Weekly Highlights 02/02/2024

Mr. Simon Higham, Principal

Dear Parents

As we approach the Tet holiday, I wish each BVIS family a happy and prosperous New Year filled with love, joy and lots of precious family time.



Across our school, we have been celebrating this very special time of year in a variety of different ways.

Tet Fair

On Sunday, we had over 1,100 parents, students and staff attending our extraordinary Tet Fair. With a wealth of traditional games and live performances, community service initiatives and of course our incredible food court, all our community came together to celebrate as one extended family. We hope you enjoyed it!

My thanks to all our school staff and students who put many hours of preparation into this event to help give us so many long-lasting memories.

EYFS Tet Celebration

Following lots of hard work, creativity and rehearsals, on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, it was my pleasure to attenid Tet Celebrations led by our very youngest children in EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage – F1, F2 and F3).



After both performances, my cheeks were literally aching as I could not stop smiling throughout! 

Well done to all of our EYFS children for their incredible singing and dancing. Read more about this event in Ms Mary’s Highlights below.

Primary Assembly – Vietnamese Perspective Week Celebration

 
To mark the end of Vietnamese perspective week, all of our Primary children came together to celebrate their learning with a vibrant and colourful assembly that every child took an active part in.

From the history of dragons across Vietnamese dynasties to traditional songs and dances that included individual and group musical performances, we learned so much about the quality learning experiences that had taken place. My thanks to our skilled and dedicated Primary teachers and teaching assistants who made this another extremely memorable moment in time for all of our Primary students. See more pictures from today’s celebration in Ms Mary’s section below.

Secondary Tet Assembly

On Wednesday this week, our Year 5 and 6 students joined in the celebration to watch this year’s spectacular Tet Assembly with their secondary peers.



Combining song, dance and drama, our students helped us to celebrate Tet in their own very unique and entertaining way. Also included in this event was an insightful piece that explained how our Korean community celebrates Lunar New Year and of course, this was followed by some K Pop mash ups!

Congratulations to everyone who took part and our thanks go to all of our amazing Vietnamese TAs and Teachers who ensured that a vision was made into a reality. Well done!

Celebrating Tet is just one way in which we maintain and develop a true Vietnamese Perspective across our BVIS global community. This week is certainly one to remember for a long time to come!

Have Your Say – Make a Difference!

This weekend is your last chance to complete this year’s Parent Satisfaction Survey. All of your valued, respected and confidential feedback allows us to better understand what you think we are doing well and most importantly, how we can be even better year on year.



Currently, we are a little short of our target of a 50% response rate however, there is still time for you to help.

Make a difference today and complete the 2023-24 Parent Satisfaction survey that can be accessed through the link on the email body from today’s Highlights.

Remember, your feedback matters to us.

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.  

Chuc Mung Nam Moi from everyone at BVIS.



See you all again on Tuesday 20th February.

Mrs Mary McAloon, Head of Primary

EYFS Tet Celebration

On Tuesday and Wednesday, our EYFS children set the scene for Tet with a magnificent performance.  The children came together to help the audience celebrate this special time of year when families gather to pay respect to their ancestors and recognise the changes, plans and progress they have made.  The theatre was full of warmth and excitement as they watched the children in full costume tell the story, “This is Tet” and perform magnificent songs and dances to represent the celebration.

Thank you to all our families who joined the audience and congratulations to our EYFS children and their teachers for the wonderful performance.

Vietnamese Perspective Week Celebration

This week the primary community enjoyed many activities and experiences that supported and developed their Vietnamese Perspective and understanding of the culture and traditions in Vietnam at Tet.  On Friday, each year group had the opportunity to share one highlight from their week of learning in a final celebration assembly for Vietnamese Perspective Week.  The closing words of the special celebration wished every student a very Happy Tet as many of them travel to their hometowns to meet their family members.  CHÚC MỪNG NĂM MỚI!
 

