CREATE YOUR FUTURE

'Create your future' reflects our belief here at BIS Hanoi that there are endless possibilities inherent in every person - whether they are students, teachers, or other members of our school community.

As an institution, our promise is to help each individual truly know themselves, set high goals, and achieve their ambitions for their future.

For students, an inescapable part of enabling future goals involves success in academic outcomes. However, this has led many schools around the world to target examination results as their sole focus, in turn creating cultures akin to "Exam Factories".

Students in these schools are led step-by-step through syllabi and are drilled in examination practice, but they experience little else to supplement their developmental needs. When the highest ideal and principal goal of a school is grades, it creates a shallow learning experience, a soullessly delivered curriculum, and sees students reduced to numbers on a spreadsheet.

While academic success is certainly a goal for us at BIS Hanoi, I know you will agree that our school is so much more than an exam factory. There are many ways to achieve academic success beyond simply having an unwavering focus on exams and grades.

Educating the whole child by igniting their skills and passions in areas outside the classroom - such as sport, art, service, and leadership - deepens learning, motivation and enhances grade performance.

The role of a school is to open each student’s mind to the greatest ideas and then provide opportunities for them to explore and apply those ideas. Ultimately, focusing on activating the whole child will lead to better results compared with simply focusing on attainment.

I am confident that you will find these beliefs and principles reflected in articles throughout this edition of Esprit Magazine. For example, you will read about the latest contemporary teaching and learning initiatives, including an article about how our teachers are using multilingual learning strategies in the classroom. This issue also contains an illuminating article about play and its crucial role in the development of young children, as well as a treatise on the importance of online safety.

Finally, I know you will enjoy celebrating a summary of our university offers for the year so far. For those taking exams this year, you will gain a lot from the two articles which explore how students and parents can best prepare for examination success.

Chris Newman Head of Secondary