UNIS Hanoi’s Weekly Community Newsletter Volume 21, Edition 20, Friday 30 January

tintuc@unishanoi.org

Notes from the Head of School (p.2)

Notes from the Board of Directors (p.3)

Who is behind the tree? The

Scholarship Fund update (p.4)

K2 Performance. Save the date! (p.5)

MSHS Counselling upcoming events

(p.6)

Grade 4-5 Basketball Festival (p.6)

UMA and ASA sign-up. Get ready! (p.7)

Middle School Soccer rocked the fields

(p.8-9)

Service Learning news (p.10-11)

Let’s get some green home! (p.12)

New UNIS Hanoi apparel. Check it

out! (p.12)

Spring Fair: Make it unique, make

it yours (p.13)

SCO New Family Bus Tour (p.14)

Such creative snacks! (p.14)

Take off your headphones and hear

this (p.15)

NEXT WEEK… MONDAY, 2 FEBRUARY JV Boys' Basketball vs VAS @ UNIS, 16:00-17:30,

Sports Centre

TUESDAY, 3 FEBRUARY Board Executive Committee Meeting, 12:00-13:30,

Conference Room MS Girls' "B" Team Soccer vs CISH @ UNIS, 16:00-

17:30 Community Hors d'oeuvres with the Head of School,

19:00-20:30, Community Room

WENESDAY, 4 FEBRUARY UMA Session 3 Registration on ISIS, 4-5 Feb Board SMP 2015-2020 Task Force Meeting, 7:00-8:30,

Community Room Advancement Committee Meeting, 12:00-14:00,

Conference Room

HS Season 3 Sports Begin (Soccer), 15:45-17:30, Sports Centre

THURSDAY, 5 FEBRUARY MRISA High School Basketball Tournament @ ISPP, 5-

8 Feb HISAA Youth Sport Basketball Festival, 14:00-17:00,

UNIS Hanoi PYP Interactive Workshop for Parents new to the PYP,

19:00-20:00, Black Box

FRIDAY, 6 FEBRUARY ASA Session 3 Registration on ISIS, 6-8 Feb

SATURDAY, 7 FEBRUARY ES Tet Gift Bags of Love Delivery, 9:00-12:30

COMING SOON MONDAY, 9 FEBRUARY K2 Exhibition, 9-14 Feb

TUESDAY, 10 FEBRUARY K2 Parent Performance, 9:00-9:30, Theatre MS Boys' Soccer vs WIS @ WIS, 15:30-18:30 MS Girls' "B" Team Soccer vs BIS @ UNIS, 16:00-17:30,

UNIS Fields MYP Information Night for Parents new to the MYP,

19:00-20:00, Black Box

FRIDAY, 13 FEBRUARY ASA and UMA Session 2 Ends

New Parents Workshop with ES Counselors, 8:30-10:00, Library Projection Room

New Parents workshop with MSHS Counselors, 8:30-10:00, Group Study Room - Library

ES Tet Assembly, 14:00-15:10, Theatre

SATURDAY, 14 FEBRUARY UNIS Hanoi Tet Break, 14-24 Feb School & Offices close

IN THIS WEEK’S TIN TUC - The Highlights...

For our upcoming “Hors d’oeuvres with

the Head of School” next Tuesday

evening at 19:00 in the Community

Room, we plan to have a short

presentation by our Technology Faculty led

by the Director of Technology, Ed

Gilbreath. Our goal is to respond to

questions we have received from the community and offer

this opportunity for parents to ask more questions, express

concerns, and offer suggestions.

To get things started, we have prepared a list of questions

with written responses. These can be found here . Of

course we will allow enough time during the 2nd part of the

evening for questions, concerns and suggestions about

other relevant topics.

We hope to see you there next Tuesday evening.

We have had some parents express concern regarding the

installation of a vending machine just outside the Sports

Centre. I would like to explain briefly our intent in trying

this machine out.

Our campus is used after school each day and on

weekends. There has been a need expressed to have

healthy snacks and drinks available during those times

when the cafeteria is closed and there is no group or club

selling refreshments.

