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Mr. Simon Higham, Principal
Dear Parents
I would like to welcome you all back to school following the short break for what is no doubt going to be a very busy, learning packed half term ahead.
On Wednesday this week, I wrote to all parents regarding our forthcoming CIS (Council for International Schools) visit that takes place every 5 years. The accreditation team will be in school from Monday 31st October to Friday 4th November.
We are well prepared and look forward to sharing our school with the eleven visiting team members.
Please can you ensure that all students are on time to school next week and that they are wearing the correct school uniform. As always, we aim for the highest standards in all that we do and want to showcase this with our visitors to ensure that they see the very best that BVIS offers.
This weekend, take time to talk with your child(ren) about our forthcoming visit, to further help them prepare for next week and be the best that they can possibly be across all areas of school life.
Thank you in advance to all parents who will be taking part in our Parent Panel meetings. Your support and feedback is vital to CIS and the final report writing.
All children have problems at times in their lives and as parents, we want to help and support to the best of our abilities, starting with really listening.
Being an active listener means that parents don't need to talk much, but enough to show that they are being patient, present and caring towards what their children have to say.
Read more about our Positive Parenting Workshops in this post from our school website. This week, Lower Primary parents attended session 2 entitled, ‘Wearing Your Listening and Supportive Hat’. The next session for Upper Primary will take place on Wednesday 9th November.
Look out for more details regarding further sessions in future editions of the Highlights.
As part of our ongoing introduction to new members of our teaching staff, this week we are pleased to welcome Mr Dave Doucette, Business & Economics Teacher.
Over the next 4 weeks in the Highlights, I will be helping to support you to navigate through our school’s website through a series of ‘top tips’. I would encourage you to take time and look through the information that is available both to you and all perspective BVIS parents.
This week’s top tips are:
Should you require any help, support or advice, please do not hesitate to contact us using the information below:
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Have a very family orientated and Halloween inspired weekend ahead and as always, thank you for your ongoing support of our school and our wider school community.
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Mrs Mary McAloon, Head of Primary
Walking around primary on Monday morning as the students returned from the half term break, it was clear that with the many cheery students wishing me a “Good Morning” and asking me how I am, we are part of a wonderful caring and respectful community. The holiday gave students and teachers time to relax and refresh ready for another learning filled half term ahead.
The next 8 weeks are packed full of opportunities for our students and parents, so please keep abreast of upcoming events by reading these weekly highlights on a Friday, checking in on the updates available on ClassDojo and reading the emails sent to parents from teachers and the school office. I look forward to reflecting on the growth and development that our students make over the second half of this term.
The Upper Primary ‘Project Curiosity Showcase’ was an opportunity for children to share their independent, student-led homework projects. The aim of Project Curiosity was for the students to have the opportunity to follow their own interests and focus their learning on topics that fascinated and inspired them. This resulted in a variety of fascinating projects with topics ranging from NASA, Football, Comics to Lego. A crucial part of the project was children sharing their learning and engaging in it with parents at home.
During the first week, our students had to explore their own interests through discussions with their parents and then decide on one subject to focus their research on. They then had to come up with 5 questions that they would like to find out more about their chosen topic.
The following week was the research task, were the students had to find the answers to their own questions as well as lots of interesting facts and information to fascinate their classmates.
Finally, it was time to present their projects, using their research, the students created interactive posters, models, quizzes and more. Parents were then invited to the showcase where the students had the opportunity to share what they had learned with students, teachers, and parents from their year group.
Project Curiosity is a fantastic opportunity for students to take ownership of their learning, follow their own interests and share their passion with others. Not only did they all learn something new, but they were also able to teach others. They showed plenty of perseverance to complete their projects and should be proud of their accomplishments.
Thank you to all families who got involved in the project. With 647.9 hours recorded of discussion between families, the support and guidance has been invaluable in furthering the students’ learning.
Ms Yen Tran
Upper Primary Coordinator
We have shared an amazing celebration of bilingual skills across primary and at home with families this month. We played bilingual lunchtime games for prizes and house points, persevered through 6 bilingual tongue twisters, voted on the best bilingual poem written by BVIS staff, participated in fun family challenges and now have our very own BVIS bilingual song. What great achievements!
