By Beauty Boois
Primary Student Leadership Leader
When people think about leadership, what often comes to mind are the concepts of power, decision making, delegating and innovation. Seldom does one think about care, empathy, kindness, and generosity – however these traits that highlight the emotional skills for successful and effective leadership, including by students at Northbridge International School Cambodia, are just as important.
These leadership traits matter and Primary Student Council (STUCO) representatives are in no short supply of showing their caring hearts within the school community and beyond.
It was evident that their caring hearts inspired the kindness and generosity of the entire primary student body as well as their parents and teachers when STUCO hosted a Donation Day to collect and donate resources like stationary, toys and food to Peoples Improvement Organisation (PIO) and The Branch Center, a local orphanage in Phnom Penh.
Student led initiatives such as this highlight student agency, their ability to positively influence society and empathetically express the importance of care in society. Through initiatives like Donation Day the STUCO representatives worked with other students to sort, pack, and deliver the donations which was a wonderful opportunity to show their interpersonal skills and ability to collaborate with others.
In addition to the Donation Day, STUCO representatives also organised a mental health book display in the school library to demonstrate the importance of wellbeing, resilience, and social-emotional learning at NISC. They also organised a display of books related to caring for the environment, displaying that their caring hearts care for not only improving the lives of others but also toward environmentalism.
These initiatives and efforts by STUCO are proof that caring hearts is not just philosophy here at NISC but a practice to live by and inspire others. Giving with a caring heart not only benefits society, but it also boosts the mood of those who are generously giving, which has a positive impact on student wellbeing.
What are the Primary Arts all about? Is it just a load of fun and messing around? It is fun, which is why we love it but there is so much more to the programme than some people might think.
Take a visit to our early learning spaces at Northbridge International School Cambodia, both inside and out, and you will observe a wealth of play activities happening. Students are interacting in playing on their own (solo play), playing with the same thing or in the same space (mirrored play) or sharing together (collaborative play).
In today’s ever changing world of education, including at Northbridge International School Cambodia, we hear a lot about the importance of STEM or STEAM activties. But what are these and why are they deemed to be so important?
