There’s more to life and learning at British Council than classrooms! Last month Ho Chi Minh City events included an environmental away day as well as special dinner for their most loyal students.
Environmental Away Day
The first British Council Environmental Away Day was sponsored by HSBC at Tan Cang Park located on the Saigon River tool place on November 26th. Sensory Station walks, a Student Waste Graph and an Environment Wishing Tree were some of the unique activities enjoyed by students, teachers and HSBC staff, all aimed at raising awareness of environmental issues.
The Sensory Station walk saw classes making a list of what they could see, hear, touch and feel at each of the six stations. The activity was aimed at making students more aware of what is around them. Students heard birds singing, smelled the river, touched the grass and felt the heat of the sun!
In preparation for the event students were asked to document the number of plastic bags and bottles, aluminium cans and polystyrene bottles their household used over the previous five days. Student then used the data to contribute to graphs showing the quantity used by the participants’ households between November 21st and 25th. The graphs are now displayed in school and serve as a strong reminder of how much waste we produce.
The students were also given the opportunity to write their environmental wishes on leaves to attach to the wish tree which grew and grew throughout the day. Some wishes include 'Hope that everyone will make our planet greener and cleaner’ (by Khanh). ‘No rubbish. Don’t make the water dirty. Make the city beautiful.’ (by Hung).
In addition to the group activities, teachers planned learning activities for each class such as “Green Superhero reading races”, planting seeds and learning about the life cycle of plants and making musical instruments out of recycled materials. Secondary students also took part in environmental debates.
Prizes were presented by HSBC at the end for the best participating classes and students ended the session by taking part together in a multiple choice quiz.
The students, and staff, enjoyed the day very much. “I like going there because it is very quiet and with a lot of fresh air,” said Primary 4 student Dan. Elsewhere Primary 3 student Sarah was so impressed that she was already thinking of the next event: “I want the British Council to take us to Tan Cang Park one more time,” she said.. Primary 5 student Kathy even described the event as “the best day of my life”.
”It was a unique opportunity to work in partnership with HSBC and take the children out of the classroom and to the park”, said Assistant Teaching Centre Manager Julia Stanton, “The environment in Vietnam is at risk and it is important that we raise the awareness of the issues so that future generations can do their best to protect it”.
A dinner for our most loyal students
As part of British Council Ho Chi Minh City’s ongoing commitment to their Adult Students, the centre decided to reward its most loyal adult students. An informal dinner was arranged inviting students who had studied more than 10 courses, to find out what they liked about the British Council, its methodology and services. From this information, Senior Teacher Ronan Tolle put together a one hour workshop titled ‘Living the Language- Learning as a lifelong challenge’ which looked at ways learners can study outside the classroom. Both Loyal Students and potential customers were invited to take part in the presentation which was also used as an opportunity for some of our long term students to share their views with those new to the British Council.
British Council Ho Chi Minh City Director Alison Ball also used this opportunity to personally thank loyal students and hand out awards. The same workshop was repeated on 12 December 2011. Adult students also had the opportunity to participate in free speaking and pronunciation clubs which are held on Saturday afternoons every week and serve as an extra opportunity to speak English outside the classroom.
For individual help and advice, students can sign up for the free one to one counselling service where they can spend 15 minutes with a teacher who can offer them help or advice. These activities will continue to be offered until 19 December. For further information and to register please contact customer service staff on (08) 3823 2862.
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