Victory in Vietnam for ISA! 爱莎学生赴越南竞赛，战绩傲人

　　I was very honoured to accompany 16 of our students to Ho Chi Min to take part in the SIMOC math Competition. Students from over 20 countries took part, some had travelled over 44 hours to get there from Mexico, which made our 3-hour flight seem rather short.

　　上周来自爱莎的16名学生在幼儿及小学部校长Ms. Beth的带队下前往越南胡志明市参加新加坡国际奥林匹克数学竞赛。同样参加此次竞赛的还有来自超过20个国家的学生，有的参赛学生甚至是从墨西哥出发，经历了44个小时的路途后才抵达赛场。相比之下，爱莎学生三个小时的飞行时间也似乎没有这么漫长了。

　　Students from all over the world gather for the exciting competition!

　　Singa is Singapore Math Global. It is a unique new math competition with ambitious and important goals. Questions in the competition will be based on Singapore schools' math questions which have a high content of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). The focus in Singa is very strong on teamwork, and the medal winning groups have to show high levels of collaboration, stamina and mutual support - as well as superlative math skills. Named after the lion in the name of Singapore itself, Singa will also be brave, tough and noble: a thrilling team challenge that equips children everywhere for 21st Century learning.

　　Singa是新加坡全球数学竞赛的简称，该竞赛十分独特新颖，竞赛中的题目将基于新加坡学校的数学问题，对学生的高阶思维能力有一定的要求。并且新加坡全球数学竞赛将团队合作能力放在考察的首位，除了具备高超的数学技巧外，各个小组还须紧密协作，相互帮助并拥有十足的耐心才能在小组赛中脱颖而出。Singa不仅与狮子同名，代表着新加坡的狮城形象，同时也是勇敢，坚毅和高贵的象征：Singa锻炼了学生的团队协作能力，使学生能够完美应对21世纪的学习挑战。

　　The questions are challenging! Here is an example of some Year 1 and 2 questions:

　　竞赛的题目都具有一定的难度，以下是一、二年级的竞赛的题目示例。

　　The competition was a whole day event with one individual test and two team events. The event was hosted by the Science and Engineering University of HO Chi Min, starting with an individual round where students were led into university classrooms to sit and complete a test under strict exam conditions. We were so proud of our students for the mature way they participated. Over 350 children took part in this competition.

　　本次竞赛由胡志明理工大学主办，赛程为一天，包含一场个人竞赛和两场团体赛。首先进行的是个人赛，超过350名学生根据指引到达课室并在严格的条件下完成考试，爱莎学生镇定自如地完成本场考试。

　　After lunch the students had two team events, where they were assigned team members from other countries and they had to work together to achieve their common goal. Our students are used to this collaborative approach and we won many team medals! A testament to our collaborative learning approach at school.

　　午餐过后学生将迎来两次团体赛，比赛中他们将被分配到不同的小组，与来自其他国家的学生协作完成任务。爱莎素来重视培养学生的协作能力，学生们学以致用在团体赛中爱莎学生斩获众多奖牌!

　　The day after the test we were invited to join a group tour of Ho Chi Min and we learnt so much about the city. This was a hugely important part of the experience as there was so much to learn, about how different one of our neighbouring countries is.

　　比赛过后的第二天，爱莎代表队受邀参观胡志明市，学生对这座城市也有了更多的了解。此次出行的目的不仅仅在于竞赛，旅程本身也吸引着学生不断探索学习，从而使学生了解到世界的多样性，就好像即使中国和越南的地理位置如此相近，两个国家仍是不尽相同的。

　　Kenneth from Y1C had some wonderful questions: Why do the people use motorbikes as major vehicles? Why don’t they use the metro? Why is their rice not tasty? The children will do presentations in assembly next week to talk about what they learnt. Justin told us that he was glad that he had overcome his fears when he went in to the tunnels under the ground.

　　一年级C班的Kenneth同学一路上提出了许多精彩的问题：为什么越南的出行工具以摩托车为主?他们为什么不搭地铁?为什么当地的米饭不美味?下一周的集会上学生将会以本次越南之旅为主题做一次演讲，交流他们在路途中的收获。比如Justin很高兴自己能够克服内心的恐惧走进地下隧道。

　　The third day was the Award Ceremony Day and we were all so excited to hear the results, our school has some remarkable mathematicians, and we are proud of all the children that came with us. Students exchanged gifts with the children of other countries, a symbol of the good will the whole competition hopes to encourage. One of the aims is to encourage the participants not just to compete but also make friends with students from other countries as well. Perhaps there may be future collaborations among the participants that arise out of new friendships made in SINGA!

　　令人激动的颁奖仪式在第三天举行，爱莎很骄傲我们的学生在此次数学竞赛中获得如此出众的成绩，同时也为所有所有参赛学生而自豪。颁奖后，来自各个国家的学生互相交换了礼物，完美诠释了“友谊第一”的竞赛精神。祝愿学生们能够在本次竞赛中收获珍贵的友谊，并在未来有更进一步的合作。

　　The individual awards are as follows, and the children who received medals in this category will qualify for an ISA Scholarship Award

　　个人赛获奖情况如下(本次获奖的学生将有资格申请爱莎奖学金)：

　　Silver Medal 银牌

　　Hu Wendy

　　Xie Kenneth
 

　　Bronze Medal 铜牌

　　Zheng Diya

　　Liao Yifeng (Laurence)

　　Chen Boyu (Owen)

　　Hu Yuan (Justin)
 

　　Honorable Mention 荣誉奖

　　Phines Crooks

　　Alessandro Ferrarese

　　Wu Chenjun (Dino)

　　Liao Shuailong (Thomas)
 

　　Participation 参与奖

　　Chen Yilin (Daniel)

　　Yajun Jiang (Jadis)

　　Songen Ma (Maia)

　　Jason

　　Zhang Xiaoman (Helen)

　　He Wanyi (Kayla)
 

　　The team awards are as follows

　　团体赛获奖情况如下：

　　Silver Team Award 团体赛银牌

　　Zheng Diya

　　Li Jingqi (Ammie)
 

　　Bronze Team Award 团体赛铜牌

　　Xie Kenneth

　　Liao Shuailong

　　Liao Yifeng (Laurence)

　　Hu Wendy

　　Songen Ma (Maia)

　　I am already looking forward to our next maths adventure together!

　　期待看到爱莎学生的下一次数学之旅!