UWCSEA Dunia 2016-2017 Term 1

December 2016

WE ARE A UNITED WORLD COLLEGE

IMAGE OF THE CHILD IN INFANT SCHOOL

UNIVERSITY ADVISING AT UWCSEA

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“I am a great admirer of UWC and the principles for which it is famous and on which it is based. In particular UWC is collectively committed to fostering forms of education that promote peace and a sustainable future. Really there are no greater challenges now that we currently face. Our world is more populated than ever, we are more connected than ever and yet in some ways we are as divided as we ever were.�

Sir Ken Robinson opening video address to the 2016 UWC Congress

December 2016

04 WE ARE A UNITED WORLD COLLEGE

08 MEASURING THE IMPACT OF A UWC EDUCATION

Chris Edwards on the mission and our place in the movement

Key insights from the exploratory report

06 AN INTERVIEW WITH ANNA LORD Chair-elect of the UWCSEA Board of Governors

10 THE HULT PRIZE The value and power of group work

12 ‘IMAGE OF THE CHILD’ Integrating Reggio principles into the East Infant School

14 IDEAS HUB A new collaborative space opens on Dover Campus

16 GETTING TO NEXT: UWCSEA’S UNIVERSITY ADVISING Supporting our students to find a ‘right fit’ university

20 STUDENTS TACKLE SUSTAINABILITY Report from Global Issues Network Conference

21 FOOD WASTE AND THE UWC MISSION

24 IS ‘BEST PRACTICE’ REALLY BEST?

Embedding waste reduction into the curriculum

Frazer Cairns discusses essential forms of independence for a good (thinking) school

22 PACE REPORT A new school and library for Myanmar

23 ARTISTS-INRESIDENCE ENRICH LEARNING

26 SPOTLIGHT Geography fieldwork on Pulau Ubin

COVER Front: UN Night 2016 Back: CultuRama 2016

Zimbabwean musician and teacher Wedzerai Zvirevo visits East Campus

Dunia is published three times a year 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.

Coming soon. A new window into UWCSEA: community news, celebration of student achievement, photo albums and videos, opinion and more.

Editors: Courtney Carlson, Sinéad Collins, Molly Fassbender and Kate Woodford Design: Nandita Gupta Photography: Sabrina Lone and members of the UWCSEA community UWCSEA Dover is registered by the Committee for Private Education (CPE), part of SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) CPE Registration No. 197000825H | CPE Registration Period 18 July 2011–17 July 2017 | Charity Registration No. 00142 UWCSEA East is registered by the Committee for Private Education (CPE), part of SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) CPE Registration No. 200801795N | CPE Registration Period 10 March 2011–9 March 2017 | Charity Registration No. 002104 Printed on 100% recycled paper with environmentally friendly inks | MCI (P) 169/03/2016 | 053COM-1617

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OPINION

We are a United World College

By Chris Edwards Head of College UWC South East Asia

the letters ‘UWC’ replaced by me with the words ‘this organisation’). It’s well worth a careful read.

I wonder if this sounds familiar?

There was good reason, a decade ago, to re-work and abbreviate the mission statement, but as with most abbreviations, there is loss. What we have lost, to quote one of my fellow UWC Heads, Laurence Nodder, “is the notion of commitment to specific ideals as necessary to achieve the broader ideals of peace and sustainability. This is especially so for the ideals of justice and cooperation.” I agree. I think many of us take the word ‘peace’ as a catchall into which social justice, for example, falls, but we all know you can have de facto peace without social justice.

Through international education, shared experience and community service, this organisation will enable young people to become responsible citizens, politically and environmentally aware, committed to the ideals of peace, justice, understanding and co-operation and to the implementation of these ideals through action and personal example.

We sometimes speak of the UWC mission as is if it were an ancient, infallible text, hewn in stone and dictated by superior beings. I can imagine Indiana Jones stumbling upon the casket in which the original has resided for centuries, deep in the heart of a glowing mountain. Even at UWCSEA, I have heard the ‘mission’ used as an inerrant justification for sundry issues: from requests for bigger departmental budgets (“How can you expect us to fulfil the mission if …”) to astonishment that we do not accept children of all cognitive and physical abilities (“You want to unite nations but you can’t even unite all the children on your doorstep?”). I have the mission quoted at me a lot, sometimes by people on either side of a debate to support wholly contrary points of view.

That’s all fine, because the mission is not supposed to be a syllogistic triumph any more than the Upanishads.

Unlike the Upanishads, the current UWC mission statement is actually about ten years old (roughly the same age, then, as the Airbus A380, flagship of Singapore Airlines. Or, if it’s a more useful reference point, Shrek 2.). To be fair, it didn’t come out of nowhere. At the top of this article, you can see an earlier iteration of the mission (with

So it was always heartening and often inspirational to have social justice and specific ideals so much to the fore at the UWC Congress in Trieste, Italy in October. Towards the end of half term I had my usual bi-annual meeting with other UWC Heads, but this year, as happens every six or seven years, it was followed by Congress, when the doors are thrown open to the wider UWC community. Six hundred alumni, students, staff, board, council members and friends of the movement attended.

There was little in the way of selfcongratulatory indulgence, and any naval gazing was rapidly swept away by a sense of purpose and urgency that have not, perhaps, been obvious leitmotifs of the movement thus far.

As I said in a recent letter to parents, there were many highlights; the Syrian UWC National Committee explaining how, under unimaginable conditions, they identify, interview and support students to go to UWCs around the world; the President of the Norwegian Red Cross speaking about the work of his teams and those of the Red Crescent in the world’s most dangerous streets, including Aleppo’s; the moving testimony of the parents

of UWC alumnus Giulio Regeni whose brutal murder in Egypt while he was researching that country’s trade unions elicited global outrage.

For a number of reasons, but especially because we are so very fortunate in Singapore, and because so many of our parental body engage vigorously with the mission, it might be easy to see UWCSEA as being a large, selfsufficient entity standing outside of the UWC movement. On a day to day basis, I suspect the ‘movement’ is back in the recesses of our thinking (if it’s there at all) whereas the ‘mission’ is, for many within our community, our primum mobile.

But Trieste confirmed—if it needed confirming—that UWCSEA should see movement and mission as reticulated, and we should remember the extent to which we are not just a part of but indebted to this network. The UWCSEA students who were present will make a better case than I, but the palpable dynamism, passion and exigency displayed at Congress, especially as manifest by those working around the world in the most difficult and distressing conditions, made clear why we are a movement and not just an organisation. While appreciating it is hardly a neat metaphor when speaking of movement, Trieste was a grounding.

The current mission statement may only be a decade old, but it resonated with the authority of the ages.

We are not committed merely to an holistic education but a Hahnian education. We are not focussed ferociously on self optimisation, but values and an attendant bias for action.

We are not a great international school that does service, we are a missiondriven school committed to peace, social justice and sustainability.

We are a United World College.

December 2016 Dunia | 5

INTERVIEW

By Megha Parwani, Grade 12 and Dana Kurniawan, Grade 11 East Campus

AN INTERVIEW WITH ANNA LORD, CHAIRELECT OF THE UWCSEA BOARD OF GOVERNORS

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Anna Lord moved to Singapore in January 2009, and joined the UWCSEA community as a parent, first at East and currently at Dover Campus. After working actively with Global Concerns and school social events, she joined the UWCSEA Board of Governors in April 2012 as a Parent-elected Governor for UWCSEA East. In recognition of her contributions, at the end of her elected term in April 2015, the Board appointed Anna as an Ad Personam Governor. She has chaired the Audit, Finance and Engagement Committees, and served as a member of the search committees for the Head of College and Director of Finance. In 2016, the Board elected Anna its new Chair beginning in January 2017 at the end of the current Chair, Charles Ormiston’s term. Students Megha and Dana interviewed Anna to learn more about her vision for UWCSEA. As students of the College, we know that the Board of Governors works on a strategic level to ensure there is progress towards realistic mission and vision as a community.

