Weekly Highlights 03/03/2023

Mr. Simon Higham, Principal

Dear Parents

Thank you again for taking time to read this week’s Highlights that aim to keep you updated with the many events and successes that occur across BVIS every week.

Champions ........ Again!

Taking pride of place in the Highlights this week, I would like to personally congratulate every member of the girls and boys FOBISIA U13 squad, who last week represented BVIS with great pride and performed exceptionally well at the FOBISIA Games held in Bangkok, Thailand against some very strong opponents in all sports. 

The BVIS Bulldogs amassed a total of 35 individual medals and amongst other successes were crowned boy’s football champions with the girls taking a well-deserved 3rd place in their own football competition.

Read more about our individual success across all 4 sports in Mr Bates’ Highlights below. 

Well done to everyone involved - #very proud Principal!  

Parent Satisfaction Survey

Next week is the final chance to take part in this year’s Parent Satisfaction Survey.

Thanks to your amazing efforts, we now have over 380 individual family responses, with our overall response rate nearing a very impressive 50%.

If you have yet to complete the Survey, simply click on the link in the email body to these Highlights. The survey takes approximately 10-15 minutes and can be completed in English or Vietnamese.

In next week’s Highlights, we will be announcing the classes who have the highest response rates across the school overall and arranging to give out their well-earned prizes.

Livestream: What Gen Z need to thrive in the future

Following our recent Livestream event relating to Gen Z and what skills they will need to thrive in the future, click on this link to access the full recording.

Generation (Gen) Z is the name we give to young adults and children born between 1997-2012. They will become the next workforce generation in the future and are well known for being creative, bold and tech savvy.   

World Book Week @ BVIS

This week, we have been celebrating the importance of reading with a wide range of activities, visits, fun and games.

Thank you to everyone who donated over 400 books for today’s Used Book Sale and to all parents who volunteered to help sell them. Through your kindness and generosity, all money raised will go directly to our BVIS Community Partners. Please look out for further updates about how the funds were used, in future editions of the Highlights.

This weekend, please take time to ask yourself and your son/daugher the following questions related to reading:

1. What is your favourite book and why?
2. Who is your favourite character from a book you have read and why do you like them?
3. What is your favourite quote from a book? (If you can’t think of one, why not take time to look together and find one – I'd love to hear about it!)

My favourite quote comes from a book by my favourite children’s author, Chris Van Allsberg. In the Polar Express, he wrote: ‘Though I’ve grown old, the bell still rings for me as it does for all those who believe’. This still brings a smile to my face as I type!

My favourite book by Van Allsberg is called ‘The Sweetest Fig’. Ask your children if they have seen it or even read it, in our school library. If not, challenge them to bring it home the next time they visit the school library. 

Contact Us 

If you have any questions regarding your child’s BVIS education, use the contact details below – we’re ready to help and support you:

We wish you all a very book filled weekend ahead! 

Mrs Mary McAloon, Head of Primary

Following Footprints – an Author’s Inspiration

On Monday and Tuesday, we welcomed Ms Nicola Davies to join us at the beginning of our Book Week activities.  Ms Nicola is an author of over 50 books for children and she is also an expert zoologist having spent many years studying animals such as bats, geese, whales, elephants and gibbons.  This year’s Book Week had the theme of ‘Following Footprints’, which was inspired by Ms Nicola’s books, which always include animals.  

Through the week, student activities were based around our BVIS animals that represent our 8 core values; integrity, respect, care, enquiry reflection, perseverance, global citizenship and Vietnamese perspective.  Students deservedly earned stickers for each footprint that matched the BVIS animal.  The stickers represented the students’ learning around the core values once they had read the book and completed the activity.

Ms Nicola writes fiction, non-fiction and poetry and her work has been translated into more than 10 languages for children across the globe to enjoy.  Ms Nicola is an award-winning author with top awards from countries such as the UK, USA and France.  What a treat it was to meet Ms Nicola; we shared our experiences and understanding of writing and most importantly we learned from her expert knowledge and skills about her journey as a writer.  Thank you for inspiring us to read and write more, Ms Nicola!

Book Week in Primary

World Book Day is celebrated on 4^th March annually and at BVIS we always take this opportunity to celebrate books, share the titles of our favourite stories and inspire a love of reading. Our philosophy of the teaching and learning of literacy is based upon the fact that behind every great writer there is an avid reader. Reading for pleasure is one of the most important elements of a student’s good learning habits, which is why Book Week is so important for our community. Bringing about a sense of excitement around reading will support our students to use some of their free time to independently read their weekly library books. With over 70,000 Vietnamese and English books in the BVIS library, there is so much variety for students to remain enthused by and not want to put down their books until they reach the last word.

This term Ms Truc, our Head Librarian, will host Reading Workshops for parents in the library.  This year’s focus is on emotional literacy, exploring how books can support children’s understanding of emotions for both self-regulation and empathy.  We would like as many parents as possible to join these workshops; the more that adults understand about reading, the more positive influence they can have on the children in their care.  Please look out for the invitations for these two workshops on ClassDojo.

 A special guest visits BVIS

This week we were so happy to welcome Ms Rosy Clark back to BVIS.  Ms Rosy was the founding Head of Primary at BVIS.  Beginning in 2011 when the school was first established and leaving after 9 successful years in 2020 when I took over her tenure.  On a visit to Vietnam, Ms Rosy took time to come and see the school and learn about the changes and growth that has happened since her departure.  The students were excited to see their previous Head of Primary and staff were thrilled to share their updates and achievements with her.

Thank you for visiting us Ms Rosy; it was great to celebrate all that Ms Rosy had achieved at the school in the past and to show her the many more achievements since she left.

Upcoming Events 

• 07/03/23: Y6 Residential Trip
  
  
• 07/03/23: EYFS Sports Morning

• 15/03/23: Positive Parenting Workshop 5: Wearing your firm parenting hat for Lower Primary

• 17/03/23: Y1 Production for Y1 parents

• 21/03/23: Reading Workshop for Parents of Students in F1 to Year 2

• 23/03/23: Y4 Production for Y4 parents
  
  
• 24/03/23: Term 2 ends @11:30am

Mr Toby Bate, Head of Secondary

World Book Day

This week BVIS celebrated world book day across the whole school. Designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, World Book Day is marked in over 100 countries around the globe. 

Here at BVIS, our Secondary students have celebrated a week of Discovering the Unexplored. 

Whether it is the far corners of space, the depths of the ocean, the darkest spots in the jungle or the mathematical mysteries of Separatrix Separation - humans have much to discover and this week we honoured those things.

Students had specialist lessons focused on experts and explorers in each subject, they took part in quizzes and treasure hunts and discovered new favourite songs at a literary themed live lunch! KS3 even had the pleasure of meeting published author Nicola Davies, who discussed her famous book, The Song That Sings Us.

FOBISIA U13 Results

The U13 FOBISIA squad had a successful trip to Thailand competing in the FOBISIA ‘Friendly Games’. On Friday morning they competed in Swimming with the following medals being won:

Girls:

• Bella - Breaststroke Bronze  
• Hana - Freestyle Relay Silver  
• Miu Miu - Freestyle Relay Silver, Backstroke Bronze 
• Anh Linh – Backstroke Silver, Freestyle Silver, Relay Silver  

Boys:  

• Long- Backstroke Bronze  
• Kingston- Backstroke Bronze   

Students also competed in athletics and a range of medals were won across track and field events:  

Girls:  

• Sumi, Hana, Lan Anh, Sushi- Relay Gold  
• Sumi- 100m Sprint Gold, 1500m Gold, Triple Jump Bronze   
• Miu Miu – Discus Bronze  
• Sushi- Javelin Silver, 300m Bronze 

Boys:  

• Tin, Hien, Paul, Long- Relay Gold   
• Phuc Thien- Shot put Gold  
• Long - Triple Jump Bronze  
• Vio- 1500m Gold, 800 Gold  
• Ryan- Long Jump Bronze  
• Nhat Khoa – High Jump Bronze, 1500m Gold, 100m Silver  
• Dung- Shotput Bronze, Discus Bronze  
• Kingston- 200m Bronze   

The girls competed in Football having a very successful day finishing in 3rd place winning a bronze medal and in Basketball against some very tough opponents, they finished in 5th place. 

The boys finished 4th in the Basketball competition, but in the Football they were outright winners of the tournament with a game to spare! They were the stars of the tournament playing some outstanding football.

Well done to all of our U13 FOBISIA squad.

University Fair 

On 28^th February and 1^st March, we had the pleasure of welcoming 15 American Universities and 3 universities from the United Kingdom to BVIS. This gave our KS4 and 5 students the opportunity to learn about various universities and programs offered in the US and the UK. 

From the diverse range of courses and flexible study options available, to the vibrant campus life and global opportunities, it was clear why America and the United Kingdom are such popular destinations for our BVIS students. 

Participants had the chance to speak with representatives from several universities, who were more than happy to answer questions and provide valuable insights into the admissions process. 

Tet Box Appeal 2023

Just a brief thank you to the whole community who contributed to the Tet box appeal this year. As you can see from the image below, we not only raised  a large sum of money but also donated a vast amount of food and clothing to people who really need it.

Thank you all for your continued  help to support our local community.

BVIS Secondary Champion of the Week

This week’s champion is Thao Linh from Y12.

Well done Thao Linh!

Secondary Champion Tutor Group of the Week

For the last three weeks it’s been 7S, but not this week. This week’s champions are…

Congratulations to everyone in the form who collectively earned a huge 100 Housepoints. Well done 9V!

Upcoming Events   

• 03/03/23: World Book Day

• 03/03/23: Y7-10 Grade reports sent home

• 07/03/23: Y8 Parents Evening

• 13/3/23: American University Fair 
  
  
• 14/03/23: Y12 Parents Evening

• 15/3/23: University of Sydney- Australia- Visit
  
  
• 16-24/03/23: KS4/KS5 Art Coursework on display
  
  
• 20-24/03/23: Space Week
  
  
• 20/03/23: University of Queensland – Australia – visit
  
  
• 22/03/23: Careers Seminar (KS4 & 5)
  
  
• 23/03/23: Arts Award Evening

• 24/03/23: End of Term 2, school closes at 11:35am

Safeguarding and Child Protection

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: