Weekly Highlights 29/09/2023

Mr. Simon Higham, Principal

Dear Parents

As I mentioned in the last edition of the Weekly Highlights, I have recently been attending the Nord Anglia Education (NAE) Senior Leaders Conference, that it held annually in Switzerland.

This year’s event had the theme ‘Innovate’. Leaders from across our 84 NAE schools focused upon 3 main priority areas:

• Wellbeing
• AI (artificial intelligence)
• Professional learning

I hope that you find it both useful and interesting to read my brief reflections from this global event: 

Wellbeing

• What have you been thankful for at school today/this week/this year?
• What are you thankful for at home?
• What are you thankful for when you are with your friends?
• What are other people thankful for about you?

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Professional Learning

• We must continue to make connections with others as this is vital to our own individual and collective learning experiences
• We must continue to prioritise, nurture and develop our professional learning culture – great teachers really do make the difference
• Being part of the NAE global family makes BVIS even stronger and will help us to continue to become even better as we innovate together, into the future. 

Introducing our Amazing New Teachers

Ms. Syana Nyaako  

BSc Psychology- University of Bristol

Msc Mental Health- Queen Mary University of London

Syana is the expert in mental health with years of experience working with vulnerable young people in community and in-patient settings. She employs an integrative psychological approach, tailoring low-intensity interventions to the individual needs of students. Syana works in a trauma-informed and culturally sensitive manner, championing the strengths of students for a brighter future.

Contact Us

Should you wish to contact your child’s Class Teacher(s) or Form Tutor directly, we encourage communication to be written in the language you most feel confident to use. 

Parents may also find it useful to contact their child’s class teacher(s) or form tutor directly for all individual queries about their academic work/social and emotional wellbeing in school.  Individual contact details can be found in the Parents’ Handbooks or via our Primary/Secondary Receptionists.  

Thank you again for taking time to read through our Weekly Highlights to engage and connect with our school and wider community.

Have an amazing weekend ahead.

Mrs Mary McAloon, Head of Primary

Moon Festival

Moon Festival is always one of the most important events of the year. It is our time to celebrate and give thanks for the harvest with a dragon dance show followed by a performance on the stage from our Year 3 and 5 students. This year once again, the celebratory day at school was full of happiness, joy and thanks. The students’ performance was the highlight for the community where the story of Moon Festival was shared along with special traditions and items that represent the celebration. The performance included a lantern parade, singing and dancing with students dressed in costumes to represent Vietnamese Perspective.  

Congratulations to our Year 3 and 5 students for their spectacular performance and to the teaching teams for creating and directing the show. Thank you to the Year 3 and 5 families who joined to watch the performance.

Parents’ Phonics Workshop – Part Three

The third and final workshop of the series was delivered to our enthusiastic parents on Thursday this week. There has been an increased number of parents joining each week which is a testament to the quality and value that these workshops have in supporting parents to guide their children through their journey of learning to read. Thank you to all families who have joined Ms Ha and Ms Poppy over the last three weeks. For any further information about phonics and reading, your child’s class teachers are best placed to provide this.

At BVIS HCMC, our approach to phonics in both English and Vietnamese supports the learner to be a successful bilingual learner. Our very own teachers have developed a bespoke Vietnamese phonics structure to match our philosophy of, ‘know one, learn two’. The phonics approach used in Vietnamese and English is the same which simplifies the transition between languages for students. This year we are proud to share that our pedagogy and our bespoke Vietnamese phonics programme has been recognised by T4 Education as one of the top ten ‘World’s Best Schools’ for Innovation. Follow this link to read more about our top ten award for Innovation from T4Education.

Bulldogs Fabulous Football

This week saw the Bulldogs in full flow on the football field with Under 9 and Under 11 age categories in action. Games against SISS and AISVN were exciting and full of drama with excellent performances from all. Highlights of the week were a 2-0 win for the Under 11 Girls against SSIS, with a player of the match performance from Kate and a hat-trick from Ken for the U11 boys in a 6-0 victory against AISVN. The U11 Boys player of the matches award goes to Thanh Phong. More Bulldog Primary football action to come next week, with all teams seeking the right blend for continued success. 

Upcoming Events

1. 10/10/23 @ 08:30am: Positive Parenting Workshop – Wearing your Firm for Upper Primary year groups (open to Year 4 to 6 parents)
   
   
2. 13/10/23: Last day of the half-term
   
   
3. 16/10/23 – 20/10/23: School closed for the half-term holiday

Mr Toby Bate, Head of Secondary

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

Today our secondary students and staff members came to school wearing either traditional clothing from their own country or a Vietnamese Ao Dai. 

We hope that you enjoy celebrating this Mid-Autumn Festival, however you are choosing to spend it.

Science Coffee Morning for Year 7 Parents

There was a great turn out for our recent Year 7 Science Coffee Morning that was led by Mr. Jon Every, Head of Science. From attending this session, parents gained a deeper understanding of our unique secondary science programme that is taught through engaging teaching methods. 

In addition to the exciting curriculum, our 3 separate science subjects (Chemistry, Biology and Physics) consistently attract significant interest and enthusiasm from students. This is due to numerous exciting extracurricular activities, Science Week events throughout the academic year, opportunities to interact with ‘real life’ scientists, BVIS alumni sharing their experiences from around the world and international-scale competitions.

The event concluded with three hands-on experiments exclusively for parents, including dissection, cheek cells, and electrical circuitry, all carefully guided by BVIS's dedicated and proficient Science faculty. This experience helps parents gain a deeper understanding of the Science discipline, encouraging them to effectively support their children in their studies at home. 

BVIS Battle of the bands

In the next month, BVIS will conduct its own Battle of the Bands competition with different categories available for groups to enter. We encourage as many student bands as possible to take part to gain experience of performing live.

Students are encouraged to speak to Mrs Amos for further details.

ABRSM CONCERT

This Sunday is the annual ABRSM High Scorer’s Concert, held each year to celebrate those students who have scored highly in their recent practical music exams.

Nguyen Bao Quyen (BQ) from 10I recently scored a Distinction in her Grade 5 piano and has said “Piano has always been a passion of mine and playing it has brought me so much joy.”

Well done BQ and all musicians who recently took their ABRSM Music Exams. 

Hanoi House Update 

Head students and Media Managers of each house have been working together to create new boards to encourage and celebrate each House’s success. They will be revealing their final product soon which we look forward to seeing.  
 
To celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival students wore Ao Dai, or cultural dress from their home country. Every student taking part receieved one house point, and we will find out next Wednesday how this has affected the totals so far! 

Sparx Maths

Students earn XP by completing tasks in their Sparx Homework

Compulsory Tasks earn 60-80XP
XP Boost Tasks earn 120-150XP
Target Tasks earn 120-150XP
Independent Learning Tasks earn 100XP

Students reach a new Sparx Level every 10000XP

Top XP earners this week are:

Congratulations to the top Sparx students for this week.

Bedrock Champions

This week’s bedrock champions are:

Year 11 – Aki Vo
Year 7 – Suzie Le
Year 9 – Grace Do
Year 8 – Tran Tuyet Doanh
Year 12 – Andy Ha
Year 10 – Sally Ngo

Congratulations to all the above students who came up on top in their respective year groups. A special well done to Sally Ngo in Year 10 who achieved the highest Bedrock points across the whole of Secondary.

First News Champions

Year 7 – Kevin Vo – 7Z/Eng2B
Year 9 – Nguyen Chi Hieu – 9z/Eng2b
Year 8 – Jennie Bui – 8z/Eng3a

Congratulations to Kevin, Chi Hieu and Jennie who were the First News Champions in their respective year groups. A special congratulations goes to Jennie who scored the most points in school last week.

University Fair

On Thursday 28^th September, we had the pleasure of welcoming 24 American Universities to the BVIS. That brought the opportunity for Key Stage 4 & 5 students to learn about the various universities and programs America offers.

From the diverse range of courses and flexible study options to the vibrant campus life and global opportunities, it was clear why America is such a popular destination for international students. Students had the chance to speak with representatives from several universities, who were more than happy to answer any questions and provide valuable insights into the admissions process.

A Coffee Morning with Ms Dung, our University Guidance Counsellor, was held afterwards. The topic of discussion focused on different worldwide higher education establishments to help parents know more about that system and how they can help their son/daughter with the university application process.

Community Activities Update

This week we welcomed a guest speaker from the Blue Dragon Children's Foundation to explain to students the work the foundation does to help street children and victims of human trafficking in Vietnam. Read more about their work here: https://www.bluedragon.org/.

Champion of the Week

This week’s champion student is...

Bao Nghi (Bonnie) from Year 13! A huge congratulations to Bonnie. Who will be our champion next week?

Champion Tutor Group

This week's Champion tutor group is...

A huge well done to everyone in 7B who worked together to achieve more housepoints than any other tutor group last week.

House Point Update

This week saw Dalat race up to the top spot from third place last week. This is the third change of lead in three weeks and shows us all just how close it is, with just 28 housepoints separating the top three Houses. 

Upcoming Events

1. 3^rd Oct, 23: Year 11 parents’ evening at 15:30
   
   
2. 10^th Oct, 23: Year 9 parents’ evening at 15:30
   
   
3. 13^th Oct, 23: Last day of half term 1
   
   
4. 23r^d Oct, 23: First day of half term 2
   
   
5. 27^th Oct, 23: Year 7 – 9 Reports go home
   
   
6. 27^th Oct, 23: Season 1A clubs end
   
   
7. 30^th Oct – 3^rd Nov, 23: Biology Week
   
   
8. 6^th Nov, 23: Season 1B clubs start
   
   
9. 20^th Nov – 8^th Dec, 23: House Football

Safeguarding and Child Protection

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: