tintuc@unishanoi.org UNIS Hanoi’s Weekly Community Newsletter
Volume 20, Edition 13, Friday 6 December
NEXT WEEK...
COMING SOON...
MONDAY, 9 DECEMBER
SATURDAY, 21 DECEMBER
Teen Read Week, 9-13 Dec Grade 3 Exhibition for Parents, 9-12 Dec Amazing Science from Philip Rose, 9-12 Dec Campus Development Plan Task Force Meeting 8:15-9:45, Conference Room Parent Info Session - Social Media Networks 8:30-9:30 Library Projection Room Campus Development Plan Community Meeting 19:0020:30, Community Room
TUESDAY, 10 DECEMBER
K2 Trip 9:15-12:00 MS Boys Soccer 16:00-17:00, Field Grade 3 Performance for parents 18:00-19:30, Theatre
THURSDAY, 5 DECEMBER
Grade 5 “Living Museum” 14:00-15:30, Library
SATURDAY, 14 DECEMBER
Winter Holidays, 14 Dec - 5 Jan School & Campus closed, Offices open weekdays 16-20 Dec & 30 Dec-3 Jan. Offices closed 23-27 Dec
Alumni Reunion in Hanoi 18:00, Pots n’ Pan
TUESDAY, 31 DECEMBER
Scholarship Programme 14-15 Application Deadline
FRIDAY, 3 JANUARY
Quarter 3 Tuition Fee Payment Due
SUNDAY, 5 JANUARY
Alumni Reunion in Melbourne 18:00, The World Restaurant and Bar
MONDAY, 6 JANUARY
First Day of School after Winter Break
WEDNESDAY, 8 JANUARY
SMP 2015-2020 Task Force Meeting 7:00-8:30 HS Boys Basketball 15:15-16:15, BVIS
THURSDAY, 9 JANUARY
Grade 4 Fieldtrip 8:30-12:00 MS Boys Soccer 16:00-17:00, UNIS Field
SATURDAY, 11 JANUARY
Basketball North-South Cup 11-12 January, Sports Centre
IN THIS WEEK’S TIN TUC - The Highlights... Notes from the Head of School and the Board of Directors (p.2) Is your Family leaving Hanoi ? (p.2)
ES Math Coffee Morning (p.6) Peter Goverde Memorial Tennis Tournament (p.7)
Song Hong Half Marathon (p.3) Blue Dragon Red Stocking (p.3) Celebrating Student’s work (p.4)
Freedom from Chemical Dependency (p.8) School Health Centre News (p.9) Festive Snack Sale (p.9)
Library News (p.5) Understanding Social Media Networks (p.6)
SCO Used Book Sale 2013 (p.10-12) HIWC Bazaar (p.13) Canteen Menu
As we head into the our three week holiday break, I wanted to send out to everyone a slightly revised calendar for 2014-2015. Due to an administrative error on my part, there was a small mistake in the placement of the October break in the calendar that has been published for next school year. The October break has now officially been moved to one week later. Please click here to view the final version of the 2014-2015 Calendar and shred or destroy any previous versions of this calendar. As the calendar year comes to an end and we are close to the halfway point in the school year, I would like to extend my thanks to all members of the UNIS Hanoi community for their continued support of our students as we strive to provide for them the highest quality programme that we can.
On Tuesday, the Board held an information session for Class Parents’ to provide an overview of the Board’s role and work at UNIS Hanoi. To view the slide presentation, click here.
Please click here to access the Questions and Answers from the Board Community meeting held 12 November. Best regards, Sarah Garner, UNIS Hanoi Board Chair
We will be hosting the architect we have chosen for our Campus Development Master Plan project. We would like to invite all parents to a session with the architects scheduled for Monday, December 09 at 19:00 in the Community Room. At this meeting, the architects (Perkins-Eastman) will solicit ideas and input from parents regarding the future development of the campus using the visioning study they did two years ago as a starting point. Respectfully, Dr. Barder, hos@unishanoi.org
Please notify the Admissions office of your intended withdrawal date. School will close for the winter break on Friday 13th December. The last day of the first semester is Friday 17th January. Upon confirmation of your departure, we shall guide your family through the withdrawal process. If you require any further assistance, please email admissions@unishanoi.org or contact Admissions staff on 37581551 extension 8217 / 8220.
UNIS Supporting the Community Song Hong 2013 half marathon, 10km, 5km and kids fun run takes place on Sunday December 8 with UNIS Hanoi once again hosting this fantastic community event. Red River Runners hopes to raise over $3000 for ENV (Education for Nature) through proceeds from the races.
Nothing says “Christmas” like a family meal For 150,000 VND, this tea towel’s a steal! Use it on Christmas or even New Year, to clean up your kitchen and spread holiday cheer. Here for sale at the Service Learning Office !
There is still time to register TODAY for this event as Hanoi Red River Runners have extended the registration until Friday December 6. Check www.redriverrunners.com for more details or email hanoiredriverrunners@gmail.com
Recently, in our unit on “Responses to Natural Disasters� Grade Nine students were challenged to create an infographic about one type of natural disaster. Students needed to be selective with data and think creatively about how they could show information visually. Much of the
student work was accurate, interesting and professional looking! Piktochart (an infographic creation website) selected two student made infographics for their showcase gallery. To find out who those students were and for a more detailed account (with examples and class galleries) please view HS Humanities blog post by clicking here.
To improve reading techniques & encourage reading for pleasure
Library visits Book Exchanges - bring favourite books to lend to a classmate Book Trailers Reading for Academics Tuesday: Hour of Code - great activities to encourage students to read and write code!
(…How many books will you read during the holidays? Parents are welcome to visit the library before Friday to find some great reads!)
Please do not take your Elementary child’s Library book with you. Our UNIS Elementary Library books love to remain in Hanoi. Thank you! Ms. Conroy, ES Librarian
In this session we will explore some of the popular social networks and how they function. Be ready for some hands-on time where you can learn how to set up and manage your own social network! We will also discuss how you can support and better understand your child as they manage their own social media. Hope to see you at the Parent Session next week!
THANK YOU to all of the parents who were able to join us December 5 for our first Maths Coffee Morning. We had a fantastic turnout of well over 50 parents. Parents were able to get a glimpse of mathematics that takes place in our classrooms from the youngest students in Discovery to the oldest in Grade 5. Many made observations of students thinking through what they saw and heard in activities and discussions. Several questions came out of the morning that will be used to plan further parent information sessions. Kind regards, Beth Murray, Grade 4 Teacher
5th Annual Peter Goverde Memorial Tennis Tournament This past Sunday was a glorious day for tennis!! It wasn’t the US Open and it wasn’t Wimbledon….it was BETTER!!! The UNIS Hanoi tennis courts were full of action under perfect temperatures and sunny skies, as UNIS Hanoi tennis enthusiasts participated in the 2013 version of the Peter Goverde Memorial Tennis Tournament. This tournament is held annually in memory of a popular UNIS Hanoi PE teacher who loved the idea that a sport, such as tennis, could be used as a vehicle to bring people together. Peter Goverde was an avid tennis player and was instrumental in helping to promote tennis within the UNIS Hanoi community. The courts that we enjoy today are thanks to his efforts and his desire to promote the sport of tennis. He would have loved seeing the courts full of players of all ages. The tournament this year was the 5th annual held in Peter’s memory. In the morning, UNIS Hanoi Middle School and High School students took to the courts. MS students played from 8-10am, followed by the HS players, who competed from 10:30-12:30. Players were paired with different partners each for game and played against a variety of opponents in a schedule that had everyone playing four or five matches. The level of play over the number of years has definitely seen a big improvement. What was especially nice to see was that the matches were played with a very positive energy and the spirit of sportsmanship prevailed. In both student divisions, the top three individual players who accumulated the greatest number of wins were presented with a bronze, silver or gold medal. Congratulations to the following students who came out on top of their group:
Middle School: 1st - Kristof Karolyi (Gr. 7), 2nd – Giang Le (Gr. 7), 3rd - Rohan Gowda (Gr. 7)
High School: 1st – Surabhi Sundaram (Gr. 10), 2nd – Duc Do (Gr. 9), 3rd – Vu Pham (Gr. 11)
In the afternoon, it was time for the adults to show-off their tennis-playing abilities. 24 players in total participated in a mixed-doubles tournament, where rotating partners saw players matched up with and against a variety of other players. Such was the parity of play, that play-off matches were required to determine the top players in both genders. Congratulations go out to the following players for being the top three finishers:
Adult Females: 1st – Thanh Tran, 2nd - Candy Tien, 3rd – Jean Munro
Adult Males: 1st – Tim Brennen, 2nd – Luc Le Calvez, 3rd – Peter Jang
Thank you to all the players who came out to make this a successful and enjoyable event! A special “thank you” goes out to Martin Machata, Pho Nguyen, Mye Fahrney and Susan Kraetzer who volunteered throughout the day to help organize the tournament! Maeve O’Donovan was the main organizer of the adult event. Her efforts and enthusiasm are greatly appreciated. We’ll see you all again in December of 2014 when we hold the 6th annual tournament in Peter’s honor. Until then….keep working on that backhand and those volleys! UNIS Hanoi Activities
Freedom from Chemical Dependency was founded in 1976 by a recovering alcoholic in the Boston area. Concerned about young people, he began giving talks in schools which quickly blossomed into a private, non-profit organization with a global reach. The informal talks developed into a more formal curriculum and the organization’s activities expanded from classroom education only to a variety of consulting services. The teams with us this week - José Rowe, David Sherrill and Tricia Steen – are all based in California but travel worldwide for more than half of the school year.
We’ve been talking to students from Grade 5 up to Grade 12 about making healthy choices and providing them with the information they need to confront difficult decisions. Topics across the different age groups have included addiction, perceptions versus reality, media and peer pressure, helping or hurting others, recognizing substance abuse, knowing how to get help, social norms and cultural messages and brain-body chemistry.
Kids are kids; we teach from the health perspective wherever we are. Most of the concerns that kids around the world face are universal: who am I? Where do I fit? How do I grow? Different countries have different versions of the issues or pressures – for example, ‘where do I fit online? Is now a big question for many - but they all fit into the same basic categories.
there are particularly strong effects in the adolescent years when young people engage in addiction behaviours or take addictive substances – every year they can delay their first use is a major protective factor. We are also sure now that addiction is a brain disease and researchers are looking at the risk factors – how the disease develops and in whom. The answers are: kids and people with genetic predispositions.
Prevention begins at home! On the one hand, parents should know that most kids are making good decisions – they are doing a good job in looking after themselves. In keeping with that, every discussion that parents can have at home where they explain the boundaries is a major protective factor. Kids will always face pressures from inside themselves and from the world around them. Parents can be an island in the storm – their children will benefit from any wisdom they can share, having experienced these types of decisions already themselves. Parents also need to know that they have the right to set boundaries – it’s critical so that kids know how to eventually set those boundaries for themselves. The FCD team are very happy to be at UNIS Hanoi this week and we are certainly glad to have them here. This is the first time in Hanoi for José and Tricia, while David was also here on the 2011 and 2009 visits. Some of the older students even remembered him! Their next assignments are schools in Salt Lake City for David and San Francisco for Tricia and José. We wish them a safe journey back to the US. Janet Field, Director of Learning dol@unishanoi.org To access our monthly meeting notes please click this link.
The most recent information has largely been concerned with the additional risks that kids face. We are learning that
School policy states that a mandatory medical must be completed every 3 years for all students at UNIS Hanoi. All those students who will be entering Kindergarten, Grade 3, Grade 6 and Grade 9 must have an updated medical for the new school year in 2014. As we begin to think about holidays, if any of your children are due for an updated medical and or vaccinations you may wish to consider getting them completed during the winter holiday. If your emergency contacts have changed, you can go directly to ISIS Family and enter the details.
You can find a copy of the medical package here. Once completed can you please forward to the School Health Centre and it will be uploaded by admissions into the database. If you are unsure about your child’s vaccinations or if they require a medical, please do not hesitate to contact the School Health Centre and we can advise you. Thanks so much for your consideration at such a busy time of the year, it is very much appreciated. School Health Centre, nurse@unishanoi.org
Today students had homemade muffins, cookies, popcorn balls, samosas, fruit salads, sticky rice and many more healthy treats to celebrate a FESTIVE FRIDAY at the second ES SNACK SALE OF THE YEAR where we raised a total of 10,510,000VND! Thank you parents from classes K1PM/HS, K2CA, 1JK, 4HK, 4LL, 4MK and 4BM for all the time and skills you put into creating such impressive delights that excited the ES students at the Snack Sale! Thank you to ALL the Snack Sale volunteers who have come to help sell snacks! And a SPECIAL THANKS to the extremely organized work of the Snack Sale Coordinators Akiko Nakano, Ikuko Mizuno and Bo young Hwang, for all the thought and behind the scenes work you did to ensure the snack sale ran smoothly! Looking forward to the February Snack Sale already!!
Friday, February 28, 2014 Contributing Classes: 2MT, 2BM, 2TB, 2JC, DSS, DTU, K1MA, 1TA
Friday, May 30, 2014 Contributing Classes: 5DL, 5KW, 5 JH, 5MS, K2AP, K2AS, 1VdC
All of the money from the ES Snack Sale goes into the overall SCO account. This money, combined with other money, is then devolved back to the community through a Project Funding Program, and other SCO events, such as Vietnamese Teachers Day and/or SCO Community Socials. The ES Snack Sale is considered a fun opportunity for the small children to exercise choice and learn how to handle money. It is a tradition at UNIS Hanoi that has developed over a long time and the children love it!
Q: What do you get if you cross approximately 6,000 generously donated books, about 70 volunteers, and hundreds of excited UNIS students, teachers and parents?
A: Loads of smiles, noses stuck in books and a very happy
Books donated: approx. 6,000 (a few hundred more than last year).
UNIS Hanoi community! And lots of money raised for a great cause – the charity: Room to Read.
ECC = 726 (compares with 608 total in 2012!) WINNER! K2CA with 191 books
It was exciting and truly gratifying to once again see so many excited and happy faces at this year’s SCO Used Book Sale – and rather fun to sell books to gigantic carrots, Charlie Bucket, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, various super heroes and other book characters in celebration of book week.
G1-5 total = 4,091 (3,019 in 2012!) WINNER! 5MS with 588 books
MS total = approx. 740, with over 600 of these coming from Grade 6 (compares with 1660 in 2012)
HS + books collected from people leaving at end of June 2013: the rest!
Money raised: Just over 88
million!
This includes 4,351,000 VND from the MS Bake Sale, held after school on Friday and on Saturday, also in support of Room to Read. (compares to 75 million VND in 2012) Number of volunteers: approx. 70
CONGRATULATIONS to K2CA and 5MS, winners of the ES book sale competition. Every child in these classes was able to choose their prize of a brand new book, donated by the library:
We would like to thank the following people/organisations for their assistance in making the event a success. Your help and generosity was very much appreciated: Saigon Vans – for lending us storage boxes for all the books – including delivering and collecting them from us – very helpful staff and great to deal with! MS Community Action Service Students for volunteering their time for the both the Friday and Saturday sale and for their supporting bake sale - you were a great help! Our wonderful parent volunteers for helping sort, price and sell books. Everyone worked very hard! (But I think everyone will agree that it was very rewarding to see the joy it brought!) ES and MS Student Councils (students and teachers) for helping advertise the sale, distribute baskets, collect tallies and make announcements in assemblies. All UNIS Hanoi families for donating their precious books to the sale – some families donated literally hundreds of books for others to enjoy. Thank you everyone for your generosity. ECC, ES and MS Homeroom teachers for helping the students remember to bring in books and sort them to the relevant baskets. UNIS Hanoi Operations Staff for emptying baskets, helping set up tables & the countless other things you helped with. The School Library, for donating prizes.
We sold nearly all the books donated, with about 5 boxes of English language books left at the end; a couple of boxes of Vietnamese and quite a few ‘other’ language books. Bookworm accepted and collected all the English language books and the Japanese books as a donation. All donated books that they sell assist their preferred charity, Project Renew, an NGO (http://www.landmines.org.vn). One-third of the selling price of the donated books will be supporting this project. All other language books will be offered to UNIS Hanoi language/mother tongue teachers before being otherwise disposed of.
UNIS Hanoi’s Community Liaison Officer, for being a great ‘go to, can help with anything’ person. Bookworm for accepting and collecting all our English language left over books as a donation (see above for more details). Finally, if you have any feedback (good or bad) about the sale to help us for next year, please send to: scobooksale@gmail.com Thank you! Peppi Wilson, Lori Fairbairn, SCO Book Sale Coordinators.
With over 150 participating countries, communities, businesses, charities and performers, as well as around 10,000 attendees, the 2013 HIWC Charity Bazaar was a huge success! We are proud to announce that as of now the total amount of funds raised from the event is over 3billion VND ($150,000 USD). All of the money raised will be used to fund different charity projects in and around Hanoi throughout 2014. The projects are selected help support disadvantaged women and children by bettering education, community aid and health. On behalf of the HIWC, THANK YOU to the UNIS Hanoi community for your support! This event could not have happened and would not have been as successful without volunteers, performers and of course, event attendees!! Our team is still working to collect all the money raised during the day, so keep an eye out for further publications to see the finalized figure as well as photos from the day!
Thanks again and HOPE TO SEE YOU AGAIN NEXT YEAR!