From the Head Teacher

Road Safety—Your Help is Needed

As the traffic continues to increase around the AP1/AP2 turn along Nguyen Van Huong in the mornings, our guards are working hard to ensure that your children are as safe as they can be when they arrive at school.  Two guards at Gate A are on duty to help cyclists and pedestrians arrive and to assist those being dropped off by car.  One additional guard is posted at the gate to ensure that only students and authorised people come onto campus at this busy time.

The guards’ job is made very difficult by having to deal, in addition, with those crossing the road underneath the footbridge.  For this reason, we expect all pedestrians arriving at the AP1 side of the road to use the footbridge.  This will ease the congestion at Gate A and allow the guards to spend time assisting those arriving at the AP2 side of the road.

The following section is from Page 15 of the Parent Handbook:

Students who arrive by car can be dropped off and collected at Secondary Gates A or C, or at Gate C on the AP1 primary campus. Traffic outside school becomes congested at the beginning and the end of the school day. Extreme caution should be exercised at all times.  Students are not allowed to walk across the road unless supervised during an evacuation.  The footbridge must always be used.

Your cooperation with these measures is appreciated.

Richard Dyer

Head Teacher

Secondary

Great IB Challenge 2013

From: Christine Donald
Sent: 03 October 2013
To: Shaun Williams - CEO & Principal; Richard Dyer - APS HOC

Subject: BIS at Strathclyde University

Dear Mr Williams and Mr Dyer,

I am writing – somewhat belatedly- to say how much we enjoyed the visit of Max Rudert and Karvin Dassanayake earlier this summer. We ran a challenge in IB schools internationally and this team from BIS won against some fierce competition.

Max and Karvin were delightful guests: their behaviour was exemplary; they participated with enthusiasm in all the activities and they interacted well with staff and students.  They are certainly a great credit to your school.

Again thanks to BIS  for participating in the Great IB Challenge!

With very kind regards

Christine Donald

International Recruitment Advisor

Faculty of Engineering

Royal College Building

204 George Street

Glasgow G1 1XW

Dragons’ Den 2013

This year we held the fifth annual BIS Dragons’ Den competition. Four teams of Y10 entrepreneurs pitched their ideas to the Dragons in the hope of securing an investment to finance their business start-up. After a number of excellent presentations and much deliberation, the Dragons chose to invest in Xany, crowning them the winners of the Dragons’ Den 2013. Congratulations to Jasmine Haniah, Sevina Lee, Alexine Yap and Vincent Kwok who impressed the judges not only with their creative product, but also a realistic business plan that promised an attractive return on investment. A huge well done to all the teams that took part in the competition. 

Michael Sherry

Business Studies Teacher

Inspire and Aspire - A Lower Secondary Project

Friday 27th September saw all Year 7 and 8 students take part in a new Lower Secondary Project called ‘Inspire and Aspire’. The aim of the project is to encourage the students within the Lower Secondary section of the school, to spend time together and to enable the Year 8 students to develop their leadership skills and share their knowledge with Year 7.

The theme of the session was International Day and Year 8 played the experts well, answering questions and telling stories about one of the favourite days in the school calendar. Year 7 are certainly looking forward to what is to come.

It was wonderful to see so many staff and students working together and the session summed up the caring nature of the Lower Secondary team. Thanks to everyone involved.

The next ‘Inspire and Aspire’ session will be on Friday 9th November.

Anne – Marie Astley

Head of Lower Secondary

IB Vietnamese Literature Trip

Last weekend, Year 12 and Year 13 IB Vietnamese students joined forces for a 2-day trip to the beautiful city of Quy Nhon in Central Vietnam. The trip combined the study of Literature and History with some community service.  Upon arriving in Quy Nhon we were whisked off to visit the memorial house of Xuan Dieu - one of the most renowned Vietnamese poets of the Twentieth Century.

We then had the opportunity to interact and discuss poetry with Mr HO TUAN NGHIEM MINH – MA in Literature and Ms Ho Thi Xuan Huong – a famous actress who specialises in the poems of Xuan Dieu. These sessions enabled us to gain some interesting key ideas which will surely help us with our IOCs.

