

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