Weekly Highlights is a weekly newsletter sent by the BVIS Leadership Team to parents, providing updates on notable news and activities at the school. The newsletter consists of three main sections: updates from the Principal, Head of Primary, and Head of Secondary.
Dear Parents,
Welcome to this week’s Highlights – an insight into the ongoing successes across our school and updates on important BVIS news and events.
We’re incredibly proud to share that our Year 13 students from the Class of 2025 have received over 305 offers from top universities across the globe. On the international academic map, the US, the UK, and Australia continue to be the most popular destinations—leading in the number of offers received by our BVIS students this year.
Congratulations for a staggering amount in scholarships that have been gained from universities worldwide. This year, both our students and their BVIS A Level programmes have attracted offers amounting to our largest ever scholarships total – what an achievement!
Read more in this post from our school website.
We recently reconnected with Ke Phuc, a BVIS Class of 2023 alumnus, currently studying Marketing with a focus on Integrated Marketing Communications at San Diego State University (SDSU) - ranked 52nd among top public universities in the U.S., according to the 2025 U.S. News & World Report.
Read more about his story in this post from the ’News’ section of our school website.
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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.
Have a very relaxing and productive weekend ahead.
This week our Bulldogs were out and about the city showcasing their sporting talent and skills in a range of final city championships. Throughout Term 2 our Bulldogs teams have been practicing teeball, basketball and swimming with their coaches to be ready for the SISAC Championship Week. Following on from last week’s achievements for our Bulldogs at the FOBISIA Games, our students once again made us proud with their courage, sporting abilities, perseverance and teamwork in all three disciplines. It has been another week of growth and development for our students showcasing how sporting endeavours such as these not only support a healthy body and mind for students, but also provide opportunities to develop skills in teamwork, collaboration and perseverance.
Congratulations to all the students that performed as part of our Bulldogs teams and thank you to their coaches for the development and success that you helped to create.
As part of the Lien Ket topic, ‘Chocolate’, the Year 3 teachers organised a day trip to Maison Marou. Students were shown how the motto of ‘Bean to Bar’ drives everything that is done at the chocolate factory, ensuring their processes reduce their carbon footprint. From working with local Vietnamese cacao farmers to using every part of the cacao pod to support the environment, students understood the authenticity of ‘Bean to Bar’.
As well as learning about and observing the process of making chocolate, the students had a chance to taste chocolate made from cacao grown in several different regions of southern Vietnam, including coconut chocolate from Ben Tre. They were taught the correct way to taste chocolate, which involves leaving it to melt on your tongue for ten seconds before chewing. Year 3 thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. Thank you to the Y3 teaching team for planning a great trip to help our students apply their learning.
Over the past few weeks our budding musicians from Years 3 to 6 took part in the annual Young Musician of the Year competition. From over 50 auditions, judges along the way had the challenge of selecting 5 finalists to perform in last week’s assembly in front of all primary students and a judging panel. Our finalists were Joy in Y3, Truong An in Y5 and Nick in Y6 on the piano, Minh Kien in Y6 on the drums and Lulu Y5 on the piano together with singing. All 5 finalists performed with confidence and excellence, leaving the judges with an extremely tough decision to make. After deliberating, the judges selected their winning Young Musician of the Year, Nick, with his magnificent performance on the piano.
On Tuesday this week, our 5 finalists went on to perform at the citywide Young Musician Showcase event hosted this year at BIS. We are incredibly proud of our students for their incredible musical performances and representing our BVIS values in a new environment. Congratulations to all 5 finalists!
Every student who took part in this year’s competition proved that dedication, patience and courage coupled with musical talent are essential to be a successful musician. We are so proud of every student who competed in this year’s event. Keep on practicing!
1. 20/05/25 @ 08:30: Year 6 to Year 7 Transition Parent Meeting (for Year 6 parents)
2. 22/05/25 @ 17:00: Speech and Poetry Competition Final
3. 23/05/25: Student Leadership Collaboration Day with BIS HCMC (Selected student leaders attending)
4. 03/06/25 @13:30: Year 3 to Year 4 Transition Parent Meeting (for Year 3 parents)
5. 30/05/25: Children’s Day Celebrations (Students only)
At BVIS, the wellbeing of our students and staff is one of our top priorities. We understand that students who feel happy and supported are better equipped to thrive both academically and personally.
To strengthen our support systems, we’ve recently introduced a new platform called YouHQ, designed to help us monitor student wellbeing more closely. This tool allows us to identify when a student may be struggling and step in early with the right support.
Although it’s only been in use for a short period of time, the platform has already enabled several meaningful and timely conversations with students who needed a little extra care.
Currently, the system is being piloted in Dalat House and the Sixth Form, with plans to roll it out across the entire school from August.
During the end-of-term break in April, the entire Vietnamese Department successfully completed an intensive 3-day training course on a new curriculum titled “Vietnamese Studies.” The training was led by two esteemed lecturers: Dr. Huỳnh Phúc Thiện from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, and Dr. Trần Thanh Nguyện from the Ho Chi Minh City Educational Management Training Institute.
Throughout the training, both Dr. Thiện and Dr. Nguyện expressed deep admiration for the teachers’ professionalism, strong teamwork, and highly collaborative spirit. They also affirmed that BVIS HCMC is the first international school in Ho Chi Minh City to have a Vietnamese teaching team professionally and systematically trained to develop and deliver a Vietnamese Studies programme.
Currently, outside of teaching hours, the department is actively and confidently refining the newly developed curriculum. It is expected to be completed and submitted to the Department of Education and Training (DOET) by the end of May.
Since the end of Term 2 break, students have begun a new Vietnamese learning unit, with a focus on persuasive writing skills. This is a particularly important theme, as it helps students develop critical thinking, logical reasoning, and the ability to express their opinions convincingly.
Specifically, throughout the unit, students are trained to present their personal viewpoints clearly and coherently, structure their arguments and supporting evidence effectively, and use these skills to either persuade others or engage in constructive debate when encountering opposing perspectives.
Moreover, beyond written expression, the ability to argue logically is also applied in spoken communication, empowering students to express their ideas confidently and participate in group discussions. There is no doubt that these essential skills will form a strong foundation for students to enhance their communication abilities, master the use of the Vietnamese language, and express their perspectives on a wide range of real-life issues.
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
University Newsletter - University ambassadors News
This week’s bedrock champions are:
Year 7 - Bui Nha Uyen
Year 8 - Le Hong Minh Quang (Mraz)
Year 9 - Chung Quang Huy
Year 10 - Do Tran Bao Tram
Year 11 - Do Nhat Minh Anh
Year 12 - Tran Gia My
Congratulations to all the above students who came up on top in their respective Year groups. A special well done to Mraz who achieved the highest Bedrock points total across the whole of the secondary school this week!
This week’s champion is...
Congratulations and well-done to Finn!
This week’s Champion tutor group is
Congratulations to 789s/saigon2 well done!
Congratulations to Dalat house who are still leading the housepoint challenge. Congratulations also go to Saigon house who have now moved up into 3rd position.
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:
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