On behalf of BIS students, Le Scarlet (year 13)and Anh Nguyen (Year 12) shared their deep thoughts about poems “ Xuan Khong Mua” and “ Tho Duyen” written by Xuan Dieu . They did this brilliantly and received high praise.

After that, we went to visit the memorial house of Han Mac Tu - another celebrated Vietnamese poet - where he spent the remaining days of his life before passing away at the tender age of 28 due to leprosy.

The evening was devoted to service-related activities, which started with a visit to the Nguyen Nga Centre for people with disabilities. After purchasing crafts and goods handmade by those people, we watched a splendid musical performance by some of the blind members of the Centre. We then expended much energy at the SOS village, engaging in fun-filled activities with the beautiful children there and distributing gifts and sweets along the way.

The following morning, we began the day with a hearty buffet breakfast. En route to the Tay Son museum, we stopped briefly to walk, run up (and in some cases, tumble down) the scenic sand dunes. At the museum, we learnt about the short-lived but glorious career of Quang Trung Nguyen Hue, a national hero of Vietnam who was undefeated on the battlefield and about the Tay Son dynasty, a turbulent period in Vietnamese history. While we were there, we watched traditional Binh Dinh martial arts, performed with great athleticism and flexibility.

Being Vietnamese, naturally we took some time to eat delicious food, notably the Quy Nhon specialities, such as Banh Xeo Tom Nhay (hopping shrimp pancakes) and Chim Mia (the tiniest of birds cooked and eaten whole). It was an exhilarating trip with beautiful memories, made possible by the planning and energy of our Vietnamese teacher Mrs Mai Le.

Mai Nghia (Year 13)

BBGV Fun Run 29th September 2013

A remarkable 500 BIS students, parents and teachers participated in the 4km Fun Run, making this day an extremely ‘FUN’ event.  It was also the largest ever turn out of BIS participants for a BBGV Fun Run, evident from the size of our BIS Team Photo.  A great morning was had by all!  Pre-run we were motivated by the energy of the Cheer Teams. Post run, we were entertained by the Corazo’n Latino Band.  There was a great community atmosphere under the red and white striped tents, with balloons, a variety of food & drinks from vendors, fun games, and our very own BIS ‘FUN’ Photo Booth.  Everyone participated in some shape or form - some ran a highly competitive race, others took a leisurely stroll and many students used a variety of transportation devices such as bikes, scooters, rollerblades and skate boards.  It was great to see so many BIS participants at this event in our distinctive Union Jack inspired Event T-shirts.

We are also extremely proud of our students who once again featured in the awards categories of the Fun Run and who had the honour of receiving their medals from Lord Puttnam of Queensgate and Douglas Barnes, HM Consul General.

WELL DONE TO OUR BIS WINNERS:

Simon Arts, Year 13 – 2^nd Overall Winner + 1^st Teenager

Hanh Vu, Year 9 – 2^nd Teenager

Jonathan Brownrigg, Year 5 – 1st Child

Next Community Run:  Terry Fox Run, Sunday 24th November.  More information will follow soon…

Fiona Nichols

Marketing and Public Relations Manager

Community

Every Tuesday after school, the students of Books for the Blind all gather up and we come up with various interesting projects such as making audiobooks, tactile books to assist the students at Nhat Hong Blind Centre. However, last Tuesday was even more exciting than that, we got a chance to visit the centre and it was an unforgettable experience. The teachers at the centre talked to us about the mission of the centre and we gained a much better understanding about the lives of visually impaired people, in order to raise a social awareness for these children and how our assistance would make a difference in their lives. We were shown how to make Braille books and also some basic instructions how to make type-up books.

After that, we visited some of their classes and we were all amazed to see how those children can deal with the difficult Braille language and we all wished that we could spend more time with them, to interact with them more and to get to know each other better. However, there will be another visit from Nhat Hong Centre in November and we are all looking forward to seeing them again. 

Trinh Tran Vy 12S