Welcome to UNIS Hanoi

Among the expectations was a clear mandate to insure that

the food and drink met certain standards of health and

wellness. This was not the case when the machines were

first introduced and we therefore insisted that the vendor

offer only healthy choices as determined by the school.

The Health Centre was engaged to help with the evaluation

of the products in the machine and this monitoring

continues currently.

If the vendor cannot get this right, we have made it clear

that he will have to remove the machine. He has until the

end of this school year to get it right.

We have developed responses to questions and concerns

that we have received about vending machines and the link

to that document is here .

Have a nice weekend. I hope the weather holds up for a

while longer.

Respectfully,

Dr. Chip Barder, hos@unishanoi.org

Filmed during ES Book Week

On behalf of the Board of Directors, I am

pleased to announce that parent-elected

Board member, Mr. Nguyen Van Hieu,

has been elected to the position of Board

Chair for the remainder of the 2014-2015 School Year.

brings a wealth of experience to the role as he has

been a member of the board since 2011 and served as its

Treasurer since 2013-14. Currently, he is Chair of the

Finance Committee and a member of the Advancement

Committee. Hieu has also served as Board Secretary in

2012-13, as chair of the Finance Committee in 2013-14, as

chair of the Buildings and Facilities Task Force in 2012-13,

and as members of both the Governance & Policy

Committee and the Finance Committee in 2011-12. Hieu

worked for Oracle Vietnam in 1995 and later became its

Managing Director until 2002. He then held a number of

regional management positions in the Asia Pacific Region

for Oracle based in Singapore until 2007, at which time he

decided to return to Vietnam as an independent

entrepreneur. He is currently involved in green cement

technologies and has investments in Vietnam’s IT services

industry. Hieu is Australian with a Bachelor of Electrical

Engineering degree from the University of New South

Wales, Australia. He has two children at UNIS Hanoi.

Congratulations Hieu.

On behalf of the Board, I am also pleased to announce the

UN appointment of Dr. Gabit Ismailov by Dr. Pratibha

Mehta, the United Nations Resident Coordinator, and of

the Board’s appointment of current Strategic Management

Plan 2015-2020 Task Force member, Ms. Yoon Durbin,

to the Board.

(UN appointed) has served as Programme

Management Officer for the World Health Organization

(WHO) Representative Office in Vietnam since 2014. Prior

to Vietnam, he worked in various positions for the WHO

for Western Pacific, for Europe, and in Kazakhstan. Before

joining the WHO, Gabit was a Medical Coordinator and a

Medical Officer for Médecins Sans Frontières in Russian

Federation, Pakistan and Turkmenistan/Uzbekistan. Gabit

graduated from South Kazakhstan State Medical Academy

with an M.D. (Medical Doctor). He also holds an M.P.H

(Master of Public Health) from Boston University School

of Public Health, USA and a Postgraduate Diploma

(Information Technology) from the University of

Liverpool, UK. He is fluent in Russian and English. Gabit

has three children at UNIS Hanoi.

(Board appointed) is a graduate of Harvard

University (MEd) with a concentration in Administration,

Planning and Social Policy and earned a BA in Political

Science from Boston College. Most recently, Yoon was an

Education Support Program Consultant at the Open

Society Institute in Budapest, where she worked on

educational reform in Eastern Europe. Yoon has a long

history in education working both at the policy level as a

Presidential Management Fellow with the U.S. Department

of Education and at the practical level in the classroom.

Yoon is American and has lived in Japan, Korea,

Indonesia, and Hungary prior to moving to Vietnam. Yoon

and her husband have one child at UNIS.

Congratulations Gabit and Yoon.

The Board will elect a new Treasurer to serve for the

remainder of the 2014-2015 School Year.

In closing, I will continue to serve as Vice Chair until June

2015.

Best regards,

Dr. Nandini Oomman, Vice Chair

The Board of Directors is proud to lead the School’s first Annual Community Campaign. We are equally proud of our community’s generous support for The Scholarship Fund and thank everyone for participating. Please see the full report on the next page.

