British Vietnamese International School, Ho Chi Minh City

The British Vietnamese International School, Ho Chi Minh City (BVIS HCMC), an independent international school in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, has achieved groundbreaking results in bilingual learning, as well as on its students’ linguistics, reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. The programme, known as Learn One, Know Two, is the first of its kind in Vietnam, and provides a streamlined approach to teaching and learning language, linking learning across both English and Vietnamese to provide one consistent approach.

The programme has achieved impressive results, with steady integration and tracking showing on average a 10% improvement across EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) to Y3 in student attainment and application in phonics from 2017 to 2022. The school has also noted a 30% increase on average across EYFS to Y3 from 2018 to 2022, of students meeting age-related expectations in phonics.

With nine years of development to date and further developments planned going forward, the Learn One, Know Two programme includes specially designed activities, phoneme cards, and phonics reading books created by members of the BVIS HCMC staff in collaboration with an adviser from the University of Pedagogy, Ho Chi Minh City, and a professional illustrator. This level of internal and external collaboration has fostered a sense of unity and common purpose among students, parents, and staff, as well as a sense of ownership and pride in the final product.

Even parents are more engaged, with 100% greater participation in workshops than comparable events. This success, along with praise for innovative practices by the Council of International Schools (CIS) in its recent evaluation in January 2023, has reinforced the already positive culture in the school, where all members of the BVIS HCMC community are invested in the success of the programme and the students it serves.

If BVIS HCMC were to win the World's Best School Prize for Innovation, the prize money would be used to purchase Vietnamese and English books for a local school in the Mekong Delta that Year 5 students visited in February 2023. BVIS HCMC has sustainable community partner projects, and this initiative is an example of its commitment to community development, where the aim is to transform the school's small collection of books into an inspiring resource area to encourage local students to read.