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Mr. Simon Higham, Principal
Dear Parents
A warm welcome back to the second half of Term 2 and I sincerely hope that you all had a great Tet holiday. Like everyone at BVIS, we hope you’re raring to go for some more great learning experiences.
We would like to extend a special welcome to all of our new families who have recently begun their BVIS journey this week. We are looking forward to your family being a part of our strong BVIS community! Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions – no matter how big or small!
This week, we have shared some very important information with all parents via email and I trust that you have had time to read and reflect upon them.
On Tuesday, all parents received news of the appointment of our new Principal who starts at the beginning of the next academic year (from August 2025).
On behalf of all of our BVIS community, I would like to officially welcome Ms Deirdre (Dee) Grimshaw who will be confidently leading our school into the future as it continues to grow and develop. I have personally worked closely with Dee since 2014 and know that she will be an amazing addition to BVIS.
Ms. Dee is a highly qualified and experienced education leader with a strong background in international education. She graduated in Education from Trinity College Dublin in 1994 and obtained a full-time Teacher certificate. Her teaching career began in Ireland before moving to Kuwait, South Korea and Malaysia, which has given her a rich global perspective on education.
Since 2014, Dee has been based in Ho Chi Minh City, where she has held a key leadership role at the British International School (BIS), a member of Nord Anglia Education. Throughout the past decade, she has developed a deep understanding of Vietnamese culture and is committed to ensuring its value and place in the school's curriculum and culture, alongside a commitment to academic excellence.
I look forward to meeting Dee over the next 2 terms, to ensure a smooth and seamless handover process.
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On Thursday this week, I shared the main findings from our most recent Parent Satisfaction Survey, that is sent out on an annual basis to all BVIS families.
Open, honest and constructive feedback from parents is a crucial way of ensuring that our school remains focused upon continuous improvement.
Some of the highlights from this year’s survey included:
Additionally, it was very pleasing to note that 96% of all responses (strongly agree, agree, neither agree or disagree) stated that the school was meeting the needs of their family. This is a good indication of how many parents would recommend our school to other prospective parents and we are very happy to learn this!
From the overall data and individual comments from this year’s survey, we plan to further develop and prioritise the following areas:
Thank you again to all parents who took time to complete this year’s survey – your feedback is very important to us.
In the email that the Highlights were sent to you today, please take time to read through the information from the HCDC regarding how to prevent the spread of this year’s seasonal flu.
If you or your child experience symptoms such as a cough, fever, runny nose, headache or fatigue, do not self-diagnose or self-medicate at home. Instead contact your own healthcare facilities for proper consultation, examination and timely treatment and return to school only when your symptoms have completely gone.
As always, we thank you for your cooperation in helping to keep our community safe and healthy.
This week, we are pleased to welcome 2 new teachers to our school:
Ms Ashling Doyle (replacing Ms Anna who is currently on maternity leave)
Ms Pamela Duncan (replacing Ms Ruth)
It is our pleasure to welcome all applications for this year’s Summer School programme.
Remember to sign up before 28th February 2025, to receive an Early Bird Discount of 30% off fees.
We are looking forward to welcoming you to our new 2025 programme.
Contact Ms Nhien to apply / find out more:
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: 0906 880 005
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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 Parent's Handbooks or via our Primary/Secondary Receptionists.
On behalf of all the BVIS staff, I wish you a very peaceful and relaxing weekend ahead.
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Mrs Mary McAloon, Head of Primary
As a result of reaching 46% response rate to the Parent Satisfaction Survey last term, EYFS and primary students were given the option to have a non-uniform day on Friday this week. In addition, students were also given a break from homework as teachers were asked not to set any tasks to be completed at home on Friday. These rewards were chosen by the students themselves whilst the survey was open for families to complete. The rewards clearly made a difference as it is the biggest response we have had yet as a school! Thank you to all students who encouraged their families to share their thoughts and experiences about BVIS. This feedback is valuable to the plans we make for the school going forward.
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This week Year 1 went on a walk to observe the buildings and structures in our local area. This activity is planned at the beginning of their new topic to encourage the students to be curious and ask questions about their surroundings. The students spotted many different types of buildings around the school including a variety of different roofs on each, which they found fascinating. The students developed their language of comparing and contrasting as they discussed the different types of buildings and structures observed through discussion.
1. 18/02/25 & 20/02/25: Parents Evening Meetings of V & S Classes (See individual email to booking meetings)
2. 26-28/02/25: Year 5 Residential Trip to Can Tho
3. 27-28/02/25: Year 4 Residential Trip to Long Hai
4. 03-07/03/25: Book Week
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Mr Toby Bate, Head of Secondary
On Thursday 20th February we are delighted to invite parents to come and enjoy the A-level Music recitals. These recitals will be recorded and contribute to the students’ final grade for their Music A-level. The quality of performance on offer is always exceptionally high and we are looking forward to seeing what this year’s cohort has in store for us. Please register via this link if you would like to attend. We look forward to welcoming you to this event.
Prior to the Tet holiday we had the pleasure of running the annual residential trips for Years 7, 8, 9 and 10. Trip summaries will be written next week by students who attended the respective trips and shared with all parents to read and enjoy.
ECAs Block 2 will begin on Monday 24th February and conclude on Friday 13th June. Please ensure that you remind your son/daughter(s) to carefully check their sign-up information and we hope they thoroughly enjoy the extracurricular options on offer at BVIS.
Results from the recent series of mock examinations sat by students in Years 11 to 13 will shortly be shared with students and parents. While the exams reflected, as far as possible, the actual conditions and papers our students will be encountering in their final assessments towards the end of the year, it’s important to remember that this is very much a practice run, intended to familarise students with test formats and give them practice working under exam conditions.
With this intention in mind, there are a couple of important things to note about these results:
1. The grades generated from these assessments reflect only performance on this set of papers only- they do not necessarily reflect teacher’s predictions of most likely outcomes in final exams.
2. Mock exam grades are also not included on academic transcripts, which students use for university applications.
Students should therefore take these results for what they are – a reflection of performance on one day, in one set of assessments; they may give us a lot of feedback about what students know well, and what they still need to revise, but they are not official grades to be used for academic records.
This week, our teachers took part in Global Campus training, led by Ms. Katie-Ann Mumby-Cole, the Global Campus Secondary Lead. This platform connects students across all Nord Anglia schools, allowing them to collaborate, share ideas, and learn from one another.
With resources from world-leading institutions like Juilliard, MIT, UNICEF, and the IMG Academy, Global Campus offers incredible opportunities for students. They can extend their learning beyond the classroom, explore self-led projects, and take part in global competitions in Art, Music, Debating, Social Change, and more. Now, with our new staff fully trained, we’re excited to continue helping them make the most of it!
If you’d like to explore Global Campus for yourself, visit this link with your child(ren) and start your journey together!
The Sparx Maths Weekly Champion is the student who is the top XP earner in each year group.
Students earn XP by completing tasks in their Sparx Homework
Students reach a new Sparx Level every 10000XP
Huge congratulations go to our Top XP earners this week, who are:
|
Year Group |
Name |
Class |
|
7 |
Bim Luu |
7S |
|
8 |
Phu Dong Nguyen |
8zMat2y |
|
9 |
Anna Quach |
9zMat2x |
|
10 |
Chi Hieu Nguyen |
10zMat3 |
|
11 |
Dennis Doan |
11zMat2y |
The links below display the House Sways, which are put together by our House student leaders. As the term progresses different posts and updates will be added displaying the relevant news for each of the Houses.
Dalat - Dalat House News
Hanoi - Hanoi House News
Hue - Hue House News
Saigon - Saigon House News
Congratulations to Hanoi house who are still leading the house point challenge.
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:
