This newsletter from the British International School - Ho Chi Minh City provides the following dates and events for November: - Year 6 trip to PDV on November 5th and December 3rd. - Phuket football competition from November 6th to 9th for Years 4 to 6. - Interim reports to parents on November 14th. - International celebration event from November 19th to 21st. - Parents' evening for Years 1 to 6 on November 27th. - Parents' teddy bears' picnic for early years on November 29th.

1. 5/11 Year 6 to PDV
6/11 - 9/11 Phuket Football Competition for Y4 - Y6
14/11 Interim Reports to Parents
19/11 - 21/11 International Celebration
27/11 Parents’ Evening for Y1 - Y6
29/11 Parents Teddy Bears’ Picnic
BRITISH INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL - HO CHI MINH CITY
31 OCTOBER 2014 | ISSUE 9
Dates for your diary
IN THIS ISSUE
From Head of Campus 2
Halloween Disco + PE Department 3
Blogspot + Finer Diners 4
Music Department+ Year 6 Trip to Dam Sen 5
Dates of Term 1 + EAL Department 6
MFL Department 7
Year 1 Trip to Garden + Eco-Warriors 8
November
TU XUONG PRIMARY
Newsletter
Contact information
43-45 Tu Xuong St, District 3, HCMC
Tel: (848) 3932 0210
Fax: (848) 3932 0770
E-mail:
suehill@bisvietnam.com
Newsletter Issue 9|1

2. From Head Teacher - Ms. Sue Hill
Dear Parents,
This term, we are celebrating Internationalism as part of our BISCAT initiative. On
Wednesday, many parents had a truly international experience at our first TX parent social
morning. Many thanks to Anne Salapete who had the initial idea and a special thank you
to our Indian parents who shared with us some of the festivities associated with the Hindu
celebration, Diwali. A fun morning of Dandiya dancing, a traditional Diwali dance with
sticks, was complemented by tasty Indian snacks and masala chai. There was a truly
international mix at the social event with parents from Japan, India, Malaysia, Vietnam,
Italy, France, UK and China. I sincerely hope this is the beginning of more international
social events for parents and welcome any further contributions from our international
community.
International Celebrations
On Wednesday 19th
November, we will be holding our TX International Fair. This has become an annual event
in which parents take an active part in providing a fun-filled day of crafts, games and food from around the world.
If you would like to offer ideas or help on this day, please see Mr James (MP3 Leader) or Ms Emma on
reception.
Masters of Learning
This half term, our focus for outstanding learning is on how to become a global citizen and developing skills of
enquiry. Children will be striving to master these areas and one child from each class, who excels, will be
selected to graduate in our special assembly on 19th
December. Please see your child‘s class teacher if you
would like further information about our ‗Masters of Learning‘.
Newsletter Issue 9|2

3. Newsletter Issue 9|3
Halloween Disco
Yesterday, F3 – Year 6 had a great time at the Halloween Disco organised by the Student Council. There were
some terrifying costumes of ghosts, vampires and many other kinds of fancy dress. Prizes were awarded for
the best dancing, musical statues and hoop game winners. Some children were even brave enough to put their
hand into a bowl of monster vomit, zombie bogeys and eye sockets!
A special treat of ice cream was also enjoyed by all!
Ms. Anna
U11 Table Tennis Singles Tournament at the TX Campus
The U11 table tennis team played against AP1 on Wednesday 29th
October. The team consisted of; Andrew
Vu, Bao Tran, Thibault Bourguignat, Moksh Jhawer, Andy Dang, Johnny Nguyen, Chi Nghia Phan, Bonny
Nguyen, Benz Pham, Khoa Tran. The students enjoyed the tournament and the end result was:
The students table tennis skills improved massively over the tournament and they look forward to more
games.
Ms. Charlotte
Seeding TX team
Results
(Wins)
1 Bao Tran 3
2 Thibault Bourguigant 3
3 Andrew Vu 2
4 Khoa Tran 3
5 Chi Nghia Phan 3
6 Benz Pham 1
7 Johnny Nguyen 2
8 Andy Dang 1
9 Bonny Nguyen 1
10 Moksh Jhawer 0
PE Department

4. Newsletter Issue 9|4
Blogspot
What a busy week we have had at TX, with all sorts of events happening. On Tuesday we had our annual fire
practice involving the local fire department. The children did really well and were so sensible crossing the road
on their way to our muster point in the Christina Noble Foundation. An event of a completely different nature
took place on Wednesday as our Indian parents led a coffee morning to celebrate Diwali. It was a wonderful
event and thank you to all our mums who took part and Anne Salapete who had the original idea. There are
many photos on the blog so please feel free to download any that you wish. Finer Diners is a regular feature on
the blog, and we had a special one to celebrate our Masters of Caring who graduated before the holiday; Mr
Shaun, our principal and CEO, was also celebrating with us today.
On my blog (ianbattersby.blogspot.com) this week
you will find the following posts:
Fire Practice – Essential Health and Safety
Celebrating Diwali
Finer Diners – Masters of Caring
Mr. Ian Battersby
Finer Diners
Well-done to all ―Masters of Caring‖ and Happy Birthday to our Principal Mr Shaun!

5. Cello lessons
Mr Minh, our cello teacher, has some availability for more cello students. Not only is the cello a beautiful
instrument, it is the perfect one for children from a young age to learn musical skills and become part of the
orchestra. Mr Minh visited year 4X this week to show them the cello and let them try it. The children loved it,
and many children showed an interest in learning. Of course, cello is not just available to 4X, but to all children
from Years 3 to 6.
The best thing about learning cello at TX is that you don‘t need to purchase one. The school has 4 cellos
available to borrow, which the children can keep at home to learn pieces on. Cello lessons are VND374,000
per lesson, which is a very good deal compared to private cello tuition outside of school.
Please consider cello lessons for your child, and let Mr Robbie know if you are interested at
robbiemackinnon@bisvietnam.com.
Visit Mr Robbie‘s blog to see what else has been happening in music at TX –
www.xmusic2014-2015.blogspot.com
Mr. Robbie
Music Department
Year 6 Trip to Dam Sen
On Wednesday the Year 6 pupils set off to explore Dam Sen Park. This trip was the Entry Point for their new
IPC topic, ‗Fairgrounds‘. Aside from enjoying a day out and experiencing the various rides in the park, the
children were conducting the initial research for the projects they have to complete in class this half term. In
pairs, the children will have to design and construct a model of a fairground ride. They will then have to ‗sell‘
their ride to a panel of traditionally very harsh judges, The Dragons! Dam Sen Park has a range of rides from
rollercoasters to Ferris wheels and bumper cars, all relying on very different mechanisms to operate them.
During the day the children were looking at possible designs for their rides, they were also looking at the way
rides are marketed based upon the audience they are aimed at. All the children enjoyed the rides, although The
Haunted House proved a little much for some!
Mr. James
Newsletter Issue 9|5

6. Dates of Term 1
Date Year Group/s Event
5/11 Y6 Y6 to PDV
6/11-9/11 Y4-6 Phuket Football Competition
14/11 All Interim Reports to parents
19/11-21/11 All International Celebration
27/11 Y1-Y6 Parents’ Evening
29/11 EYFS Parents Teddy Bears’ Picnic
3/12 Y3 TX visits Thien Phuoc
3/12 Y6 Y6 to PDV
7/12 All Clubs Finish
11/12 MP2 MP2 Production (Evening)
12/12-15/12 Y4-Y6 Bangkok Feeding Frenzy Swim Meet
17/12 EYFS Christmas Concert
18/12 Y1-Y6 Christmas Concert (Evening)
19/12 All Term 1 finishes @ 11.30am
Newsletter Issue 9|6
LANGUAGE IN FOCUS WEEK
Hallo, guten Tag! As you may already know after assembly this morning, this term's Language in Focus is
GERMAN!
German is a major European language, spoken mainly in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, but also as a
minority language in countries like Belgium and Luxembourg.
Next week we will all be trying to learn some German words and phrases such as numbers and greetings. You
can see a video of these phrases on the EAL blog:
http://txeal.blogspot.co.uk/
Good luck learning German in time for next week's assembly!
Auf Wiedersehen!
The EAL Department.
EAL Department

7. MFL Department
Bonjour, Hola, Ni Hao!
Children from Y3 to Y6 at TX are enrolled in a Language Perfect Online competition from November 3rd
to 13th
.
They are competing against other schools from all over the world with the chance for their language skills to be
recognised at an international level!
I am asking for your cooperation at home to allow your children to spend some time competing. It can be done
on the Language Perfect website or by downloading the app for i-Pads or Android devices ―Language Perfect‖.
Login details have been passed to your children, either through their language teacher (MP3), or through a note
in their diary (MP2).
Let your children join in the team effort, learn, and have fun!
Ms. Sophie
Newsletter Issue 9|7

8. What do you do with old batteries?
Good question! With every portable electronic device using batteries of some sort, we know they don‘t
last forever. They power your calculators, remote controls for your AC, TV, music player, children's toys, mobile
phones, laptops and much more, but what do you do when they finally stop working?
Answer: Bring them into school
As part of our commitment to protecting the environment, each campus in BIS strives to reuse, recycle and
reduce our waste wherever possible. Whether it is paper, card, plastic drinks bottles or even batteries, we would
like you at home to think before disposing of it with your regular waste. We understand that it isn‘t that easy
finding recycling points around the city so we have taken the initiative.
Each campus has a specific battery recycling point—their locations are:
AP1 Reception AP2 Under Croft TX Reception
We accept all household batteries—AA, AAA cells, rechargeable, button type and mobile
phone batteries
The reason (the small print): Batteries that are thrown out with regular waste usually end up in land fill sites or
sometimes even burned. Over a period of time they can leak heavy metals (such as lead or mercury) and corro-
sive acids which pollute our rivers, lakes and groundwater, contaminating the environments of many living
things. The good news is that recycled materials contained in old batteries can actually be re-used by various
industries.
Year 1 Trip to Garden
For our IPC topic ‗Flowers and Insects‘ we visited the BIS Garden. We made predictions about what we thought
we would see and then we did lots of investigating whilst we were there. Armed with magnifying glasses,
bug-catchers and insect identifying sheets, we tried to find as many different insects as possible. We also
looked closely at the different plants and sketched our favourite one. We all had a fantastic trip to AP1!
Ms. Michelle
Eco-Warrior
Green Certificate, October 2014
F3 was awarded the Green Certificate for the month of October. The
Eco-Warriors were impressed with the use of scrap paper for both
printing and for children to draw on, and they also liked the way lots of
natural materials, such as shells, wood, straw and sand were used
within the play area.
Well done F3.
Who will win the Green Certificate next month?
Ms. Heather