In the Bilingual Month Celebration Assembly, we announced our Bilingual Genius, Bilingual Pop Star, Family Challenge, Tongue Twister and house winners. Congratulations to all participants who spent time on these learning activities, which enhanced and showcased their bilingual skills. We have very much enjoyed watching the videos submitted and are already thinking about new challenges for next year.
Thank you for celebrating bilingualism with us!
Ms Laura Kebschull
EAL Coordinator
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Mr Toby Bate, Head of Secondary
I hope that you and your children managed to enjoy the holiday last week and that your children are feeling refreshed and ready to learn.
For our exam year groups this next half term is particularly important, as both course content and exam practice, in preparation for the mock exams in January, will be covered.
In addition to all the work that will be done during this next half term, we can also look forward to Love BVIS Week, a Careers Seminar, Sports Day and Christmas Fun Day, amongst other things.
Community Leaders set secondary students the challenge to walk for Blue Dragon Childrens Foundation over half term break.
The goal was for each tutor group to walk a total distance of 21km (half marathon distance) or further!
Well done to all students who took part in this initiative.
Secondary students have had “pots of fun” decorating their own special Halloween Plant Pots.
Each form had to collectively design and decorate a plant pot with the challenge of making it suitable for the spooky season. Our winning teams went all out with 3D designs, some even built backdrops and stands for their little pots!
First place was awarded to 9I for their statuesque creepy collaboration. Second place went to 12H for their spooktacular Squid Games tribute. Then joint third place was shared between 12I, for their smashing gnashers pot, and 11B their wonderful, wicked witch pot. A big thank you to all the forms who entered; the pots will be used to plant pumpkins and other plants which will be sold to raise money for continuing the work in our Global Garden.
This week saw several other events run by students in secondary with a Halloween focus, not just the plant pot competition. One of which was the Halloween Spooky “Carn-Evil”, this involved our older students running several different stalls allowing everyone the opportunity to have some Halloween themed fun during lunchtime.
We also allowed students to attend school in fancy dress, provided they gave a small donation going to Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation. Please see some of our fantastic outfits below.
This week, we have a new name as Champion, which is always pleasing to see. Huge congratulations to Khoi (Tin Tin) in 7S who achieved 19 housepoints last week! Well done Tin Tin!
With the enormous efforts of the Champion of the Week – Tin Tin – it is no surprise to see 7S reach the top of the standings this week and become the Champion tutor Group. With a huge total of 185 house points 7S have also put themselves in the top three weekly scores so far this year! Well done 7S!
All of the teachers in the English Department are really excited that we have recently been able to restart our ‘Let’s Think in English’ programme. ‘Let’s Think in English’ is a teaching programme created by King’s College London, to help young people develop their reasoning skills needed for success in English.
As soon as children have learned how to decode letters, words and sentences, they need to develop higher-order skills such as inference, deduction and analysis. The lessons are based on structured challenge and include the development of understanding through discussion (cognitive challenge) and structured reflection (meta cognition) which makes pupils more aware of their thinking processes and how they think most effectively.
BVIS was one of the first International schools in the world to introduce the programme, which is widely used at schools in the United Kingdom. Once a fortnight, students in Years 7, 8 & 9 have the opportunity to mix with students from other classes and engage with a wide range of engaging stimuli.
First News is the world’s leading youth newspaper with over 2 million weekly readers. It is aimed at providing students with access to quality, reliable news from around the world.
At BVIS we strongly believe in helping all of our students become Global Citizens and one thing which we do to support this is encourage students to engage with current affairs. Every week, the First News iHub presents students with a range of activities to help them actively engage with news stories from around the world.
First News iHub is currently available to students in Years 7, 8 & 9.
If your child studies in one of these year groups, ask them to talk you about it and learn more about what has been in the global news this week.
The health, safety and wellbeing of our students remains the number one priority at BVIS HCMC.
Should you have a concern for the welfare of any child in our school, please refer to our Safeguarding poster below:
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