St Andrews Honoured at International School Awards

The International School Awards celebrate learning, teaching, community, wellbeing, leadership and strategic initiatives at international schools. They provide the opportunity for international schools to share best practice, creative endeavours, community participation, and innovation.

St Andrews International School Bangkok is honoured to have been recognised at the 2020 International School Awards ceremony hosted by ISC Research in London earlier this year. The work of the students and the support of the school community led to an amazing evening culminating in St Andrews taking home the top prize in the Environmental Initiative and the coveted International School of the Year Award. Congratulations to these students who, as future leaders, promote responsible, environmentally-conscious choices to help drive the transition to a sustainable society.

Inspirational young people have brought concerns about our damaged planet into the mainstream. And youngsters are leading calls for more sustainable lifestyles, greener approaches to business and government action across the world. International schools are challenging themselves to tailor the education they offer to prepare their students to tackle the environmental problems we face. 

"Educators must make all young people aware about sustainability as it's now a significant part of the culture students are growing up in. Moreover, children are increasingly interested in it," said Paul Schofield, the Principal of St Andrews International School Bangkok. "If schools don't get this right, where will we be in 15 or 20 years time?" he asks.

Young student leaders at St Andrews fueled the initiative to develop an action plan focusing on the changes they would like to see which would have the greatest impact on sustainability in their school and community. The 7 to 11-year-olds worked tirelessly during after school club time to put their plans into practice. 

For example, after learning about the environmental effects of animal agriculture, children met with the school’s catering company to discuss lowering meat consumption. The students explained their reasoning to fellow pupils, teachers and parents during assemblies and events. All children provided feedback on the new menu and St Andrews became the first school in Thailand to implement Meat Free Monday. 

The children were also fully involved in the launch of the country’s first school-based zero-waste shop. Members of the community can now buy snacks, toiletries and household cleaning products in refillable and re-useable containers eliminating the need for single-use plastic. The students submitted designs for the layout of the shop, helped choose the shop’s name (‘Little Steps to Zero Waste’), and created an instructional video for parents showing how to purchase items in this special shop. 

The children encouraged other students to take part in Precious Plastic, which is an ongoing project that supports a local NGO campaign to collect plastic bottle tops for recycling. To engage and maximise participation, a competition between the St Andrews Houses was introduced and promotion and collection sites were located around the school. The project organisers even brought their recycling machine into school for a special set of lessons.

We are incredibly proud of the entire St Andrews family for supporting the far-reaching, community-engaging, environmentally-focused initiatives spearheaded by our students.