UWCSEA Dunia April 2014

April 2014

UWC movement and the International Board UWCSEA Gap Year programme Annual report highlights

UWC movement and the International Board

By Julian Whiteley Head of College UWC South East Asia

“Education must enable young people to effect what they have recognised to be right, despite hardships, despite dangers, despite inner skepticism, despite boredom, and despite mockery from the world …”

Kurt Hahn

As a member of the UWC movement, the College is guided by the educational philosophy of Kurt Hahn, and by the UWC mission to make education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future. As we make this mission come alive in our context, and provide our students with the educational experience Hahn envisioned for them, the thirteen other schools and colleges in the movement are doing the same in their various parts of the world. Given that some UWC schools only enrol students for Grades 11 and 12, while others educate from Kindergarten to Grade 12, that some are located in remote settings such as a castle in Wales, while others are situated in vibrant cities like Maastricht, that some have as many as 5,200 students while others have only 180, what keeps us together as a movement? If we are tasked to interpret the UWC mission for our context, who is providing the oversight to ensure that we are true to the values and intention of the movement?

The short answer to these important questions is the International Board.

Whilst all of the Colleges have their own Boards and are independent entities, the International Board is responsible for the governance of the

UWC movement as a whole. As such, it has the unenviable task of bringing together the 14 colleges that make up the membership, along with the various other components such as the national committees (who recruit and select scholars in their countries), so that we reach consensus on crucial issues.

The Board, chaired by Sir John Daniel O.C.*, consists of 16 members of whom three are College Chairs, two are College Heads, three must have experience of working with the national committees and at least five must be UWC alumni.

In order to conduct their business they usually meet three times a year and this February we were privileged to host them in Singapore.

The International Board has responsibility for defining the ethos and strategic direction of the UWC movement. Trying to make the intangible tangible is challenging at the best of times and while we all recognise what a UWC education looks like, teasing out the component parts that make up the whole is no easy task. Over recent years a number of documents have been written that encapsulate what it means to be a UWC. The first of these is a Memorandum of Understanding that

UWC Atlantic College

UWC Maastricht

UWC Red Cross Nordic

UWC Dilijan

Llantwit Major, UK

Maastricht, Netherlands

Flekke, Norway

Dilijan, Armenia

Li Po Chun UWC Hong Kong SAR, China

UWC Pearson College Victoria, Canada

UWC Robert Bosch College Freiburg, Germany

UWC Mahindra College Pune, India

UWC-USA Montezuma, New Mexico, USA

UWC Costa Rica Santa Ana, Costa Rica

UWC Adriatic Duino, Italy

UWC in Mostar Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

UWC South East Asia Singapore

Waterford Kamhlaba UWC Mbabane, Swaziland

Does this map look different? In keeping with the UWC ethos, we are now using the Hobo-Dyer Projection for our maps which, as a cylindrical equal area projection, more accurately reflects the relative size of the continents. Thanks to the alumnus who brought this to our attention.

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outlines an understanding between the constituent colleges and UWC International regarding their respective roles and responsibilities within the UWC movement. This memorandum allows the Board and the colleges to work productively and ensures that they are mutually supportive. The Guiding Principles for colleges are based upon Kurt Hahn’s original thoughts and detail the basic principles from which the practice of education at each college is derived. The recently agreed Educational Model provides a coherent way for us to describe that practice. All three of these documents complement the UWCSEA guiding principles (made up of educational goal, ambition, learning principles and profile) and can be viewed on the UWC website www.uwc.org.

As with any Board, the International Board is responsible for setting the strategic direction of the UWC movement and maintaining an oversight of its implementation. The current strategic plan contains six objectives: • ensure that UWC’s model of education maintains relevance and becomes more widely known as an example of education for a peaceful and sustainable future • extend UWC’s impact • strengthen and develop the UWC national committee system • create a secure and sustainable financial and funding model • increase awareness, recognition and understanding of UWC • continue to strengthen organisational effectiveness and unity All six are being pursued concurrently but perhaps the most significant is extending the impact of the movement through the creation of new colleges.

In September 2014, two new colleges will open their doos. UWC Robert Bosch in the city of Freiberg, Germany, will cater for 200 IB Diploma students and the UWC Dilijan, Armenia, which will eventually grow into a school for 650 students aged 13–19. The following year UWC Changshu, just outside Shanghai, is also due to open and at capacity will have 500 students from Grades 10 through 12. The proactive approach the Board is taking to expansion is likely to

mean more colleges coming on line in the near future. While this means that the UWC mission and values can impact on a larger number of students, it is also positive for our current students, who will benefit from an extended network of fellow students around the world.

Implementation of the strategic plan and the day-to-day running of the UWC movement falls to the UWC International Office in London, which coordinates the activities of the movement. A significant aspect of their work is the strengthening and development of the national committees in over 140 countries.

Collectively, the colleges award in excess of 1,000 full and partial scholarships each year to students of promise and potential whose views are aligned with the UWC mission.

Consisting of volunteers, some of whom are alumni, the national committees are key to the success of the movement as they select the majority of our scholars. Motivated by a common belief in what we are trying to achieve, we are fortunate to have such committed people working with us.

Working with the International Office, the International Board has an important role in raising UWC’s global profile. As an example, through attendance at the Clinton Global Initiative, UWC has been able to create a scholarship programme aimed at educating and developing a network of globally aware female leaders in post-conflict countries. This raising of our profile also benefits our current students, by bringing the UWC educational model, and UWC students and alumni, to the attention of a wider audience.

Outside of their formal responsibilities, the International Board, who are all volunteers, work tirelessly to support the UWC cause. We are extremely fortunate to have such a dedicated group of individuals, who help to ensure that whatever UWC a student attends, their connection to the UWC mission and the movement as whole, remains strong. *You can read an interview with Sir John Daniel on pp 4–5 of this edition of Dunia

Many articles in this edition have expanded content on eDunia (www.uwcsea.edu.sg/edunia)— look for the symbol as you read the magazine and visit eDunia for more photos, video and expanded content.

Other stories featured only on eDunia:

Primary School Grade 2 creates Artist-in-Residence Laila Azra works with students to support Tabitha Noon Tunes Primary musicians gain performance experience

Middle School The Voyage A unique dance event on Dover Campus featured original choreography and dancers from Grade 6, 7 and 8 Green Gecko Trip View Grade 8 student Matt Lulu’s video from the trip to Siem Reap

High School An Ideal Husband A successful collaboration between students of drama, visual arts and music Reverie The High School Dance Show: conceived, choreographed and performed by students

Community Golden Dragons East Swimming won the overall SEASAC Championship in just their second year of competition Learning through Gap Year NC Scholar Ludmilla Cardoso de Brito reflects on what she learned at Akshara Cover: OPUS 2014 at Esplanade Theatre 3

Sir John Daniel O.C. is a dedicated educationalist, and has spent much of his 40-year career developing avenues to make education more accessible. His links to the UWC movement were strengthened during his tenure as Vice President of the IB organisation, and the UWC movement was fortunate to have him accept the pro bono position of Chair of the UWC International Board in January 2012.

Meet the Chair of the UWC International Board Interview with Grade 9 student Dhanya Nageswaran

His career has included the post of Assistant Director-General for Education at UNESCO (2001–2004) in a period when the central focus was on creating the framework to deliver on the Education for All goals, which had been agreed in the World Forum in Dakar in 2000.

These goals were to be realised by 2015, and it was evident in the interview that their achievement—and the next steps needed to follow on from them—remain very much on his mind.

Most recently, he was President and CEO of The Commonwealth of Learning (2004–2012)—the only international, intragovernmental body focused exclusively on using technology to expand the scope and scale of learning. He was also instrumental in further steering The Open University (UK) on its path to expansion using new technology and partnerships with the BBC to deliver education to greater numbers of students during his time as Vice Chancellor (1990– 2001), and has also served as President of Laurentian University in Canada (1984–1990).

Sir John is an Honorary Fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford University (1990), the College of Preceptors (1997) and the Commonwealth of Learning (2002). He won the Symons Medal of the Association of Commonwealth Universities in 2008 and his 32 honorary degrees are from universities in 17 countries.

The three countries where he has lived and worked have recognised his contributions with national honours: France – Ordre des Palmes Académiques (Chevalier–1986; Officier–1991); United Kingdom – Knight Bachelor (1994); Canada – Order of Canada (Officer–2013).

He now works on various international projects including as Education Master at the Beijing DeTao Masters Academy in China and as Senior Advisor to Academic Partnerships International.

He spoke with East Campus student Dhanya Nageswaran during his recent visit to Singapore.

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An interview with Sir John Daniel Sir John Daniel set the tone for our interview with a quick and purposeful entrance. Without wasting a minute, we began by talking about his background, quickly skipping over his many educational qualifications and a summary of his experiences, before exploring his views on the UWC movement and its future.

