Dear High School Parents,

Following up with the opening of the Veracross Gradebook recently, we will be holding Parent Teacher Conferences on 22 and 23 November.

This is a great opportunity for you as parents to meet with subject area teachers for a 10-minute session to discuss his/her progress in the subjects as well as to ask any questions about your child’s experience at school. Please note, students are requested to attend conferences because we believe it is important for students to be able to demonstrate their accomplishments and learning. With the exception of some grade 12 Higher Level IB classes, no students have classes on these days.

If you are unable to make it to school on these days, please feel free to email teachers directly to set up a day and time for you to meet with them should you so desire. In fact, parents are welcome to email teachers and/or to meet with teachers at any time to discuss a student’s learning progress.

Conference registration dates online through Veracross:

• Conference registration and sign-ups opened on November 13 and is closing on November 18.
• Instructions to register for conferences:  Online instructions including written and video instructions.  Please use this link .

Conference dates:

• Conferences will be held on Thursday, 22 November and Friday, 23 November from 10:00 – 18:00.
• Conferences with Principal and Deputy Principal: book via High School office 024 7300 4500 ext. 8500

Conferences with Counsellors: book via Counselling office 024 7300 4500 ext. 8513 or email directly to your child’s Counsellor as follow:

• Ms. Wilcox – pwilcox@unishanoi.org,
• Mr. Jackson –  kjackson@unihanoi.org,
• Ms. Nolen Jackson – cnjackson@unishanoi.org
• or Ms. Manfredi – bmanfredi@unishanoi.org

If you experience any difficulty booking conferences or need login information please contact the High School office on 024 7300 4500 ext. 8500.

Please enjoy your conferences!

Scott Schaffner
High School Principal

The Flame, UNIS Hanoi’s student-led High School student newspaper, has just published several new articles which can be read online at theflame.unishanoi.org please bookmark this page!

In addition to the website, a new print edition has been delivered to student and teacher subscribers, with extra print copies available for the public placed in central high school student locations such as the library and the DP Lounge. The wider school community is encouraged to read The Flame online.

The mission of The Flame is to produce high-quality, relevant, and engaging journalism for high school students and the wider community. A dedicated group of student editors, writers and designers devote time outside of class to creating new content for the paper regularly, led this year by chief editors and Grade 12 students Annika Moore and Jina Park.

The Flame was started in 2012 as a student-led co-curricular activity. After operating for six years as an online-only newspaper, The Flame published its first print edition in June 2018 to complement the online website. The Flame will continue to regularly publish student-produced writing and multimedia content in print and online formats. Articles are added to The Flame website every 2-3 weeks, and the print edition will be published once during each academic quarter.

Scott Schaffner
High School Principal

The annual Security Council Conference is always a very anticipated event on the UNIS MUN March school calendar, and this year was no exception. Over 110 well prepared delegates from grades 8 -12 turned up smartly dressed in their formal best to hotly debate this year’s highly relevant issue, ‘Climate Change as a Threat to Our Society’.

Photo: Jacob Gee

We were very fortunate to have our High School Vice Principal, Glenda Baker, to open up the conference. She gave a very real example of how in Hanoi, we are the recipients of a polluted environment that daily impacts our health and longevity, and that we have an individual and collective responsibility to ensure that take positive action to reverse this devastating trend.

With this potent message in mind, all of the delegates passionately debated each of their arguments with the positive intention of ensuring that the future of our planet would be in safe hands. Each clause was debated individually to create a resolution by consensus within each group.

It was a very smoothly run event thanks to the hard work of the Admin team, our photographer Jacob, the wise and patient Chairs and the behind-the-scenes organisation of Ms. Giang in the Activities office. Our gratitude also to the Executive Committee who worked extremely hard to ensure that the evening would be a success. Many thanks for helping make this evening one to remember.

Sandra Schneiderman
Co-Director UNIS MUN

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The conference was a culmination of hours of hard work and training, with delegates meeting every Thursday for 2 hours in order to familiarise themselves with the MUN format, and learn how to come up with practical and workable resolutions to debate in front of other delegates.

Some delegates were new to the MUN debate, and worked especially hard to seek advice, and assistance in writing the many policy statements, resolutions and opening speeches required to participate. Over the past two months, they had the opportunity to debate with more experienced delegates all in preparation for the October Simulation.

Delegates investigated the approaching “point of no return”, and were reminded, throughout the conference, of the serious necessity to make changes not only because of our responsibility in being a UN school, but also because of our position as young students who will experience the consequences of our inaction. Their research emphasised the need for our delegates to discuss these issues in order to be the future change makers of tomorrow.

