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Thursday, September 29, 2016
Reports by Maneesh Bakshi For events and press releases email qatar.editor@gmail.com or call (974) 44422077
Slice of the West
(L-R) Paul Young, Senior Vice Principal Head of Secondary, joins the new student leaders of the Eco Committee Ross O’Donnell and Emily White alongside Brian Kerr and Naomi Capewell.
Doha College earns Green Flag for eco commitment The flag is an award given to schools that achieve certain goals in the cause of environment protection and raising awareness ith the hoisting of the Green Flag on the premises of Doha College, the institution has become the first school outside Europe to receive this honour, awarded by the Denmark based Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE). The flag is an award given to schools that achieve certain goals in protecting the environment. FEE CEO Daniel Schaffer said: “I’d like to congratulate Doha College and all its students and teachers on their great achievement, and wish them continued success with their work in sustainability. We are delighted to have our first official international school with a Green Flag awarded from our Head Office.” The school’s Eco Committee and staff officially hoisted the flag at a ceremony held at the school recently. The Eco-Schools programme is run at 49,000 schools across 64 countries, and coordinated by the FEE. The Eco Schools campaign originated in Denmark in the early 1990s and later spread to other European countries, with the aim of making school children environmentally aware. Doha College is the first school to be awarded the coveted Eco-Schools standard directly by the FEE Head Office, under their new scheme for international schools. The award was given following a vigorous inspection that looked into all the sustainable initiatives being run by the school. “The Eco-Schools programme’s greatest achievement is arguably that it helps generate, year-after-year lots of students who turn into responsible individuals with an idea of sustainability and consciousness towards their environment being taught as a focus of education throughout schools,” explained Eco-Schools International Director at FEE Head Office Bríd Conneely.
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“These individual students will carry the behavioural patterns they learn under the auspices of Eco-Schools with them throughout life, in turn teaching the next generation environmental habits to make a difference,” he added. To participate in the Eco-Schools programme, each school must implement a seven-step change process and empower their students to lead processes and actions wherever they can. Schools are in-
participation in the Earth Cup Challenge, and most importantly, the incorporation of environmental issues into the curriculum for all students. Geography Teacher Brian Kerr and one of the lead teachers for this initiative said, “We are very proud to have got this Green Flag after two years of hard work by the students and staff. In particular, the Eco-Schools Committee led by Senior Prefect Kane Bastik displayed excellent leadership skills and were true role models for promoting environmental practices around the school.” According to him and fellow lead teacher for the Eco-Schools programme Naomi Capewell, each year a new student committee will lead the Doha College Eco-Schools programme. Capewell said, “This year’s committee will be led by 6th Formers Ross O’Donnell and Emily White. I am looking forward to working with them to continue the good work, which has now been embedded into the school and to bring in exciting new initiatives.” “We hope that other schools in Qatar will follow our lead and enrol in the Eco-Schools programme, so that young people throughout the country will be encouraged to act in a sustainable manner,” Capewell said. The school’s vision, revised for 2016, is to enable personal growth, instill a passion for learning, and create inspirational minds. “Our mission is to unlock our students’ full potential, develop their confidence, creativity and intellect in a safe and caring environment, empowering them to contribute to the global society,” Capewell added. Doha College is one of the oldest British curriculum schools in Qatar providing a world-class education to 1,900 students, between the ages of three and 18, who represent more than 75 nationalities.
Doha College is the first school to be awarded the coveted Eco-Schools standard directly by the FEE Head Office, under their new scheme for international schools. The award was given after a vigorous inspection that looked into all sustainable initiatives being run by the school spected every second year to ensure that environmental practices are maintained. The Doha College Eco Committee included 30 students from all across secondary year groups, led by Senior Prefect Kane Bastick. The themes chosen by the school included paper recycling, plastic recycling and litter reduction. A number of projects were implemented including recycling bins throughout the whole school, a plastic bottle greenhouse, litter-picking programmes,
Flags on display at Doha College.
(L-R) Paul Young, Senior Vice Principal Head of Secondary, joins members of the Eco Committee and Eco Champions teachers Brian Kerr and Naomi Capewell.
Courses in Italian to start at TII in January
HE Guido De Sanctis. (Hanson K Joseph)
The Italian Embassy, in collaboration with the Translation and Interpretation Institute (TII) of Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar Foundation, will soon launch an Italian language course beginning in January next year. “We are very grateful to Qatar Foundation for helping us in our efforts to make Italian language accessible to the people of Qatar and we are currently looking forward to a response from the students who wish to learn Italian in Doha,” said Italian ambassador HE Guido De Sanctis. According to the Italian envoy, language is an important element of any culture. “Learning a language is one of the best ways to
establish people-to-people contact between countries. By learning Italian, we hope students will get a chance to peep into the Italian culture,” the ambassador said. The language centre director Milena Savova said, “TII is currently offering training to learners in five languages namely Arabic, French, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese. Courses in Italian and German will be added to this list beginning next year. The director said, “The registration for the Italian course will start in December and we will officially publicise the course from November. I am confident that there will be a good response for
‘We are very grateful to Qatar Foundation for helping us in our efforts to make Italian language accessible to the people of Qatar and we are currently looking forward to a response from the students who wish to learn Italian in Doha’ – Italian ambassador HE Guido De Sanctis. this new course.” Language courses organised at TII are suitable for personal enrichment or for professional
purposes. The institute offers a variety of formats and course content, ranging from basic language instruction to language for professional and special purposes, to language for travel. The Italian Embassy has also participated in the first ‘European Day of Languages’ event organised by European Union Cultural Cluster in Qatar (Eunic) and held recently at the French Institute. Free introductory language courses to students were offered in 12 different European languages, including Italian, at the day-long event. The response for the Italian language was very good and the classes offering Italian lessons were seen almost full.
PRESS COVERAGE ROUND –UP Gulf Times
PRESS COVERAGE ROUND –UP Gulf Times