Trần Đại Nghĩa High School

School establishment

Founded in 2000, the school was named after Professor Trần Đại Nghĩa, a scientist and weapon engineer who invented the Vietnamese bazooka and SKZ recoilless rifle during the Vietnam War. The school was set up by repurposing existing facilities of the Lasantaberd Institute, which was established in 1877. It was the first school to have Intensive English program in Hồ Chí Minh City. 2003 marked the school's first graduating class.

School facilities

The school has many academic facilities, including a library, 3 well-maintained computer labs, an audiovisual room and a multimedia room. The school also contains two dining halls, a canteen and rooms for students to rest between classes. The school also has two basketball courts, three badminton courts as well as a volleyball court. In addition there are some basketball half-courts for students to practice inside the school ground. There are 5 blocks in the school: the main block in the center for the school managing board and four A, B, C, D blocks for classrooms around. As the number of students has been increasing every year, the number of classrooms and teachers has also risen.

Learning method and students' opportunities

Tran Dai Nghia high school's students are known to have high level of fluency in English, and the school has a reputation for being one of the best education institutions for foreign languages in Ho Chi Minh City. Aside from English, high school students majoring in D-block subjects are also taught French or German. In addition, classes of grade 10, 11 and 12 are ranged in to specializing classes such as English majoring class, Math majoring class, Literature majoring class, Chemistry majoring class and Physics majoring class. There are also triple-subjected classes: Math-Chemistry-Physics and Math-Literature-English classes. A growing number of study abroad scholarships are won by students, a fact in which the school prides itself.

Class schedule

The school is a semi-boarding one in which students stay from 7:00 am to 4:10 pm or 5:00 pm, depending the number of classes.

Classes are broken into 4 periods for grade-6,7,8 students and 5 periods for the rest in the morning. Lunch time is thus various: grade-6,7,8 students are supposed to have lunch at 10:20, whilst grade-9,10,11,12 ones at 11:15. In the afternoon, classes start at 1:15 and usually last until 4:10, sometimes 5:00. Since Academic year 2013-2014, all classes finish at 4:30. On Saturday, students in selection teams gather to take extra classes on the subject they major. After that, they can go home or attend some outdoor activities.

Extracurricular sports classes are available from 4:10 to 5:00 pm. As these classes are taught in the school yard, student are prohibited from entering the school yard for safety causes.

Athletics

Basketball, badminton, volleyball, chess, soccer and martial arts classes are also carried out after school, which is widely popular to students who want to improve their physical and mental condition. Half-court basketball is also regularly played after school between students. Sports competitions are held twice a year.

Competitions

There are a lot of contests and competitions so every student can show their abilities and be more energetic and flexible in life:

Clubs

School Publications

Tran Dai Nghia High School releases an annual magazine titled "Nội san Trần Đại Nghĩa". Compiled by the journalism club and Vietnamese-Literature teachers, the magazine includes selective writings and artworks by teachers and students.

The school also publishes a school photo book, called "kỷ yếu". Its contents is similar to the yearbook, but it is published every five years instead of annually.

An active student-run photoblog, called "Humans of TDN", can be found on Tumblr and Facebook. Mimicking the "Humans of New York", it publishes portraits and interviews of some school's staffs and students.