Tran Dai NghiaHigh School for the Gifted is an academically selective public school for students from year 6 to 12 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Established in 2000, Tran Dai Nghia High School was the first partially state-funded, semi-boarding school specializing in various subjects, especially in foreign languages in Ho Chi Minh city. The school requires entrance exams for admission. Tran Dai Nghia High School ranks seventeenth nationally in the 2012 Vietnam university admission ranking, and ranks third amongst Ho Chi Minh City high schools.
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, 2 computer labs, an audiovisual room and a multimedia room. The school also contains one dining hall, 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 6 blocks in the school: the main block in the center for the school managing board; 5 A, B, C, D, E blocks for classrooms. Additionally, block E is also used as a dining hall. As the number of students has been increasing every year, the number of classrooms and teachers has also risen. In 2015, the school opened the second center, at District 2 for only grades 6-7. With this, the entrance exam now accept 525-600 students each year instead of the previous 300-400 students per year. The new center includes 1 computers-lab room with 50 computers. Two out of 4 vice-principals are now working at center 2. Because the second center is located in a remote area, there is shuttle service to help transfer students between the 2 centers at the cost of 400.000VND
Library
In 2019, the school open a free library for all student. Working time: Monday-Friday: 8am-4pm Saturday : 8am-12am
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 social subjects are also taught French or German as a second language. 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, Physics majoring class and Biology 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 on which the school prides itself.
Class schedule
The school is a semi-boarding one in which students stay from 7:00 am to 4:30 pm for grade 8-12. Grade 6-7 stay from 7:30 am to 3:45 pm. Classes are broken into 4 periods for grade 6-9 students and 5 periods for the rest in the morning. In the afternoon, classes start at 1:15 and usually last until 4:30, with a break from 2:45-3:00. 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 4:30 to 5:00 pm. As these classes are taught in the school yard, student are prohibited from entering the school yard for safety causes.
Extracurricular activities
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:
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 pentenially 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 the school's staff and students.
