It was a pleasure to speak to many of you on our Orientation Day last week that marked the start of the school year. For myself and my family, it is not just the start of a school year but the beginning of a new and exciting adventure living in the fabulous city of Hanoi. The warmth of welcome that has been extended to all of us by the BVIS community has been lovely and I am really looking forward to working with the students and parents of our school. Orientation Day showed to me the high level of support parents have for the school and some of the wonderful talent that our students have to offer.
In the few days before Orientation Day, I was fortunate enough to be able to spend time with the teaching staff in preparation for the school year. I am already impressed by their professional expertise and dedication towards the care and teaching of the students. This was also borne out by a terrific first ever set of IGCSE results which saw all of our students able to make the next step into International A Level syllabuses in preparation for university entrance. Congratulations to all of last year’s Year 11 students.
In the first assembly to students on Friday Mr Nguyen Huu Long (Humanities) gave a moving presentation about Vietnamese Independence Day in preparation for Friday September 2nd. For all of our Vietnamese families, I hope you enjoy the celebrations that this day involves.
In that same assembly, I also spoke about some key attributes that I believe our students need to develop in order to achieve their potential at school. They need to be brave in their learning, to take risks, to not fear making mistakes, to be confident in developing new ideas and asking questions. They need to be versatile in their approaches to their work, adapt to new tasks and situations and be able to find different ways to solve problems. I challenged them to inspire one another and to be inspired by what they see, feel and hear around them – taking every opportunity that comes their way. Lastly, I encouraged them to be supportive and caring towards each other - helping each other and not being afraid to ask for help themselves.
In these ways, they will then develop into Brilliant Vietnamese International Students.
Thank you for your warm welcome and I look forward to a great term ahead.
Mr Nick Lee - Head of Secondary