Our first Annual Community

Campaign is building to success thanks to the

generous donations from families, faculty, staff and

alumni!

Our Goal this year is to raise $75,000 USD to provide

ONE ADDITIONAL scholarship place for 2015-2016.

This week we received 43 new Dragon Fish and 2 new

Phoenix gifts to decorate our tree! Thank you!

Join the campaign by making a gift, and take a place of

pride in an incredible community project that will

transform the futures of so many!

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT GIVING

This week our supporters share their reasons for

joining this community campaign:

“I contributed to the UNIS Hanoi Scholarship Fund because I

strongly believe the Programme will create opportunities for highly

talented but underprivileged Vietnamese students toward a

bright career prospect and future leadership in Vietnam.”

Hai Chi Pho & Quang Nguyen

“The scholarship students inspire me with their talents and discipline.

Working in Vietnam at UNIS Hanoi has given me new

opportunities and benefits and the Scholarship Fund is one of the few

ways that I give back to the country.”

Kd Ramsey (ES Art)

“We gave because it is good for the school, the students and our

children. Having quality students in our school community helps bring

in an extra rigor, creativity and learning experience into the classroom

environment. Not only have we helped scholarship students but they

have helped us to become an even better school.

We feel that our children have flourished at UNIS and we are happy

to be able to help provide some of these great resources and

opportunities for a Vietnamese child who would not otherwise have the

opportunity.”

Neil & Lori Fairbairn

We hope to celebrate not only reaching our financial goal

of 75,000 USD but also our goal to have our community

join together to take part in achieving our dream!

MAKE YOUR GIFT TODAY AND TRANSFORM

FUTURES!

WHO IS BEHIND THE TREE ?!

Did your child enjoy a story by Award

Winning visiting Author and Storyteller

Margaret Read MacDonald?

Need a good read?

Looking for stories from around the world?

We have publications by our visiting

author available for purchase in the

Library.

UNIS Hanoi is proud to be hosting the Hanoi International Schools

Activities Association (HISAA) Grade 4 and 5 Basketball Festival.

HISAA was initiated by UNIS Hanoi and a number of international

schools in Hanoi to meet the co-curricular needs of our Elementary

students. This Basketball Festival is only our second HISAA event and

four other international school from Hanoi will be visiting UNIS Hanoi to

participate. We warmly welcome the UNIS Hanoi community, especially

Grade 4 and 5 parents/guardians to the UNIS Court areas on Thursday

5th February. The first round of games will commence at 14.30.

We look forwards to seeing you.

Adrian Hubbard, Co-Curricular Activities Manager

ccamanager@unishanoi.org

Thursday, February 12 18:00 - 19:30

Theatre Center of the Arts

Meeting for all Grade 10 students and their parents: final explanations for Grade 10 about their subject choices for the Diploma next year.

There will be a general presentation for students and parents and then subject specific presentation from HoDs or teachers in charge of subjects. Afterwards there will be a chance to ask questions of Counselors, the DP Coordinator, HoDs and teachers in a more informal setting with drinks and a light supper.

Friday, February 13 8:30 – 10:00

Library Group Study Room

New Parents Workshop with the MSHS Counselors

Wednesday, February 4 12:30 – 13:20

Common Room B5 G29

Information Session of the European University Barcelona Rep: Mr. Kenneth Quah, Recruitment Manager

In 2013, European University was elected top tier European MBA program and second tier Global EMBA program by CEO Magazine’s International Graduate Forum. The 2013/2014 QS Report, ranked the EU campuses from Spain, Switzerland, and Germany at 33.

Wednesday, February 25 12:30 – 13:20

Common Room B5 G29

Information Session of Xavier University Rep: Mr. Kevin Keller, Assistant Director or Regional Recruitment

Xavier University's ranking in the 2015 edition of Best Colleges is Regional Universities (Midwest), 5.

After School Activities

(ASAs) at UNIS Hanoi are for all students, Discovery

through Grade 12. By now, all parents/guardians (and

students Grades 5-12) should have received an email from

the Co-Curricular Activities Office with information

regarding the third ASAs session of the school year.