But what does that look like for the next three years, under the leadership of the new Chair of the Board? We met Anna Lord, Chair-elect, to find out.

When we pose the question, Anna is quick to focus on the quality of the education: “Our highest priority has to be that we continue to deliver a high quality, mission-aligned education at all levels of the school. With our strong values, our incredible teachers and students, our outstanding leadership and our unique scale, we have an opportunity to influence international education in a very positive way,” she said.

She believes the Board must also “remain alert to the market conditions.” It can be challenging to balance the reality of the rising costs of education with the changing circumstances of students and parents, but this is a key focus of the Board.

Finally, Anna is seeking greater engagement within Singapore and internationally. “We need to look externally and build relationships that will benefit our current and future students.

It would be wonderful to be more meaningfully engaged in the Singapore community, as well as with other schools and organisations at home and abroad … The work that is being done with Project Zero at Harvard Graduate School of Education on the impact study is a case in point.”

There are no plans to expand UWCSEA in Singapore; “I am extremely fortunate to ‘inherit’ a College that is in incredible shape, following the remarkable work done

by Kishore Mahbubani and Charles Ormiston, without whom we would not have the East Campus. Over the next few years, we will not be overseeing similar expansion plans. We aim to consolidate the foundations that they have built and consolidate our position as a real leader in international education.”

and function. We mutually agreed on the fact that we still have so much to learn from others. We noted how deeper and more purposeful relationships with members and groups in society could broaden our horizons and enlarge our views on our roles as advocates and doers of our collective obligation to achieve social benefit. Our size and history also put UWCSEA in a unique position to work with organisations such as the International Baccalaureate to innovate and create a more flexible curriculum.

However, Anna does seek to increase connections with the UWC movement. She has recently returned from the UWC Congress in Italy, where she was inspired by the work being done, particularly in the form of scholarships. In this vein, she hopes her tenure can see an increase in the population of scholars across both campuses, with the help of the UWCSEA Foundation. She recounted for us, moved nearly to tears, the story of a UWC Adriatic student from Aleppo, Syria, who had fled to Italy due to the Syrian Civil War. As Anna recounted the horrors the boy witnessed, she was clearly affected by the staggering character he exhibits today. While still grappling with his past, he is studying the rigorous International Baccalaureate after a five-year break in his education, and participating in all facets of a UWC education.

“The Chair is just one person on the Board.” Anna emphasised that it is the consolidated work of the entire Board, as well as the invaluable contributions by the rest of the community that will bring us closer to realising such aspirations.

Throughout the conversation, collaboration emerged as the focal point, in the form of promoting greater interaction across the College, with the Singaporean community and across all facets of UWC leadership here and abroad.

“You can’t meet somebody like that and not try harder,” she concluded, struggling to put into words the rapport she witnessed between the boy and his classmates when they presented his story through a play. Anna is eager to see more National Committee scholars at UWCSEA for the unique worldviews and experiences they can add to our community.

Anna acknowledged other areas where UWCSEA could grow, especially after hearing about some of the work being done at other colleges. Learning about the close collaboration between the Nordic governments and UWC Red Cross Nordic, she believes we must integrate further with Singaporean society. This is one of her focuses as incoming Chair of the Board of Governors. She hopes to strengthen ties in the Singapore community with local schools, NGOs, the government and the broader community, so we can assimilate ourselves as a school and as a model of UWC education into wider society, highlighting the potential synergies from forging close partnerships.

Anna has four children at the school. Will this make a difference to her leadership? “I think having children in the Infant, Junior, Middle and High schools, gives me a reasonably good idea of what is happening day to day … and I make an effort to attend as many events as possible throughout the year.” Anna is keen to stay in touch with the student experience as she believes they have a lot to offer. “One of the most interesting sessions I attended at the Congress entitled ‘The UWC of our Dreams’ was run by students.

One of the most thought-provoking contributions was from Jeethu, a Grade 10 student at UWCSEA East. I would love to see a similar cross-campus session run here.”

As we talked, we could not help but marvel at the plethora of inspiring anecdotes that she has amassed over seven years as part of the UWCSEA school community; in the variety of roles she has taken as well as the personal connection she has developed with the school and the larger movement.

With her acute self-awareness and an empowered sense of obligation and responsibility through collaboration, we eagerly anticipate Anna’s forward-thinking and creative tenure with an equal desire to transform our atmosphere and approach into a bigger, better representation of the UWC mission.

Anna also pointed out, “Doing a lot with very little, that’s where we have something to learn.”

With the resources UWCSEA has access to, complacency is a real danger that may lead to inefficiency in how we operate December 2016 Dunia | 7

Measuring the impact of a In 2015, UWCSEA formed a partnership with researchers from the Harvard Graduate School of Education to investigate the impact of the UWC educational experience on students and society. The study was exploratory, intended to build a general understanding of impact and lead to the design of a more in-depth longitudinal study.

The initial research questions were defined in terms of ethical values, with particular focus on: commitment to care (for self, others and the environment); moral principles, ethical judgement and decision-making; and perceptions, representations and concern for (social) justice. After surveying nearly 1,000 alumni and just under 2,000 students, interviewing more than 50 students and working with UWC-USA, UWC Red Cross Nordic and UWC Waterford Kamhlaba, the researchers have published an exploratory study report. Here are some of the key insights.

Respondents overwhelmingly believe that their experience at UWC had a significant impact on their ethical values and that they incorporate these values into their daily lives.

The vast majority (more than 80%) of UWCSEA respondents feel that they are developing—or have developed— important ethical values, both as defined by respondents themselves in their open-ended responses and as defined through the questions on the survey. In addition, approximately 75% of respondents indicated that UWCSEA either ‘quite a bit’ or ‘very much’ helped to develop their ethical values.

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The development of ethical values, even the specific ones that the research questions were concerned with, is only part of the purpose of the UWC mission, which depends on the community transforming these values into action. However, though not sufficient, it is necessary, and can be seen as the first step in the process of developing ethical individuals with a bias for action who can fulfil the UWC mission.

The majority of respondents do believe that their values play out in their daily lives (though this finding particularly suffers from the issue of self-reporting).

There is remarkable consistency between students and alumni across all schools in terms of their belief that their ethical values were developed at UWC, which kind of values were developed and their definitions of what constitutes a ‘better world.’

The correlation between the guided questions (where respondents were selecting from a limited list) and the open-ended questions (where respondents, either in survey or in interview, were inputting their own ideas) showed consistency both within and between responses. In other words, UWC students and alumni have similar views on how UWC impacts on them and similar definitions of that impact.

Perhaps most tellingly, the open-ended question “what would a better world look like to you?” stimulated consistent responses across all schools, regardless of other factors. While there are some methodological flaws that may have

RESEARCH

UWC education resulted in ‘priming’ of respondents, the level of consistency of response points to a very real, unified point of view, which can be directly related to the UWC mission and values.

The commonality of shared ethical values appears to override differences in gender, selection process, scholarship status, educational model or country of origin.

This finding is potentially hugely significant and needs further analysis through a more long-term study to be proven.

