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Mr. Simon Higham, Principal
Dear Parents
I trust that like us, you have had both an enjoyable and productive week.
Next week sees the annual #loveBVIS week at school. The week is run with a focus on celebrating what a fantastic school we have and how we all contribute to making it such an engaging and welcoming place to be.
Please ensure that you follow the week through our social media channels.
This week, I have been delighted to see many of our students representing our school across a wide variety of sporting fixtures.
Whilst watching a selection of these matches and talking with those who took part, it has been extremely pleasing to personally witness the enthusiasm, commitment and sportsmanship shown by all of our participants. Whether playing football, basketball, volleyball (or any other sport) it is evident that a BVIS team always encourages each other to be the best that they can be, is gracious in victory and reflective when the score does not go our way. This is the BVIS way!
I would like to wish our Under 15 FOBISIA squad all the very best as they travel to Thailand over the weekend to participate in the FOBISIA Games that run until Thursday 17th November. This will be the first time since the start of the global pandemic that our team has travelled overseas to represent BVIS and I know that everyone will try their very best and we all will be extremely proud of their overall achievements.
Look out for more information in the Highlights over the next few weeks. Go the Hammerheads and Bulldogs!
I am pleased to confirm that photographers from Pret-a- Portrait will be returning to BVIS during the week beginning 28th November.
Once final schedules for both class and individual student photographs have been completed, they will be shared with you via email approximately one week before the visit.
As in previous years, full details relating to how you can view your own son/daughter’s photographs and how these pictures may be purchased, will be shared with you after the visit.
As part of our ongoing introduction to new members of our teaching staff, this week we are pleased to welcome Ms Rachael Neilson, our Year 2 Teacher.
To help further support you navigate through our school’s website, this week’s top tips are:
Should you require any help, support or advice regarding the school website or any aspect of your child’s education, please do not hesitate to contact us using the information below:
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On behalf of everyone at BVIS, I wish you a very pleasant weekend ahead.
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Mrs Mary McAloon, Head of Primary
This week Mr Luke Curran shared top tips with our Upper Primary Parents to use and apply when they encourage their children to try new things and do their best in all learning activities. The series of Positive Parenting Workshops is designed to support and guide families to feel comfortable and confident in new situations that arise with their children.
As a child grows and matures, they require nurturing in different ways to help them to get the most from every aspect of their life. For parents, it is extremely helpful to share and discuss these changes together, so they feel comfortable and equipped to provide their children with what they need to develop holistically. If you have not yet joined one of these workshops, I encourage you to make time to attend as you are guaranteed to find that they enhance your role as a parent.
This week our EYFS children spent time celebrating nursery rhymes in preparation for World Nursery Rhyme Week. They achieved this by learning new rhymes and performing them to each other on Friday.
Nursery rhymes are an excellent stimulus for learning. They ignite creativity in play, encourage physical movement through actions, often include mathematical concepts and numbers, develop new vocabulary and phrases and expose children to rhythm and language patterns in a fun and inspirational learning approach.
One of our favourite authors, Mem Fox, explains the benefits for children when they learn new nursery rhymes:
“Experts in literacy and child development have discovered that if children know eight nursery rhymes by heart by the time they're four years old, they're usually among the best readers by the time they're eight.”
My message this week to families with early years children is to share nursery rhymes with your children in any language. Repeat the nursery rhymes as a routine every day, create actions together for them and enjoy observing how your child(ren) grow and develop with the exposure to this great resource for learning.
Last week I talked about the importance of children joining Fundinotots to provide the stimuli for a holistic approach to learning at a young age. This week, I would like to highlight the importance of thinking ahead for your children in preparation for their future.
Through the primary years, children begin to develop their skills and interests that will help to form their career path in the future. Therefore, we are offering our Year 4, 5 and 6 parents an opportunity to prepare for the conversations with their children by joining Mr Luke Curran, Head of Safeguarding, Welfare & Guidance, and Ms Dung Mai, University Guidance Counsellor, for the BVIS Career Guidance Seminar.
An email was sent to Year 4, 5 and 6 parents earlier this week with further information about this session; parents will also find information on the class page of ClassDojo. We look forward to welcoming parents to this event.
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Mr Toby Bate, Head of Secondary
This year we will celebrate Teacher’s Day as part of the #loveBVIS week, with a ‘wear something pink’ day along with several other special events taking place during the week.
Mr. Moroney launched the 6 in 6 reading challenge this week for all members of our Secondary community.
The Reading Challenge aims to get everyone excited about reading, and to encourage us all to read outside of our comfort zone and explore new genres, new times and places and new characters.
We all know that reading is vitally important for all of us to continue to develop as learners. The quote below taken from “The Impact of Pleasure Reading on Academic Success.” written by Whitten, Labby & Sullivan (2016) really helps to encapsulate this sentiment.
“Students who read independently have greater reading comprehension, verbal fluency and general knowledge than those who do not. They become better readers, score higher on achievement tests in all subject areas, and have greater content knowledge than their non-reading peers.”
Good luck to everyone taking part in the 6 in 6 challenge!
This special day of reflection, was created to remember the fallen of WW1 – a conflict that embroiled many nationalities. It has since become a day to remember the deceased in all conflicts – soldiers, civilians, and even animals.
Documentary photography
The poppy acts as a symbol of remembrance and we pay our respects to those that have fallen with a minute of silence.
Remembrance Sunday, St Giles, Oxford. 14112021 Picture by Ed Nix
Lest we forget.
In the past few weeks, the Wellbeing committee has started the ‘Wellbeing Tip of the Week’. The aim for these tips is are promote useful activities that BVIS students can do to improve their mental health.
Due to the Covid-19 lockdown, our students had to stay at home for a long period of time. Therefore, the Wellbeing Team further wants to reinforce the importance of “Reconnection”. We made a visual podcast with the key message “Reconnection with people around you” for our Week 1 Tip and a presentation about “Reconnect with your Inner Child” for Week 2!
These tips can be presented in two forms: as a video or as a presentation which would be presented by our members during the assembly. We have received a lot of positive feedback from our students and we remain keen to continue spreading positivity throughout the BVIS community through these meaningful tips!
Linh and Julia – Students and Chairs of the Wellbeing committee.
Since the end of the mid-term holiday, Secondary students have been trying their best in Vietnamese Literature lessons. For the Poetry Unit, they learned a variety of poets and were well equipped with knowledge and significant skills. They were always active and proactive in lessons. The atmosphere in the class was always exciting with many activities. In group activities, they learnt about poetry rules or analysed the content and style of the poem. During individual activities, they practiced writing to express personal views about a poet they had learnt or composing a poet with the topic of “Happiness”. Such careful preparation in these lessons will surely help their term 1 work both confidently and effectively.
This week, we have yet another Year 8 winner. A huge well done to Thien Na (Tina) from 8B who is this week’s champion. Well done Tina!
A Year 8 tutor group is also the Champion of the week this week with 145 house points collected across the week. The deserved champions this week are 8B. An enormous well-done to them!
The UK BEBRAS Challenge is a Computational Thinking Challenge and any students can enter.
There will be time set aside for students to attempt some of the challenges during the Computer Science lessons next week and we would encourage all parents to talk to your son/daughter about how they are getting involved.
Best of luck to all our students!
Tickets are now on sale for this event. Please get yours early as we are expecting them to sell out very quickly this year.
If you or your child(ren) have any questions about the show, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s class tutor in the first instance who will be able to answer them.
We are looking forward to seeing as many students and parents in our audience for the performances on:
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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