I began by asking his thoughts on UWC, and what he knew of the movement before joining the board in January 2012. While he is not a UWC alumns, his daughter was so inspired by the students she met and their commitment to the UWC values when she visited UWC Pearson College with him in the mid 80s that she finished her education at UWC-USA. He was very candid with his belief that he thought UWC was not going to move the whole world with only 12 schools, and that one of his first observations after accepting the role of Chair was that UWC needed to focus on improvement and expansion rather than on how wonderful it already was. He observed that the UWCs hadn’t seemed to think of themselves as a cohesive movement until very recently, but leaned slightly forward at this point, and spoke about how “the movement is now really something that has wind in its sails.”

While he sees a benefit in not being a UWC alumnus in fulfilling his role as Chair he also recognises the value of having a ‘passionate alumna’ to help steer the movement in the form of Jill Longson, Vice Chair (UWC Atlantic College), and feels that “the two of us working together manage to steer a decent path.”

Sir John has visited eight of the 12 UWC schools and colleges during the past year, and he hopes to visit the remaining campuses shortly. At the moment, he is sharply focused on managing sustainable growth. In his opinion, it is probably the most important challenge facing the UWC movement. His observation is that until about 10 years ago, the UWC movement was more a cluster of

schools set up for different reasons.

One of the Board’s current aims is to expand the movement (and therefore its impact) while making sure that any new UWC members contribute to the movement as a whole. As a result, the International Board have recently agreed an application and approval process for new member proposals to help ensure this.

World over, educational institutions are grappling with the challenge of becoming financially sustainable.

UWC is no exception and one Sir John’s major preoccupation in his time as Chair has been examining funding models for future UWC schools and colleges.

As we discussed this, he rubbed his forehead and spent a few seconds reflecting deeply about the uncertainty of the community’s reaction to the introduction of new models. In staying true to his role as chair, he remains open to all funding models, but is also committed to respecting the views and opinions of the UWC community on any new institutions.

This led naturally to a reflection on whether different models would be able to be true to the original ideals and values of the movement. As new people and ideas come in (to the movement), there is a concern as to whether these successors are creating variations that may not be as Kurt Hahn intended. However, according to Sir John, “a movement would never be able to develop without variations now and then.”

One of the achievements he feels the movement can be proud of is the leadership role that UWC plays in the IB community. The IB programme was originally created by UWC along with Ecole Internationale in Switzerland.

There are now over 3,000 IB schools in the world but within the IB, UWC is still regarded as the ‘research department’ for the IB world. While the UWC International Board would like the member schools and colleges to continue to be unique and original, he is not concerned about other schools trying to copy the UWC model, believing that “people copying the movement shouldn’t be a concern,

because imitation is sincere as a form of flattery.”

As the interview concluded, I asked him what kind of people he would like to see the alumni become 10 or 20 years after graduation. His response was, “I would like them to be comfortable in their own skins and leaving their world better than they found it. I would hope that they still retain some of the idealism they took out of the UWCs in terms of international understanding and sustainable development.” Lastly, I asked if he could give one piece of advice to this year’s graduating class.

He replied, “Follow your nose towards anything that seems interesting. That’s been the story of my life. Whatever seemed interesting to me, such as distance learning, changed my life.

UWC students do tend to be the kind of people who make their own decisions and I’m sure most of them have already started to do that. You only live life once and there’s no point in spending it doing something you wish you hadn’t done. If you find yourself doing that, change it and do something else.”

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Focus Africa Week celebrates the positive Photos by Jim Lim

By Amukelani Muyanga Grade 12 East Campus I am proud to be a part of an incredibly vibrant and ambitious GC here at East— Focus Africa. Last year in one of our ‘blue sky thinking’ sessions we discussed the idea of doing something that would satisfy our aims: to celebrate and share the wonderful diversity of Africa and all the positive things that make Africa such a special place, and to raise awareness of African issues. We knew what we wanted to achieve but were challenged in figuring out how to do so.

As a South African, I recognised that my opinions about the continent are biased, and so it was vital that other members of the GC from all over the world gave insight into what they thought would be most impactful and interesting. It was through a UWC-esque cross-cultural collaboration and exchange of ideas that our GC group decided to host UWCSEA’s first ever Focus Africa Week!

Through months of planning, we compiled a full programme for the week that included educational opportunities through speakers at assemblies and in classes, dance and music performances, an art exhibition, African dishes on offer in the canteen, and the Festival of Africa as an unforgettable ending.

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Focus Africa Week, held 3–7 March, began with a launch party that included the opening of our art exhibition.

Members of the UWCSEA community submitted striking photos they had taken during their travels to the continent. We were lucky to have with us Bob Muchabaiwa, a Zimbabwean who works for Save The Children in Kenya and flew all the way here to celebrate the week with us. In addition to the launch party, Bob spoke to Global Perspectives and Economics classes to help educate students about economic, social and cultural elements of Africa.

Throughout the week, students from Focus Africa put on assemblies for other students from Primary School through to High School with some African students from Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Namibia, Ghana and South Africa giving talks on topics relevant to our peers. I feel so grateful to have had the opportunity to share my heritage with people who might have had incomplete ideas about it, and I know that many of my African friends feel the same. It was humbling to see High School students reach out to some much younger ones and form links where there would usually be more.

The week culminated with the Festival of Africa, which included performances

by students of all ages, staff and parents from both campuses. Poetry, song and dance all came together in a celebration of the beauty of Africa. The festival showcased Ghanaian, Mauritian, South African and Senegalese dances, poetry from students Louise Okatch from Kenya and Kudakwashe Mushaike from Zimbabwe, and performances from numerous UWCSEA ensembles, bands and choirs.

Perhaps the best part of the week was the positive response and support we received from the UWCSEA community.

A number of students, some of whom I do not know well, have come up to me and other Focus Africa members and shared something specific that they learned, such as the fact that some of the fastest growing economies in the world are in Africa, or that traditional world maps misrepresent the size and significance of the continent. It is gratifying to see that our aims to raise awareness and celebrate the positive things that make Africa such a special place were realised.

Visit eDunia for a photo slideshow from Focus Africa Week.

Supporting mother tongue learning at home

By Nadine Bailey Research Librarian East Campus In an international community such as UWCSEA, the challenge of supporting and maintaining students’ mother tongue is an important issue for many families. On 28 February the East Campus hosted a forum for parents entitled “How to support mother tongue learning at home from Primary to IB.” Staff, parent and student panelists shared their insights.

While the values and circumstances around mother tongue study are unique to each family, some key points from the discussion included: • formal language lessons are beneficial because they include a proven methodology and structural approach to learning • starting lessons as early as possible can help to ensure a sound foundation in correct grammar and syntax • 3½ hours per week of language and 45 minutes of cultural understanding until the age of 12 is considered to be a minimum; for a difficult language such as Chinese, up to 15 hours per week may be needed • in addition to formal classes, language exposure can include books, newspapers, music and movies • parents can help connect students’ learning at school with equivalent mother tongue materials; in History, for example, an alternate view of events could be offered this way • using mother tongue textbooks and speaking the mother tongue at home while helping with homework are other ways to support development of vocabulary • where students are required to keep reading logs, permission can be requested from the teacher that mother tongue books meet a portion of the reading requirement For the full-length article and links to resources, please visit eDunia.

Asian Arts and Culture Week: Bali With the goal of fostering deeper cultural appreciation and understanding through hands-on experiences with indigenous artistic and cultural traditions, East Campus held its inaugural Asian Arts and Culture week from 17–21 February.

This year’s Asian culture of focus was Bali, and two internationally acclaimed Balinese performing artists spent the week on campus to enrich and enlighten our students from Primary to High School. The visiting artists worked with students in drama, art and music classes throughout the week, which also included performances, workshops for parents and a spirited day of sarongs and satay to close the week.

In addition, our Bali Bridges GC service partner and friends from Widhya Asih Foundation spent the week on campus working with the Grade 4 students. A highlight of the week was their inspiring performance on Thursday evening.

The entire school community was involved in the week and by the end it was clear that an annual tradition had been born. As you will see from the following quotes from community members, the benefits were wide reaching.

What a delightful week! Seeing the school decorated with Balinese ornaments surely made me feel proud to be Indonesian … My children who are 15 and 17 never attended school in Indonesia. At the start, they puzzled over why Indonesian parents were willing to spend so many hours and put so much effort to prepare for Bali week. When the week ended, they understood more about their own culture and were more proud of being Indonesian. They saw how foreigners appreciated our culture … Curiosity brings awareness to students. For me that’s more than enough to pay back all the sweat.

Dian Fitrasari, parent Asian Arts and Culture Week was a fantastic opportunity to learn about music and art forms from other cultures in a practical way. We had professional Balinese performers to teach us the how, when and why of wayang kulit, kecak and topeng, and tried them out for ourselves. We got to experience the crazy beautiful mix of sounds and colours and movement that is Balinese performing and culture.

Heather Ruth Cox, Grade 11 From a music perspective, Asian Arts and Culture Week was very enlightening. It taught me and my peers taking IGCSE Music the value of rhythm and how important it can be to sustain music, whether it is purely percussion or dominated by melodies with definite pitch. The kecak was also an opportunity to experience the difficulty of working with complex polyrhythms in a very large group of people. It was great practice of musical collaboration.

Cheryl Bains, Grade 9 It was particularly wonderful to see so many parents involved in supporting the school, running their own events and making the week one for the whole community. The Thursday concert – a collaboration between the Bali Bridges GC and Widhya Asih Foundation – was both inspiring and moving. Thanks to Anna Parr who masterminded the week, and to all those parents and students who got involved.

Nick Alchin, High School Principal 7

My Munda Biddi adventure Susan Edwards Head of Global Concerns Dover Campus Overwhelmingly, mine is a positive job.

On a daily basis, I work with students who want to help others. It doesn’t get much better than that, and then, if that in itself is not the definition of a rewarding job, then surely you will be convinced when I say that one of the great privileges of working at UWCSEA is the unexpected, humbling and inspirational stories that come my way.

Elsemieke Marren came to my office one morning in February 2013, quietly

and in a very unassuming manner she told me of her plan to cycle the Munda Biddi Trail Ride in Western Australia.

This off-road cycling epic would be undertaken with her dad and the reason for this challenge was to raise funds to build a school in Cambodia. Having travelled to Cambodia on several occasions, Elsemieke had seen the need first hand and so, following the Global Concerns’ motto ‘Turning Ideas into Action’, she and her father took action.

The journey was tough and unforgettable; Elsemieke and David’s gift of education to 1,200 children in rural Cambodia, remarkable.

Elsemieke Marren Grade 10 Dover Campus The seed idea of riding the Munda Biddi trail in Western Australia to build a school in Cambodia was planted on our way home from the airport after our second family housebuilding trip.

It is a great privilege to build for the Cambodian families, yet I wanted to do something more, so building a school through Tabitha seemed to be the perfect contribution.

How on earth were we going to raise US$52,000 needed for a six-room school? Since our family is keen on sports, we thought ‘why not do a major sporting event?’ The trail we chose is the longest off-road trail in the southern hemisphere, stretching 1,000km through outback Australia from Mundaring, just north of Perth, to Albany, the southernmost point of Western Australia.

To do it, we would have to camp, carrying our own food and clothes with us on the bikes. We headed to Perth straight after I returned from the Ladakh Trip in July 2013.

The trail was a real challenge and I must admit there were several days where I just wanted to give up and go home

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to a nice warm shower and hot food.

The toughest day was when we rode for 10 hours, having been lost twice.

We ended up riding in the dark for three hours—not very pleasant because neither of us had a sense of direction and we could only see about one metre ahead. I felt such a sense of relief when I saw the sign for the overnight hut at the end of that day’s long ride.

Thankfully, the trail got easier further south as it had only been open for a year and so was in very good condition.

Once we reached Albany, I was relieved, sad and overjoyed because our amazing adventure was over. I couldn’t believe we had reached our goal.

Once back in Singapore, we tallied up the donor funds to discover that we had raised SG$128,000—enough for two schools! I contacted Janne Ritskes, the Founder-Director of Tabitha and a few weeks later, I received the proposals for the construction of two schools: Koul in Svey Rieng Province and PumLey in Prey Veng Province. Tabitha started construction immediately and it was amazing to see the progress of the schools in the weekly reports.

During the 2014 Term 2 holiday, our family went back to Cambodia. It was a very special moment as we visited the schools and received a very warm welcome. I was happy beyond belief to see the schools in session; it made all the hard work worthwhile and showed me what a difference I could make with a little effort. It was even more special to realise that the Prey Veng school is located next to the village that our family had been house building in only two years previously. We had come full circle … a job well done by all involved.

T2T: Monastic Education Development Group “We recognise we have a long way to go materially to create schools such as UWCSEA. However, spiritually and intellectually we can perceive shared philosophies that bolster our courage to continue to work towards a vibrant and progressive education system that enables children to realise their potential as individuals and as participate citizens.”

Venerable U Nayaka Monastic Education Development Group, Myanmar UWCSEA’s Teacher to Teacher (T2T) training project responds to the needs of non-governmental organisations working to improve the quality of education available to very needy children in Myanmar and Cambodia. It takes an abundant resource—UWCSEA teachers’ skill in teaching—and through the donation of their time and expertise, applies it to support the development of teachers working in challenging circumstances.

are generally recruited from the local area—sometimes former students of the school in which they now work—with little or no additional education. Operational costs are based on local donations, and although the government has recently begun to support the salaries of teachers in monastic schools, resources remain limited with many teachers working voluntarily or for a limited stipend of approximately US$10–15 per month.

One group of UWCSEA teachers is currently working with the Monastic Education Development Group (MEDG) in Myanmar. An elected group of senior monks representing all states and divisions in Myanmar, the MEDG members have agreed to undertake reform of the monastic school system.

This includes setting minimum teaching competencies and supporting capacity building, infrastructure support and the development of management and leadership.

Monastery-based schools offer free education including textbooks, basic stationery, and in some cases, school lunch programmes to 300,000 of Myanmar’s poorest children in around 1,700 schools. The schools are open to all children regardless of religion or ethnicity, although students come primarily from needy Burman and Buddhist families and marginalised groups who are not otherwise able to access government schools. While the monastic schools follow the same curriculum as the government schools, many also lack basic facilities, teaching and learning materials, and have inadequate sanitation and hygiene facilities. Most are primary schools; very few extend to offer secondary level education.

The development of minimum teaching competencies is the area in which T2T is involved, and will provide a starting point for an agreed set of teacher standards in areas including child-centred teaching approaches, assessment, curriculum development and technology education. The competencies will form part of a minimum training package for all teachers in MEDG schools—who, at the moment, are not required to have a certificate in education. They

The MEDG reform work is part of a larger initiative, the Myanmar Education Consortium (MEC) of which Burnet Institute (an Australian-based NGO working in long-term health improvement for poor and vulnerable

communities internationally) is a founding member, along with Save the Children and World Vision.

This year, UWCSEA teachers have visited Mandalay in Myanmar twice, to work with colleagues from the MEDG to help develop their teacher training programme. A delegation of MEDG members including monks, teacher trainers, and representatives of NGOs also visited the Dover Campus from 18–20 March to learn more about how a modern educational system works. The delegation had a rich and thought provoking three days, and through conversation, presentations and observations, developed a solid understanding of UWCSEA, “We saw how vision and mission are enacted in myriad practical ways throughout the school environment so that teaching and learning can happen integral to whole school operations, amongst every member of the student body and the staff.”

The Venerable U Nayaka who led the MEDG delegation to Dover Campus summed up their visit, “We may continue to teach and learn under the trees but what we teach, how we teach and what we learn will never be the same again.” When we consider that the 14 monks who visited UWCSEA are collectively responsible for the learning of over 15,000 students, the potential impact of their visit is immense.

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UWCSEA’s Gap Year programme

Kevin Morley Gap Year Coordinator UWCSEA Ten years ago only a handful of our graduating class postponed going to university in order to take a Gap Year; in the Class of 2013, 36 students elected to take a full or partial Gap Year.

The Gap Year programme at UWCSEA enables our students to put the UWC values into practice in Southeast Asia before going to university. It builds on three of the key principles of a UWC education—undertaking service to others, development of self-reliance and life skills, and gaining greater awareness of self and others.

Since the first students traveled to Kenya in 2004, the programme has evolved and now offers a range of short and longer term placements in a range of countries in Southeast Asia and beyond, and with a range of experiences in various fields of endeavour. These include teaching English in schools in Ladakh and Nepal, community development in the Philippines, Cambodia and India, legal education and human rights support in Thailand and Vietnam, sports and youth work in Malaysia and Australia, environmental protection in Lombok and Tioman and opportunities in the arts including music, dance, visual arts and drama working with Tiny Toones, the international award-winning breakdance project in Phnom Penh. One student in the Class of 2013 also trialed a new placement in the Pite Bairo medical clinic in East Timor.

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All of the Gap Year placements have been developed with grassroots organisations with which UWCSEA has been actively working for many years.

Each project is carefully assessed to ensure that there is an opportunity for a meaningful contribution to be made by the Gap Year student. Only when the College is satisfied that the placement will be of benefit to everyone do we offer the placement to our Grade 12 students.

Before a Gap Year commences, the students, their parents, UWCSEA and the host sign a four-way Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). This MOU sets out specific expectations for each signatory, as part of a ‘service

agreement’ and is designed to ensure the arrangement delivers true mutual benefit. In this way, the student (and their parents!) know exactly what they are signing up for, and the NGO knows that the student we send to them is equipped with the knowledge and desire to make the most of the placement for the benefit of everyone.

The MOU outlines the placement’s work expectations, provides for supervision, safe accommodation and insurance for the participants, as well as communication and educational commitments.

UWCSEA’s criteria in implementing a Gap Year placement involves being able to truly fulfil a need and provide mutual benefit to both the host and the Gap Year student. Thinking through the skills of the UWCSEA students looking at the Gap Year placements, the idea of developing English language training courses to better equip our students to make a meaningful contribution was developed. As a result, UWCSEA has partnered with the British Council to provide an accredited English Language Teaching course to our Gap Year students, while they are still at school or have just graduated.

Class of 2013 Gap Year Projects Project

Number of students

Chiang Mai BABSEA CLE

5

Lamdon School, Ladakh

4

Leeuwin Tall Ship, Australia

2

Gili Trawangan, Lombok, Indonesia

3

Equitable Cambodia: Phnom Penh, Cambodia

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Equitable Cambodia: Sustainable Cambodia

1

Tioman Island, Malaysia

1

UWCSEA expeditions

6

Lihuk Panaghiusa, Cebu, Philippines

2

Himalayan Voluntourism

1

Pite Bairo Clinic, East Timor

1

Own projects

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To Gap Year or not to Gap Year?

Mallika Ramdas Head of University Advising Dover Campus Based on the conversations we have had with a wide range of university admissions officers in our most popular country destinations (USA, UK, Canada, Australia) and other countries, the answer to this question seems to be a clear ‘Yes.’ Universities generally consider students who choose to spend a Gap Year productively to be valuable members of their college community because they tend to be more mature, confident, enthusiastic about returning to academic life, and purposeful following experiences that have shaped their personalities and interests since the time they graduated from High School. They comment, particularly, on students’ enhanced interpersonal and communication skills, greater sense of themselves and their identity, and often, their sharpened skills as both team players and leaders (since many students’ Gap Year pursuits develop these character traits and skills).

Universities seem to value all kinds of possible Gap Year activities, which could include paid or volunteer work, community service, travel, language study, caring for sick family members, taking short-term courses, gaining work experience in a particular field, attempting extreme physical challenges like mountain climbing, developing oneself in a particular sport or playing sports at a competitive level, or fulfilling National Service obligations— or some combination of these things.

The willingness shown by many universities to defer a student’s admission offer in order to enable them to take a Gap Year is testament to the high value that universities place on the Gap Year experience. Some universities value gap year experiences so much that they have even created their own Gap Year or Bridging programmes for High School students they have admitted to undertake before they enrol at university, for example,

Princeton University. Tufts University is another of a handful of universities in the US who are so supportive of Gap Years that they recently announced the launch of a programme that will provide financial assistance to students who would otherwise be unable to afford a Gap Year.

A point to note, however, is that universities are less interested in students’ intentions to take a Gap Year, and more interested in what they’ve actually done or achieved during their Gap Year. So it doesn’t particularly enhance a student’s chances of being accepted if they simply declare their intention to do meaningful things during a (future) Gap Year. However, students who apply during a Gap Year (or National Service) who are able to draw on their experiences in their application essay or personal statements can often be seen as bringing enhanced qualities and skills.

Some fields in which we have seen students’ Gap Year experiences definitely enhancing their ability to get accepted onto a desired course of choice include medicine, veterinary medicine and law. Students who use

Gap Years to gain valuable relevant work experience as well as gain greater confidence seem to interview much more successfully for these highly selective courses later on; we have seen several cases of a student being unsuccessful when they applied during Grade 12, but then when re-applying during a Gap Year, with considerably more relevant experience (and confidence), being accepted.

My final note on the value of a Gap Year is on the value to future employers.

Anecdotally, we have heard from both our alumni and from some employers that a student’s Gap Year experiences are often an eagerly pursued topic during job interviews. Experiences during a Gap Year which develop any of the skills that many employers seek in employees (teamwork, communication, language skills, leadership, innovation/ problem solving, etc.) can make a prospective employee stand out in an interview. And in today’s global, mobile world, it may also give a student a prior familiarity with a country/region where they are now seeking to find employment.

Read some Gap Year stories on eDunia • Ludmilla Cardoso de Brito – Akshara, an NGO near UWC Mahindra College, India • Wyclife Onyango Omondi – Lihuk Panaghiusa Inc. in The Philippines • Itamar Carrillo – Pite Bairo Clinic, East Timor • Sophie Barbier – language course in Beijing and Lamdon School, Ladakh 11

Be the change you want …

By Linda de Flavis University Advisor Dover Campus Have you ever wondered whether national committee scholarships really benefit the scholars’ communities?

Mike Ogutu is living proof of the difference they can make. Now living in Toronto, Mike has travelled far from his roots in rural Kenya. As a boy, walking 14 kilometre each day to an underresourced government school, and studying at night only when there was paraffin for the lamp, Mike longed for a better education. “I was turned away when I couldn’t pay the $125 annual tuition—sometimes missing weeks of school until my parents could scrape together the money and I was allowed to return.”

“I’m a living witness and testimony, having been a beneficiary and now a benefactor, to how small changes could change the world.”

Mike Ogutu Class of 2008 UWCSEA 2006–2008

Despite the obstacles, Mike’s dreams came true when he set a school record in his national exams and won a scholarship to UWCSEA. The scholarship transformed his life.

He went on to study Economics at Middlebury, an elite liberal arts college in Vermont, USA, thanks to the generosity of Shelby Davis (the American philanthropist whose UWCDavis Scholars program has sponsored more than 4,200 UWC graduates at 94 US universities).

But the story of transformation is not merely personal. Inspired by Shelby Davis’ principle of “Learn, earn and return,” Mike is a philanthropist in his own right, launching the Ungana Scholarship programme.

How did Ungana begin?

It began informally in my first year at Middlebury, as a way of giving back.

People in my community had been so generous to me, chipping in the little they had to help with school fees whenever my parents ran out of money.

From UWC onwards, the world opened up and so many people believed in and encouraged me. I went to university on a full scholarship. I’m indebted to all the

12

people who helped me go through my own education.

At Middlebury I worked several campus jobs to sponsor two scholars. In my final year, buoyed up by the strong performances of the students I’d sponsored, I decided to help many more and let the world know that there is great potential in students from rural areas. They are smart, creative and potential leaders in various fields. They simply lack $125 to be in school.

I believe that the students I sponsor will be great one day. It’s just a matter of giving them the opportunity and they’ll be the leaders our societies need.

UWCSEA also developed my innate desire to give back, through service and GCs. Why were your parents so supportive of your educational goals?

My dad is a Grade 5 drop out. I don’t know my mum’s level of education. She dropped out even earlier and never talks about it. As ‘failures,’ my parents always wanted their children to get the best education in Kenya. They did their very best to make this possible.

What were some of the challenges you faced at your school in Kenya?

We lacked the resources that other schools enjoyed—books, lab equipment, even teachers. Learning was a struggle … Some teachers were really good but others would show up only 10 minutes before the end of class.

How did you learn about the UWC scholarships?

My friend heard about the scholarship competition on the radio. I had never heard of UWC or even Singapore back then. I found myself competing with people from high-performing national schools. The competition was very stiff and, on top of that, there were so many stressful challenges involved in travelling to the interview day, that I have never quite stopped wondering how it turned out in my favour!

I believe you also faced some challenges in joining us at UWCSEA? Yes, many challenges! When I boarded an Emirates Airbus in Nairobi, the first flight of my entire life, I didn’t even know where Singapore was. I’d spent the previous month going back and forth every two days to try and collect my passport from the Immigration Office in Kisumu. The officers wanted a bribe but I don’t do that, so I just kept showing up.

While I was still chasing a passport, school had already started. Finally I went to the Nairobi immigration office and the Kenya UWC chairperson contacted some people there. I got my passport and flew out the next day. By then it was three weeks into the semester.

Weren’t you tempted to give in and bribe the immigration official? After all, you were already three weeks late for school …

I believe in personal integrity. No matter the situation I am in, I choose not to do bad to get to a better place.

What was it like flying for the first time, alone, to a foreign country?

I just kept telling myself whenever I get there, I’ll be happy. I reached Changi around 9pm but there was nobody to meet me, due to a communication glitch. Since I had only $10 and a small

suitcase, I stayed at the airport until 6am. In the morning I took a taxi to Senior House. The first person I met was a cleaner who lent me my cab fare and called the boarding house director.

Tell us about your career—how does it help you with your NGO work?

I deal with figures, learn about the regulations, investment opportunities and market trends every day at work.

With this, I’ve learned to appreciate and account for every penny that donors or I contribute to the NGO. I’ve also learned how to present our NGO financials to our supporters and Board of Advisors. It gives me ideas about business opportunities to ensure sustainability.

How much has your NGO grown?

Working with local schools and volunteers in our Independent Committee who vet applications, we’ve already sponsored several very smart, creative students who possessed leadership qualities but lacked funds.

We selected 23 more students for the 2013 academic year and another 15 in 2014.

Which of your experiences helped you to realise the practical and visionary aspects of your NGO? I learned management and networking skills while I was student manager for the calling programme at Middlebury.

I also drew on the expertise of people like Thea and Anthony Skillicorn, Peter Dalgliesh, Charles McCormick (President Emeritus of Save the Children), and the Middlebury Center of Social Entrepreneurs.

My Initiative for Peace experience at UWCSEA and my professional experience at State Street helped shape my vision in sustainability issues. My team and I are discussing potential business opportunities that would make the project self-sustaining in the future.

What are your long-term goals for Ungana?

Our target is to continue sponsoring at least 20 students every year and to add more schools in rural areas. As our students graduate from high school, we are under pressure to help them continue their education. Longer term, I want to expand to cover all the rural areas in Kenya and even reach out to students in other African countries who need help.

What advice would you give a UWCSEA student hoping to start an NGO? If something in society is not done in the way you think it should be, don’t wait. The sooner you start the better.

Be the change you want for the world.

For more information, see www.unganascholars.org

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Annual Report highlights The 2012–2013 UWC South East Asia Annual Report was recently published, providing up-to-date statistics on the College learning programme and operations. Charles Ormiston, Chair of the UWCSEA Board of Governors, commented in his introductory letter that it was another year of “outstanding student achievement and positive institutional development,” while Julian Whiteley, Head of College, wrote of his pride in our students “I feel very fortunate to work with such exceptional young people, who with their talent and commitment are making a positive difference in the world.”

Included in the report are sections on student achievement in each element of the learning programme; information about our community; the business report incorporating HR, Admissions and the financial statements for the College; and a summary of the activity in College Advancement during the 2012–2013 academic year. The report includes a large number of statistics that describe the breadth and depth of the programme. A selection of those statistics is below.

The full report can be read online at www.uwcsea.edu.sg/AnnualReport.

If you would like a printed copy of the report, please contact Farhani Alias, Communications and Marketing Assistant, on farhani.alias@uwcsea.edu.sg.

Community

76

4,909

Nationalities

48.1%

Students on both campuses

Overall Net Promoter Score for College from parents

Financials

Central admin – 0.3% Depreciation – 4.2% Boarding exp – 2.1%

Central admin – 0.8% Depreciation – 6.0% Boarding exp – 3.2%

Maintenance and operations – 8.8%

Maintenance and operations – 5.4% Marketing and Communications – 0.6%

Marketing and Communications – 0.4%

Educational resources – 4.1%

Educational resources – 5.1%

Administration salary and benefits – 6.0%

Dover Campus expenditure

Boarding salary and benefits – 1.3% Educational support salary and benefits– 9.2%

East Campus

Administration salary and benefits – 4.9%

expenditure

Boarding salary and benefits – 0.8% Educational support salary and benefits – 10.4%

Teachers salary and benefits – 63.0%

Teachers salary and benefits – 63.4%

Human resources

3,065 63 Applications received

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Posts advertised

Student teacher ratio

10.7 Students : 1 Teacher

IB Diploma results May 2013

317

43–45

78.5%

99.4%

Worldwide

UWCSEA

Students

5.03% 42%

35–39

17.29% 24.5% 27.68%

30–34

29.9

36.45

Worldwide

UWCSEA

6.64%

25.7%

5.3%

24–29

26.95%

Worldwide 2012

UWCSEA

<24 0% Average IB Diploma score

Worldwide 17.5%

40–42

IB Diploma pass rate

UWCSEA

8.5% 1.61%

21.44%

IB Diploma score comparison

Percentage of students achieving 40+ points in IB Diploma

(I)GCSE results (May 2013) %A* UWCSEA %A* ISC**

%A* UWCSEA

41.5

%A* ISC**

32.0

%A*–A UWCSEA %A*–A ISC

32.0

%A*–A UWCSEA

73.2

%A*–A ISC

60.4

%A*–C UWCSEA

70.4

96.7

%A*–C ISC

94.4

Dover Campus

Activities

60.4

%A*–C UWCSEA

98.1

%A*–C ISC

36.2

94.4

East Campus

**ISC: Independent Schools Council schools

Outdoor Education

500,000+ 22 Student hours spent overseas each year

Service

24 46 90 College Service programmes

Local Service partners

Global Concerns across the College

Countries visited

Representative sports offered on both campuses Badminton

Rugby (boys)

Basketball

Sailing

Climbing

Softball

Cross country

Swimming

Cricket (boys)

Tennis

Football

Touch (girls)

Gymnastics (girls) Track and Field Hockey

Volleyball

Netball (girls)

$1,548,604 Total money raised by students for Global Concerns

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Conversations about numbers

by Tilson Crew Mathematics Coach East Campus For the last two years, students in the Primary School on East Campus have been participating in Number Talks. A Number Talk is a daily routine, usually taking 5–15 minutes, that helps students to develop fluency with number. Through Number Talks, students develop an understanding of number relationships and structures, allowing them to add, subtract, multiply and divide—in their heads. While developing number sense, students are also learning key strategies that support them in other areas of the mathematics curriculum, and beyond.

During a Number Talk, students have number conversations with a focus on three main components: accuracy, flexibility and efficiency. The teacher presents a few problems for students to choose from and solve mentally.

As students grapple with the relationships between the numbers in the problem, the operation involved, and the connection to the Base 10 System, they attempt to solve the problem accurately. After this ‘think time’, students share their solutions.

After all solutions have been listed, students justify their reasoning behind the solutions.

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This student justification of reasoning is a powerful component of Number Talks. During justification, students use metacognition and communication to walk their peers through the specific strategy they chose to solve the problem. Students listen to their peers, and respond to the justification with comments to confirm, clarify or dispute the explanation. While students listen to and explore their peers’ strategies, they are demonstrating flexibility and making meaningful connections.

At the same time, students pinpoint misconceptions in their own thinking, synthesise new information from others, and adjust their own thinking to improve learning.

Finally, towards the end of a Number Talks session, the teacher guides the strategy discussion towards efficiency.

This allows students to consider which of the articulated strategies is the most efficient strategy for the specific problem. If students are going to consider different alternatives, they must go one step further to consider the best alternative. When flexibility is taught in conjunction with efficiency, student reasoning grows to improve critical thinking skills.

Number Talks encourage number sense, which includes the understanding of place value and the relationship

between numbers and operations. This number sense improves proficiency in all areas of mathematics. We see value in students being more than accurate; we also want them to be flexible thinkers who can discern what is both a reasonable and an efficient method for solving a problem.

The process of participating in a Number Talks session also allows students to develop aspects of the UWCSEA profile, including critical thinking, communication, collaboration and self-manager. Our goal is that students will confidently apply their mathematical understandings and skills beyond the classroom. In the words of Jaki Graham, Grade 3 teacher, “The Number Talks sessions have impacted positively on our classroom in many ways. Students aren’t afraid to make mistakes and the respect they show for each other’s ideas carries over into other collaborations in the classroom.”

Conversations about numbers can lead to powerful learning for students.

Learning from assessment The role of digital technologies in supporting best practice in the classroom Andrew McCarthy Digital Literacy Coach Dover Campus Several recently published reports in the United Kingdom including the Nesta Report—Decoding Learning have begun to establish clear frameworks for how digital technologies can improve education. These ideas provide the basis of the Digital Literacy Coaches’ work at both campuses.

The reports draw on a wide variety of case studies on how technologies can enhance learning; describing the ways it is used, and how it can transform practice. One of the eight effective learning themes highlighted was the concept of Learning from Assessment, which is currently an important strategic aim for UWCSEA. The College’s work on formative assessment has been supported by workshops with Dylan Wiliam and ongoing teacher professional development.

Formative assessment involves setting up questions or activities that show evidence of learning and consequently providing meaningful feedback and establishing new learning goals, often in the form of ‘next steps’. Digital technologies are now an ubiquitous aspect of the learning environment at UWCSEA, so in any classroom teachers are able to display a poll on the projector to check for understanding or create a discussion thread to encourage comment from every student.

The Digital Literacy Team has mapped areas where the use of technology potentially amplifies or transforms the practices of traditional formative assessment. Recently this was part of teachers’ professional development, including the development of an

online resource, Digital Approaches to Formative Assessment.

Effective questioning is a cornerstone of eliciting evidence of understanding in the classroom, where questions drive instruction through a series of well-designed and paced activities.

The introduction of online tools for questioning, and especially software that supports multi-choice questioning, offers new options for our teachers and transforms the way that the formative assessment can occur. Online tools provide feedback to teachers visually within the flow of the lesson.

This has been an especially powerful tool in Science to gauge learning at turning points of the lesson. Polls allow teachers to dissect patterns or misconceptions in collective responses and then direct or tweak future lessons.

Once an activity is complete, software sends a list of student responses with simple statistics and visual analytics.

This mixture of mid-activity feedback and a record to refer to later, can enhance the ways that teachers use the evidence collected through questioning.

Teachers are beginning to see opportunities to develop learning tasks which focus on image and video in contexts such as Primary Maths, Economics and in Science. These screencasting tasks elicit deeper levels of student understanding, as they begin to draw on the multimodal possibilities of digital devices. The clearest example of these learning tasks is around the use of iPads. A range of screencasting apps such as Educreations or Explain Everything act as mini-whiteboards which record narrations and actions such as drawing and combine these together as a video. In subjects such as Mathematics these screencasts can highlight process learning and pinpoint

areas where students clearly follow the process of long division or where their misconceptions have inadvertently led to errors in the process of calculation.

Whilst writing tasks seems to be the dominant medium in formative assessment, the use of digital technologies and especially online collaborative tools have showcased new ways to enhance formative assessment practices. The power of feedback is evident when students can clearly identify how commenting supports them to progress with their learning.

Online applications such as Google Docs or Turnitin provide an online platform to collect examples of student written work. With a set of inbuilt commenting tools, feedback can be provided by either the teacher or, more powerfully, by a set of trusted peers.

Firstly, the teacher can add comments to particular phrases, outlining a suggestion for improvement. Leveraging the collaborative nature of Google Docs, students can reply to seek further clarification, make changes and later resolve comments. This formative assessment pedagogy is transformative in several ways and supports the development of the Reading and Writing Workshop concepts in the Primary and Middle School.

Digital technologies are providing a rich range of opportunities for teachers to delve deeper into students’ learning to capture evidence of understanding.

Whilst the practice of questioning and setting effective tasks is part of each teacher’s everyday routine, the use of digital tools is providing new opportunities and amplifying the effectiveness of our existing best practice.

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Reading and Writing Workshop in Middle School at East

By Ian Tymms Head of Middle School English East Campus “Do you like the rhythm of this?” asks Ali, as he turns to his partner.

“Yeah, but the mentor text is shorter, maybe you could cut out a few words.”

The two boys look again at the lead they’ve been using as a model: “There’s no dignity in poverty.” They compare their writing to the mentor text, discussing what they’ve been learning about meter and rhyme and the need for a catchy phrase to help anchor their audience’s attention. After a moment more of discussion, they return to the speeches they are writing as a part of the Grade 6 Development Unit.

This style of learning will be familiar to parents who have had children come through the Primary School at East Campus. The ‘Workshop’ approach uses a combination of structured ‘minilessons’ mixed with sustained periods for students to write and conference with their teacher and student partners.

At the heart of Workshop is the belief that children want to write and that writing instruction should be focused and succinct leaving time for students to apply and consolidate skills.

In Primary School, reading instruction similarly focuses on particular skills and emphasises building students’ reading volume and stamina. The teacher’s key objective is to help the students find the right book for their reading ability and interests and to keep them reading.

Learning in High School English classes can look quite different. In High School students will spend sustained periods of time in whole class discussion around one novel and teaching points will often come organically from this discussion.

Writing becomes increasingly focused on the essay form and feedback focuses as much on students’ ideas as on the craft of writing. This transition from learning in Primary to High School is sometimes described as the difference between “learning to read and write and reading and writing to learn.”

What should reading and writing instruction look like in the Middle School?

Middle School is, of course, in the middle and we need to do a bit of both.

Middle School students have a very particular set of developmental needs and learning instruction needs both to recognise what is unique to early adolescence and also where students are in their journey through the curriculum. Over the past year, Middle School English teachers have been 18

working with our colleagues in Primary and High School to decide how best to build on the success of the Workshop approach in Primary School as we prepare students for High School.

UWCSEA’s English Standards and Benchmarks describe what we should teach; our discussions have centred on articulating how best to deliver this curriculum. What has resulted is a plan to extend the Columbia University Workshop approach through Middle School but with modifications to meet the needs of our particular circumstances at UWCSEA East. We have been trialling many of the teaching strategies from Workshop already and parents will notice many similarities in the way writing is taught between the Primary and Middle Schools.

The big challenge in our planning has been around reading. By Grade 6 or 7 students are classified as ‘independent’ readers, meaning that, whilst they need guidance in their reading choices, they don’t need the same kinds of support in learning how to read.

A lot of our discussion has been about how to encourage good independent reading habits when the demands on students’ time are increasing. The establishment of a dedicated Middle School section in the library has helped, and we have also decided to establish libraries in all Middle School English classrooms. High School is exploring a similar approach. The emphasis is on maintaining stamina and engagement in a wider range of novels to supplement the class texts.

Reading and Writing Workshop supports a rich environment for learning; we believe it provides the best foundation for building skilled, confident and capable readers and writers—ready to face the complex communication challenges ahead of them.

Transient workers inspire student writers

By Kate Levy Head of High School English East Campus When the English Department put out the request for people with interesting stories to share during this year’s Writers’ Fortnight, past parent Debbie Fordyce offered us a unique opportunity.

Mother of four children who attended UWCSEA and volunteer at Singaporebased NGO Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), Debbie and her colleagues gave the Grade 9 students a rare insight to the lives of transient workers here in Singapore.

Writers’ Fortnight, now in its third year on East Campus, invites writers and journalists to speak with students about their experiences and to provide guidance and suggestions on how to improve their writing. During the two weeks, students are given writing assignments that they develop with the insights shared by the visiting writers.

The participation of TWC2 this January offered a unique opportunity for students to develop their journalism skills. Following a presentation that shared some hard-hitting facts about the backgrounds, working conditions and limited rights of migrant workers, the students got the chance to interview three of the 20 workers that had volunteered to share their stories.

English teacher, Gemma Markham said, “We walk past people like Imran

everyday, so to hear a voice from a usually silenced community, and to learn things about these individuals’ lives and be able to begin to empathise, was eye-opening for teachers and students alike.”

Many students were visibly moved as they learned about the difficulties endured by their guests. From the frightening costs of simply getting to Singapore to the appalling treatment of accidents in the workplace, the students learned more about those who live and work alongside us everyday.

Grade 9 student Rohan Ahuja said, “I learnt that these are men who have come to Singapore with great hopes for a better future, but little is done for them. We’re all migrant workers, but the difference in how they’re treated for their different work permit is horrifying.”

Another student, Chin Yew Yeoh, stated, “I hadn’t understood that many migrant workers are educated middle class individuals who come to Singapore only to be perceived and treated merely as domestic workers. It was quite shocking to discover this.”

“Personally I felt quite humbled—in awe of the resilience of the men we met, and their positivity in spite of the difficulties, sometimes tragedy, of their circumstances,” said English teacher Danielle Townend.

students helped to translate for the workers during the Q&A sessions.

Many students continued to ask questions well beyond the allotted time, some staying behind to continue conversations and walk our guests to lunch.

Several Grade 9 students went beyond the brief of the journalism assignment, taking the time to speak to construction workers outside of school. Dhanya Nageswaran visited dormitories to find out more about the lives of foreign workers, resulting in an article that has since been published in India Se magazine.

As one student wrote in their feedback about Writers’ Fortnight, “I would like to thank the migrant workers who made the time to come and visit us.

I hope they are compensated for all they have gone through.”

Special thanks also to Debbie, Pat, Christine and the many other volunteers at TWC2 who took the time to organise the visit.

The feature articles produced by Grade 9 were also shared later in the term with the Grade 6 students as a contribution to their Development Unit.

To read Dhanya Nageswaran’s article, first published in India Se magazine, please visit eDunia.

It was also an opportunity to connect diverse lives. In some classrooms, 19

A service in service of service Each year a group of Grade 9 students make a year-long commitment to their College Service by joining the Art Service activity group as mentors and project leaders. Throughout the year, in each activity season, they are joined by 24 new students in Grade 3, 4 and 5 who sign up as part of the Activities programme.

At the start of the year, using a predetermined theme, the students and teachers discuss and plan their projects, considering colours, ideas, materials, and sizes, and allocate tasks. Guided by Primary Art teachers Sian Johns and Caroline Sebunya, the Art Service project culminates in Term 2 with an auction of the artwork produced throughout the year.

With about 10 projects on the go at any one time, each week the group examines their progress and looks at who can assist with the next steps.

Some students like to see one piece through to the end, while others like to contribute on them all.

“It always amazes me the time and effort that the children put into the pieces knowing that they will not get to take them home as they do in art lessons.

Its art because they love to create rather than having an end product. Often a season finishes and they don’t get to see the finished piece until it is hung in the auction,” said Sian Johns, Primary School Art teacher.

This year, the project raised $6,924 and this money goes directly to the Local Service projects that the College supports. Cathy Elliott, Head of Local Service in the Senior School will coordinate this, by requesting a wish list from our Service partners for things that they really need.

Thanks to the community who support the Art Service Auction so generously every year, and by doing so support our students and our community.

