The LCIS Bee Project

10 October 2019

La Côte International School is proud to announce the launch of the LCIS Bee Project in collaboration with Mr Guillaume Schneider, an organic beekeeper in the local village of Aubonne. The project will engage the school community and students from all year groups across Early Years, Primary and Secondary, working towards one common objective: protecting bees to protect biodiversity.

Bees play a vital role in balancing our ecosystem and pollinating crops, with more than 75 percent of the world's food crops being dependent on pollination in varying degrees. Unfortunately, beekepers across the world are currently facing serious colony losses due to diseases and harmful pesticides.

The LCIS Bee Project will focus on raising awareness about the need to protect biodiversity and will be linked to Global Goal 15 - Life on Land, whilst at the same time supporting a sustainable, not-for-profit apiculture in our local community by sponsoring a beehive in Aubonne and the harvest of honey.

This week, our Year 9 students officially kicked off the LCIS Bee Project 2019-2020 with a beehive making workshop conducted by Mr Guillaume Schneider, beekeper and founder of Association Mellifera.

Now that the beehive has been built, it will be on display at school for the coming weeks, while the students' creative team develops a final design. Once decorated, the hive will be placed in Mr Schneider's apiary, ready to welcome a swarm of bees in the spring of 2020!

As part of the Middle Years Programme (MYP) Community Project, students in Year 9 students will also have the choice of developing a specific goal and plan of action focused on the LCIS Bee Project and Global Goal 15 - Life on Land.

We are very proud and excited about this project, which will bring together our whole school and local communities for the first time. Students from all age groups will be involved in activities inspired by Global Goal 15 – Life on Land, while at the same time supporting a local organic beekeeper in Aubonne, and therefore the environmental health of the community Valérie Fournet

This interdisciplinary and intergenerational project will include a wide number of fun and educational activities, including visits to the apiary in Aubonne, spelling bee competitions, House challenges, Kamishibai story-telling, bake and honey sales, as well as a whole-school Bee Day in the spring of 2020. Valérie Fournet & Véronique Sztorch, Bee Project Leads