We all want our children to succeed academically; our most recent IB and IGCSE results are a sign that as a school, BIS is achieving that goal. However, education is much more than good exam results. At BIS, we provide a holistic education where students' wellbeing, character and interests are developed - we call it ‘enrichment'.
The dictionary defines enrichment as, ‘the action of improving or enhancing the quality or value of something’, and that is exactly what our enrichment programme does. It takes a number of different forms from the support and guidance of our Advice, Support and Counselling (ASC) team, to our diverse co-curricular activity programme and community projects.
In addition to the activities that are available across the year, we also have special events; some are related to the culture and traditions of our host country such as Tet and Moon Festival celebrations, others are related to specific curriculum areas like Book Week and the Christmaths Market. Being a part of the Nord Anglia Education family also presents us with further enrichment opportunities. Today was Global Campus Challenge Day where students from F1 to Year 7 were presented with the challenge of creating a Rube Goldberg Machine; a complicated device to carry out a simple task. I can’t wait until next week to share some of the incredible machines that the children have created.
The Global Campus has a wide range of challenges and activities for the children to engage with. It has been great to see the children uploading their videos and photos today, but remember the Global Campus is there for use by anyone at BIS any time.
We are looking forward to seeing you once again at the next Headteachers’ Coffee Morning which will be taking place online next Wednesday 13th October at 8.30am. We will be joined by Ms Lauren Binnington who is the whole school deputy headteacher responsible for enrichment. She will be sharing more information about the Global Campus. Here are the details to join the webinar:
Topic: EY&I and Junior Headteacher’s Coffee Morning
Click here to join.
Passcode: 722210
Webinar ID: 868 9340 4065
This week in F1, we learnt all about Pets. The children sang a song entitled, “I Have A Pet” which taught them animal sounds. We had an opportunity to share each other's pets during Talk Time. It was so lovely to hear the children talk about how they look after their pets. The children played a ‘Looking Through the Binoculars’ game and ‘Odd One Out’ where they select which animal is not a pet. They also listened to a variety of fiction and non-fiction books about pets including one told in Vietnamese. To celebrate our learning, we did some cat stretching, crawling and balancing during our Live Physical Development session and sang the song, ‘Hungry, Hungry, Caspar Cat’.
Ms Christine - F1 teacher
F2 have been busy learning the story Little Rabbit Foo Foo in Talk for Writing.
First we learned the story and the actions and practised retelling the story. Then we did lots of fun activities to embed the story. We did Rabbit Foo Foo yoga, explored wriggly worms by cooking and colouring noodles, made stick puppets, did bunny craft activities, read Non Fiction books about rabbits and earthworms, did bunny hops and did POW target throwing. Next we made a story map of the story. Finally we innovated the story by coming to Talktime dressed in our favourite costumes to create new characters. There were some very naughty characters in the new stories!
Ms Juliette - F2 Leader
Our parent webinar series continued this week with parents of children from F3, Year One and Year Two joining the Year Leaders and English Team to find out more about the way we teach reading and writing though phonics at BIS. We teach a phonics programme called Read Write Inc. which starts in F3 and progresses through to Year Two and beyond. Parents learned ‘pure sounds’ - the discrete sound that each letter makes and some key skills like ‘Fred Fingers’ to kinaesthetically see and feel how many sounds there are in words by ‘pinching’ their fingers. They learned the difference between 'green words’ - words that can be ‘sounded out’ and ‘red words’- tricky words where we teach the word as a whole and we discussed that we start with lowercase letters not capital letters because 80% of the text we read is in lower case. The final message was about enjoying stories and books in English and in home languages and to READ READ READ!
You can watch the webinar back here.
Slides for Y1 and Y2 PowerPoint presentation
Slides for F3 and Y1 PowerPoint presentation
Ms Maria Shooter
Assistant Headteacher (Early Years and Infants Campus)
What a wonderful recital that took place last Friday. If you missed it, you can catch up on the wonderful performances here. So, sit back, pour yourself a cuppa and enjoy just under 30 minutes of wonderful music from 11 of our students in Year 3 - 6.
If you would like your child, from any year group, to feature in a future Virtual Tea Time Recital please email Ms Anna for further details (anna.hogan@bisvietnam.com) A big thank you to all of the wonderful students, parents and instrumental teachers who have spent time preparing these for our enjoyment.
Anna Hogan / Primary Music Leader
In our city alone, the pandemic has led to the closing of tens of thousands of businesses, and resulted in hundreds of thousands of workers losing their jobs. Those most vulnerable to the change are laborers who had been struggling to keep themselves and their families fed even before these challenging times.
A long-term BIS community partner, the FFSC, an organisation that provides basic needs such as food and education for more than 1,100 street children and their families, has unfortunately needed to close their shelters and centres due to Covid-19. Three of these centres, which BIS have worked closely with over the past five years; Bình Triệu and Bình Thọ development centres as well as Binh An Shelter are seeking help for a total of 236 households in desperate need.
We are a group of Year 12 students who have been deeply moved by the living conditions of these people, and have therefore been working with the aim of providing each of the 236 families with a Parcel of Hope which will contain 25kg of rice, fish sauce, cooking oil and sugar, at a cost of 550,000 VND.
We know that this is an ambitious goal, but it can be reached if we work together. If each student from the Secondary Campus alone donates 70,000 VND, almost 130 million VND will be raised. By purchasing one parcel, you will be feeding one household for 2 whole months. Together, we will be able to provide 2 months worth of food for the 236 households, which is approximately 944 people.
The donation process will start on the 14th and ends on the 21st of October. On the first day of the campaign, the PTG will be hosting a virtual quiz and are hoping to raise funds in support of the Parcels of Hope project. Please join us by registering via Zoom at bit.ly/3kPIShh.
