Early Years Foundation Stage

EYFS is an integral part of the school and provides an excellent foundation from which your child can progress into a more formal learning environment as they enter the primary level of their education.

Why choose BVIS HCMC for your children’s Early Years education?

A British-styled Early Years education

The school offers an engaging play-based curriculum using teaching and learning materials from the highly regarded British Early Years Foundation Stage Framework. The main emphasis is on providing a secure and nurturing environment that allows all the children to develop at their own pace.

The Early Years Foundation Stage includes the following seven areas of learning.

Three Prime Areas

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development
• Communication and Language
• Physical Development

Four Core Areas

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the world
• Expressive Arts and Design

There is a strong emphasis on personal, social and emotional development as a means by which children develop their skills of independence, problem solving and confidence.

A unique bilingual phonics programme

During their time in Pre-Nursery, Nursery and Reception, children have the opportunity to work towards the Early Learning Goals in the seven areas of learning in both Vietnamese and English. Their dual language acquisition is carefully nurtured through planned opportunities for language learning. BVIS has pioneered a bilingual phonics programme teaching Vietnamese and English phonics using one single approach. A unique feature to BVIS, this programme enables students to learn to read in both languages and eventually become proficient at switching seamlessly between the two languages. Our children start distinguishing and identifying sounds in F2 and start the Read Write Inc Billingual Phonics programme in F3.

Exceptional facilities

Our school is a purpose-built building with exceptional dedicated facilities for Early Years children that offer a stimulating and engaging environment to maximise their social and academic development.

• A soft playroom
• An outdoor area specially designed for Early Years including a climbing castle, sandpit and splash pool
• A large bilingual library

Our highly qualified and experienced teachers

Great teachers can ignite creativity and a love of learning. All our teachers are fully qualified and have years of experience working with, and nurturing, young children. Our Early Years teaching team builds great relationships with our parents and shares their knowledge and expertise through regular parent workshops, parent meetings, reports, online learning portfolios, formal and informal updates. Our parents say that our teachers are exceptionally approachable and knowledgeable, and that it is easy to talk to our staff or ask them questions so that parents can support their children at home.

Personalised learning approach

Personalised learning is at the heart of the British Vietnamese International School, Ho Chi Minh City. We treat your child as an individual by adapting to their personal learning preferences, strengths, and areas for growth. We focus on how your child develops; we recognise that every child is different but should be treated equally. Your child's teacher will plan personalised, engaging and inspiring learning experiences to allow your child to develop their interests and meet the curriculum objectives for their age. Throughout their time in Early Years your child’s Class Teacher will provide you with their ‘next step’s’ in Learning and development.

A supportive and close partnership with parents

At BVIS, we recognise that parents are the most important people in a child’s life. Therefore, we want to work closely with parents and we value the importance of effective communication with you in order to share your child’s learning. There are number of ways in which we do this such as individual learning portfolios using the ClassDojo platform, weekly newsletters and parent meetings.

Our staggered entry

At BVIS, we run a ‘staggered entry’ programme, tailored to each child to allow them to confidently transition into full time school.  ‘Staggered entry’ is used as a means of getting to know your child and of giving them the time, care and attention that they need as they start a new school. It allows your child to get to know the adults, routines and structures of the environment gradually, so that they do not become overwhelmed by all the new things that they have to learn.  Our Foundation 1 children usually take a little longer during the staggered entry programme compared to the Foundation 3 children, but all children are different, and we work with you as parents and carers to decide on the most appropriate schedule for your child.