issue 29 eng
TRANSCRIPT
MAY
11th ECAs start
KS3 Mixed Volleyball vs HIS
12th Year 1 trip to Lotte Tower
14th KS4/5 Boys & Girls Football vs SIS
16th Invitational swimming gala at BIS Hanoi
18th KS3 Mixed Volleyball vs HIS
19th Year 1 trip to see houses in the old quarter
21st KS2 House Sports
25th–28th Secondary Exam week
26th Year 1 Trip to Flag Tower
27th KS1 House Sports
30th Invitational Swimming Gala at UNIS
UPCOMING EVENTS
From Mr. Anthony Rowlands 02
From Mr. Christopher Short 03
From Mrs. Karen Hanratty 04
Bake Sale for Nepal 05
Community and Charity Update 06-07
Summer Camp 2015-College Champittet Switzerland 08-09
Lunch Menu 10
Contacts 11
IN THIS ISSUE
May 8 2015 ISSUE 29
Issue 29 1
BRITISH INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL - HANOI
NEWSLETTER
From Mr Anthony Rowlands - Principal of BIS Hanoi
Welcome back to the third, and final,
term of this academic year. The first
two terms have gone by incredibly
quickly. The students seemed to be very
glad to be back on Monday although
some did seem to be rather tired on their
arrival in school after a two week
holiday! It has been a busy and productive week for us at
the school. The IGCSE and AS Level Examinations
formally commenced on Tuesday, 5th May and I am sure
that our students have prepared themselves well and that
they will persevere to achieve their best.
This week, we also received our Pre Accreditation Visit
from the Council of International Schools (CIS). Two
visitors from CIS spent three days at the school meeting
with staff, students and parents as well as observing
lessons and scrutinising school documentation. The visit
was conducted by Dr. Graham Ranger (CIS Director of
School Support and Evaluation) and Mr. Michael Spencer
(Executive Principal, Primary Division, YK Pao School,
Shanghai). The purpose of the visit was to establish
whether our school is ready to formally proceed with CIS
Accreditation. The full report of the visit will be
published in due course but everything was favourable
and we are now able to proceed with CIS Accreditation.
This will be a process of approximately 15 months and
will involve the whole school community. I will keep you
further updated in due course with regard to CIS. I am
also pleased to report that our initial application to join
the Federation of British International Schools in Asia
(FOBISIA) has been successful and we will be receiving
a formal membership visit from them in the next couple
of months or so. There is no doubt, from all the feedback
we receive from various visitors, we are making
incredible progress for a school that is only in its third
year of operation. In addition the care and compassion of
our school are clearly visible in this week’s newsletter
where we outline our support of various community
projects.
I am so proud to be associated with this wonderful school
and may I wish you all a most pleasant weekend!
Issue 29 2
The anticipation, preparation and waiting is
now over for Years 11 and 12 as they all
started their IGCSE and A Level
examinations this week (Monday was a
holiday in the UK so no exams and an
extra day back in school for most students to
do last minute revision). The hard work,
dedication and determination over the last few months will now
be put to the test over the next few weeks and we look forward
to sharing this success in August when the results are published.
One of the features of a British International School is that we
use a variety of assessments through the year both to help
students with their learning and measure their progress through
the courses. As indicated above written examinations still form
an important part of the formal external assessment process and
so it is important that we also use this system within the school
with younger students. Years 7 and 8 will have formal written
examinations later this month in selected subjects while Year 9
have a complete set of examinations to provide a final
assessment of Key Stage 3 and help prepare them for
assessment in IGCSE. Year 10 will have the first of their
practice IGCSE examinations.
The holiday was overshadowed by the news of the devastating
earthquake in Nepal. As you know the Secondary Charity and
Community Society already do a great amount of community
work here in Vietnam and it has been great to see the support
from the whole community for a country in our region with dire
needs. Thanks to Mr Dunwell, who used to live in Kathmandu,
for putting together information for staff and students and to Ms
Marsden for coordinating the bake sale in Secondary. It is
fitting that, like in the Philippines, we are using a FOBISIA
school as a conduit for our fundraising activities.
From Mr Christopher Short - Head of Secondary
SECONDARY HOUSE SPORTS
Issue 29 3
It was lovely to see everyone return to
school on Monday after the holiday,
looking healthy, tanned and refreshed.
The children were eager to share their
stories of holidays spent at home, away
within Vietnam or further afield. They
all seemed delighted to be back at
school and the teachers were equally delighted to see
them again.
As we start the final term of this school year, and after
the excitement of the KS2 production at the end of last
term, it is very much a case of heads down and focusing
on learning. You will have received the Curriculum
Statements for Term 3, outlining the programmes of study
that year groups will be following in each different
subject area. We hope that you find this document
informative and helpful in supporting your child’s
learning at home.
It has ben a busy week of visitors in school. As Mr
Rowlands mentioned, we had two members of the CIS
accreditation team with us for three days, meeting
children, staff and parents and looking carefully at all our
procedures and policies. They also looked carefully at
lesson planning and attended a range of lessons during
their three days. I have always had every confidence that
we are doing a great job of nurturing and educating the
children and it was really pleasing to have this reaffirmed
through their feedback. They were genuinely impressed
at what we have managed to achieve in a little less than
three years. Whilst there are naturally still areas that are
being developed, their overall impressions were that the
school does not feel like a ‘new’ school at all. We will
work with their feedback to improve our school still
further, and towards full accreditation with CIS.
From Ms Karen Hanratty - Head of Primary
Issue 29 4
BAKE SALE FOR NEPAL
Issue 29 5
School on the Boat is a small charity that support 19 children and their families living in harsh
conditions near to the Long Bien Bridge. Their school is no longer on a boat, as thanks to the
generosity of supporters who sponsor the children the charity are able to pay for them to attend a
good local school. Last term BIS held an activity day for the children and this term, at our Tet Fair,
we raised 20 million VND which we donated to their medical fund. Before we gave this money, the
families had no way to pay for doctor’s check-ups or emergency health care, so it was a really great
gift for them to receive.
On the 11th April 15 students from Years 8, 9 and 12 returned to Thinh Dai Pagoda to visit the children who we are
now getting to know. The children who live there under the care of the Abbott, were excited to see us and recognised
many of the students from previous visits. I was really proud to see how well our students mixed with the children,
reading to them, playing games with them or just giving them some love and attention. The children all attend a local
school and it was great to see them take an interest in reading the books we had bought with us. During our ‘Road
Safety Week’ mufti day last month, we raised money which meant that we were able to donate a total of 10 million
VND to the Pagoda to help pay for the children’s school fees as well as their daily living costs.
One of the Secondary Students Council's tasks this term was to find a suitable charity to donate
funds raised by the BIS community. Funds were raised from mufti days, the Council’s Tet fair
stall and other generous donations from the BIS community. In a joint decision with the Charity
and Community Society, the Council chose to donate to SympaMeals, a local charity and one we
have worked with before. In total, 38 million VND has been donated to SympaMeals. The charity
has purchased some essential equipment for the National Cancer Hospital, which include bubble
humidifiers and wall suction units for cancer patients. In the photograph, Ms. Anh, the founder,
can be seen handing over the equipment to Dr. Cong on behalf of the Council. We plan to visit
the hospital in Term 3 and look forward to seeing the equipment in use.
COMMUNITY AND CHARITY UPDATE
Issue 29 6
Ms. Katrina Marsden
English Teacher
Mr. Martin Toner
ICT Teacher
In my role of coordinating the Primary School Council, it has been a pleasure to watch both last
year and this year’s Council members rise to the occasion of taking a leadership role within their
school. The most prominent way has been in supporting our charitable efforts. As the members of
the Council listened, researched and visited various organisations, they passed on their knowledge,
care, compassion and enthusiasm to the rest of the Primary School and Early Years children. The
wider community in turn put in concerted effort to raise support for each and every charitable
cause we sought to support. Here is how Early Years, KS1 and KS2 have supported others:
Tam Dao Bear Sanctuary – following a visit by last year’s Council members, we donated 10 million VND.
We are planning to continue our support this year with another 10 million VND. Year 3 children also raised 2
million VND for the Bear Sanctuary through their Tet sale.
RICE Scholarship Programme – BIS children collected enough shoe boxes and items to fill them to give
about 80 shoe box gifts to children in the north of Vietnam. We also donated 8.5 million VND, enough to
sponsor 10 children through the scholarship.
SOS Children’s Village – this year the Primary School Council
visited the SOS Village Kindergarten to share some art activities
with these young children. We are purchasing paint, brushes and
paint palettes for the Kindergarten to support the teachers in their
endeavours to give the children at the school meaningful and fun art
activities. We are also going to sponsor two children who live in the
Village by donating 10 million per child for the year ahead. We hope
also to start a program of visits to the Village where children from
BIS can share activities with children living in the Village.
The Philippines and Nepal - both countries have been through
traumatic events recently and it was wonderful to see the younger members of the BIS community rally with
everyone else to raise money through the cake sales and donations of money.
Thank you to all who have supported these accomplishments. We aim to support those less fortunate than ourselves
but in return the children in our community develop a real awareness of their responsibilities as global citizens and
desire to care for others.
COMMUNITY AND CHARITY UPDATE
Issue 29 7
Ms. Caroline Elliott
Year 4 Teacher
Issue 29 8
Issue 29 9
Issue 29 10
BIS HANOI MENU
Week Beginning 11th May Monday
11th May
Tuesday
12th May
Wednesday
13th May
Thursday
14th May
Friday
15th May
Sticky rice with dry
pork Nutella sandwich Rice soup American doughnut
Corn and chicken
soup
Juice Milk Juice Milk Juice
Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit
Fried chicken leg in
fish sauce
Fried fish cake with
pineapple Grilled BBQ pork Fried crispy fish
Meat ball in tomato
sauce
Yogurt Oatmeal cookie Chicken sushi roll Fresh tofu Caramel flan
Fruit Soya milk Juice Fruit Fruit
Sticky rice with dry
pork Nutella sandwich Rice soup American doughnut
Corn and chicken
soup
Juice Milk Juice Milk Juice
Fried chicken leg in
fish sauce Pan seared pork Grilled BBQ pork Braised pork and tofu
Roast Moroccan
chiken
Pork cake with rice Chicken noodle Sauteed vegetable
and tofu noodle Fried crispy fish
Meat ball in tomato
sauce
Fried chicken leg in
fish sauce Pan seared pork Grilled BBQ pork
Rice noodle with
crab and beef soup
Moroccan chiken
rice pilaf
(v) Potato samosa Fried fish cake with
pineapple
(v) Sauteed vegetable
and tofu noodle Braised pork and tofu
Meat ball in tomato
sauce
Steamed roll with
pork cake Chicken noodle
Roast chicken with
oyster sauce Fried crispy fish
(v) Cheese and corn
quesadillas
Good communication is important to us and we would like to ensure that you have the correct contact
information in order for you to call the school:
School Number: 04 3946 0435
Extension number:
Receptionist: 0
(For all general enquiries)
Principal’s Office: 208
(If you wish to contact the School Principal)
Business Manager’s Office: 109
Primary Office: 220
(For all enquiries regarding the Primary Section)
Secondary Office: 215
(For all enquiries regarding the Secondary Section)
Admission Department: 222/122/555/777/888
[email protected] (Admission Manager)
[email protected] (Korean Liaison Officer)
Marketing Department: 189
(For all enquiries regarding Marketing)
Finance Department: 202
(For all enquiries regarding school fees)
Medical Room: 117/303
[email protected] (Main school)
[email protected] (Early Years Building)
(For all enquiries regarding Medical Issues)
Uniform Shop: 221
(For all enquiries regarding School Uniform)
School Buses: 218
(For all enquiries regarding School Buses)
CONTACT US
Issue 29 11