Community Service at BVIS

“You make a living by what you get; you make a life by what you give.”

Winston Churchill

Such a sentiment is the rationale behind the British Vietnamese International School, Hanoi Community Service programme.  Encouraging students to give of themselves, expending emotional capital rather than just fundraising, ensures that we develop and maintain in students of all ages the core elements of Respect, Care, Reflection and Perseverance, key values from our mission.

The British Vietnamese International School, Hanoi uses the Nord Anglia Education portal, ‘Share A Dream’, to record all Community Service activities, detailing the scope of time/effort, gifts in kind and money donated to each charity endeavor. This is a new initiative; in time each student will have their own access code to this portal so that they can undertake the recording of their personal contribution and growth under the support of our Community Service coordinator. Through this portal, students will be able to recommend, see and participate in future volunteering opportunities, record activities for pre-approval, write reflections, and send supervisor reviews for documentation.

Community service activities should benefit a non-profit, educational, or governmental organisation in need.

At The British Vietnamese International School, Hanoi, there are many worthy causes that we support but our two main community partners are Blue Dragon and Operation Smile Vietnam. Charitable activities take place in ECA time, at weekends and in the holidays.  Parents are, of course, encouraged to join with their children, to make recommendations of service projects and to support the work of the school in developing community-mindedness in our students. 

Mark Sayer

Principal