We are also pleased to launch our Facebook page @parcelsofhopeproject on the 14th October so please visit the page to learn more about how you can be a part of this life impacting project.
We really hope that the Parcels of Hope will find their way to the households in need and that you are a part of it.
We need your help. They need our help.
Thai An Truong, Vivian Le, Susu Le, Philip Vuu, Steve Tran, Hellen Nguyen
BISHCMC Parcels Of Hope Team
You have until 12pm Monday 11th November to sign up via SchoolsBuddy for the next block of VCCAs. You will receive an email listing which VCCAs you have been successful for and the payment period will be from Wednesday 13th October to Wednesday 20th October.
They will start the 1st November and finish the 3rd December.
Any questions please contact Ms Van or Ms Sarah
The next instalment of this competition is the NAE Global Campus 5k Virtual Race. This event is due to take place from Saturday 16 to Saturday 23 October.
As the distance is significantly longer than the first race, for those of you wishing to enter, I am giving you sufficient time and information to form a training programme for this event.
The event is available to all students from Y1-Y13 and to all fitness levels. If you wish to walk the entirety of the 5k virtual race as a personal challenge and for self-satisfaction then that is fantastic. Please complete it at your own pace and still send me your time.
However, if you would like to attempt to run some or all of the race then I have included information below that may be off help:
PART WALK-PART RUN the 5k
Two websites that are helpful for both advice and training programmes are below:
SIS 3 week 5k training programme (applicable to EYI and Junior Campus children)
RUN the 5k
Below is a very simple 3 week training programme to safely reach the distance of running the 5k. This plan is available and individual to all as it is based on a percentage of maximum intensity and speed of running. This will gradually build up to the 5k distance and includes rest periods if required. However, it is advised that this should only be attempted if you have a good base level of fitness and an interest in endurance running.
|
Week |
Training Session 1 |
Training Session 2 |
Training Session 3 |
|
1 |
Jog 3k at a slow pace (25% max intensity)
Include rest period if needed (1 minute of rest/walking at 1k) and/or (1 minute of rest/walking at 2k) |
Jog 3k at a moderate pace (50% max intensity)
Include rest period if needed (1 minute of rest/walking at 1k) and/or (1 minute of rest/walking at 2k) |
Jog 3k at a moderate pace (50% max intensity)
No rest periods included |
|
2 |
Jog 4k at a slow pace (25% max intensity)
Include rest period if needed (1 minute of rest/walking at 1.5k) and/or (1 minute of rest/walking at 3k) |
Jog 4k at a moderate pace (50% max intensity)
Include rest period if needed (1 minute of rest/walking at 1.5k) and/or (1 minute of rest/walking at 3k) |
Jog 4k at a moderate pace (50% max intensity)
No rest periods included |
|
3 |
Jog 5k at a slow pace (25% max intensity)
Include rest period if needed (1 minute of rest/walking at 2k) and/or (1 minute of rest/walking at 4k) |
Jog 5k at a moderate pace (50% max intensity)
Include rest period if needed (1 minute of rest/walking at 2k) and/or (1 minute of rest/walking at 4k) |
Jog 5k at a moderate pace (50% max intensity)
No rest periods included |
I hope in the coming days and weeks that there may be some relaxation in local laws that will enable flexibility and choice in how to complete the training and race. This could include:
Please note that if you are able to train for and run the 5k race outside the following should be done before participation:
If you would like to enter this competition, please complete the SIGN-UP before 3.00pm on Friday 15 October.
Once you have signed up you can complete the race anytime between 16 – 23 October and submit the RESULTS to me before 5.00pm on Sunday 24 October.
The times of this race will be done on a trust basis (no evidence is required) although you may wish to submit a picture of your treadmill / stopwatch / strava time if you are proud to do so. I hope to see even more people being ambitious and competing against other students from Nord Anglia schools from around the world.
Good luck and stay safe!
Mr Phil Husband/Director of Sport BIS
11/10/21 12pm Virtual Co-Curricular Activities sign up: Block 2 closes
13/10/21 Headteachers’ Coffee Morning
14/10/ 21 PTG VIrtual Community Quiz
15/10/21 Virtual Co-Curricular Activities: Block 1 Ends
16/10/21 Half-term break begins
25/10/21 Term 1.2 begins
01/11/21 Virtual Co-Curricular Activities: Block 2 starts
Please remember the 5K to keep safe.
Primary PTG Update
This Thursday the PTG from primary and secondary will host a virtual quiz. Details are on the poster above and we hope many of our families will get involved! Please join us by registering via Zoom here.
We continue to encourage our parents to be an active member of our PTG group. One way is to volunteer as a class or country rep. Thanks to all those that have volunteered so far. We have a great turnout of parents. It’s never too late so please click on the links below if you would like to be a class or country rep.
If you have ideas to share or would like to get in touch, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Our email is primaryptgbis@gmail.com
Enjoy your weekend and hope to see more sign ups.
Thank you,
Gayatri Shankar Primary PTG Coordinator
It has been great to welcome our teachers back onto the campus this week. When Vietnam went into lockdown, construction work had to stop so we had to make some adjustments to allow staff to safely enter the school and maintain the separation from the workers. The work is nearly all done and classrooms are beginning to look ready to receive children once again. As soon as we have any information about children returning to school we will share it with you, and as we have done for the staff, procedures will be amended to ensure their health and safety.
Have a good weekend.
Ian Battersby
Head of the Early Years and Infant Campus
101 Thao Dien Street,
Thao Dien Ward, Thu Duc City,
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Junior Campus
225 Nguyen Van Huong Street,
Thao Dien Ward, Thu Duc City,
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Secondary Campus
246 Nguyen Van Huong Street,
Thao Dien Ward, Thu Duc City,
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
