Weekly Highlights 04/09/2020

Mr. Simon Higham, Principal

Dear Parents,

Developing a stronger Home/School Partnership

I would like to thank all our Secondary parents for attending this week’s ‘Meet the Tutor’ evening that was held on Thursday. Following the Primary event last week, we all value the importance of these evenings, to ensure that you as parents, connect with your child’s class teacher or tutor as often as you possibly can. Primary class teachers and Secondary form tutors should always be your first point of contact, if you have any questions, feedback or concerns.

These events help us to strengthen the partnership between home and school, building the relationship needed to ensure that learning and communication is as effective and efficient as possible.

Congratulations

I would like to congratulate all our external examination students for another incredible set of IGCSE and A-Level results for the academic year 2019-2020. We are very proud of their achievements which take our BVIS students on the next step to success along their educational journeys. 

Our Year 11, 12 and 13 students were entered for Cambridge International and Edexcel exams in June 2020, however, due to the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic, formal exams were not able to go ahead for safety reasons. 

During this unprecedented time, staff, students and parents/families all adapted brilliantly to virtual learning until students were able to return to school. Students continued to excel and display improved knowledge through online tests and mock exams. 

Please visit the link here to learn more about our fantastic IGCSE & A Level results this year.

From our most recent Parent Satisfaction survey, 99% of parents who responded ‘Strongly Agreed’ or ‘Agreed’ with the statement that children receive a quality education from our school. The year on year academic achievements of BVIS students, reinforce your views and opinions.

Meet our new teachers

As I mentioned in last week’s Highlights, each week I will be introducing new members of our teaching staff to you and asking them to consider 5 questions that will help you get to know them better.

This week, it is my pleasure to introduce Ms Jessica Ashforth who has recently taken up her role as our new Primary ICT 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 Ho Chi Minh for just under a year teaching Grade 2 and 3 Science at another International school and prior to that I lived in Cape Town, South Africa (my hometown) teaching electronics, coding and robotics to Primary learners at Club Electron for 3 years. 

2. What were your first impressions of BVIS?

BVIS is an amazing inclusive, big space with great learning facilities throughout the whole school. 

3. What is your teaching philosophy in short? 

“Education and learning are not a one size fits all”.

4. What 3 things are you looking forward to doing whilst working and living in Vietnam?

I am really looking forward to immersing myself more into the Vietnamese culture, travelling and seeing more of beautiful Vietnam and hopefully learning to speak some Vietnamese!

5. If you could sum up your experience so far in just one word, what would it be?

Mind-blowing.

Please note that you can access all of our staff profiles on the school website within the ‘Our Teachers’ tab. This can be found here.

Fundinotots

Do you or your friends have children from 0-36 months old? If yes, our Fundinotots Free Play Sessions are perfect for your family!

Next Tuesday 8^th September, our very youngest members of our BVIS community return to school to join our Fundinotots programme. To find out more about Fundinotots, please click on this link.

For further details on the different sessions offered and Schedule of Fees for Fundinotots, please contact the Admissions Office at (028) 3758 8033.

An Enrolment Form can be collected from the Primary School. Alternatively, you can download one from our website.

What parents should look for from a great international school

A 35 year veteran of British and international schools around the world, Regional Managing Director for Nord Anglia Education schools across Southeast and the Middle East since 2015, and a father of three, Shaun Williams, who helped to set up and establish BVIS HCMC back in 2011, explains what characteristics parents should look for when seeking the best international school for their child.

To access this post, click this link.

Communication

At BVIS, we aim to ensure that each parent receives clear and up to date information. Should you have any questions, feedback or would like to contact your child’s class teacher or form tutor, please use the numbers below:

• For all Primary Enquiries, please call:

(028) 3758 0709 / ext. 111

• For all Secondary Enquiries, please call:

(028) 3758 0717 / ext. 211

• For all enquiries linked to Admissions, please call:  

(028) 3758 8033

Mr Simon Higham

Principal

Mrs Mary McAloon, Head of Primary

This week has seen August draw to a close leading to time for reflection whilst we celebrated Vietnam’s National Day on Wednesday 2^nd September.  The year 1945 is an important time in history for Vietnam to remember, so I do hope you managed to spend time with your family on this special day.