Tet Appeal

This week primary student leaders and Ms Tam travelled to our community partners to give the generous gifts that had been donated for this year’s Tet Appeal.  The students brought back to school messages of thanks and appreciation for the useful items that the community partners received.  They truly were grateful for the care and support they have received from BVIS at this special time of year. 

Thank you for supporting this year’s, Tet Appeal.  A special thanks also to Ms Tam Do and the Student Community Leaders for all the hard work behind the scenes in making the programme a success.

Upcoming Events

1. 05-19/02/24 – Tet Holiday, School closed
   
   
2. 20/02/24 @08:30 – School Resumes

Mr Toby Bate, Head of Secondary   

Tet Assembly

A huge congratulations must go, not only to the students involved, but also the staff as well. Without their dedication and hours of practice and support with the students the show would not have been as fantastic as it was.

Humanities

Year 11 Geography students went for their second field trip of the year, this time within HCMC to look at settlement, urbanization and migration issues. This is excellent preparation for their final examination in May.



As in Mui Ne, they were superb and a genuine pleasure to take out on the trip. The students showed great resilience and spirit all day, despite working in the hot sun. They fully completed their investigation whilst safely crossing some District 1 roads!

Sporting Success

I would like to update you on the sporting success of the BVIS bulldogs this week.
 
Earlier this week the U13 boys football A team took on SSIS to become district 7 champions. It was a very tense and exciting game with Nhat Minh scoring to make the score 1-0 until the final minute when SSIS scored a very late goal. After 5 minutes of golden goal time the game was decided on penalties with the bulldogs becoming district champions!
 
They will now have the opportunity to go and compete for the city championship title. This is a very exciting opportunity for all the students involved, and along with their coaches they have worked extremely hard to get to this point. A huge congratulations to everyone who has been involved with the team and its development.

House Update

Written by Nancy (Saigon Head Student)

The Tết traditional fruit tray, known as "mâm ngũ quả," holds deep symbolism in Vietnamese culture. During this week, the BVIS Vietnamese department organised a competition to see which house could make the most beautiful and meaningful fruit tray.



Our team conveyed the deep and traditional meanings of Tết through our vibrant display. Each fruit represents different wishes for a prosperous and abundant year ahead. The presence of a watermelon symbolizes good luck & fertility, while the coconut represents unity & togetherness (Saigon's slogan is "Together for Victory"). We put different types of fruits with different colours as a message of the joyful, fruitful and colourful year coming.

The 2 red banners depict the two wishes considered most valuable to us, wealth and health. As can be seen, we created a blue dragon on the top of the tray. Not only is this next year's animal but it's also in blue - the house of Saigon's colour. 

Our team spirit is reflected in the arrangement of the fruits, which required collaboration and coordination. It represents the collective effort and unity of a family, as everyone comes together to create a beautiful and meaningful display.

Sparx Maths Champions of the week

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 

This week's First News Champions are: 

Year 9 - Max Nguyen                  
Year 8 - Nguyen Ngoc Nguyen       
Year 7 - Nguyen Huu Phuc

A special congratulations to Max who was the champion across the whole school!

Bedrock Champions 

This week’s bedrock champions are: 
 
Year 12 - Nguyen Anh Trung           
Year 11 - Aki Vo                                 
Year 10 - Vo Lam Nghi                       
Year 9 - Grace Do
Year 8 - Anna Quach                     
Year 7 - Mraz Le                                 

Congratulations to all the above students who came up on top in their respective year groups. A special well done to Mraz who once again achieved the highest Bedrock points total across the whole of secondary!

Champion Tutor Group

Upcoming Events

1. 5th – 19th Feb, 24: Tet Holidays
   
   
2. 20th Feb, 24: First day back for all students/ A level Music Recital at 4:00pm.
   
   
3. 22nd Feb, 24: Year 11 Parents Evening
   
   
4. 27th Feb, 24: Year 13 Parents Evening 
   
   
5. 29th Feb, 24: Year 11 Music Recital at 4:00pm
   
   
6. 6th March, 24: World Book Day Celebrations

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: