You may be thinking that in the 9 days that we have been Virtual Learning this term it has only been our academic curriculum that has been continuing...but this is not the case! While our students seamlessly transitioned into online classrooms for their lessons, a number of student leadership groups and CCAs also did the same, with our students taking the lead to ensure that they stayed connected and our projects and activities continued moving forwards during this time.
With our Global Campus connecting our students to 68 other NAE schools around the world, and a number of other online and virtual challenges presenting themselves, our students have been busy! This year’s Global Challenge has been to work towards the Climate Change goals, related to Life on Land, Life under Water, and Sustainable Infrastructures. Whilst in Virtual Learning, the Global Goals club has put together our action plan for submission, reviewing our previous progress and setting out our goals for the remainder of the year. The progress from our Precious Plastics Project, Soap for Hope Campaign, and EcoCoin Initiative are all being featured.
Speaking of sustainability, before the break, our Eco Committee came together online to discuss our overall sustainability strategic plan. The committee members are representatives from the Global Goals, Greenr Minds, Uniform Upcycling, and CleanUp D2 Clubs, and well as Club Cure and the Student Council. Together, they make sure that our sustainability initiatives are working together to achieve our school aim to reduce our impact on the environment and continue our positive work within our community. The students are putting together our whole school sustainability policy and improving our recycling using a step-by-step approach. They had a productive and inspiring discussion of how to create the policy, and also have the goal to create a city-wide network to connect with sustainability projects in other schools...an ambitious plan!
Also on Global Campus, the Art department has launched our latest House Competition to find our entries for the NAE Visual Arts Competition. The theme this year is also linked to Climate Change, challenging students to produce a piece using any medium that shows how they feel about climate change and climate action. There are some inspiring resources available on Global Campus to help our students navigate this challenge, and we’re looking forward to seeing the entries in a few weeks’ time. We are also taking part in the FOBISIA Virtual Choir project, with virtual rehearsals led by Mrs Amos beginning today. The individual recordings from different FOBISIA member schools will be collated and mixed together to produce one overall performance.
A final Global Campus challenge linked to our UNICEF collaboration will be launching next week, which involves submitting written pieces to Voices of Youth. Each month there is a different theme and a different challenge, with the first being to create a poem around racial equality. The Global Goals Club members have put together information on this challenge to be shared next week. These will take place every month, with NAE teachers selecting the top entries to be published by Voices of Youth. Find out more about this project on their website.
Closer to home, some CCAs have continued online, and the Model United Nations Leadership Team have hosted debate sessions capably led by the Chairs. This has been good preparation for next weekend, they will be hosting the Regional NAE MUN Online Conference for schools from South East Asia and the Middle East, with over 50 students from 4 schools joining us via Microsoft Teams.
Finally, our Head Students have also continued with their student leadership projects by meeting with the Student Council and the Prefect Team, breaking into their Wellbeing, Academic, and Co-curricular strands to discuss ongoing projects and feeding back on ideas raised by our school community. They have been impressed by the level of engagement from the Form Representatives and the Prefect Team, and look forward to continuing with their smaller group meetings face-to-face next week.
It has been truly eye-opening to learn about all of these student-led projects that have continued despite the potential barrier of only connecting through virtual platforms. Our students have not let this deter them from achieving their goals and have ensured that we keep the momentum of the year going. We’re so impressed with their approach!
Lauren Binnington
Deputy Head Teacher
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