Weekly Highlights 24/11/2023

Mr. Simon Higham, Principal

Dear Parents

Being successful is an important aspect in all our lives, however what does it mean to be successful and how can we encourage our students across each age group to understand what is meant by success?

Winston Churchill said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”



Within an educational context, ‘success’ can be limited and often defined by the academic grades achieved at the end of Year 13. However, at BVIS, we look at success across a much wider perspective than that. Of course, academic outcomes in line with or exceeding one’s own individual limits are of the utmost importance - this is why we have the highest standards of both teaching and learning across our school so that students can attend the universities of their choice - yet how can we help to support success, beyond the classroom?



As you enter the weekend, I would encourage you to reflect upon 4 things that hopefully may help you to further celebrate the successes of your child(ren) and encourage them to be the best possible person that they can be:

• What questions have you asked the teacher today?
• How did you help yourself today?
• How did you help others today?
• What will you do differently tomorrow, compared to what you did today?

Praise the big achievements (and the small ones too)

As parents, we often focus on the big achievements, but I would encourage you to look for the small ones too. For example, praise good manners or a smile you see first thing in the morning. By often using the words, “I really liked it when you …................” or “When you did.............., it made me feel really happy” can help to turn small actions into big successes.

Tell us more about your child(ren’s) successes at home

Communicating to your child(ren’s) class/Form teacher about the successes you see at home, allows us to forge deeper and more connected relationships with your son/daughter. Working in partnership to celebrate success is a powerful tool in helping to support and optimize your child(ren’s) learning journey at BVIS.

Be Realistic

Every child is different and attains success at various levels and within different contexts. Celebrate the success of your child and focus upon the individual person that they are. Not every child can be the next Frieda Carlo in art class or David Beckham on the football field, However, everybody can always give their best in all that they do and to me, this is most definitely worth celebrating!

This weekend, I challenge you all to reflect upon the points above. Give them a try because every BVIS student is a superstar in their own right and of course, this must be celebrated each and every day.

Academic Calendar 2024-25

Please find this link to next year’s Academic Calendar. Both the 23/24 and 24/25 calendars can be accessed here on the Main School website.

• Date: Wednesday 29^th November
• Time: 2.00pm – 3.00pm
• Venue: Main Hall 

Contact Us

Should you wish to contact your child’s Class Teacher(s) or Form Tutor directly, we encourage communication to be written in the language you most feel confident to use. 

Parents may also find it useful to contact their child’s class teacher(s) or form tutor directly for all individual queries about their academic work/social and emotional wellbeing in school.  Individual contact details can be found in the Parents' Handbooks or via our Primary/Secondary Receptionists.  

As always, I wish you and your family, a very happy, healthy and safe weekend ahead.

Mrs Mary McAloon, Head of Primary

Storytelling

Reading stories with children is beneficial to their learning and development for so many reasons.  If families have time for only one activity each day, then I would encourage this to be reading together.  On Wednesday this week, Ms Truc, our Head Librarian, and I hosted a storytelling workshop for parents where we shared top tips on how to make storytelling both useful and effective for children's learning.  We also discussed the importance of regularly sharing stories with our children; the aspects below were highlighted.
 
Whilst sharing books with an adult, children will;

• Develop all aspects of listening, focus and concentration
• Improve their language and literacy skills
• Be encouraged to enjoy reading and writing
• Develop their cultural understanding
• Broaden their imagination
• Build their skills in confidence, creativity and communication
• Develop their emotional and social skills
• Be supported in managing real life situations

For these reasons, why not visit the library today to pick up your next reads?  With over 70,000 books in our bilingual library, there are plenty to choose from that will get you and your child hooked on reading together.
 

U11 Badminton

The first of many badminton matches to come happened this week for our Under 11 boys and girls teams.  On Wednesday the teams headed to ABCIS in to compete against their school teams in preparation for the SISAC Championships that will be held in the new year.  Being a member of a sports team is not only a healthy habit but also helps students develop aspects of teamwork, resilience and perseverance, which cannot be met in the classroom.  If your child does not currently play a sport, I would encourage you to share the opportunities on offer at school and register them to join the next block of sports clubs and squad season.

Special Celebration

The Primary Student Council hosted a heartwarming celebration assembly on Monday this week to recognise and give thanks for the dedication and care that the teachers show towards their learning and progress.  The audience was treated to a number of spectacular performances, from musical talent with Thanh Phu on the guitar playing his winning piece of the Musician of the Year 2023 competition, to an exhilarating game of Pictionary where the teaching team beat the student team by just 5 points to 4. You could feel the energy in the room from the joy and cheer being shared.  During the assembly the students also took time to recognise World Children’s Day; a day marked by UNICEF for the whole world to recognise the rights of the child.  This year, our BVIS students demonstrated care for others and their Vietnamese Perspective by donating a reading book from home for a child to enjoy at Rang Dong School, one of our community partners.  Thank you to all students who joined in with our mission to drive the sustainable global goal of ‘Quality Education’.  

Thank you to all students and families for all the kind cards, gifts, flowers and messages that were received by our teaching team for this year’s Vietnamese Teachers’ Day.  Your kindness is truly appreciated. 

Upcoming Events

1. 29/11/23 @14:00 – Principal’s Afternoon Tea
   
   
2. 30/11/23 @14:00 – Reading Workshop for Lower Primary Parents
   
   
3. 01/12/23 @13:45 – Year 1 Christmas Sing-a-Long (for Y1 families - tickets required)
   
   
4. 08/12/23 @08:45 – Year 2 Christmas Production (for Y2 families - tickets required)
   
   
5. 9/12/23 – Christmas Fun Day for families (tickets required)

Mr Toby Bate, Head of Secondary   

Student Council – Community Committee 

Teacher’s day was recently celebrated across our campus with a morning breakfast coffee chat along with additional gifts from the school and letters handcrafted by members of the Friends of BVIS (FoBVIS). The community committee had also put together a “Never have I ever” video with participation from many staff members, made as a token of appreciation towards our lovely teachers and to get to know them better.

