Mr. Simon Higham, Principal
Dear Parents
I trust that you had a very relaxing and family orientated long weekend that incorporated Vietnam National Day with a return to school on Tuesday instead of Monday. In talking with many students, teachers and parents across our school, I did find it interesting how so many of them thought that Tuesday felt like a Monday!
Gain a Balance in your Daily Routines
This weekend try to reflect upon your own family routines at home. For example: When do your children start their homework? When do they start preparing for bedtime? And when do they go to sleep? Ask yourself the questions:
- ‘Do we have established routines at home?’
- How could establishing a routine, help my child(ren) to learn more effectively?
Of course though, there is a word of caution. Too much routine can stifle creativity.
Rohld Dahl, the famous children’s author said,
‘I began to realise how simple life could be if one had a regular routine to follow with fixed hours, a fixed salary, and very little original thinking to do.’
So look at how to take time out from your routine, try something different and encourage yourself and your children to think differently. Gain the balance you need and work in partnership with us to ensure that your children have the best possible educational opportunities that they deserve at BVIS HCMC.
CPR – An Essential Skills Workshop for all Parents to Attend
We cordially invite you to join us in partnership with Family Medical Practice for the forthcoming parent event:
CPR – An Essential Life Skills Workshop for all Parents
- Time: 09.00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
- Date: Wednesday 11th September 2019
- Venue: Room 147 – BVIS HCMC
The Workshop will be led by Mr. Laihock – an experienced CPR and First Aid Trainer from Family Medical Practice. He will present information about accident and injury prevention and demonstrate practical CPR techniques used on infants and young children. All parents will have an opportunity to join in with hands-on training to quickly apply the theory into practice.
To register your interest in attending and to find out more information, please access this post. We look forward to seeing you there next Wednesday.
Meeting our BVIS’s Alumni in the 1st Reunion!
On Friday 23rd September, we proudly welcomed our BVIS Alumni back to school for our first ever BVIS Alumni Reunion!
Our former students experienced mixed feelings as they no longer wore their school uniforms or had numerous A Level textbooks in their hands. They were thrilled to see their old teachers & other alumni.
It was a lovely occasion for them to meet, greet and share their exciting experiences from their new destinations and universities both across their own group and with our current 6th Form students.
Read more about this ‘first’ for BVIS in this post by Mr. Luke Curran - Universities & Colleges Counsellor.
To find out more about University placements from BVIS and how our globally recognised A Level programme can help your child attend one of the world’s top universities, please contact Mr Curran directly at Luke.Curran@bvisvietnam.com
For more information about last year’s outstanding IGCSE and A Level examination results, please click here.
Meet our New Teachers
This week, we continue to introduce you to our new teachers so that you can learn more about them, where they have come from and what have been their first impressions of life in Vietnam.
This week, it's the turn of Ms Adit Goschalk - Whole School Art Teacher
1. Where did you live prior to coming to Vietnam, what role did you have and what was the name of your previous school?
I lived in London, working as an Art teacher, Lead Teacher in charge of Student Wellbeing and Head of Year 8.
2. What were your first impressions of BVIS?
A warm and friendly school with lots of enthusiastic staff and students.
3. What were your first impressions of Vietnam?
A colourful, busy and exciting city, full of delicious food!
4. What 3 things are you looking forward to doing whilst working and living in Vietnam?
Exploring HCMC and the Vietnam, trying new food and developing my teaching skills and experience in new ways
5. If you could sum up your experience so far in just one word, what would it be?
Busy!
Look out for another new teacher in next week’s Highlights.
For information on all of our teachers in school, please click here to see their profiles on our website.