Service skills for Project Week

By Cathy Elliott Head of Local Service, Senior School Dover Campus On Saturday, 18 January some 60 Grade 11 students attended a morning of service skills training on Dover Campus, intended to help them with ideas for meaningful interaction in their partner organisation to be visited in Project Week in March.

Students rotated around three sessions, two of which focused on non-verbal communication and how to choose and read books to young children. The third session tied in with the reading, where students learned how to make puppets out of a variety of materials, to support the story.

The session run by creative arts therapist Caroline Essame focused on how to run groups that are non-language based, providing an overview on planning the session using non-verbal communication and creative tools appropriate to the audience.

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Language ‘teaching’ was the subject of the second session, run by educator Michele Ni Laitheasa, and focused on planning simple activities to teach English including examining rhymes and music, selecting picture and story books, as well as ideas for creating visual aids and support materials to use in classes. The session also took the students though simple lesson planning and teaching tips.

The final session was based on craft activities—helping students to create fun props for lessons, or to

plan what to make with the groups they will visit.

The sessions were highly interactive and enjoyed by all—one student expressed delight with rediscovering their ‘inner child.’ It is hoped that students will realise what a difference can be made to a visit or lesson through some thought and planning, and taking along a bag of materials for props.

We would like to thank Caroline Essame and Michele Ni Laitheasa for giving up their time to work with our students.

Photo by Kate Lewis

Dance students are also expected to study dance physiology and anatomy, for example the correct placement in plié to avoid injury to knees, and the structure of the main joints. This helps them understand movement, and also to become aware of potential injuries that dancers may encounter. All of the theoretical work feeds directly into practical application.

Dance at Dover While the IGCSE Dance subject is in its first year at UWCSEA Dover, and only a handful of other schools in Singapore offer the course at IGCSE or IB Diploma level, Dance has been established as an academic discipline in many other countries for well over a decade.

Students of Dance are required to work creatively, physically and academically.

The subject is by its nature very practical—80% of the final assessment is based on practical assessment. Dance students are required to choreograph dance to a high level and engage in workshops that cultivate the craft of choreography through improvising, selecting and refining. This demands that students work hard physically to create original and inspiring choreography that goes against the norm, through the selection of imaginative and challenging movements.

By engaging in the process of choreography, the students are involved

with dance by selecting and applying choices constantly during the rehearsal process. These choices are made both independently and by group consensus, meaning that students are also working on their communication, negotiation and decision-making skills through their engagement with the course.

The IGCSE course lends itself to creating ‘Thinking Dancers and Choreographers’ and there is a written paper that consists of 20% of the final grade. Students are required to analyse professional dance works, subscribed by AQA Exam board, with reference to the constituent features: space and relationships, dynamics, movement, accompaniment and how these show the intention of the dance piece. Students also have to be able to place contemporary dance in historical context by exploring the influence of different practitioners and art movements on current dance practice and styles.

The current cohort on Dover Campus includes students with strong backgrounds in hip-hop, classical Indian dance and ballet, as well as a number of students with a passion for dance but no previous formal training. Contrary to what some might expect, there is no need for previous study of dance to be a successful IGCSE Dance student. In fact, Dance teacher Lucia Cordani says that some of the most original choreography she has witnessed in the eight years she has been teaching the subject has been devised by students who were not previously trained in a specific style, and therefore in a sense not constrained by that training. What students do need to be successful, is an awareness of their body and its capacity for movement, and a willingness to work hard to make the subject a success.

At a recent ‘dance platform’ at the Dover Campus, our students welcomed IGCSE and IB Dance students from Tanglin Trust School and Overseas Family School in an evening which allowed the students to share ideas and learn from one another.

At the event, each school performed an original, 20-minute piece, which was then discussed by the group, giving students a chance to share ideas. The event also allowed our students to gain a greater understanding of the structure and expectations of the course, both at IGCSE and IB Diploma levels.

UWCSEA Dover’s High School has a strong tradition of both lyrical and hip-hop dance. The introduction of the IGCSE Dance subject will no doubt bring different styles of dance to our community, as our students develop as both dancers and choreographers.

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K2 Passion Projects

By Ben Morley Head of K2 East Campus Anyone familiar with K2 at East knows that it is an extremely passionate place.

In and around the classroom, we are always looking for ways that encourage the children to take ownership of their learning so as to make it a more profound experience. As a teaching team, we had long toyed with the idea of a ‘Passion Projects’ unit in K2 and decided the three weeks at the start of Term 2 before the Chinese New Year break was the perfect opportunity to try it out.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines passion, as “an intense desire or enthusiasm for something.” The UWCSEA learning programme encourages students to pursue their passions but as many adults know, life has a tendency to get in the way, and our passions can become neglected or, worse, abandoned and forgotten.

What’s more, while we encourage the children to take their learning into the ‘real world,’ rarely are they tasked with bringing some of their interests into school.

The ‘Passion Projects’ unit began by exploring what a passion is and what makes something a passion. Once the children had chosen their passion, they also considered why that passion was important to them. They used a ‘Passion Projects Map’ to guide them through the process, recording their thinking at various stages throughout the three weeks.

The teachers introduced various tools to guide students through the

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inquiry process using visual thinking techniques to find a colour to represent their passion and, again, explain the reason behind their selection. They also researched their passions; using the K-W-L graphic organiser, they recorded what they already knew about their passion, what they wanted to know and, ultimately, what they had learned. To complete the ‘L’ section the children carried out their own research, using a variety of sources, including the internet, books, adult experts and even DVDs. Once they completed their research, they began to think about how to present their passion to the class.

Different presentation techniques were explored and everyone had the opportunity to try out the various styles. The only requirements for the presentations were that they be no longer than two minutes and include why they had chosen their particular passion.

On the day of the presentations, the excitement was palpable! The children brought in all sorts of photographs, props and artefacts to support their presentations. Some children’s presentations included demonstrations, audience interaction and short videos.

Across the grade, the variety of passions was incredible … art, horse riding, Star Wars, cooking, karate, football, gymnastics, iPads, Lego, dinosaurs, writing, reading, magic, singing, dancing, animals, skateboarding, flying, planets, rope trampolining and, even, skiing and ice-skating … difficult as they may be to pursue in Singapore.

The variety of presenting styles was also a testament to how the

unit allowed the children to express themselves in a way that they felt comfortable. After each presentation, the presenter fielded two or three questions from the audience and, of course, received a warm round of applause.

Following the presentations, the children were given the opportunity to reflect on their ‘Passion Projects.’

The children considered what having this insight into others’ passions might mean to our class community.

We decided that it makes life more interesting and exciting that we do not all share the same passion. We also concluded that understanding more about our peers could only make our class a happier place to learn.

As teachers, we were so pleased with the enormous level of engagement, enthusiasm and genuine inquiry that we saw across the grade. The experience clearly resonated deeply with the children and it is something we hope to revisit in future years. In addition, the unit perfectly showcased the UWCSEA profile skills of critical thinker, creative, communicator and self-manager.

After sharing a short iMovie montage of the presentations with parents at our student-led conferences, we were inundated with requests by mums and dads to share their passions with the children. We enjoyed presentations about chemistry, film making, guitar, jewellery making, make up artistry, drumming, reading, running, Yoga, art … it was wonderful.

Keep the passion alive.

On tolerance and relativism

By Nick Alchin High School Principal East Campus I have just finished reading some work done by a student in one of my Theory of Knowledge classes. He had been asked to compare several possible solutions to a problem, evaluate them and explain which one was the best one, in his opinion. Toward the end of his essay he wrote that each of the (contradictory) solutions had its strengths, and each could be accepted because the person proposing each one came from a different culture, and had been “exposed to different cultures of learning.”

At one level one must applaud the open-mindedness here; the student was trying to see all possible solutions from the perspective of the person who offered them. Excellent. We are delighted to see tolerance here. I worry, though, about the slippery slope from tolerance to relativism. Toleration of other people is the disposition to fight opinion only with opinion; to use the pen and not the sword. So far so good.

But toleration of people is based in

respect for people simply because they are people (a good thing)—and it’s easy to confuse this with respecting ideas simply because they are ideas (a bad thing). That means accepting that all opinions “are equally valid”—an appealing but dangerous step.

The trouble is that if all the ideas are equally valid, and all our beliefs are “just our opinions” then we lose the right to search for a better world, or a more just world. If everything is just opinion, then there can be no right or wrong, no progress and no real engagement with other people. Perhaps it is the word just that is the problem; because when we call for an end to human rights violations around the world, for example, it is more than just our opinion; it is the voice of humanity’s bitter experience with war, torture and atrocities over the centuries. The right reaction, therefore, on matter of importance, is not to nod gently, smile indulgently, and respect opinions, but to agree or to disagree, as strenuously as you can and to say why. Philosopher Simon Blackburn puts it thus: “The virtues of courage and intelligence,

patience and concern, are virtues the world over.” This cannot be in doubt.

In giving feedback to the student whose work I mentioned above, I told him that I would defend very much his right to make up his own mind. But I would at the same time defend the position that there are some things that it makes a lot more sense to believe than others.

We talked about this, and we concluded that there are three ways to respond to differences of opinion: 1. you can shrug and say “all beliefs are equally valid; we are both equally right” 2. you can discuss why you believe what you do, and why others believe what they do, and try to understand the difference 3. you can just say “I am right, you are wrong” Why is the second of these so much better that the first and the third? Because it is the start of a conversation—probably an intelligent, patient and concerned conversation— whereas the other responses are the end of one.

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Photos by Karin Goh and Cathy Elliott

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Showcase of H.O.M.E. Service

By Cathy Elliott Head of Local Service, Senior School Dover Campus The Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (H.O.M.E) was founded in Singapore 10 years ago by the inspirational Bridget Tan. The role of H.O.M.E is to advocate for migrant workers in Singapore, who are employed in the construction industry or as domestic workers.

UWCSEA’s involvement with H.O.M.E started at around the same time, when we heard about the hostel that had been set up as a refuge for domestic workers who had been ill-treated by their employers in some way. The number of women seeking refuge grew rapidly once women learned about a safe haven, and at one point as many as 100 women could be found staying in the hostel. At that time, legal issues and possible court cases took a long time to resolve and most women stayed for several months. In order to offer these women some training and a respite from their restricted stay in the hostel with no earnings, UWCSEA began offering cooking and English classes on Saturday mornings.

To start with four staff rotated two groups of women through three hours

of activities, helped by Senior students.

Many women were traumatised by their working experiences, and slowly as trust grew over the weeks, would talk about them; this had profound effects on the students who listened to their confidences. Awareness was certainly raised and hopefully this was passed on to the families and friends of the students involved. The following year we also offered activities in the sports hall and swimming, on Sundays.

Domestic workers no longer stay in the hostel for months because their cases are settled much more quickly, as realisation of the need for swift justice grew. The classes subsequently moved to weekdays, to include cooking on two days, English, computing and outdoor sports, run by Senior, Middle and Junior School students. For a while, the students at the Ang Mo Kio-based East Campus also welcomed H.O.M.E ladies each week for craft, English conversation and computing lessons.

However, the common inspirational thread throughout UWCSEA’s 10 years of involvement with H.O.M.E has been Bridget. Every year she has visited Dover Campus along with some of ‘her girls’, to talk to Grade 11 students about H.O.M.E, sharing her story and that of

the women she strives to help. Students observe her passion, commitment and huge energy for her many and varied projects, which also include working with male migrant workers, advocacy and, currently, anti-trafficking campaigns. She also founded several projects in Batam, including a preschool, hostel and HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns in schools.

At the beginning of February, we learned with great sadness that Bridget suffered a major stroke. She has been hospitalised ever since, with a poor prognosis. In early March, two Grade 11 students and I visited Bridget and were heartened to know that she has many people caring for her. The cooking service students, along with the domestic workers, held a bake sale in the last week of term, with the proceeds going to help with the hospital bills. We hope for Bridget’s recovery, but H.O.M.E. will continue with its great work, even if its founder is unable to spearhead projects in the future.

Details of the organisation can be found on their website: www.home.org.sg

Student reflections on their H.O.M.E Service “A lot of people will say that we don’t do much for them with only an hour a week … but I disagree. I think no matter how little you do or how different you are, it shouldn’t matter. I don’t think any of them are that pessimistic to see what we’re trying to do for them as pitying or rude or self-conceited. In fact, I think they think about it a lot less than we do, bar the gratitude. They’re such kind examples of people, wonderful women who are always happy, always ready to help us, even in the kitchen where you’d think they’d be so tired of working and cleaning, but no! I’m grateful to be a part of a service that’s just happy instead of a deeply emotional, intensive, sensitive service. This one’s just fun and calm and sweet.”

Haniyah Rahman-Shepherd “As the weeks went on, however, I started to think about a few things … my biggest realisation was that this was the time in which these ladies were to have fun, whilst still gaining knowledge and experience. They are all jobless and we are there to ensure they can take their minds off their current lives. I started to understand that I owed it to them to make sure they had a good time. I began really enjoying this, because it helped me get to know them and how difficult their lives must be. There are many times when I stress over IB work and then I think about the ladies I meet on Tuesday and I immediately regret my complaining. These women are hundreds of miles away from their families and yet they are still able to laugh and smile. I cannot even imagine what it must be like, but I have so much respect for them and the fact they have taken the decision to leave their homes to make sure their families are taken care of financially.”

Ines Petard 25

Worlds collide in Nation

By Elisa Benham Grade 9 East Campus Nation, the epic tale of faith and courage, was this year’s Grade 9 and 10 production. The story is a cultural step back in time in which a boy struggles with his faith when his nation is wiped out by a tsunami. It was originally written by Terry Pratchett, adapted for the stage by Mark Ravenhill and performed by the National Theatre four years ago. East High School students came together in Term 2 to

bring to life the beautiful story of two worlds colliding.

It was unlike any production any of us had ever done. Whether it was holding strenuous positions for what seemed like an eternity, moving as slowly as we possibly could, being a boat, a wave or even a piece of driftwood, we pushed our bodies to tell the story physically with various drama techniques. Thrust acting required us to work in all angles and was a challenge for all of us as we struggled to get out of lines we impulsively formed. The creative process was a collaborative one that took us on a journey of exploration.

From an underworld, a cave, a tsunami to four drowning scenes, chorus work never ceased and was always strong.

We built the magic as an ensemble,

OPUS Tuesday, 4 March The annual OPUS concert at the Esplanade Concert Hall is the culmination of thousands of hours of practice on the part of the UWCSEA Dover Music Department students and staff.

This year the concert was all but sold out, and those who attended enjoyed performances from Jazz Band, Arioso, Singers, Cantabile, Symphonic Band, the High School Percussion Ensemble and the Orchestra. The wideranging programme concluded with the Finale, Polovetsian Dances by Borodin.

“Congratulations for last night’s performance.

The whole evening was sensational. All the hard work was rewarded. The Moussorgsky piece was a beautiful choice as it is technically difficult to play but all your musicians gave their best!”

Cathy Pool, parent 26

always being one, from the trust and awareness that developed between us.

The ideas we shared and contributed, the choices we made together brought the play to life, making the production belong to each and every one of us.

We learnt from each other, all becoming musicians, singers and even dancers.

The production could not have been so magical without the many other people involved in its creation. There was the giant ship created just for us by Rashid and the lights designed specifically for this show by Manuel. Even with busy IBDP lives, Grade 11 and 12 students worked on the hair, makeup and costumes. Everyone put their heart and sweat into bringing the production to life.

Family Festival unites East Campus With an estimated 4,000 attendees, the Family Festival on 22 March brought the East Campus together for a wonderful day of fun, entertainment and community building.

Generous support from sponsors and attendees will help the Parents’ Association East continue to fund many projects such as student-led initiatives, parent development workshops, educational tools and the UWCSEA East Global Concerns programme.

Thanks to the PA East team who organised the largest campus event of the year, and to all the staff, students and parents from throughout the school community who participated.

All the fun of the Community Fair The Community Fair on Dover Campus, held this year on 15 February, involves hundreds of members of our community—be it by setting up for the day, running a stall, contributing to the international food fair or simply by coming along for a fun day out.

While the Community Fair is, as the name suggests, all about building community, the event also raises funds for two of the College’s key programmes, with $6,000 going towards the Initiative for Peace and another $34,000 raised for Global Concerns.

Thanks to the organising committee on the Parents’ Association and the huge band of parent, student and staff volunteers.

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Dunia is published by UWC South East Asia.

Reproduction in any manner in English or any other language is prohibited without written consent.

Please send feedback to dunia@uwcsea.edu.sg.

Editors: Sinéad Collins, Kate Woodford and Courtney Carlson Design: Nandita Gupta Photography: Sabrina Rech, Tom Soper, Cherie Del Rosario and members of the UWCSEA community 064COM–1314

Printed on 100% recycled paper with environmentally friendly inks.

UWCSEA Dover is registered by the CPE CPE Registration No. 197000825H CPE Registration Period 18 July 2011–17 July 2017 Charity Registration No. 00142 UWCSEA East is registered by the CPE CPE Registration No. 200801795N CPE Registration Period 10 March 2011–9 March 2017 Charity Registration No. 002104 MCI (P) 086/04/2014

CultuRama Initiated and led by High School students, the East Campus held its first CultuRama on 29 November 2013. The evening included dance, music, food and more, all in celebration of the magnificent panorama of cultures that comprises the UWCSEA East community. The performance culminated with a grand finale in which all of the 200 student performers participated. CultuRama is sure to become an annual tradition on East Campus.