Everything you require for registration and information

about the activities on offer is explained in this

communication. Please ensure you read the email in-full

and follow the instructions given.

Registration for Session 3 will commence at 07.00 on

Friday 6th and will close at 23.59 on Sunday 8th

February. All registrations will take place on the ISIS

Family online system.

Session 3 activities will begin on Monday 9th March and

will continue until Saturday 9th May (Aquatics ASAs will be

extended until Saturday 30th May).

UNIS Music Academy (UMA)

is a resource for all our students, parents and staff to learn

a new instrument, to train their voice or to improve their

musical skills working directly with talented musicians. The

Academy instructors are members of the Vietnamese

Symphony Orchestra, professors from the National Music

Academy and local expatriates.

By now you should have received an email from our UMA

Officer, Ms. Trang with information regarding the third

UMA session of the school year. Everything you require

for registration is explained in this communication. Please

ensure you read the email in-full and follow the instructions

given. The specific details for each time-slot will be

available to view on ISIS Family on Monday 2nd February.

Registration for Session 3 will commence at 07.00 on

Wednesday 4th and will close at 23.59 on Thursday 5th

February. All registrations will take place on the ISIS

Family online system.

Session 3 classes will begin on Monday 09th March and will

continue until Saturday 09th May.

Adrian Hubbard, Co-Curricular Activities Manager

ccamanager@unishanoi.org

UMA Lesson by Tim Barnsley After School Activity - Martial Arts

On Saturday, January 24, 2015 UNIS Hanoi hosted a

middle school soccer festival to run along side the middle

school soccer tournament. The goal of the festival event

was to provide our young and aspiring middle school

soccer athletes the opportunity to compete against other

schools in an environment conducive to learning and

development. Matches were set-up on a smaller field with

only 5 players on a team to set up more opportunities for

touches and involvement in the game. The final matches of

the day were set up as "jersey exchanges" meaning players

from various teams were mixed together to play along side

athletes they had been playing against all day long. The

hope here was to encourage healthy rivalries and

friendships across all our international sister schools in

Hanoi.

With our older and more experienced athletes competing

along side our festival teams in the UNIS Hanoi

Invitational Middle School Soccer Tournament , it was a

great day of soccer for our community. We hope that all

parents and community members will come out in the

future to support our athletes at these wonderful

events. Go Phoenix!

Photos by Tim Barnsley

The Middle School Girls MRISA Soccer team participated

in a local tournament on Saturday Jan. 24. The visiting

teams were BIS, HIS and CIS. The girls started their day

bright and early with a game at 8:00am against BIS. The

time didn't seem to affect their game play as the girls sailed

to a 7-0 win. The next game against CIS had the girls on

another scoring streak leading to another 7-0 win! Their

excellent showing of team work, intensity and strong

defense sent them to the championship game against HIS.

The final game proved more difficult as the girls weren't

able to score in the first half. With a score of 0-0 at half

time the girls had to bring more intensity and a hunger to

score in the second half. With time on it's way to expiring

UNIS Hanoi found a way to score two goals for a final

score of 2-0. It was a hard fought win and the girls proved

they were the best team of the day! The Middle School

MRISA Girls soccer team will be traveling to Thailand for

their final tournament on Feb. 26! The girls plan to do their

best to defend their championship from last year! Go

Phoenix!

On Saturday, the UNIS Hanoi MRISA squad had a

wonderful tournament with seven other schools from

Hanoi. There were two pools of four teams so each team

played three games in the pool. In the final round fourth

place in each pool played each other, then third place,

second place and first place teams played each other in the

final.

Unfortunately the UNIS Hanoi team couldn't make it into

the finals due to a 2-0 loss in their first game to the

eventual winners. However the UNIS Hanoi team fought

back and scored a massive 13 goals in the next 3 games.

They won the 3rd place in the tournament, winning the

bronze match 7-0 against Olympia School. Congratulations

to all the students who playedon Saturday! Congratulations

to BIS who won the tournament.

Photos by Tim Barnsley

There is a new student led Service Learning club in the

Elementary school called the Plastic Solvers. We are a

group of kids from Grade 2 who want to help UNIS Hanoi

use less single use plastics (SUPs). We want people to stop

using single use plastic: bags, spoons, bottles, cups, plates

and disposal food containers at UNIS Hanoi.

Help us by not using SUPs on campus!

We are planning to organize a No Plastic Challenge.

We’ll update you soon with our plans.

A group of children, called

the Read-A-Thon

Committee, have been

working on helping the

Zaatari Refugee Camp in

Jordan. We want to help

the people in this refugee

camp who are fleeing the

war in Syria, especially the

children. They don’t have

as many books as us, and

many can’t afford or have

time for education. The

ES School, G1-G5, is now in the middle of a read-a-thon.

We would like to remind parents and supporters that if

their child has chosen to participate to please bring in the

donation they have raised by reading this entire week

(Monday to Sunday). Please bring in the donations by

February 6. We thank you for your support!

The Read-a-Thon Committee

Thank you to the UNIS Hanoi Community for your

support of our Community Garden ASA. We continue to

sell our bounty in front of canteen Mondays and

Thursdays after school to raise money to aid organic

farming in the Hanoi area. Please bring your reusable bag

to carry home the freshest produce in town. Also, look for

us at the Spring Fair, where we will sell seeds, plants, and

manuals to help you start your own garden.

On Wednesday next week, we will begin to sell NEW

UNIS Hanoi hoodies, sweatpants and tracksuits! All of the

new stock is acceptable PE wear in the winter. Based on

your requests from the previous order, we have larger sizes

available so parents, teachers, staff and 'generally tall

people' can get UNIS Hanoi wear too! Limited winter stock

available...so get them while they last!

We are looking for parent volunteers to help with the

school store on Monday morning from 8.00 - 9.00. It's

really fun, you get priority purchasing and have a say in

what the school store produces! If you are interested, please

contact Malin Niklasson, Shop coordinator

atshop@unishanoi.org.

The UNIS Spring Fair is the largest event organized by

the School Community Organization. It’s about the

UNIS community getting together with our kids and

having fun while sharing our cultures. The THEME

this year is …. THE FARM !

The Spring Fair is completely organized by the hard

work of our committed volunteers. We are looking for

ALL countries in the UNIS Community to be

represented. The key ingredients for a successful Spring

Fair are a positive attitude, willingness to get involved,

some time and your passion to make this day

inspirational. You will feel proud to be part of an event

that bonds the community together and creates our

special blend of UNIS Culture.

Click HERE to be part of the FUN!

Want to see more games and activities? Share ideas

of fun games you have seen around the world and let’s

make them happen! For as many ideas we have, we need

parent’s help running the games, contact Christina

Baeck at FAIR_FunCorner@unishanoi.org

Cultural Booths (previously Country Table): Get

together with families from your country/world region

and organize a booth to celebrate the cultural diversity at

UNIS Hanoi. It would be wonderful to have many

community groups represented. Please contact

Natascha Senftleben at FAIR_Cultural@unishanoi.org

Do you have a Family Business? If so, Spring Fair

2015 Small Business Booth is for you! Places are now

available to UNIS Hanoi Community business owners.

Whether you are parents, faculty, staff or students, you

are welcome at this year's Spring Fair. So hurry and

reserve your spot! For more information and to request

a spot, email Clarissa Hu-Andersen at

FAIR_SmallBusiness@unishanoi.org

Spring Cleaning in order? Time to clear out your

house and make space for new junk! Book a space

quickly at our popular Flea Market by contacting Malin

Niklasson at FAIR_FleaMarket@unishanoi.org

Any other questions, ideas, comments….just email

Claudia Marinzi at SpringFair@unishanoi.org

12 new family members joined the extremely informative

bus tour around Tay Ho and the Old Quarter. A big

THANKS to Renea Freeman, Joh Ponsen and Pippa

Wood for organising and sharing your expert knowledge of

Hanoi! We would also like to thank the Hanoi Cooking

Centre for providing refreshments and an insightful tour

of Chau Long market. We were able to stop by Hang Gai

to purchase Ao Dai and end the tour at KOTO for lunch!