Important Upcoming dates for your Diary
- Mon 9th Sept: All clubs begin
- Wed 11th Sept: CPR - An Essential Life Skills Workshop for all Parents
- Fri 13th Sept: Moon Festival celebrations (Field and Main Hall)
- Thu 19th Sept: Phonics Coffee morning (8.30am in the Main Hall)
- Fri 20th Sept: EYFS (F1, F2 and F3) Coffee Morning – Class Dojo (8.30am in the ELC)
Essential School Contacts
If you need to contact school, please use the essential contacts below to ensure that you get in touch with the correct departments in the most effective way:
For all Primary Enquiries
(028) 3758 0709 / ext. 111
For all Secondary Enquiries
(028) 3758 0717 / ext. 211
For all Enquiries linked to Admissions
(028) 3758 0710
A full list of our school contacts can be found here on our school website
Engage and Connect with us on Social Media
Connect with us on social media to discover more about what's happening at the school, and to learn about events and student achievements:
The Safeguarding and Health and Safety of all our BVIS HCMC community is always our number one priority. Should you have a concern for the welfare of any child in our school, please refer to our Safeguarding poster below:
Ms Rosy Clark, Head of Primary
Thank you to all parents and carers who came to our “Meet the Teachers” event recently. Almost 300 attended to hear about the academic year ahead, which makes for a positive start to the year and builds a strong parent-school partnership to benefit your children.
In case you were unable to attend, here is a summary of the key points made during the first part of the event:
Parent Lanyards
Thank you for wearing your blue parent lanyards with your child’s swipe card attached whenever you enter/exit school and throughout the time you are on the school site. Also, thanks to all families who have purchased black, polishable shoes for their children to wear with their school uniform.
Project Curiosity
Project Curiorsity will be running again during this first half term. We have made a few adjustments following on from the overwhelmingly positive parent feedback last year.
This is an excellent opportunity for you to collaborate with your child on an extended homework project. Class teachers will send you deadlines and information step-by-step via Class Dojo.
Class Dojo
Class Dojo is our main form of communication for you. After listening to our parents’ feedback, we have now extended the use of Class Dojo to EYFS too! A typical week of communication using Class Dojo looks like this at BVIS:
Reading
Reading is a priority this year as we encourage all our children to further develop their love of reading. To find out more about the importance of reading please click here.
Drama
Following Ms Emily Jones’ recent visit to The Juilliard School in New York, she has delivered training using Juilliard Drama materials to all our teachers and teaching assistants. So all children in our school will have the opportunity to experience Juilliard drama in at least one of their units of learning this year.
I am delighted to report that this year Juilliard Dance with Ms Danielle is included in the Year 6 PE programme.
BVIS Primary continues to grow as I am sure you have noticed, so I am also pleased to announce that we have recruited an additional experienced teacher for our Language Support Department.
Thank you to all our parents and carers for their ongoing support and I hope you found our annual “Meet the Teachers” evening useful.
Mr Jack Rudin, Head of Secondary
Meet the Tutors
I would like to thank all parents who attended our meet the tutor's session on Thursday evening. Your son or daughter’s tutor is the person they see every morning and we feel it is extremely important that you have the opportunity to meet with them face to face. They will be guiding them through their learning and looking after their welfare and wellbeing as they move through Secondary.
Options Evening
On Thursday 3rd October we will have an options evening for all out current Year 11 students and their parents to talk about their A level choices for next year. Choosing your A level options are a vital step as your son or daughter prepares to move into their final years of study at BVIS HCMC. These choices will affect what courses they are able to study at university and beyond. Please ensure that you put this date into your diary:
- Date: Thursday 3rd October 2019
- Time: 4.30 p.m.
Science
A new year and a new look Science Department!
Mr Dobson’s timeline of the Universe has bought the science corridor to life – literally from the Big Bang.
Mr Livesey now has his own giant Periodic Table outside of his laboratory to make sure all of his students can remember as many chemical elements as him.
Mr Every has so many plants in his lab, he now has a living door for his students to admire as they come to class.
On behalf of all of us at BVIS HCMC, we would like to wish you a pleasant weekend and look forward to seeing you again on Monday.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact me directly at: Simon.Higham@bvisvietnam.com to give feedback on our Weekly Highlights and how it can be further improved in the future.