It appears that length of time at the school might be a factor influencing impact on students and alumni, with those spending a longer time at the school reporting a more significant impact. It also appears that the number of countries respondents lived in prior to joining a UWC is a factor influencing impact, with students who have lived in more countries reporting a smaller impact of the UWC experience than those who are living in another country for the first time. These two findings make intuitive sense: that both degree of immersion in a programme and experience prior to a programme would make a difference is sensible.

What was more surprising is that gender, how a student is selected, whether or not they receive financial support, which educational model (K–12 or 11–12) they experience or where they are from, all appear to be negligible in terms of their influence on the impact.

There is further exploration to be done here, but at this initial stage, it appears that the power of the UWC experience transcends other factors in terms of

lasting impact on the ethical values of students and alumni.

Key experiences contributing to the impact include service experiences, specific conversations that emerge during the academic programme and the experience of being in a multi-cultural and multi-lingual environment with people from diverse backgrounds and experiences.

When asked which specific experiences contributed to the impact, respondents repeatedly referred to the service programme, conversations that particular topics stimulate in class (as opposed to academic content per se) and the diversity of the student body.

Those who experience boarding talk about the impact of learning to live with people with different backgrounds and expectations from their own. While a causal relationship is far from proven, these areas are worth exploring further to see if it is possible to connect specific experiences with specific impacts.

It is also interesting to consider the UWC-specific nature of some of these experiences: are they being replicated in other educational environments?

Impact on society is as yet unclear.

While it appears that UWC students and alumni do have a positive impact on society (the service activities of students alone would suggest a not insignificant contribution), the problems of self-reporting and a lack of control group make it difficult to draw any real

conclusions in this area. For example, when asked whether or not they volunteer, 50% of respondents said they do and 50% said they do not; there is no pattern between respondents who volunteer and those who do not and it is therefore impossible to understand whether or not the UWC experience contributes to this urge to ‘give back’ (and indeed, volunteering is not necessarily the best way to measure ‘giving back’). Equally, the patterns in the sector respondents work in can be more easily traced to their individual background than to their UWC experience. And, of course, there is no necessary relationship between the type of work an individual is engaged in and their impact on society.

The problem of measuring impact on society will need to be carefully considered during the next phase of the study.

What happens next?

The exploratory study has revealed some fascinating insights into the impact of the UWC experience on students and, to some extent, society. It has also provided some key learnings that will feed into the study design of a more long-term study. The College is currently working on a partnership between the UWC movement and the Harvard Graduate School of Education Good Project to run a longitudinal study. The project, as well as measuring the impact of a UWC education on students and on society, will also contribute to knowledge in this key area of education and ethics.

December 2016 Dunia | 9

FEATURE

Photo courtesy of Magic Bus Ticketing Inc.

The Hult Prize and the value of group work

By Frazer Cairns Head of Dover Campus UWC South East Asia When my daughter was in K2, she eloquently dismantled a significant portion of progressive educational thought with a single sentence. That is not to suggest for a second that she was a wunderkind, or that she and I were engaged in a deep and meaningful educational debate. It was far more mundane: like many parents at the end of each day I eagerly asked, “What did you learn today?” and on that particular day, while removing the wings from a fairy, she replied, “Nothing. We did group work.”

There is a danger that I will be inundated by outraged emails from members of the Primary staff and parents, so I should explain that she then went on to describe the task in which her group had been engaged. It was, of course, both challenging and multi-layered; it presented the opportunity for her to be creative, innovative, enterprising and to demonstrate leadership. However, what she meant was that 10 | Dunia December 2016

the task didn’t have as its central aim the acquisition of a fact.

The focus of the task was the development of the core skills of dialogue and negotiation, and it struck me that what she was describing was something that indeed did not conform to what a traditionalist might consider a model of good learning—a teacher delivering knowledge to students in the way that one might pour water into an empty cup. It was, however, one that was very much in line with much modern thinking on the development of creativity.

Robert Fritz, in his book, The Path of Least Resistance, commented that, “The most important developments in civilization have come through the creative process, but ironically, most people have not been taught to be creative.”

Unfortunately, it is a perceptive comment. Many educational systems have come to agree on the importance of creativity but, alas, do not agree on the place creativity should have in the system. The arguments seem to reduce to two points: the first being how creativity can be developed and the second when it can be developed given that there is all this other ‘stuff’ that has to be got through.

There are as many different answers to the question of how to generate creativity as there are self-help books in the Times Bookshop at Changi Airport but richness and diversity of experience seem to be common aspects. Yes, absolutely academic study is important but, it seems to me, it is the combination of a much broader palate of educational experiences than simply academic study alone that prepares young people to be creative (and, perhaps, to be creative in the right way).

For example, a few weeks ago, I saw four things within the space of a few hours that seemed to fit together like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. The first was a crowd of older students going off to catch buses to their service projects. At the projects they would take part in—rather than just learn about—a range of activities to help members of the local community from young children to those who are mentally disabled.

The second thing was a meeting of the steering committee for the new IDEAS Hub at Dover Campus. This group of interested parents, staff and students has been supporting the development of a space that will provide a focal point for student collaboration and exploration. The third thing was a passing comment from a member of staff about a student—a young woman—who was playing a part in The Short Form.

This was a collection of short theatre pieces ranging from the comic (the classic fly-in-a-bowl-of-soup-at-a-Frenchrestaurant sketch) to the deadly serious (murder) and the comment was not an uncommon one: “Look how confident that student is! She usually seems so quiet but up on stage she is extraordinary.”

And the final thing, which brought all these other things together—being involved, collaborating, and having the confidence to face a situation that may be initially daunting— was the announcement that Wyclife Omondi, a student who graduated from UWCSEA in 2013 had won the Hult Prize in conjunction with three of his fellow students (two of whom

are UWC alumni from UWC-USA and Li Po Chun UWC) at Indiana’s Earlham College. The Hult Prize is an annual contest sponsored by the Clinton Foundation that challenges students to tackle a pressing global problem and which carries with it a US$1 million grant.

Their winning project—Magic Bus—was one of 25,000 entries looking for a solution to double the income of people in crowded, underserved urban spaces. There are 2.5 million people in Nairobi who live in slums, 70% of whom rely on the city’s ad hoc bus system. The bus system has 20,000 private buses, called Matatus, which seat between 33 to 45 people.

Fares range from 50 cents to $1.50 per trip but commuters sometimes wait up to two hours for a bus. Even then you might not get in if it’s overcrowded. Magic Bus tries to fix this unreliable system by letting riders pre-book their bus tickets using basic mobile phones. It is SMS based, so it doesn’t require an internet connection and it integrates mobile payments through the country’s popular payment system called M-PESA. UWCs remain committed to their original goal of bringing together young people so that they act as champions of peace, but they have increasingly recognised that they have to look not just at the tensions and conflicts that exist between societies but at the tensions and conflicts that exist within societies. In awarding the prize Bill Clinton commented that few things “are more central to increasing human dignity and self-worth than the ability to provide for oneself and one’s family.” Solutions to problems like those faced by people everyday as they try to navigate their way across Nairobi may well come from young people who have had an education that allows them to respond positively to opportunities, to manage risk and cope with change and adversity, who not only know stuff but who can also do stuff, who can work with others, and who have the confidence to get up on stage even though normally they prefer to not.

Photo courtesy of Earlham College

December 2016 Dunia | 11

FEATURE

‘Image of the Child’ shapes Infant School at East

By Ben Morley Infant School Vice Principal East Campus Everything that takes place within the Infant School on East Campus, in terms of teaching and learning, building relationships, even professional development for the staff, all stems from one overriding idea—our Image of the Child.