Welcome to the 2020-2021 House Captains

Last Friday 28^th August 2020 saw a momentous occasion in assembly when our eight new house captains were ‘knighted’ as leaders of their house for the year. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Bella and My An of Hue, Heidi and Quoc An of Dalat, Jayden and Ben of Hanoi and Phuc Thiên and Gia Han of Saigon. I look forward to seeing your leadership develop throughout the year.

Our Aide Memoire

The new school year provides a perfect opportunity to remind ourselves of our core values and how we can demonstrate these.  Especially now that we have a newly designed aide memoire, which helps us to remember all eight important characteristics of BVIS.  Below you can see the new design where each characteristic has its own colour.  Through the year, children who are recognised by their teachers for demonstrating a characteristic will be awarded the matching sticker – now these are all matched to the colours of our new aide memoire!

A current focus for everyone in primary is the essential characteristic of ‘Care’.  In class, children are discussing how to show care and, in particular, teachers are looking for children who are caring for their new friends who have joined our school this academic year.  Our Stars of the Week last week highlighted many children demonstrating care in the classroom and during play and lunch times; well done to all of you.

Extra-Curricular Clubs

Clubs were allocated to children early this week.  If your child has been allocated a club for season one, then you will have received an email with all of the club details. Your child’s club schedule begins on Monday 7^th September. Please do take note of any drop off and pick up routines that need adjusting to accommodate the clubs that your child will attend.

And finally, safety is paramount for our entire community.  As a gentle reminder, if coming to school by car at pick up time, please do park your car away from the entry and exit gates.  Walk a little way to and from the gates to help keep traffic moving along the one-way system.  No car should be parked in the coned areas to allow an efficient ‘stop, drop and go’, procedure outside of Gate A.  As a school we are always looking at ways of how to improve the congestion of both traffic and pedestrians at peak times and always value your comments and feedback.  I would like to thank you all for your patience and support with the change in procedures.

Wishing you a restful weekend.

Mrs Mary McAloon

Head of Primary 

Mr Jack Rudin, Head of Secondary

Meet the Tutor

This week we had our meet the tutor's afternoon on Thursday, and it was great to see so many parents there from all our Secondary year groups.  It is an important part of getting to know a key person in your child's life and the person they will see each morning. If you were not able to be there, please look out for the email coming out from your son or daughter’s tutor introducing themselves.

Dates for you Diary

We have our first parents evening for Year 10 on Tuesday 15^th of September.

If you are a Year 10 parent, please look out for more information that is coming to you soon.

Options Evenings

We will soon be asking Year 9 and 11 students to make their subject choices for next year for their IGCSE & A Level programmes.

Over the next few months we will have some activities in school and some opportunities for parents to come in to talk to us about your children’s progress and how to make good choices.

We will send you a letter nearer the time but please put these dates in your diary to come and talk to us after school:

• Year 09 Parent Evening: October 20^th
• Year 09 Options Evening October 22^nd
• Year 11 Parent Evening: October 03^rd
• Year 11 Options Evening: September 24^th 

Brains in Science

The Science department had a fun time introducing the brain to some of our  Year 6 students. Students were given an overview of how the brain works and were introduced to some of its components.

They were also given some insights into how the brain determines our behaviour by our new Psychology teacher, Miss Jefferson.

Students then dissected a pig brain and were able to identify a number of the key parts and asked lots of interesting questions.

All the dissections were done to a very high standard - we clearly have some budding neurosurgeons in the class! As always, we will be looking at further ways in which our Primary and Secondary students can share their learning across the academic year.

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: