Weekly Highlights 10/03/2023

Mr. Simon Higham, Principal

Dear Parents

Last weekend I had the pleasure and privilege of attending the Nord Anglia Educational (NAE) Regional Conference that was held at Compass International School in Doha, Qatar. Also in attendance with me were Ms Mary, Mr Bate and Mr Shooter. (Can you spot us all on the picture below?)

During the conference, we all had the chance to attend workshops with presentations and discussions around themes such as: student, staff and community wellbeing, STEAM education, the use of present and future technologies, student leadership, creativity and much more.

Events such as these are exclusive to leaders within our Nord Anglia Education family, helping to further develop the strength and quality of leadership that we have at BVIS. A focus upon the highest quality of education for all students and continued professional development for all staff, shows the value that NAE brings to our school and across our wider NAE family of 81 schools.

For more information about all of our NAE schools, click here

Mental Health First Aid Training

Also, during the recent Conference, Mr Shooter ran our BVIS workshop on Mental Health First Aid, which was very well received. This training has now also been provided to all Secondary staff and it will be provided to all Primary staff and students across the school in the near future as well. 

Mental wellbeing is something that we take very seriously at our school and something that we can all support one another with.
 
On Wednesday Mr Curran delivered this mental health first aid training to some of our secondary parents.

We know that the session was useful to the parents who were able to attend, and we hope to see you at future parental events across both Primary and Secondary, if you were unable to attend this one.

BVIS Used Book Sale

Thank you to all parents who supported our first ever Used Book Sale event last Friday 3^rd March.

All of the money has now been counted and I am pleased to report that from donations of nearly 500 books from members of the school community, we managed to raise a total of 10,400,000 VND.

As mentioned last week, all proceeds from the book sales will go to the library construction project for Lasan School that begins in mid-June.

Thank you again for your generosity!

Quick on their feet: Gen Z’s need to be creative problem solvers

Following on from last week’s Highlights with regards to our recent Gen Z Livestream, I thought it may be both useful and informative to share with you this post from our NAE website.

Although only available in English, I hope that this article will be of interest and accessible to you. The article concludes with the following:

‘What Gen Z has told us affirms our approach to teaching and learning — young people benefit when their education focuses on their mental and physical wellbeing, builds their confidence, injects creativity into every subject, inspires them to think critically, and broadens their horizons with a global outlook.’ 

The article resonated with me as this is something that I know BVIS does very well and something that we will continue to further develop into the future.

Contact Us 

For all enquiries regarding your child’s BVIS education, use the contact details below – we’re ready to help and support you:

Have a great weekend ahead and remember to continue engaging and connecting with us.

Mrs Mary McAloon, Head of Primary

Y6 Residential Experience   

This week it was the turn of our Year 6 students and teachers to depart for their annual residential.  On Tuesday morning, Year 6 arrived in Madagui to begin the adventurous activities planned for them.  Each day of the residential trip, students were given the opportunity to try something new, learn new skills and collaborate as a team.  Alongside this, students also continually developed independence, resilience and confidence within themselves by being away from their home and being responsible for themselves.  These benefits make residential trips invaluable for a student’s development and preparation for their secondary years.  

Thank you to our team of teachers who chaperoned the students throughout the trip and a special thanks to Mr Matthew Thomas, the residential trip leader.  Next week I will be sharing the students’ most memorable experiences of their time away from home with their friends and teachers.

Reading Seminar for Year 3 to Year 6

On Wednesday afternoon, the library was buzzing with energy and enthusiasm for reading; parents of children in Years 3 to 6 joined Ms Truc, our Head Librarian, to develop an understanding of how books can help to improve a child’s emotional literacy.  

Emotional Literacy is one of the most important elements of a child’s vocabulary and understanding that parents can nurture.  A simple yet powerful approach to this development is through age-appropriate books.  As children do not always know the names of what they are feeling and understand it, adults carry the responsibility of supporting their children to talk through their emotions and help them to label them.  Ms Truc’s session equipped parents with the tools to identify the best titles to read with their children as a strategy to develop a wider understanding of emotions.
 
Thank you to all parents who participated in the workshop; there is no doubt that parental support and understanding of the benefits of books will increase student learning opportunities and overall reading skills.

EYFS Sports Morning

Ready, steady…go! This week Early Years children participated in a range of physical development activities during our EYFS Sports Morning.  They displayed confidence, patience and perseverance as they took turns to complete the physical challenges.  The activities challenged their developmental milestones from the physical development area of our BVIS EYFS curriculum.  Kicking, catching, throwing, balancing and moving with control and coordination are just a few of the skills that children need to develop physically in the Early Years through outdoor and indoor play.

The EYFS sports morning gave the children a chance to participate in a large event, practice their listening and physical skills outside of the EYFS areas and begin to understand the school house system and teamwork. Thank you to Ms Vi, F1 Teacher, and Ms Lucy, Head of Curriculum PE, for organising such a wonderful event.  

Upcoming Events  

• 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

Saigon Senior Maths Challenge

On Saturday 4^th March, BVIS had the pleasure of hosting the Saigon Schools Senior Maths Challenge. BVIS were joined by 9 other international schools from across the city, where students competed to earn the title of the ‘Best Mathematicians in HCMC’ Unfortunately, 2023 was not our year, however, special mentions go to Khanh Dang who was the highest placed individual Mathematician, and Khanh Linh, Trung Kien, Phuong Nghi and Minh Quan who were the highest placing team from BVIS.

This competition was a wonderful experience for our students, where they were able to work both individually and as part of a small group.

Mr Cooper and Mr Parsons did a brilliant job in organising this event, and I am hopeful that our KS3 Mathematicians have as much fun when they take part in the Junior Challenge next week – look out for our update then!

International Women’s Day

On Wednesday this week the world celebrated international women’s day. It was the central theme to our assembly on Wednesday and a range of different activities are on offer every day this month to help raise awareness regarding gender equity.

A big thank you to our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) team at BVIS for helping put this together and raising the profile of the day within school.

Global Campus

This weekend, take time to talk to your son/daughter about Global Campus.

There are lots of opportunities on Global Classroom this month that have a shared focus on Wellbeing. Just a few of the options available are Physical Wellbeing: Yoga, Emotional Wellbeing: Journaling, Physical Wellbeing: Sleep.

All our students are being encouraged to attempt these courses as they will enable them to be more resilient and overall better learners.

Ask your son/daughter to show you what Global Campus is – we're sure you’ll be impressed with this exclusive learning tool that is only available to Nord Anglia Education students.

Pi Day

Next week our Secondary student leaders are organising a special bake sale for “Pi day” (March 14th, 3.14). We look forward to enjoying this maths themed day, eating some tasty treats and raising money for charity as well.

BVIS Secondary Champion of the Week

This week’s champion is Hoang Khue (Jeff) from 7B. Congratulations to Jeff for all his hard work last week.

Secondary Champion Tutor Group of the Week

Last week’s champion tutor group was 9V, but this week it’s...

 
They collectively managed to achieve 128 House points! 

Well done to everyone in 7B for last week.

Upcoming Events 

• 14/03/23: Y12 Parents Evening
  
  
• 14/03/23: Pi Day
  
  
• 16-24/03/23: KS4/KS5 Art Coursework on display
  
  
• 20-24/03/23: Space Week
  
  
• 23/03/23: Arts Award Evening
  
  
• 24/03/23: End of Term 2, school closes at 11:35am. 
  
  
• 10/04/23: Start of Term 3.
  
  
• 13/04/23: Year 9 Parents Evening. 

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: