tintuc@unishanoi.org UNIS Hanoi’s Weekly Community Newsletter
Volume 21, Edition 20, Friday 30 January
NEXT WEEK…
FRIDAY, 6 FEBRUARY ASA Session 3 Registration on ISIS, 6-8 Feb
MONDAY, 2 FEBRUARY JV Boys' Basketball vs VAS @ UNIS, 16:00-17:30, Sports Centre
SATURDAY, 7 FEBRUARY ES Tet Gift Bags of Love Delivery, 9:00-12:30
TUESDAY, 3 FEBRUARY Board Executive Committee Meeting, 12:00-13:30, Conference Room MS Girls' "B" Team Soccer vs CISH @ UNIS, 16:0017:30 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, 58 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
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, 8:3010:00, 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... 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)
Service Learning news (p.10-11) Let’s get some green home! (p.12) New UNIS Hanoi apparel. Check it out! (p.12)
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)
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)
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.
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
Welcome to UNIS Hanoi
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.
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.
Best regards, Dr. Nandini Oomman, Vice Chair
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 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.
“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)
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
WHO IS BEHIND THE TREE ?!
“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!
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
After School Activity - Martial Arts
UMA Lesson by Tim Barnsley
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.
So, how to prevent hearing loss? The following are some useful tips to follow:
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.
device’s volume level for no more than 60 minutes at a time.
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
Follow the 60/60 rule: Use only 60 percent of the
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