Our Image of the Child is rooted in a firm belief in a child with unlimited potential who is eager to interact with and contribute to the world, rather than seeing that child as an empty vessel waiting to be filled with knowledge by teachers. A child who arrives on our doorstep in August brings an enormous amount of existing understanding and knowledge and so many experiences ready to share.

The idea of the Image of the Child has developed through our ongoing research in recent years into the Reggio Emilia approach. Our decision to create our own Image of the Child was a direct response to the work of Loris Malaguzzi (1920–1994), founder of the Reggio Emilia approach. Above all, he believed “Each one of you has inside yourself an image of the child that directs you as you begin to relate to a child. This theory within you pushes you to behave in certain ways; it orients you as you talk to the child, listen to the child, observe the child. It is very difficult for you to act contrary to this internal image. For example, if your image is that boys and girls are very different from one another, you will behave differently in your interactions with each of them.”

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About Reggio Emilia In educational terms, the northern Italian town of Reggio Emilia has a firmly established worldwide reputation for forward thinking and excellence in its approach to early childhood education. It embraces what is called a socio-constructivist model in that children co-construct their theories and develop understanding through the relationships that they build with other people, their peers and teachers, and also the environment.

The approach is distinguished by a deeply embedded commitment to the role of research in teaching and learning.

Much attention is given to detailed observation and documentation of learning and, significantly, the learning process takes priority over the final product.

It is a model that demonstrates a strong relationship between school and community. After the Second World War, it was the parents and citizens of Reggio Emilia who, in a show of collective responsibility and the desire to create a better society for their children, occupied a disused building and turned it into the first school. This and the other schools that followed were, quite literally, built by the people.

From the start, the schools have been committed to progressive thinking that focuses on the child. For these reasons the Reggio schools have attracted significant global interest and received international accolades.

The education that Reggio schools provide is the result of a long and gradual process that continues to

evolve. In the East Campus Infant School, we are still very much in the early stages of our own process, as we explore what it means to be ‘Reggio inspired.’ We believe many of the associated elements help us to articulate the UWCSEA Learning Principles in the early years.

Constructing our Image of the Child Our Image of the Child is something we have constructed together as an Infant School staff and is, ultimately, the basis of everything we are striving for and everything we believe is important about an early years education.

We hope to promote an Image of the Child as a strong, capable protagonist in his or her own learning. A child who is driven by curiosity and imagination, a child who listens and is listened to and, significantly, a child who is valued.

We value the contributions of the children in our care and, as much as possible, we want them to be a part of co-constructing the learning in the classrooms. We listen to what they have to say. We observe how they interact with each other and with provocations in the environment and we use this to guide teaching and learning. When we listen to the children, we are then able to identify concepts and skills that are appropriate as next steps toward our learning benchmarks.

The learning environment Our Image of the Child also continues to have a profound impact on our learning environment across the Infant School.

The physical environment of the Reggio schools is one of the most well-known aspects of the approach and, perhaps, one of the most misunderstood.

for children to have conversations and interact in different sized groups. You will not see 22 children sitting in rows at 22 desks!

It is a common misconception that to ‘do Reggio’ entails whitewashing walls and introducing elements such as mirrors, three-dimensional pyramids or light tables into the classrooms … and that is it. Of course, you will find those things in an Infant classroom at East but the reality is far more complex.

Again, quoting Malaguzzi, “The environment you construct around you and the children also reflects this image you have about the child. There’s a difference between the environment that you are able to build based on a preconceived image of the child and the environment that you can build that is based on the child you see in front of you—the relationship you build with the child, the games you play. An environment that grows out of your relationship with the child is unique and fluid.”

We strive to create learning spaces that invite and promote research and autonomous discovery, both for individual children and for groups of children working together. Everything we set up is done intentionally: a desire to provoke the children’s thinking; to build on their existing understanding or ongoing dialogue we hear in and around the classroom.

We believe the physical environment of our school is much more than a simple container for teaching and learning.

Instead, the environment is a central component of learning. This is why Reggio educators often refer to the environment as ‘the third teacher.’

When you visit a K1, K2 or Grade 1 classroom at East, you will see a flexible space with different arrangements of furniture and resources. You will see evidence of the children’s voices on displays or in blog postings as we want to make their thinking visible.

You will see interesting and creative provocations, with a variety of resources being used and reused in inviting ways. You will see spaces for endless dialogue, nooks and crannies

Earlier this year, we decided it was time to share our Image of the Child (at right) and it is now displayed throughout the Infant School and referenced in communications with the wider community. As we continue to integrate the principles of Reggio into the environment and curriculum of the Infant School, this image will inform each step and support us in creating a school that recognises, respects, supports and nurtures each child.

Our Image of the Child Children are unique. They are capable, curious and insightful and able to express this through many and varied ways. We value what they have to share and offer and we seek to work together with them to develop shared understandings.

Listening Every child who comes to us brings unique, rich and complex understandings of the world they have already formed and are constantly reforming based on their individual families, experiences, cultures, relationships and thoughts, which we seek to listen to and honour. They have hopes, dreams, history, knowledge and understanding that they can share with and offer others.

Learning Children express and create their knowledge, understanding, feelings and ideas in a wide variety of ways, which we seek to celebrate, understand and enable.

Children learn from the perspective of those around them and through collaboration.

Seeking to make their understanding visible honours their thinking and allows us to listen and have dialogue with the children as learners.

Our curriculum represents important shared language we can use in dialogue, but we should also be willing to be surprised, open to possibilities in children’s thinking and the ways they make meaning of the world.

December 2016 Dunia | 13

IDEAS HUB The IDEAS Hub is a unique space at Dover that inspires and supports creators from the College and the community.

In the Hub, everyone can explore, innovate, collaborate, and create sustainable solutions to shape a better world.

The Hub provides a variety of facilities and specialist areas including collaboration and fabrication zones, a coding and robotics area, two green screen film studios and a presentation space.

The IDEAS Hub is funded by gifts from the community, with the founding benefactors providing over $1 million to date.

Tools Saws, cordless drills, handheld jigsaws, combination squares and a variety of tools for students to build quick and dirty prototypes.

3D printers Dual extruder printers enable students to translate ideas from computer to reality in a variety of materials, including plastic, wood and carbon fiber.

iPad and Pad Caster mount As part of the two green screen film studios, this equipment helps students make professional and creative films and incorporate unique visual effects.

Electronics station The magnifying lamp, soldering iron, and circuit board vices facilitate the assembly of electronic projects.

INNOVATIVE SPACES Colin Peter: IDEAS Hub Technical Manager Colin trained as a Mechanical Engineer at the National University of Singapore and has been working with Makerspaces since 2011. Colin is onsite every day to provide technical support to students of all ages, and to facilitate connections between student inventors and the local tech community.

Robotics and Arduino kits Students of all ages can learn and develop their knowledge of electronics and coding with these flexible, open source kits. Projects range from making a simple LED light blink in response to noise, to a clawbot that responds to external stimuli.

Workbench These heavy duty tables are custom made for students, and come equipped with quick-grip clamps for easy use by the youngest students.

FEATURE

GETTING TO NEXT

Supporting our students to find a ‘right fit’ university UWCSEA students are sought after by reputable universities worldwide.

Our graduating class typically enrols at universities in over 15 countries, with the four most popular country destinations being the US, UK, Canada and Australia. Last year we hosted over 300 universities on our campuses for information sessions, with several choosing UWCSEA to host their information events for the wider Singapore community.

Our students literally have a world of choice available as they start exploring their post-graduation options, with most going directly to university or taking a Gap Year. Around 10% of each graduating class need to factor in National Service commitments.

Whatever their next destination, we are conscious that our community of largely Third Culture Kids (TCKs) needs carefully considered advice and support to assist them with university applications around the world.

As a result, UWCSEA has developed a careers and university advising programme that spans the High School years. It also intentionally links with elements of the Personal and Social Education (PSE) programme in order to ensure students are able to use key selfdiscovery and exploration tools that are highly relevant to their university search.

Underpinning the success of the programme are a highly experienced team of University Advisors who are equipped to support and advise students as they transition to life beyond the College. Between them, they have decades of experience and expertise across many university destinations and work closely with tutors/mentors, heads of grade and teachers to gain 16 | Dunia December 2016

the most detailed picture they can of a student’s strengths, so that they can guide them and advocate for them on an individual basis.

• resume writing and communication skills training • summer options and access to research databases

Starting with preliminary sessions for students in Grade 9, the process expands into a highly individualised, nuanced programme of support in Grades 10, 11 and 12.

In-depth IB Diploma Programme (IBDP) subject selection guidance is also offered, including an individual meeting with a University Advisor, which parents may also attend.

Grade 9 and 10: Understanding themselves, exploring options

A ‘Planning ahead for University’ presentation for students and parents complements the rest of the advising process in Grade 10, which includes guidance on standardised admissions tests and the recommended timeline for taking these tests.

In Grade 9, the University Advisors lead sessions where students start exploring and developing their academic strengths and extra-curricular interests. The emphasis is on students beginning to know themselves as a key first step in the journey towards identifying and applying to ‘good match’ universities.

Students and parents have access to information about university systems around the world.

In Grade 10, the students continue to explore topics that will help them in their university search, with significant integration with the PSE programme. In their tutor/mentor groups, at assemblies and in lunchtime and after school sessions led by the University Advisors, students continue to expand their career and aptitude exploration journey.

Information and events include: • tools on Naviance Family Connection • Alumni Weeks • Careers-in-Focus talks by visiting speakers • Careers Fair organised by our Parents’ Associations • academic ‘taster’ lectures by visiting academics

Grade 11 and 12: Personalised advising In Grade 11, students are assigned a University Advisor who oversees the student’s entire university research and application process until (and sometimes beyond) graduation. The advisors continue their support beyond graduation in the case of students bound for Gap Year or National Service.

Country-specific information sessions for students and parents are led by the University Advisors. These are followed by a series of individual meetings between each student and their advisor.

Parents are also welcome to schedule appointments.

Students are supported with a variety of research and information resources throughout the two years of the IBDP. The PSE programme interweaves ‘core’ topics at key times of year, and others (that are relevant to smaller groups of students) are offered via the Activity programme at lunchtime or after school.

The support offered includes:

• information events by visiting universities and UWCSEA alumni • academic ‘taster’ lectures by visiting academics • specialist presentations on topics such as Oxbridge, medicine, National Service, US athletics recruitment etc.

• mock US admissions workshops and alumni interviews • UK personal statement and US application essay writing support • training and mock interview workshops • guidance on standardised admissions tests, including on-campus test-prep and testing several times a year • Gap Year and internship support to find meaningful work or volunteer experience Students continue to meet with their advisors as needed throughout their Grade 12 year for guidance, for individual application essay feedback, application processing, and enrolment decision-making support.

Communication: a key to success The University Advising Centre (UAC) has a number of customised communications including a campusspecific website, Google calendar and blog linked on the portal, and regular bulletins and eBrief messages. The volume of activity means that it is important for students and families to actively engage with these channels so that they can make the most of the opportunities available.

In Grade 12, students are also provided with a clear timeline of UWCSEA-set (‘internal’) deadlines to help them

submit applications in time to meet the deadlines set by the individual institutions (‘external’ deadlines).

In order to support the students’ applications, the advisors need this additional time to write and compile confidential school references, and coordinate submission of all school documents, including teacher recommendations, transcripts, the school profile, and any other required documentation. The internal deadlines are set to enable the advisors to meet a range of external deadlines over the course of the year.

school advisors who provide guidance on college admissions, while Joan Liu from East Campus is their Vice President for Inclusion, Access, and Success. Sean McAuley from Dover Campus also co-hosts the annual Global University Counsellor Connect, a two-day workshop that brings university advisors from over 15 countries to Singapore.

Professional support

A final reassurance

Building a relationship of mutual trust, respect and collaboration with university admissions professionals worldwide has been a key goal for the UWCSEA UAC team. A key part of their role is to manage the liaison between the school and the universities. The success of this approach meant that last year, both campuses were visited by 315 different universities and colleges.

UWCSEA students are actively recruited by universities worldwide because of their excellent and rigorous academic preparation through the IBDP, their incredible range of interests and talents, but most importantly, because they embody the UWC mission and ethos.

The UAC team take great pleasure in supporting students as they journey towards becoming graduates who are high-impact on the university campuses they attend. In the words of one university admissions representative: “In addition to bringing diverse cultural perspectives to campus, UWC students are making an impact in every area from academics to community engagement, service, and leadership. UWC students have won research grants in the sciences, written plays and choreographed dance shows, led service projects, … interned in campus departments and … companies, and been leaders in student government.”

Whether it is volunteering on Executive Boards for organisations or presenting to peers at conferences, the UAC team are also respected in the international university guidance community.

They regularly co-present with university admissions representatives at international conferences, and all members of the UAC team regularly visit universities across the world to stay up to date with trends in higher education.

Johanna Fishbein, Head of University Advising on Dover Campus is currently President-elect of the International Association of College Admission Counseling (IACAC), the largest professional body for international high

This extensive networking means there is always someone the UAC team can contact to answer questions, provide support and, where appropriate, advocate directly for our students.

December 2016 Dunia | 17

4 | ACADEMICS FEATURE

Meet the University Advising team The University Advising Centre (UAC) teams work collaboratively to provide a student-centred programme. They focus on providing information, guidance and advocacy to assist students in finding ‘good fit’ university options where they will be appropriately challenged, join a community suited to them, and in turn be able to thrive both academically and emotionally.

Our University Advisors include former university admissions officers, who provide unique insight into the university side of the process, and counsellors from a teaching background, who bring a firsthand understanding of the academic environment at our school. This balance of internal and external expertise is a key reason that our advisors are able to provide such personalised and successful support. We are proud to introduce the team of professionals who support our students as they transition beyond UWCSEA.

John Bush

Julie Davidson

Linda De Flavis

Johanna Fishbein

Sean McAuley

University Advisor, Dover Campus

University Advisor, Dover Campus

University Advisor, Dover Campus

Head of University Advising, Dover Campus

University Advisor, Dover Campus

John started teaching Mathematics in the UK, before joining UWCSEA for a five-year stint in 1999.

He returned to the UK as Head of Mathematics at St Clare’s International School in Oxford, returning to UWCSEA in 2006. Before joining the UAC in 2011, he was also a Senior School Head of Grade.

Julie joined UWCSEA in 1990, with a period teaching, advising and coordinating work experience in Australia and Malaysia before returning to UWCSEA as an English teacher in 2003. She has been involved in careers education and advising since 1986.

Linda joined UWCSEA in 1998 as an English and ToK teacher, moving into University Advising in 2003. Previously she taught literature at universities in the US and at high schools in Hong Kong and the UK.

Johanna joined UWCSEA in 2014 from the International School of Brussels where she was the Head of College and Careers Counseling.

Previously at Barnard College she was Director of Pre-College Programs and Coordinator of International Recruitment.

She began teaching in NYC public schools, and is the President-elect of the International Association for College Admission Counseling (IACAC).

Sean joined Dover in August 2011 having worked in international schools in the US, Japan, Hungary and Indonesia, most recently at the Bali International School where he was university counsellor and IB Diploma coordinator.

Sean co-founded the annual Global University Counsellor Connect and was instrumental in starting ‘Alumni Week.’

Highlight: John coordinates staff and alumni who support students in preparing for interviews, including preparation advice, a realistic mock interview and individual feedback. Interviews are a significant factor for students applying to study Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary Science, or when applying to Oxford or Cambridge or to a number of US universities (alumni interviews). UAC also host an annual interview workshop run by Oxford University.

18 | Dunia December 2016

Highlight: Work experience can vary from volunteering in a nursing home to flipping burgers at a fast food joint, to shadowing a surgeon. All experience can contribute to positive self-reflection and give a better understanding of the world, and universities particularly appreciate work that takes students out of their comfort zone. Some professional degrees (such as Veterinary Science, Law, Architecture, Medicine) stipulate related experience for applicants.

Opportunities are provided by the College via the Careers Fair as well as our alumni database.

Highlight: UAC taps into alumni stories to reassure, guide and inspire our current students. Alumni provide role models that they can easily connect with, enabling them to imagine themselves in a range of academic or career settings as well as answer specific questions on courses or institutions. Our alumni have also helped us to identify specific challenges TCKs face in their transition to university and address them via our PSE programme and an annual forum in partnership with the Parents’ Association.

We also partner with universities to give conference presentations on helping TCKs adjust to university.

Highlight: University advising requires a tremendous amount of up to date individual knowledge (or the knowledge of who to ask to find an answer). The university advising and admissions communities are highly collaborative, and a vital tool to foster this is our membership and participation as presenters and delegates in professional association events.

Highlight: Sean has always found that students struggle to truly gauge university life. Websites only show sunny days and cheerful professors, and representatives only highlight positive aspects of their campus. He began organising alumni talks, where recent graduates ‘return home’ and meet current students, so they can find out about campus life. Over 100 graduates now return each January and June and the event is a fundamental aspect of our advising programme.

Jacqueline Villa Evanko University Advisor, Dover Campus Jacquie joined the UAC team in 2016 after spending nearly a decade working in undergraduate international admissions in the Boston area at Boston University and Brandeis.

Highlight: In approaching university advising, Jacquie thinks about ‘fit.’

Students sometimes miss the opportunity to focus their efforts on finding the school that best ‘fits’ them, and instead focus on finding ways to ‘reach’ a school. To get to these dream schools, families may consider hiring outside help. However, your UWCSEA advisor has the context of the UWC experience, the insight from decades of working with our student outcomes, a deep understanding of the university admissions process, and relationships with peers and universities around the world.

Robbie Jefferiss University Advisor, East Campus Robbie Jefferiss joined the UAC team in 2014 after working at several schools internationally and in the US as a school counsellor and in admissions at a UK university.

Highlight: One part of the job that Robbie truly enjoys is going to visit university campuses all over the world. “When visiting so many campuses, it is remarkable to see that they each have their own ‘feel’ or ‘culture.’ When walking around, the names and faces of my students appear in my mind and I think ‘That student would be a great fit here!’ Meanwhile, these visits also allow us to build relationships with the university admissions officers and learn about the trends they are seeing or any new institutional priorities they may have in terms of the types or students they are looking to admit.”

Pamela Kelly Wetzell Head of University Advising, East Campus Pamela joined Dover in 2010 and moved to East in 2012 to build the UAC in anticipation of the first graduating class in 2014.

Pamela practised law in the US before moving to Asia over 20 years ago, founding a small international school in Phuket before moving to UWCSEA. She is also a mentor for IACAC’s Scholar Mentor Program.

Highlight: Naviance Family Connection is a powerful university and career information and application management platform. Students access it in PSE time from Grade 10 to explore interests, strengths and potential careers, and it allows them to research and create a list of potential universities.

The UAC use it to send transcripts, references and supporting documents to many universities, and to collate and analyse past acceptance data in order to best advise students.

Joan Liu

Shruti Tewari

University Advisor, East Campus

University Advisor, East Campus

Joan joined the East UAC team in 2013, after working in Turkey, England and the US. Joan was instrumental in launching the first ever Financial Aid Institute at the IACAC summer conference, helping international school counsellors learn more about financial aid and merit scholarships in various higher education systems around the world.

Before joining UWCSEA to start up the East UAC in 2012, Shruti worked in Jakarta as a college counsellor and IBDP English teacher. She also spent three years as the Director of College Guidance at UWC Mahindra. Shruti began her career as an Upper School English teacher in New Jersey, USA.

Highlight: Thinking about how to afford the cost of an education can be a daunting task, but UAC advisors are well-versed in guiding students and families toward resources that can help them make comparisons among options. The UAC team provides additional support to students and families for whom cost is a barrier to accessing higher education.

Highlight: The UAC puts a great deal of effort into coordinating a wide-ranging support programme for students and families.

Aside from hosting 300+ university visitors each year, both campuses offer a number of events to help students and families make informed choices, including support for specialised programmes, e.g., Art, Engineering, Law, Liberal Arts, Medicine, Music and a series of University Advisorrun workshop sessions to guide students in writing a UK-style personal statement and a US-style essay for applications.

December 2016 Dunia | 19

COMMUNITY NEWS

Students tackle global sustainability issues Photo by Claire Psillides

By Justin Chan, Grade 8, East Campus and Gauri Shukla, Grade 9, Dover Campus In September, a group of Middle and High School students from both campuses attended the annual GIN Bali conference, which takes place at a different location in Indonesia each year. GIN, which stands for Global Issues Network, empowers young people to learn about and take action on some of the world’s most pressing issues.

The conference is a chance for budding activists to connect and network with like-minded people, allowing them to work together to realise their dreams. It is a chance to see sustainable systems thinking in action—to see what exactly it means to ‘go green,’ to see the results of recycling, to see how much one person can do, and how much people working together can do to, in a very real way, to save the world.

This year the conference was held at Bina Cita Utama School in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, in the heart of Borneo. Why was this special? Because it was there that, at the same time last year, the forest fires caused haze, and the PSI reached an unlivable 2300. There, standing in the middle of the forest, we could see the sustainability issues and change right in front of us. Considering that a year ago, people in Kalimantan could hardly see each other through the haze, this conference had a feeling of hope and resilience. The skies were clear, but the memory of their hardship, the efforts to recover, and the desire to prevent it 20 | Dunia December 2016

from happening again, were at the front of everyone’s thinking and actions.

Students aged 12–18 from schools across the region participated—bringing together a diverse group of young people all passionate about making our world a better place. The conference’s ‘one-for-one’ model meant that Indonesian students from Bali and Kalimantan were able to learn about the complex systems affecting their environment, economy and society alongside international students.

The three-day conference was a varied mix of workshops, cultural experiences, field trips and musical performances, where messages about systems thinking, resource use, indigenous rights and more were conveyed to us, the next generation of activists. We were able to hear from presenters from all over Indonesia, from veteran activists who’ve been inspiring and making change for years, to young and passionate speakers helping others to realise their potential, including Gauri, who shared her work to eliminate unsustainable palm oil.

Youth activists, innovators and leaders all came together to collaborate, recognising our shared responsibility to take care of our planet.

During those three days, we ate together, relaxed together, worked together and learnt together—and built lasting relationships. This networking allowed us to apply the concepts of sustainable systems thinking throughout the conference in a studentled, project-based approach.

Examples of student-led projects were presented in order to inspire participants and to model approaches that have worked. Gauri was one of the presenters in the ‘How Kids Can’ workshop where she shared her experience launching the SOS (Students of Singapore) campaign during the 2015 haze crisis. The SOS campaign advocates for sustainable palm oil and paper products by directly lobbying companies to use sustainably produced ingredients and products.

They also educate students and community members about becoming ‘haze fighters’ and using sustainable cooking oils.

The aim of the ‘How Kids Can’ workshop was to empower fellow students and encourage them to make a difference in their own way.

Gauri demonstrated the steps she took to launch a campaign and lobby companies. Games and activities in the session encouraged people to identify the issue they are most passionate about and to #startwithonething. On the final night she also presented to the wider conference audience about the SOS campaign and what the movement aims to do.

In the end, all of us were united and aware of our responsibility: that we need to be the change our world needs.

This conference helped us to realise who we are and what we really stand for. This realisation is the essence of the Global Issue Network Conference, to start with one thing and make changes that foster sustainability in the world around us.

COMMUNITY NEWS

Food waste and the UWC mission

By Nicole Kutschenreuter, Environmental Stewardship Coordinator, Dover Campus and Nathan Hunt, Director of Sustainability Singapore takes food waste seriously; the government has stated its official aim to become a zero-waste nation. So how does UWCSEA, with our mission to educate for a sustainable future and desire to respond to our community’s needs, tackle this issue?

At an operational level, the College works closely with Sodexo, our food services provider, who reduces food waste through advanced purchasing and monitoring systems and educational outreach. Primary School students take part in Sodexo’s ‘Wasteless Week,’ which encourages a more mindful selection of food. Students have also joined Sodexo in collecting and charting food waste data as part of their curriculum.

East Campus Environmental Stewardship Coordinators Adam Erikson and Kath Lane are trialling compost systems with different classes and service groups (worm composting is a favourite in the Infant School).

At Dover, a High School composting initiative, initially funded by a gift to the UWCSEA Foundation, has been integrated into the Grade 5 curriculum.

On any given Primary School lunch hour, you will see a group of Grade 5 students collecting coffee grounds and fruit and vegetable peelings from our café and canteens. Up to 50 litres

a day of this food preparation ‘waste’ is wheeled to the campus composting bins where it is mixed with leaves to create compost.

Once dropped off by the Grade 5s, the compost is regularly and laboriously ‘turned’ to aid in decomposition by volunteer Grade 11 and 12 students.

Once ready, the bagged compost is used as fertiliser by the Incredible Edibles gardening Activity, in two garden areas on campus. The Incredible Edibles group recently sold some of their produce at the Dover Holiday Fair, and eventually hope to offer fruit and vegetable produce for use by Sodexo— an exciting example of a circular economy, where systems are designed for sustainability and are self-supporting.

back into the school gardens to help grow produce.

“The composting activity also connects to another question within the curriculum unit, ‘How does human activity affect the balance of nature?’

Although this is mostly to do with negative impacts such as deforestation, in the case of UWCSEA, we look at the positive impacts from student efforts to put food nutrients back into the soil of our school ecosystem.”

As for other learning, the students do this work (composting), which is hot, sweaty and smelly. They can feel proud of their efforts and the knowledge that they are setting an example and actually walking the sustainability talk.

During the course of one academic year, all 200 Dover Grade 5 students will have collectively diverted approximately 8,000 litres of food waste from incineration and landfill.

Hugh says, “As Head of Grade, it has been very inspiring to see the Grade 5s work with the High School students to create a successful solution to a real world problem; exactly the sort of collaborative, problem-solving project that exemplifies the UWCSEA mission.”

Hugh Pollard, Head of Grade 5, said, “Beyond the environmental benefits of composting, the programme is also linked directly to the Grade 5 curriculum. In the first Unit of Study for the year, ‘Web of Life,’ the students specifically question ‘How are plants and animals interdependent?’ while considering food chains, including the final step in the chain, which is the decomposition of nutrients. Through this investigation and research, the importance of composting becomes quite explicit as the compost goes

Recently, Dover’s composting initiatives were featured in an article and video on Channel News Asia. It was clear from the positive response that many readers and viewers were inspired by the students; so while food waste is still a huge problem for the College and Singapore, perhaps the hard work and commitment of everyone involved in this project has got us closer to achieving our mission to make education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future.

December 2016 Dunia | 21

COMMUNITY NEWS

PACE: A NEW SCHOOL AND LIBRARY FOR MYANMAR

By Natalie Kennedy and Mieneke Smit von Dixhoorn Co-Chairs, PACE Schools Over the past 10 years, the Parents’ Action for Community and Education (PACE) has contributed to the construction of nine schools in Cambodia in partnership with Tabitha Cambodia. These schools have provided a safe and secure learning environment for nearly 5,000 school children. In 2015, PACE partnered for the first time with the 100schools organisation to build a school in the rural village of Shar Pin, Myanmar.

Myanmar was identified as an area of particular need; although it has over 7,000 schools, the majority of the buildings are in poor repair, due to the country’s underinvestment in education as well as seismic activity and seasonal flooding.

The original Shar Pin school was built in the 1950s and sat on the banks of a river. When PACE first visited the school The project was a wonderful opportunity to spread our community’s belief in the power of libraries and literacy. It was particularly rewarding that we were able to share our library posters and teaching materials with the Myanmar Library Association.”

Katie Day, Head of Libraries, East Campus

site in September 2015, the wooden stilted school building was tilting dangerously. Local families met with PACE and explained that they had pooled their savings in order to buy a piece of land (located further away from the river) for a new school.

In support, PACE organised a Mardi Gras fundraising event in Singapore in February 2016 and raised enough funds to construct a completely new school building with five classrooms, a well, a toilet block and a library. In early June, the construction workers broke ground, employing a specialised earthquake-resistant confined masonry technique (which is utilised in all 100schools projects and has proven to be highly effective). After just four months the Shar Pin Primary School opened its doors to 130 students in October 2016.

Prior to this, a team from PACE, including Burmese supporters from within the UWCSEA community and beyond, sourced, categorised and labelled over 500 Burmese-language books.

Katie Day, Head of Libraries at East Campus, established 11 categories for the library, as well as a mini-library of Burmese books for group reading activities, using the same practices as the UWCSEA Primary School. Katie and the East Campus library staff created 80 laminated shelf-markers, using animal logos and coloured paper.

A key area of focus was establishing a library culture; drawing people into the library, training the teaching staff on integrating library usage into the curriculum, and making the space easy to navigate. The children were told that when they came to the library each time, they should pick an animal and a colour to keep track of where they found books. To help them remember where in the ‘village of books’ (i.e., the library) each book ‘lived,’ so they could help it get back to its right place.

On opening day, Katie talked about book care and asked the children to consider how books are like people. They can be old or young, tall or small, speak different languages, have a front, a back, a spine, etc. And they need to be treated with care and respect, especially when it comes to turning pages.

The walls of the library were decorated with pictures of Shar Pin teachers and the PACE delegates showcasing their favourite book.

With the help of all the partner organisations and volunteers, the students of Shar Pin Primary School now have access to a brand new library, and a safe and secure school.

Photo courtesy of PACE

22 | Dunia December 2016

COMMUNITY NEWS

ARTS RESIDENCIES ENRICH LEARNING

By Mark Bradshaw Head of Music East Campus One of the unique ways we are able to enhance the learning in the Arts curricula is by bringing artists-in-residence to campus to share their expertise with our students and teachers. This term we have been fortunate to welcome three artists-inresidence to East Campus to work alongside students, teachers and the school community on a range of projects. Underlying our invitations are the UWCSEA Learning Principles and a keen desire to broaden and enrich our learning with expertise that we value and respect. Over the term we’ve had Red Leap Theatre from New Zealand working in the Drama department, gamelan musicians from Widhya Asih in Bali, and Wedzerai (Wedzi) Zvirevo, a Zimbabwean musician and teacher. This article will focus on Wedzi’s visit and the impact it had on the Infant and High School students he worked with.

Janine Larsen, Head of Primary Music, saw a number of positive effects on student learning in the Infant School. For Infant students, the workshops “added an element to learning that we could never offer. To learn from, interact with, and even just watch a visiting artist in action has clearly been something the children won’t soon forget. Five-year-olds who can’t remember what they did at morning break are still chanting ‘Let’s go to A-fri-ca!’ and doing Wedzi’s dance moves whenever they see a djembe.

“They are thinking about music in a different way; it’s no longer just something fun or beautiful, but something that represents who a person is and where they come from.

That’s an incredible entry into the idea that music expresses something more than happiness or sadness. Related to that, Wedzi brought an ‘insider’s’ perspective on his music. That’s something that we can’t give, and no matter how much we (teachers) learn about another culture, we are always outsiders and can never truly understand the nuances and implicit things in the music/culture. Deep down, children know that, and I think that they are much more likely to tune into learning from an ‘insider’ than an ‘outsider.’”

musician. Gaining their personal insights can be very valuable and help us understand how vast the world of music really is.”

Sol Leader-Cole (Grade 11), an mbira player himself, had the chance not only to learn new authentic mbira pieces but also to connect with someone who uses mbira in its traditional context—as an instrument used in ceremonies (called bira) that connect the living with their ancestors.

There is a word in Shona, ‘dandemutande,’ that roughly translates as ‘spider’s web.’ It is used by musicians as a powerful metaphor for the way music connects people. Wedzi also often uses the word ‘batanai’ which he describes as “people come together through music, through the arts, coming together to be as one.” In these days of increased uncertainty, when walls seem to be going up and when trust and dandemutande are needed even more, it’s a privilege that our students have these opportunities to build bridges through batanai with wonderful musicians-in-residence.

[The students] are thinking about music in a different way; it’s no longer just something fun or beautiful, but something that represents who a person is and where they come from. That’s an incredible entry into the idea that music expresses something more than happiness or sadness.”

Janine Larsen, Head of Primary Music, East Campus

High School students echo this experience. Molly Stirrat (Grade 10) and Shawronna Sengupta (Grade 9) commented, “Because we can learn firsthand … it gives us a different perspective about music.” A perspective that according to Vedant Mathur (Grade 10), “gives students a direct connection into the life of not only a musician, but the culture too.” Shivani Dayal (Grade 10) explores that a little more, adding, “It allows us to ask questions about their culture and experience as a December 2016 Dunia | 23

OPINION

IS ‘BEST PRACTICE’ REALLY BEST?

By Frazer Cairns Head of Dover Campus UWC South East Asia The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu said that when we think we speak we are more often than not spoken for by the system within which we find ourselves. Independence, and in particular intellectual independence, is a significant issue in education today because of the growing promotion of what the French call a pensée unique, a way of looking at things that is so dominant that we accept it without thought. This was brought home to me recently at a conference where there seemed to be many people quick to say how one should structure a curriculum, measure student learning or transform a school. There was a great deal of talk about child-centeredness in education, the knowledge economy and 21st century skills and yet, with some notable exceptions, much of what was being described seemed to be based on a uniformly impoverished view of what education is actually for.

It is, I think, debatable whether enough time is given to this question by some of the forces that help shape education— politicians, the mass media and, indeed, conference presenters. Their views are often driven by concerns that are short-term and utilitarian, and the need to express these views in sound bites or 140 characters. This matters because the practice of education, how one responds to the thousands of planned and impossible-to-plan-for events that make up a teacher’s daily life, is fundamentally entwined with how one sees the purpose of education.

However, to think about that purpose is to think profoundly about a ‘philosophy 1

of life’—the kind of values we want to encourage young people to hold and the kind of future society we want to live in. Good schools are, therefore, those independent enough to treat the term ‘best practice’ and the opinions of commentators with a certain caution.

That is not to say that there is no place for the utilitarian. Trying to understand how to prepare young people for employment is important even though, as John Dewy1 noted, it is “impossible to foretell definitely just what civilisation will be 20 years from now.” It is it also not the case that a school can reimagine itself in isolation. Governments, parents, future employers, universities and, of course, young people all have a view on the kind of education we should be offering.

Education must, however, be about more than how to just ‘buy and sell more stuff.’

Both the practice and purpose of education has been debated for a very long time by writers such as Plato, Rousseau, Aquinas, Montaigne, Freire and Stein without agreement and so, clearly, there will be no simple (or single) answer. It may well be, as so many conference speakers are keen to point out, that the challenges we face are different from those faced by previous societies. Perhaps consequently our education must also be different in order to prepare young people for the complexity and the speed of change of our modern world.

There are, however, two essential forms of independence for a good (thinking) school. The first is independence of view and a willingness to consider which aspects in society are desirable.

Young people then need to be prepared for life in a world in which they form a part. Some developments we see may be far from desirable but are perhaps inevitable—religious fanaticism, for example. Education’s role here has to be to prepare young people to combat them rather than just accept them.

A second form is independence of character so as to resist the notion promoted by league tables and the like that academic excellence is where education starts and finishes. Effective learning can take place in a number of different contexts: service activities are important in opening children to the lives of others and giving a strong moral direction to the school; extra-curricular activities allow students to develop and explore their passions; outdoor education provides young people with the opportunity to make decisions and see the consequences of those decisions. It is the combination of these elements that prepares a young person to take individual responsibility for shaping a better world for themselves and for others.

Alain de Botton2 wrote that “alarm bells should ring in our minds (…) upon any encounter with a point of view which seems to have attained a slightly too consistent level of consensus. We should remain at all times skeptically alert to the potential of gross idiocy.”

It is sage advice and the lack of a single solution is actually a very healthy thing for education. Regardless, encouraging young people to have the independence of mind to believe that all is not determined in advance is, perhaps, the most essential role for a school.

Dewy, J., (1897), My Pedagogic Creed, School Journal vol. 54. | 2 De Botton, A., (2014), The News: A User’s Manual.

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SPOTLIGHT

Pulau Ubin: conserve or develop?

This was the enquiry question that Grade 10 IGCSE and FIB students from Dover Campus were investigating as part of their Geography courses during a field trip held in October. Over 50 students spent the day carrying out perception surveys and environmental impact assessments on one of Singapore’s rural islands, collecting both qualitative and quantitative data. These young geographers were particularly interested in the biodiversity at the Chek Jawa wetlands on the east side of the island and agreed that this was a valuable natural ecosystem which should be conserved.

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PANORAMA

UWCSEA photos and videos perspectives.uwcsea.edu.sg/panorama

CULTURAMA AND UN NIGHT On Thursday, 6 October, both campuses celebrated our College’s spirited, intercultural community through music, dance and food from around the world.