THANK YOU parents from classes: DTU, DSS, K1DV,

G1VC, G4HK, G4LL, G4BM, G4PB for your creative

contributions to the January snack sale! And also

THANKS to the many volunteers that came to help

organize/sell at the snack sale.

We had Zucchini-Beetroot cupcakes, Sudanese Samosas,

delicious rice balls, roasted quail egg and sausage kebabs,

German brezels and the cutest designed cookies you can

imagine!

A total of 10,460,000VND was raised and all the funds go

to support a variety of projects proposed by the UNIS

Hanoi Community!

The Elementary School Snack Sale is a long standing

tradition at UNIS Hanoi. Over 20 years ago, the “Bake

Sale” was created to raise funds for library books while

providing students with the opportunity to taste a diverse

range of snacks from all around the world! The Snack Sale

has evolved into a fun opportunity for children to exercise

choice, learn how to handle money and is raising awareness

of the value of healthy snacks.

17th/ April

K1KM, K1AP, G1SF, G5MN, G5JH, G5DL, G5TC

From your Snack Sale Coordinators:

Akiko Nakano: akiko.nakano2008@gmail.com

Masumi Tsuda: ma-na10@hotmail.co.jp

Bo young Hwang: soool2@yahoo.com

As a parent, do you often find yourself asking your

teenagers to remove their headphones so you can speak to

them? You may want to consider doing it even more often.

According to the Center for Disease Control and

Prevention (CDC), an estimated 12.5% of children and

adolescents aged 6–19 years (approximately 5.2 million) and

17% of adults aged 20–69 years (approximately 26 million)

have suffered permanent damage to their hearing from

excessive exposure to noise. These rates are 30% higher

than it was in the 1980s and 1990s - which many experts

believe is due, in part, to the increased use of headphones.

Noise-induced hearing loss is usually caused by exposure to

excessively loud sounds and cannot be medically or

surgically corrected. It can result from a one-time exposure

to a very loud sound or blast, or from listening to loud

sounds over an extended period, such as repeated exposure

to more than 85 decibels (about the level that teens listen to

their music today) of sound for eight hours.

As damage is gradual, a person may not notice until more

pronounced symptoms of permanent hearing loss become

evident. These would include:

Muffled or distorted hearing

Difficulty hearing sounds such as birds singing, crickets

chirping, alarm clocks, watch alarms, telephones, or

doorbells

Difficulty understanding speech during telephone

conversations or while participating in group

conversations

Pain or ringing in the ears (tinnitus) after exposure to

excessively loud sounds

So, how to prevent hearing loss? The following are some

useful tips to follow:

Follow the 60/60 rule: Use only 60 percent of the

device’s volume level for no more than 60 minutes at a

time.

Be sure to check the volume of the iPod/mp3 before

putting on the headphones. The last thing you want is a

sudden loud blast of music as you press play which

could potentially damage the ears.

Ear-bud type headphones are more likely to cause

hearing loss than typical headphones. When using

earbuds, it is highly recommended that you keep the

volume to a minimum, especially if you are using special

noise-canceling ones.

Noises above 85 decibels can cause ear damage.

Educate yourself to the levels of the noises you are

around most often.

Give your ears a break. Limit your time with devices

that can produce high decibels, such as a TV or stereo.

Find activities that do not involve high volume noises,

such as hiking or biking in a park.

Be careful not to fall asleep while listening to music,

especially if you are wearing ear buds. Your iPod can't

tell if you are actually listening to the song or not, but if

you have music playing in your ears for hours at a time,

you are putting yourself at risk of permanently

damaging your ears.

Have your hearing tested on a regular basis, especially if

you are exposed to loud noises a lot of the time.

If you are wearing headphones and someone within 3

feet (0.9 m) can hear what you hear - it's too loud!

School Health Centre