For 3 hours, the conference rooms were filled with intense and passionate debate. Delegates fervently fought for their resolutions to be adopted by the rest of the council, discussed several solutions to an abrupt crisis, and furthered their understanding of international relations, diplomacy, and the formal workings of the UN. All the while, the Admin staff-  lead  by Giang Thu Pham, worked around the clock, passing notes, printing documents, and attending to the needs of each council.

“It was great seeing a bunch of 8th-12th graders talk about global topics in such a passionate way”, remarked Minh Quan Do, one of the student officers of the conference, “It truly is so gratifying to see our hard work pay off, and watch the delegates flourish as a result of meticulous planning.”

The atmosphere remained diplomatic and professional, true to the spirit of the UN, and the dedication of our delegates. After a long night, the conference concluded with the delegates receiving their well deserved certificates.A few special recognition superlative certificates were also given out for standout delegates.

It doesn’t end here however. The MUN Leadership team, and participating delegates are now set to prepare for another conference, UNISMUN XI , with over 350 delegates attending from schools in the local Hanoi community and the East-Asian Area. The skills  delegates have acquired during this conference will now be put towards preparation for this conference in March.

MUN Leadership Team 2018-19

Amani Parvathaneni and Bao Chau
Members of the MUN  Leadership team.

On 27 October, the Hanoi Science Debate 2018 took place. Four local schools and UNIS Hanoi participated in the event that consists of a jeopardy quiz and debates about controversial scientific innovations. During the jeopardy quiz, all participants were fully engaged and excited to quickly solve unfamiliar biology, physics, chemistry, and miscellaneous questions! We were proud to see the UNIS Hanoi team win first place for this quiz.

Then started the main event of the day: debates! Groups were informed of whether they are negative or affirmative on the spot, and so had to be able to quickly plan persuasive points to make. Both UNIS Hanoi teams (Team 1 and 2) tried their best, and had good results. The final standing was as follows: first place team was UNIS 1, second place team was Concordia 2, and two teams Concordia 1 and SIS 1 were at third place.

The Hanoi Science Debate Leadership Team (Jina Park, Yeon Su Park, Uyen Trinh, Gia Han Le, and Joonwon Choi) have put effort in preparing and successfully hosting the event.

Thank you to all who have helped to make this event a good one!

Jina Park

This past week the Grade 9 and 10 students have been diving into different topics regarding Digital Citizenship. The Grade 9 students are investigating online safety, privacy and security: learning how to secure their passwords, avoid malicious websites, and make responsible decisions in terms of what they post online. The Grade 10 students are looking at academic honesty, particularly with regards to the Personal Project. They are examining the topic of “Fair Use” and how to use both images and music responsibly.

This ‘deep dive’ will continue through next week, and again next spring semester. We have heard positive feedback so far, and look forward to refining it further for next time. If you are interested in learning more about Digital Citizenship or about the lessons that students are doing, take a look at the Digital Citizenship page of Tech Connect.

Dear High School Parents,

The High School at UNIS Hanoi values effective feedback and its impact on student growth toward learning goals. This school year, teachers have been documenting feedback for assignments and assessments on Veracross to give you the opportunity to observe your child’s progress. When you look at the Veracross Gradebook, please keep in mind that scores (or “grades”) are one indicator of learning, but teacher feedback and student self-assessment can be much richer sources of information. We encourage you to sit with you daughter and/or son to review the evidence of learning recorded in the Veracross Gradebook to date.

All High School students and parents now have access to the Veracross Gradebook. We will continue to keep this Gradebook open throughout the year so parents and students can monitor learning progress. Last year teacher-leaders, students, and parents collaboratively created a “why” statement about the Veracross Gradebook:

“The Veracross Gradebook fosters student learning by making the learning process more transparent and meaningful. Teacher use of the Veracross Gradebook aims to promote communication amongst all stakeholders by recording evidence of student learning. Growth-oriented feedback promotes student reflection of the learning process and the refocusing of learning goals.”

Please read the instructions on how to access your daughter and/or son’s evidence of learning to date here. You can also click on the link provided on the Parent Portal:

Should you have questions, please direct them as follows:

• Questions about the academic content in a class should be directed to teachers. Please note that Parent-Teacher Conferences are scheduled for November 22 and 23.
• Questions about accessing Veracross or technical issues should be directed to our Head of Technology, Ed Gilbreath: techdirector@unishanoi.org.
• Any other questions about Veracross Gradebook should be sent to the HS office: hssecretary@unishanoi.org.

We appreciate your interest in your daughter and/or son’s educational growth. Have a great weekend!

Scott Schaffner
High School Principal