 
Besides the above, we also celebrated World Children's Day! Book donations were available for the whole week where old books were donated to less fortunate children. There was no specific theme, but blue was recommended for our non-uniform day on 24 November. If you would like to further support our charity community partners, then please drop by the Reception any time next week to make a further donation!

Mamma Mia

It’s nearly show time for our fabulous Secondary Production of Mamma Mia. Tickets are available from the Primary and Secondary Reception for just 50,000VND (all proceeds donated to Saigon Children’s Charity). Shows will take place on 6^th and 7^th December at 4.00pm and 8^th December at 6.00pm.

Come and explore the story of a young girl trying to discover who her real father is. Uncover her mother’s past and former life as a 1970s singer and relish in the catchy songs of Abba. Will she find out who her father is in time for him to walk her down the aisle on her wedding day?

How to Connect with MIT from BVIS HCMC

At BVIS HCMC, we have the wonderful opportunity to be part of the NAE / MIT Collaboration. I am often asked what that means for our students and how we can engage a little more with what is on offer from that. Well, there are many ways to connect with MIT and learn from their cutting-edge research and innovation. Here are some of them:

Trips to MIT

Only a few weeks ago, fifty students, representing 31 schools within Nord Anglia including one of our very own students, earned the chance to visit MIT! The trip included visiting nuclear reactors, touring the MIT campus, and seeing some of the cutting-edge research taking place there. The students also undertook challenges and built upon the knowledge and skills that we have been learning right here at BVIS! These trips run every year for students and due to the high demand and limited spaces challenges are set to find students that are motivated and engaged in the World of Design and Problem Solving. 

Unfortunately, it’s not always possible for us all to visit MIT in person. However, there are other ways to interact with MIT from home.

MIT HomeLabs

The latest HomeLab has been available on Global Campus from November 22^nd for all our learners. The topic for this challenge is ‘Rockets’. Just from the title, I think we can assume that this is going to whet the appetites of our STEAM learners AND teachers!

HomeLabs are online activities that you can do at home with simple materials and instructions. They are designed by MIT experts and aligned with the STEAM curriculum. You can learn about topics such as robotics, coding, music, and more. You can also share your work and feedback with other students and teachers on Global Campus.

Ask MIT

Have you ever wondered how rockets work? Or how to make a musical instrument out of a banana? Or how to design a game that teaches maths? If you have a burning question about STEAM that you want to ask MIT experts, you can do so through 'Ask MIT'.



Ask MIT is a video series for curious students that gives you the opportunity to write to MIT asking them to answer your STEAM questions. The Ask MIT team will then track down some of the answers from MIT experts. You can watch some of the past questions being answered here – ASK MIT.

MIT Abstracts Webinars

And then finally, every month we have the opportunity to find out about some of the exciting work being done within MIT by tuning into the new MIT Abstracts webinars. Due to the time zone differences, they are usually easier to watch later on YouTube. However, being part of the collaboration means we can watch them live and submit our questions directly to the experts!



MIT Abstracts webinars are short presentations by MIT researchers about their current projects and discoveries. You can learn about topics such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and more. One of my recent favorites was from Katharina Fransen who is working at MIT to design and develop plastics that won’t pollute our environment. You can watch her presentation here: Katharina Fransen | Abstract – YouTube

I hope you find these resources useful and interesting. If you would like to know more, then please don’t hesitate to contact Mr James Chandler our Head of Computer Science and Design Technology: James.Chandler@bvisvietnam.com

Sparx Maths Champions

Students earn XP by completing tasks in their Sparx Homework

Compulsory Tasks earn 60-80XP
XP Boost Tasks earn 120-150XP
Target Tasks earn 120-150XP
Independent Learning Tasks earn 100XP

Students reach a new Sparx Level every 10000XP

Top XP earners this week are:

First News Champions 

Bedrock Champions 

This week’s Bedrock champions are:
     
Year 7 - Mraz Le 
Year 8 - Kosuke Yamamura     
Year 9 - Grace Do 
Year 10 - Shunsuke Yamamura
Year 11 - Aki Vo       
Year 12 - Do Khanh An    

Congratulations to all the above students who came up on top in their respective Year groups. A special well done to Grace in Year 9 who achieved the highest Bedrock points across the whole of Secondary. 

Champions of the Week

This week’s champion student is... 

Well done to Kate!

Champion Tutor Group

This week's Champion tutor group is...

A huge well done to everyone in 7I who worked together to achieve more housepoints than any other tutor group last week.

Housepoint totals

Housepoint totals will now be hidden until the end of the term.

Upcoming Events

1. 28^th Nov, 23: Year 7 Parents Evening
   
   
2. 30^th Nov, 23: Y11/12/13 Parent Revision Support Workshop
   
   
3. 5^th Dec, 23: Year 8 Parents Evening
   
   
4. 6^th Dec – 8^th Dec, 23: Secondary Production – Mama Mia!
   
   
5. 8^th Dec, 23: Year 10-13 Term 1 Grade Reports: go home
   
   
6. 8^th Dec, 23: Block 1 Clubs End
   
   
7. 12^th Dec, 23: Secondary Sports Day
   
   
8. 15^th Dec 23: Term 1 ends at 11:30am
   
   
9. 10^th Jan 24: Term 2 starts

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: