Dunia December 2022

My takeaway from my time in the rainforest restoration project applies to climate change perfectly. A Chinese idiom states: 十年树木，百年树人—it takes ten years to nurture a tree, but a hundred years to train a man. Climate change requires a long time period to change people’s mindsets and for the actions we are taking right now to actually show their effect … I trust that with collective effort, we can slowly turn the wheels around for a better and more sustainable future.”

Lantian Christina ’24, Grade 11, Dover Campus, speaking at the 2022 Caixin Summit Singapore Satellite Event on 18 November 2022 as a representative of the SMART Talks on Climate Change Programme co-hosted by Caixin Global and Yale Centre Beijing

A tribute to our GC partner 32 TAKING IN THE GOOD

Meet the new High School Principal on Dover Campus

COVER IMAGES

Front: Grade 6 students at Sarimbun Scout Camp, Singapore Back: UWC Day on East Campus

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Dunia is published two 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.

Writers: Sarah Begum, Sinéad Collins, Shaiful Rashid, Lucie Snape, Jules Wainwright and Kate Woodford | Photography: Elena Bell, Janrius Rogers, Joseph Tan, Jules Wainwright and members of the UWCSEA community | Design: Nandita Gupta and Grace Hong

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 2017–17 July 2023 | 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 2017–9 March 2023 | Charity Registration No. 002104

Strategic planning and the first

By Nick Alchin, Head of College, UWCSEA

As I come to the end of my first term as Head of College, I can safely say that I have never been on such a steep learning curve. Having known the College since 1995, as teacher, Principal and Head of East Campus, I had a good insight into its educational and strategic workings and the special nature of our community. This term I have also come to see the immense complexity of operational, administrative and governance work that supports the learning. What’s not surprising, however, is the dedication of all the teams, who know that the business of educating the next generation for peace and a sustainable future is a noble goal that provides real meaning to the everyday tasks we undertake.

This idea of meaningful work is a recurring theme for me. Indeed, providing students with meaningful work is a common theme in the educational press these days—and often goes under the term agency. One of the basic ideas here is that we allow students to make decisions and to get used to thinking and acting for themselves, rather than just doing what they are told. That is, of course, one of the central goals of a progressive education.

The pedagogy that supports agency can be deceptively simple—asking students lots of open questions; giving them time to discuss; asking them to explain ideas in their own words using their own examples; taking a genuine interest in those ideas; presenting those ideas to the class for peer feedback; choosing their own areas of interest to explore and so on. It can also be taken further, and it’s interesting to see how far we can take this last strategy—which is often called co-constructing the curriculum with students.

We all know that learning is easier when we are really interested in the material we are learning, and so adapting the curriculum to suit student interests is appealing. Where they have flexibility, teachers will to some extent do that naturally; for example by spending longer in areas that engage students to learn more deeply. Taken to its extreme, co-construction can mean collaboratively deciding with classes or individuals the entirety of what they learn. This is a position that finds a lot of advocacy on social media these days.

So I was interested to read a well-known champion of liberal education, Professor Gert Biesta, arguing against this position in his 2022 book World-Centred Education His starting point is that agency is, in itself, a values-neutral quality. Students—and adults, as we can see reading world news—can exercise agency to good or bad ends, and our goal has to be broader than just agency for its own sake.

Biesta’s main point is that as professionals educators have a broader responsibility than to simply offer students only what they want and what they are interested in (of course all parents know this!) Biesta talks about the first gift of teaching—being given what you didn’t ask for and argues that education should give students what they did not ask for—first and foremost because they didn’t even know that they could ask for it.

This seems to me to be such common sense, and so aligned with the graduating students who over the years consistently tell us I didn’t see the point of this at first, but by the end I learnt just how relevant and important it is or the long-graduated who write, years later, I didn’t know at the time how valuable all those things I learnt

gift of teaching

at school would be. So the extreme of co-construction would impoverish the scope and breadth of their learning; and a lot of passions would remain dormant because children never came into contact with, say, theatre, service, hiking, cross-country, coding, capacitors, or calculus.

But the key idea here is more than merely encountering new ideas, important though that is. The broader point is that we learn about ourselves, and grow into ourselves as we encounter and challenge our desires—not just follow them. It is a deep human truth that we may not need what we desire, and may not desire what we need—that’s as true for adults as it is for students. Furthermore, the journey of understanding the difference between our needs and desires unfolds over a lifetime. It’s worth quoting Biesta at length:

So the slow work of the educator … is to accompany children on this journey, encouraging them to go on the journey, and helping them to gain insight in their desires, to gain a perspective on their desires, to come into relationship with their desires, so as to find out which desires are going to help them with living one’s life well in the world and which other desires are going to hinder in this task.

One could and should argue that the work of education professionals is not just [to give] students what they ask for, but it is about engaging with them in the process of figuring out what it is that they might need …. That makes school, perhaps, a place of revelation.

This last sentence resonated strongly for me when I read it. Earlier this year, in April, we held an inspirational two day celebration of 50 years of UWCSEA—our 50th Anniversary Forum—and some of it felt like a revelation indeed. After a difficult few pandemic years, thousands in our community came together to honour our Mission, and commit to the future. It was just what I needed, though in the intense preparation and run-up it might not have been what I entirely wanted! At our Forum, we heard the Executive Director of the UWC Movement, Faith Abiodun, speak about the possibility and promise inherent in the future of the UWC Movement. He was unquestionably inspirational, but what was most uplifting about the conference for me was the idea that he awoke precisely those things suppressed over the pandemic years, and we all knew it as we heard him speak.

For the last few months, UWCSEA has been a revelation to me once more. This has been nowhere clearer than through the strategic planning process. If the first gift of teaching is giving our students what they didn’t know they could ask for, then the first gift of strategic planning is to consult widely and consider many alternatives, so that we hear the heartfelt needs our community did not know they could ask for.

John Gardner argues that the most gifted leaders understand that the needs of people cannot be fully plumbed by asking them what they want or why they want it. One of the deepest of truths about the cry of the human heart is that it is so often muted, so often a cry that is never uttered. So, as we look through the input to the strategic plan from students, parents, staff and alumni, we will need to separate wants from needs, and devise a plan that will help our students and wider community work towards a more peaceful and sustainable future. There is much meaningful work— and agency—here.

Professor Gert Biesta Author of World-Centred Education

References

Biesta, G. (2022) World-Centred Education. Routledge Gardner, J. (1993) On Leadership. The Free Press

… the first gift of teaching—being given what you didn’t ask for … education should give students what they did not ask for—first and foremost because they didn’t even know that they could ask for it.”

The power of deep self reflection

Looking to the past, planning for the future

Adapted from a reflection by Andrew Ruane, Head of Grades 9 and 10 Science, Dover Campus

A commonly asked question in education is “how do schools ensure they deliver on what they promise?”

It is widely accepted that attainment data from exams offers only a narrow view on student achievement. As a school focused on our Mission, at UWCSEA we strive to dig deeper and to understand how we achieve a more long lasting impact.

One of the ways we do this is via accreditation. Council of International Schools (CIS) International Accreditation recognises a school’s commitment to student well-being and high quality teaching and learning, as well as to global citizenship and intercultural learning. Accreditation is achieved through a rigorous and deep self review, confirmed by external evaluation led by our peers. UWCSEA elects to receive joint accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).

Dover Campus completed the CIS/ WASC re-accreditation process last school year; this year East Campus has begun their 18-month journey.

Andrew Ruane, Head of Grades 9 and 10 Science on Dover Campus, served as the CIS Accreditation Coordinator. Working closely with Lizzie Bray, then Head of Dover Campus who had led Dover’s previous accreditation, Andrew led our 18-month Self Study review. A complex process which involved all teaching and many non teaching staff, Andrew reflects on how the Self Study has direct relevance to the Strategic

Planning process that the College has embarked on this school year.

Iteration is key

One of the first things I was taught during my teacher training was to reflect. My own father often asks how I will teach the same lesson for over 30 years. The answer to that is that I reflect. Every time I teach the same lesson it is different to the previous iteration. Not only are the students different but as teachers we constantly strive to do things better, for example by making it more engaging, using different contexts and case studies and ensuring what we teach remains relevant.

Measuring the performance of a school takes place in much the same way: by reflecting on the things we do well and the things we need to improve. It is clear that the people who know this best are those who are a part of it. And so my rationale in taking on the role of CIS Accreditation Coordinator was: how do we ensure that we reflect authentically on the entire operation of one of the largest schools in the world, celebrating our successes and looking for those areas in which we can do better? The answer was quite clear: involve everyone.

Connecting across the College

This served a second purpose too. In any large organisation, it can be easy to remain in our area of expertise and not see how other areas work. Not only can this lead to missed connections that may strengthen our shared purpose, but it can also lead to people feeling disconnected, or worse, not valued.

This was particularly evident during the pandemic where many teams began working remotely. CIS Accreditation served as an important opportunity to bring the community together again.

Accreditation is achieved by evaluating ourselves against a number of CIS Standards1, in what is called a Self Study. These Standards are set in a framework of nine Domains that cover all areas of school operation:

• Domain A: Purpose and direction

• Domain B: Governance and leadership

• Domain C: The curriculum

• Domain D: Teaching and assessing for learning

• Domain E: Well-being

• Domain F: Staffing

• Domain G: Premises, facilities, technology systems and auxiliary services

• Domain H: Community and home partnerships

• Domain I: Residential services, boarding and/or homestay

Initially, the leadership team submitted a Preparatory Report with input from many others in the community. This was followed by a Preparatory Visit in September 2020; pandemic travel restrictions meant the two senior evaluators visited us virtually. By using the report and evidence obtained from meetings, interviews and observations during this visit, the evaluators helped us identify areas to focus on during the Self Study.

Holding ourselves to account

To begin the Self Study, all staff were invited to nominate themselves to contribute to a Domain Committee. Whilst some chose to review their area of working in school, adding the needed expertise, a number elected to work on areas other than their own; their fresh sets of eyes were a useful way for us to gain new perspectives.

Over 350 staff participated on the committees. The leadership team did not join specific committees or provide direction in this process, a testament to their belief in the College and its staff, and the value they place in the accreditation process.

Committees began by unpacking the Standards within their Domain, deciding on how best to respond to them within the context of Dover Campus.

To determine whether we exceeded, met, partially met or did not meet the Standard, they then gathered evidence in one of three forms:

1. Intent: what the College is aiming to achieve

2. Implementation: how the College is working to achieve something

3. Impact: the outcome of what has been achieved

To facilitate evidence gathering, a Saturday Professional Development day in January 2021 connected Committee members with experts from many areas of the school through a complex series of Google Meet engagements. We also invited a number of student and parent representatives, and members of the Board, to focus groups. This complex undertaking meant that committees were able to build a deep understanding and begin responding to their Domain standards.

Outcomes and actions

The 18 month Self Study allowed us time to identify issues and begin to take action to address them. In all, the Domain Committees made 103 assessments which we submitted to CIS and WASC. A 13-person Evaluation Team joined us (virtually) in February 2022 to explore the details, and respond to the Self Study, including a recommendation on awarding CIS/ WASC re-accreditation.

In June 2022 we were delighted that re-accreditation was awarded to Dover Campus with immediate

effect. We were immensely proud to be commended in many areas, most particularly: our purpose and direction, curriculum planning, teaching, conceptual learning, assessment and reporting across all levels of the school as well as Outdoor Education, Service, wellbeing, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion work, and Boarding.

The team also identified areas for continued growth, including the need to clarify the College organisational structures, roles and responsibilities and to communicate clearly regarding strategic initiatives. Because the Self Study had already identified these areas of focus we had already begun to address these, and evidence gathered by the East Campus in some of these areas in the Preliminary Report phase (which they are currently in) reflects some of the progress we have already made.

United in purpose

The process to achieve re-accreditation involves an incredible amount of work from a large number of people. For mission-led schools like UWCSEA, this is where the true value of accreditation lies—in the authenticity of the report combined with the chance for all staff to reflect, and to learn more about their campus and the College.

As the College continues to develop its strategic vision for the years ahead, the Self Study reports serve as a chance to recognise and celebrate the achievements of the 2018–2023 UWCSEA Strategy. Importantly, they will also provide us with signposts as we plan and reprioritise, ensuring UWCSEA continues to be a mission-focused school whose students and graduates are equipped to create a peaceful, sustainable future.

Footnote

[1] CIS/WASC standards provide detailed descriptions of how candidate schools are asked to measure their attainment in key areas identified in each Domain.

UWCSEA COMMUNITY AGREEMENTS

By the community, for the community

Anyone involved in the development of our Community Agreements from the beginning, undoubtedly had moments of wondering if they would ever be finished. From the start of the Values in Action process to the announcement of the Community Agreements in October 2022 was two full school cycles. Viewed today, with their few simple words and visuals, it is hard to believe that they required so much time to produce.

In a community with such a strong bias for action, why did it take so long for us to come up with these statements?

Well, the answer is in their name. Agreements emerge from a consensus-driven process to identify what every person in the group needs from each other. Other schools have codes of conduct, ‘norms of behaviour’ or contracts for parents. We wanted agreements. Not just because ‘norms’ makes assumptions about what is appropriate or acceptable and begs the question of whose ‘normal’ we are referring to, but because the process of constructing the agreements was as important as the outcome. We wanted it to be consensus-driven, collaborative and values-based, and we wanted the outcome to be relevant to everyone in our community —staff, students and parents alike.

Nick Alchin, Head of College, in his letter to the community launching the agreements said, “It is a fundamental belief of mine, borne from experience in many schools, that the way we interact with each other as

adults will be how we interact with our students”. Building agreement on the link between our values (what we expect from ourselves and each other) and the behaviours (actions) that demonstrate them needed to be thoughtful and driven by our belief in the importance of how we are in relationship with one another.

The many consultations with stakeholder groups, synthesis, testing with groups, further feedback, adjustments, final versions (which took three attempts to really be final!), design, translations and the launch needed a whole community of stakeholders. In this the Parents’ Associations on both campuses were invaluable partners and champions. They challenged assumptions, helped to test concepts and language across cultures and guided us in our process and our communication. They were quickly onboard with the idea that belonging for everyone in our community would be an outcome of our individual and collective behaviours, and, along with the wider parent and staff community, drove us to examine each word carefully and through various cultural lenses. The translations were a wonderful project in themselves, as we understood that it was less about translation and more about interpretation, as our language experts translated the words not just for their meaning but for their cultural value. We worked through the complexity to reach simplicity, and everyone involved is justifiably proud of the results.

There are inevitably challenges when imperfect people with diverse backgrounds build community together. These Community Agreements help us to navigate those challenges. They are living statements, and we expect them to evolve and change alongside our community. They help to build our community culture and our community culture is the basic root that not only gives our students, staff and parents their daily experience at school, but is an important determining factor for how our community grows. With our UWCSEA Community Agreements as a basis, the future looks bright.

Scan the QR code to view these agreements in multiple languages:

Linguistic inclusion

Creating community for all learners

The most successful multilingual communities are those who create opportunities for the entire community to hear and see different languages in use every day, by creating space and opportunities for visual and aural reminders of our linguistic differences.

This is not to say that we shouldn’t have a lingua franca —but to create an inclusive community in line with our values we acknowledge that while English is our main language of instruction, it is simply one of many in regular use across our community.

Ellie Alchin, Director of Teaching and Learning at Dover Campus has led a multi-year strategy for linguistic inclusion, citing benefits for students in both wellbeing and learning. “A growing body of research shows that bi- and multilingualism bring cognitive, linguistic, socio-cultural and emotional benefits and that all members of a community benefit from being in a multilingual environment because it provides increased opportunities to develop intercultural understanding.”

“All languages are valuable,” Alchin notes, “and multilingual people have great advantages over monolinguals intellectually and socially. Multilingualism not only builds language skills, research shows that it also flexes conceptual learning and critical thinking in ways that build more complex neural pathways in the brain. This is one of the reasons that we aim to develop bilingualism for all our students, regardless of how many languages they speak at home.”

This year, nearly 50% of our community has a home language other than English, and we are continually looking for ways to acknowledge and harness the linguistic diversity of our classrooms and campuses to enhance teaching and learning. Examples of this are heard and seen in classrooms with translanguaging strategies being used widely by teachers,

supported by posters in different languages and growing library collections. There are also a growing number of murals, posters and signs displayed around our campuses, and recently our UWCSEA Community Agreements were translated into the 17 most frequently used languages in our community.

Alchin highlights that all of these elements contribute to the College’s Strategy to develop an inclusive community. “The aim is to equalise the status of all languages as equal, and usualise the use of first languages for our community. This enhances belonging, and encourages students to use their first language to support their learning more generally.”

UWCSEA First Languages profile

Case study 1 | Finding a common language

UWCSEA’s K–12 English as an Additional Language (EAL) programme supports students whose home language is not English to develop English language skills to support their participation in the learning programme, and to create connection and belonging within their UWCSEA community.

However, there are benefits to all students, says Nina-Noelle Hall, Head of High School EAL on Dover Campus, “The EAL programme helps with the obvious in that it teaches skills and supports acquisition of academic and personal vocabulary for students in the EAL programme. However, working with our teachers on strategies that make our learning spaces more equitable for EAL learners, such as explicit and focused vocabulary expansion, has highlighted that this supports learning for all students by creating shared definitions and understandings for everyone in the group. For example, High School teachers are experts in their own fields, who are sometimes teaching teenagers who may never have heard of ‘apartheid’ or the word ‘ameliorate’. This collaboration and

coaching approach to creating shared understanding creates a positive impact for everyone in the group.”

A post-pandemic initiative to promote multilingualism is the Grade 11 English B students reading with Infant School students. This is a wonderful way for our English B students to practise their English pronunciation in a different setting and context. And so in the David Watson Primary Library on Dover Campus, K2 students gather around their Grade 11 student readers every month. Hunched together in corners, they are mesmerised by the power of the words in their books.

“Young children have no filter, which means they are comfortable telling our Grade 11s that their pronunciation is wrong. It’s excellent learning all around! We’re also planning for our Grade 11s to read in their home languages to students who share their home language, and to continue their support of the Home Language lessons,” says Hall. “This is a beautiful way to build relationships across the school.”

Case study 2 | Translanguaging in action and on stage

Translanguaging is an intentional strategy that teachers draw on when needed to personalise the classroom experience for each student, by encouraging and supporting them to access and process their learning using their home language. This enhances their conceptual understanding of the subject, whilst helping them maintain and develop their academic knowledge in, and of, their home language. The approach is successful for students of all ages, and can be applied creatively in many settings.

“An example of a teaching strategy that promotes inclusion and the use of first languages to support student learning, is simply for teachers to ask students how to say a vocabulary word they are learning in their home language. This highlights the skill of the multilingual student to their peers, and can lead to interesting discussions as meaning and intent are clarified. It also provides the teacher a way to role model curiosity and language learning,” says Nina-Noelle Hall, Head of High School EAL on Dover Campus. “Learning from our mistakes can be a humbling experience; I can’t tell you how many times classes have laughed about my pronunciation of a word in Chinese or Hindi, for example. But we laugh together and I try again, and in the process we become closer as a community.”

In Term 3 last year, the Dover Campus Grade 9 and 10 Drama production Dunsinane explored language as an element that allowed students to shape their own interpretation. The play, written by David Greig, is an allegory for the British intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan, and tackles notions of colonialism and modern interventionism. Picking up from the end of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the narrative follows a group of English soldiers in the aftermath of the Battle of Dunsinane.

The play twists and turns as several internal factions try to fill the power vacuum. Meanwhile, the foreign forces who intervened in the civil war under the guise of being liberators, slowly see themselves become the oppressors.

“Parts of the original script are performed in Gaelic, and Grieg offers no translations or phonetic pronunciations. The Gaelic is used to demonstrate the displacement of the English troops and how ill-equipped they were to be in a foreign land dealing with a conflict that wasn’t theirs. We made the creative choice to use the cast’s home languages as a substitute for Gaelic.

The students created their own translations, and often a character spoke the lines in one language and was replied to in another. It turned out all of the home languages spoken in our production were from nations and cultures that were historically occupied, invaded or colonised by the British Empire; Tamil, Bengali, Hindi, Mandarin, German and Korean,” explains Jay Douglass, Middle School Drama Curriculum Leader.

As a company, we purposefully offered no help in translation to the audience, so depending on the observer you were either lost with the English soldier as to what the Scots were discussing, or you were able to catch the subterfuge and resistance of the oppressed.

“The play was a timely choice, closely aligned with UWCSEA’s values in creating interpersonal and intercultural understanding, as well as our aspiration to be inclusive linguistically,” Douglass reflects. “While there were many difficult topics explored in this project, challenging both our students and the audience, it also gave students a unique opportunity to bring their home language to life on stage in a very relevant context.”

Stepping stones to the great outdoors

Camilla grabs the rope firmly with both hands. She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath and launches herself off the platform. Swinging forward, she just misses the landing pad, and quickly starts spinning backwards. Just in time, a flurry of hands reach out and halt her momentum, helping her balance and stay on target.

Camilla launches off the platform alone, but she lands with the help of five classmates.

Camilla is an East Campus Grade 6 student participating in the Sarimbun Scout Camp overnight, part of the first set of overnight trips run by the UWCSEA Outdoor Education Department (OED) since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. After having missed out on overnight trips the past few years, she says she felt anxious about overnighting, but she was embracing the challenge.

“It’s a really good experience to get back in camp,” she says. “You get closer to your classmates. It’s a fun experience. If you’ve never gone camping, I think it’s just a great experience for everyone to get outside and do a bunch of fun activities together.”

Singapore’s loosening of COVID-19 restrictions has signalled a return to normalcy to many aspects of life at UWCSEA. Nowhere has that change been felt more than in the OED, which

had seen much of its critical activity, like international expeditions, put on hold. But rather than merely a return to business as usual, the overnight trips at Sarimbun represent more of a new way forward, combining best pre-pandemic practices with lessons learned from operating through two years of circuitbreaker lockdowns and other restrictions.

From international to hyper-local

When the pandemic disrupted travel from February 2020, the OED quickly pivoted, creating a ‘hyperlocal’ programme. This saw students engaged in specially-designed on campus itineraries that created learning opportunities while respecting COVID-19 health advisories. By pivoting like this, UWCSEA was the only school programme in Singapore able to operate Outdoor Education consistently throughout the pandemic.

“The COVID-era undoubtedly posed a significant challenge as we had to reign in on what we had previously been doing,” says East Campus Head of Outdoor Education, Chris Newman. “However it has also been an opportunity to adapt by utilising the best of what we could control and access, on the campuses and in Singapore.”

“This was only possible due to the emphasis placed on the holistic whole

child development view that exists at UWCSEA,” Newman says. “The grounding and resources were already in place to get creative and problem solve an existing Outdoor Education programme from 80% overseas overnight expeditions to an initially 100% campus based and then to a hybrid campus and local programme.”

With a newfound focus on keeping things local, the OED was able to turn the inability to travel from a daunting challenge into a real opportunity—one whose benefits will continue to be felt as the programme moves forward.

“One of the things about these trips is taking advantage of the local opportunities that we’ve got here,” says Dover Campus Head of Outdoor Education, Oli Sampson. “Singapore’s got a lot to offer and the students can learn a lot just by being here. Having that local experience, extending it a bit further with the overnight component, gives classes an opportunity to come together at the beginning of the year. Then they are more prepared for later in the year when that extends to a longer trip, further afield.”

“I think it’s combining the best of something new and the best of something old,” says Sampson. “What we’ll do in the next couple of years is try and find the balance of what’s been great about what we’ve done over the past

UWCSEA’s

Outdoor

Education programme gets back on track

couple of years and what’s been great about what we’ve done historically. If we don’t learn from the last three years, with the things we’ve done in Singapore, that would be a real shame.”

Stepping stones

For students like Camilla—as well as parents and teachers—overnight trips like Sarimbun are an important stage in their Outdoor Education journey.

“These overnight trips are a really big stepping stone for several reasons,” says Sampson. “First, the students are having an experience they haven’t had for the past two years. For many of them that’s quite a big deal. And it’s a fundamental warm up to the next trip, which is going overseas.

Second, it’s a big step for parents as well. Parents haven’t let their children go for a few years, and that’s a really big deal and we recognise that. So giving the opportunity for them to practise that, that’s an important step for them as well.

Finally, it’s important for our instructors and teachers, who haven’t had the opportunity to really engage with that pastoral care in the way that a residential experience allows.”

From overnights to expeditions

The resumption of overnight trips at the Sarimbun Scout Camp is a shift

towards the re-establishment of the expeditionary trips and the powerful outdoor education experiences that are essential to UWCSEA’s OED programme. Similar to longer trips in Malaysia or further afield, overnights at Sarimbun are designed to challenge students, facilitate learning with others, develop expedition skills and connect to nature. The camp’s rustic facilities provide the perfect escape from the city, with ropes courses, campfires, and simple cabins. A nearby overnight here helps prepare students, carefully building up experiences that have been missed over the past few years.

As one of the core elements of our holistic learning programme, the OED is always striving to create a rigorous, experiential and more sustainable programme. A balance of local and international trips can help to achieve this, combining the lower impact of local experiences with the full expeditionary experience that only international travel can provide.

With that in mind, the first multi-day international expeditionary trips are scheduled for Gopeng and Tioman, Malaysia starting January 2023. But just as important as the question of when will expeditions return, is what they will look like when they do.

“Despite the success of our adaptations, we see our students have missed

many of the fundamental experiences that have made UWCSEA what it is,” says Sampson. “For many, those expeditions and trips are a cornerstone of a UWCSEA experience. As we are emerging from covid restrictions we are busy exploring and planning for next year’s programmes and what Outdoor Education will look like into the future.”

“The College has undertaken a review of the sustainability of our expeditions and trips,” says Newman. “This is to ensure that trips are filtered through a sustainability lens. Each trip and expedition is planned with sustainability built into the process, reducing our impact on the environment and building in decisions and habits to support sustainable practice. Aligned with this we will continue to ensure that the connection to nature further fosters environmental stewardship and support students to be ambassadors for a sustainable future.”

For Camilla and her classmates, that experience on the Sarimbun scout camp may have just seemed like a fun experience shared with friends. But for UWCSEA, it represents a vital step towards rebuilding, and reshaping our Outdoor Education programme for a more sustainable future.

Concept-based curriculum in action

Grade 5 hands-on learning for peace and a sustainable future

By Andrea Strachan, Primary School Curriculum Coordinator and Tamsin Armstrong, Primary School Environmental Stewardship Coordinator, Dover Campus

UWCSEA is one of 18 United World Colleges (UWC) around the world, with a shared mission of making education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future. On Wednesday, 21 September we celebrated UWC Day. This year’s theme was, ‘Peace Begins With Us.’

Peace is one of the “Five P’s” that the United Nations (UN) uses to conceptualise Sustainable Development, together with People, Planet, Prosperity and Partnership. Peace education is built into our Service Curriculum, and is anywhere students learn about Sustainability. In 2019, UWCSEA named Sustainable Development as one of the five Mission Competencies which the College aims to develop in students through our holistic learning programme. But what does learning about Peace and Sustainability look like in our Primary School context? We can explore answers to this question by looking more closely at our Grade 5 programme, the culminating year of Primary School.

In Grade 5, Systems Thinking and concepts connected to Sustainability are woven throughout the curriculum. The year begins with a Unit of Study titled, ‘ What If I Were You? ’ Explorations of personal identity are incorporated into class discussions and learning engagements, and students consider the ways in which people around the world are able to meet their basic human and emotional needs depending on the resources they have access to. Students learn about organisations working to support prosperity in places where people struggle to access what they need to flourish and lead fulfilling lives.

Mid year, students engage in a Unit of Study focused on conflict transformation and peace, using case studies that

emerge from both students’ lived experiences, and local and global events. They learn about the difference between positive and negative peace, and how peace is so much more than simply the absence of war. They learn that peace begins with personal peace, extending outward to interpersonal peace and global peace.

Our Grade 5 programme culminates with a student Expo, where learners inquire deeply into an environmental issue connected to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and action we must take to protect our planet’s climate and natural resources in partnership with others.

All five of the P’s in our Sustainable Development framework—people, prosperity, peace, planet and partnership —are found within our Service Programme. Service is one of the core elements of a fully articulated K–12 curriculum designed to shape students who self-identify as capable global citizens, who have a sense of agency and understanding of their individual ability to enact meaningful positive change in the world. Service is more than just an individual endeavour, and is not about simply doing “for” others. Rather, it is about standing alongside one another, and collective efficacy. Quite simply put, it is understanding that together we can achieve more. In our Primary School, we use UWC Day as the launch of our Service Programme.

For Grade 5s, leading a Primary School composting initiative connected to our College-wide commitment to sustainability is a core component of their Service Programme. This service initiative is connected to another Grade 5 Unit of Study, called ‘ Web of Life’ that looks at biodiversity, and the importance of caring for the natural environment as all living things are interconnected. Grade 5 students begin by working together to communicate information to the rest of the Primary School community about the importance of composting, and distribute composting containers to different

parts of the school. Classes take turns each week collecting the waste materials, and delivering them to the college composting area.

On UWC Day this year, Grade 5 students had the opportunity to take usable compost, the product of the College’s composting initiative, and work with our facilities team to help spread it in our gardens. Students were able to see the full impact of their service initiative, and the ways in which small individual changes can lead to a larger, positive impact on our environment.

This Grade 5 service initiative is an excellent example of the ways in which we use our campus as a classroom to support place-based Sustainability Learning. We call these Campus Case Studies, where students and teachers work in collaboration with our Facilities and Operations team to provide opportunities for real-world, hands-on learning.

At the end of the year in Grade 5, before embarking on their Expo, students are invited to pause and reflect on their learning experiences throughout the Primary School. Learners are able to see connections between their previous learning and all of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Through student-driven learning opportunities such as the Expo and our Service Programme, students are able to identify specific ways in which they have had, and will continue to have, an impact on the world around them. This focus on Sustainable Development in our Grade 5 programme is an example of our UWCSEA concept-based curriculum in action, emphasising transferable learning to real world contexts.

Scan the QR code to read UWCSEA’s White Papers on Peace and Sustainable Development:

USING ART FOR GOOD

East Campus student wins international film contest raising environmental awareness

Grade 11 student HaoMing recently won Grand Prize in the 2022 Sony World Photography Organisation Picture This short film contest. HaoMing’s entry, ‘The Longer We Wait, The More it Takes,’ is a stop motion film that he made in June 2022.

Picture This is a global competition that supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs). The contest aims to help amplify the voices of filmmakers, while also raising awareness and inspire action for the planet.

The theme of the 2022 contest was ‘The Time to Act is Now!’ HaoMing’s entry was quite literally a home-made film, made with his mobile phone in his bedroom. Although simple in its execution, it tells an impactful story, and shows how one doesn’t need expensive equipment, institutional support or a big budget to create a powerful message. All you need is a vision and a story to tell—and maybe a little nudge from your University Advisor.

“Since I’m focused on art, my university guidance counsellor told me about the

competition and advised me to enter,” says HaoMing. “When I found out that the topic was climate change I was excited because that was something I’ve always been passionate about. Ever since I was in Middle School I’ve been learning about the UNSDGs, and the idea of being able to take action on climate change combined with my passion for art was really exciting.”

After originally planning on a more complex live-action film with his friends, scheduling conflicts, and COVID-19 forced HaoMing to rethink his approach. Realising he would have to create something on his own at home, he decided on stop-motion.

“I used clay that I bought and trash that I collected from my family over a few weeks and put together an ad about the effects of ocean pollution,” says HaoMing. “I wanted to focus on ocean pollution because it is something that I have taken action on for school and services.”

Winning the global arts competition has affected HaoMing in several ways, as he makes his plans for life after UWCSEA. Because Sony flew HaoMing

to the UK for the awards ceremony, he was able to visit several schools there to check in on their Fine Art programmes in person, something he may not have been able to do otherwise.

More importantly, winning the competition has boosted his confidence and opened his eyes to the potential of working as an artist to promote environmental awareness.

“After this competition, I realise that I can combine my passion for the environment with my passion for art, that there’s a way of working as an environmental artist,” he says. “That’s not something I ever considered before now. Before I might just paint pretty landscapes, but now I realise the potential for using art to spread awareness, to fight for the environment.“

“I learnt that it is as important to spread awareness as to take action,” says HaoMing. “So this was a good chance for me to spread awareness while exploring my creativity.”

Putting the spotlight on student innovation and the Alumni Mentorship Programme

Adapted from a report by Vedant, Grade 12, Dover Campus

In a world where change is more the norm than the exception, an ‘outside the box’ approach to problem solving is high on the list of priorities for organisations seeking to recruit the best young talent in the market. At UWCSEA our learning programme is built to equip students with the necessary skills and qualities to meet the fluid needs and challenges of the future world of work and our Alumni mentor programme is helping them to pair and shape these skills and creativity with current world experiences.

Vedant, a Grade 12 student on Dover Campus, shares his story about using innovative thinking to meet an important need, and how he is tapping into the UWCSEA Alumni mentor programme for the support he needs to scale his idea.

The need

Through observations of and conversations with friends and student groups, I noted that there is a lack of options for students to showcase their work. Some students were posting on Instagram, some on Medium, some made physical magazines, and some were simply unable to share it at all. I wanted to create a single platform—a positive, interactive and collaborative space for student work.

The idea

Introducing, Lumenol—an online hub for sharing and celebrating student-led innovation. Students, or student groups, can post creative work and others on the platform can like and comment on the work, creating a positive and encouraging community around student innovation and ideas.

The customisable profile pages also serve as a personalised mini-website/portfolio page for students which they could send

as part of their university application, internship application, or job CV.

My vision is that Lumenol becomes a one-stop-shop for all students to share, inspire and engage with student created projects and content.

The journey so far

My journey has been a non-linear trail of discovery, pivoting and problem solving.

I spent over a year understanding the problem, and designing, building and coding Lumenol from scratch.

My developing skills gained through hackathons and projects at the UWCSEA IDEAS Hub proved useful, but still, I had never taken on a project of this scale. I had to design and build with the future in mind and anticipate challenges that come with scale. I researched as much as I could, tried and failed numerous times, and learnt through the experience.

After finalising the initial designs, I collaborated with friends to name the platform. We decided on a variation on Luminol, a chemical used by many IB Chemistry students. Luminol creates a beautiful blue glow and Lumenol is designed to put the spotlight on student creativity.

The growth of Lumenol has been a journey of twists and turns, failing and learning. It continues to evolve, helped by the feedback and creative input from students and mentors around me. It’s this collaborative approach instilled by UWCSEA that has made Lumenol possible. It was a jump into the unknown and I am glad I took it.

The next steps with UWCSEA’s Alumni Mentorship Programme

I’m now looking to leverage UWCSEA’s incredible network of alumni to help guide me through Lumenol’s future as

an official platform with students from all over the world.

There are about 14,000 UWCSEA Alumni globally, all with an amazing array of skills and real-world experience. The UWCSEA Alumni Relations team has been extremely helpful, connecting me with UWCSEA Alumni through their mentorship programme. These mentors will help and guide me with important next steps to launching Lumenol. This is one of the things that makes our UWCSEA community so special, our Alumni remain connected and give back through programmes and opportunities such as this. I’ll be an alumnus soon and I hope to be able to do the same.

I hope to officially launch Lumenol soon and I can’t wait to see the positive impact it has on showcasing student innovation.

To find out more about the UWCSEA Alumni Mentorship Programme, please contact alumni@uwcsea.edu.sg

Scan the QR code to view the Lumenol prototype:

Vedant ’23 and Spencer Ansley ’95

UN NIGHT

UN Night is one of the most memorable and beloved annual events at Dover Campus, with a longstanding tradition that began in 1979, just eight years after the College was founded! The festival transforms our Tent Plaza into an exciting international food fair, sharing a vibrant mix of cuisines along with Global Concerns (GC) merchandise in support of our GC project partners, in particular, the sale of our very own yearly Global Concerns calendar. On top of that, the evening includes a spectacular showcase of creativity and innovation by 300 students representing 30 countries through dance performances. UN Night is the culmination of months of hard work and dedication by hundreds of contributors, celebrating the diversity, unity and generosity of our UWCSEA community!

30 Countries represented

300 Student performers

CULTURAMA

Celebrating it’s tenth year anniversary in 2022, CultuRama is the annual High School dance showcase at UWCSEA East that celebrates the diversity in our community through a colourful showcase of different cultures. Since its inception, it has blossomed into an exploration of cultures and national identities through various art forms. Over 200 students were involved this year, including performers, committee members and cultural ambassadors from High School. Committee members worked behind the scenes in roles such as marketing, music, photography and lighting coordinators to provide support for two live shows. Cultural ambassadors were on hand to guide performers and ensure that all performances were respectful to the various cultures. It was a thrilling evening to mark the return of a live audience.

Student performers

Countries represented

A new pathway to learning

A look at the new UWCSEA Grade 9 and 10 Academic Programme

After years of careful planning and preparation, 2022/2023 marks the first school year that East Campus is offering its bespoke UWCSEA academic programme in both Grades 9 and 10 as an alternative to the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE).

With the new programme, Grade 9 students embark on a learning journey consisting of UWCSEA designed and assessed courses, set within the holistic UWCSEA learning programme. Like the IGCSE, the Grade 9 and 10 Programme is academically rigorous, yet is designed to allow more flexibility for students to pursue individual interests while engaging in the transdisciplinary conceptual learning that is core to UWCSEA’s guiding statements.

Both pathways prepare Grade 9 and 10 students for the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) in Grades 11 and 12. This year, 55% of East Campus Grade 9 students opted for the new UWCSEA Programme.

On Dover Campus, plans to introduce the new Grade 9 and 10 options have taken a slightly different timeline, with the focus on developing a First Language course to replace IGCSE certificates that were no longer available for students. In tandem with this a UWCSEA “Narratives of our World” English Language and Literature course was launched for all students, and plans are well underway for a more extensive programme to be available on Dover Campus from next August.

The new Grade 9 and 10 programme builds on decades of experience in developing and delivering a successful specialised programme for students entering in Grade 10, which was previously called the Foundation IB. The development of the new programme now opens more academic options for incoming Grade 10 students.

What is the IGCSE?

The IGCSE consists of standardised two-year courses offered to international schools in over 150 countries by Cambridge International Examinations. Normally, UWCSEA students enter IGCSE examinations in eight subjects: English Language and Literature (two courses taught together), another Language, Coordinated Science (double award), Mathematics, Humanities and a Creative Arts or Practical subject.

IGCSE courses are assessed on a combination of coursework, a practical or oral component, and final examinations. Although assessments differ slightly from subject to subject, all IGCSE subjects have a series of external exams, which students take over the course of six weeks at the end of Grade 10.

Why a new programme?

1. Alignment with UWCSEA mission and curriculum

“We wanted to launch this programme for several reasons,” says High School Principal East Campus Damian Bacchoo. “First, we wanted to have more mission alignment, with much more focus on the interconnected global issues shaping our world.”

Whereas the IGCSE is a globally-standardised course, the UWCSEA Programme is purpose-built to align more closely with the College’s mission and values.

For example, the UWCSEA programme intentionally includes concepts like global peace and sustainability. The programme also follows the same concept-based approach to curriculum design which has been applied in K–8, which embraces interdisciplinary, transferable learning and allows students to collaborate and think across different disciplines and courses.

“The new programme is an exciting opportunity for us,” says East Campus Head of IB Mathematics Andrew Mollitt. “It allows us to dig deeper into concepts. Students are really enjoying the freedom to work on project-based activities, and linking mathematics to other areas of the curriculum that they’re studying.”

2. Preparation for the IBDBP and alternatives to examination assessment

In line with the IB Diploma model, the UWCSEA Programme assesses knowledge, skills and understanding through a variety of tasks—including examinations, when appropriate to the subject. Assessment is designed around real-world contexts through presentations, collaborative work, independent research, critical thinking and problem solving.

“We want more alignment with the IB Diploma,” says Bacchoo. “The way they learn, explore, focus on concepts and skills, and what we choose to learn in the classroom is being curated to prepare our students for the diploma programme.”

Students in the UWCSEA programme are prepared not just for assessment, but also for the approaches to learning, which are the hallmark of an IB education. All UWCSEA courses, as in the IB, are concept-based, embedding the knowledge, skills, and conceptual understandings students need to develop their passions and expertise.

“It is still a rigorous course but there is much more room for personal development and for an holistic approach,” says Nienke Altena, who teaches History and Global Perspectives and is the IB Extended Essay Coordinator on East Campus. “It’s really about students and their learning process.”

“We want to be more focused on learning, rather than testing,” says Bacchoo. “Sure, there will be ongoing assessments throughout the programme, but they’ll be more authentic. And we’ll be using the extra 10 weeks of learning that would have been spent in an exam hall, developing competencies and skills that really matter.”

3. Increased flexibility and choice

The UWCSEA Programme offers more choice and flexibility than the IGCSE, as it was designed as a modular course and is adaptable to fit the needs of the students enrolled. This flexibility is a key difference with the IGCSE which was designed to provide a globally standardised common curriculum.

This flexibility starts with the choice of 1 or 2 year courses. The result is that students can achieve greater depth of study in their particular areas of interest, while keeping up with internationally recognised standards to prepare them for IB.

The programme offers a number of optional course extensions to allow even more depth and breadth of study.

“I really enjoy the subject selections. I chose Extra English and Extra Science, and I’ve been really enjoying those subjects because everyone who chose them is really passionate about those subjects,” says Grade 9 student Kiah.

Different journeys, same destination

As with any new initiative, there might be concern about how the programme will affect students further down the road, specifically with regards to their university applications.

“We had a full cohort of students go through to have very successful university applications in our first year on East,” says High School Vice Principal Ted Cowan. “They all started in the UWCSEA-designed Foundation IB course. So really we’ve just taken a programme that’s been developing over years for our incoming Grade Tens, and expanded it. We don’t see any differences for university outcomes in the end from either programme.”

Ultimately, the UWCSEA Grade 9 and 10 programme is about increased choice, flexibility and offering an alternative to the IGCSE, not replacing it.

“We maintain that we prepare students very well on either programme,” says Bacchoo. “It’s not about which course will prepare you best for IB. It’s actually about what type of learning experience would you like? And that will come down to individual preferences.”

Whether it’s after two years of IGCSE or the UWCSEA programme, in the end it’s the same destination, just a different learning experience. All students will be equally prepared for the IB Diploma in Grades 11 and 12. They will have just experienced a different journey to get there.

Dover Campus: innovation and options

“To be able to define a programme as a College is quite an exciting development,” says Pippa Haley High School Vice Principal (Curriculum) on Dover Campus.

“Why is there a little difference between the two campuses? The short answer is that we’ve taken a slightly different innovation route to the East in developing our Grade 9 and 10 programme, but we’re going to the same destination. Probably the biggest difference this year is that at Dover, there’s currently some optionality; students can select one or the other option, or mix and match IGCSE and UWCSEA courses in Grade 9. All Grade 10 students who join us continue to do our UWCSEA Grade 10 programme, which we developed over 20 years ago as a Foundation IB year. By next year, for students entering Grade 9 or Grade 10 in August 2024, we’ll both be pretty much in the same place.”

The energy of an audience

Celebrating poetry through performance

By Clare Kiersey, Teacher of English and Lara, Grade 9, East Campus

If someone is a good musician, they are able to perform on stage and at concerts. If someone is highly sporty, they get to share that on the field and in competition. If someone is artistic or a great dancer, there is the opportunity to share work in an exhibition or in a live show. But if someone is a talented writer … there is often no platform to share their accomplishments with a live audience.

In Term 1, the Grade 9 English team decided to change this for their talented students, and created a place for IGCSE students to share their voices with their peers. Using poetry as the medium, students were given the opportunity to write poems—about anything they wanted to write about—and to then perform them. The results were a fun mixture; from the inane and light hearted, to explorations of complex issues around identity and being a teenager, to discussions on the environment, and heartwrenching and powerful historical narratives.

Two poet-performers from each class were voted by their peers to share their poem in front of a live audience of 120 students and a panel of judges who gave feedback on each performance and poem. Ultimately, words and poetry were the winner.

A performers perspective

Since time immemorial, people have come together in the light of fires to share poems and songs. This was an experience of community, of shared emotions, and hopes for the future. It strengthened bonds and was enjoyed by people of every age. We had a very similar experience this year, proving that this kind of gathering is still very alive.

Since the beginning of the year we had spent our English classes delving into the powers of poetry, looking at devices, revealing extended metaphors, untangling rhythms, and enjoying different performances.

After this, it was our turn to dip our toes into the sea of poetry and become budding poets ourselves. We were encouraged and supported step by step to achieve our best version. The

next step was gathering enough courage and self-confidence to share our slam poems with our individual classmates. It was a gift to see people’s poems on so many different topics, even though the assignment was the same for everybody. This is truly the richness of poetry; the way it brings out the inner personality of each one of us.

Each class voted for their two favourites to represent their class in a finalists performance in front of the whole cohort, and I got the chance to present my poem. I admit that it was a bit nerve-wracking, but there was hardly a happier person than me in the room when I had finished. I could feel the energy of the audience when they snapped their fingers; I could see I had moved them. Our teachers were proud of us. Most importantly, we were proud of ourselves.

Stumped

By Lara

A tree, a tree that’s been cut, A tree that’s been cut at the beginning: A tree stump

The internet will tell you it’s the silhouette

Of something alive now dead Something perfect turnt to a defect Something where the root of life becomes the result of a pocketknife And something where the explanation of gravity, Becomes a cavity

In the world’s mouth Once cut

A tree becomes the nominee to the awards of the axe

Where it lacks the leaves even if the roots are what makes it Where the empty space becomes the chances cut off it

And the cutter makes money more off it Often we

We call it tree surgeon, call it tree doctor

But it’s just a specter into the future We call it protector, call it father But we know we’re going further

From evolution

We call it good, we call it god But then we break what builds us We cut what makes us Mask what fakes us

Ruin

What is us When we are what is But is the is just a point to reminisce Years we had as kids

Where we could swing from trees Or is the is the fears we’ll face in years

To forgive what has never apologised Or is the is now a was

When the was, was once an is Is it really a tree if its beauty was a was When I feel the same as the is-

I’m stumped.

Ghar - Home

By

Aarya

I am as a tree

I remember when I moved from home Growing Still rooted Rooted by my culture

Mera desh

Mera ghar

The neverending blend of summer and monsoon The fragrant smell of Pav Bhaji Vada Pav

Bhel

The constant beep of a car horn in the crowded streets This is home Ghar. Surrounded by ocean Giving my tree life A tree that is Still growing Still rooted

As the Vada Pav changed to Burgers French-fries

Pizza

With this newfound home abroad Western culture chipped away at my roots

My tree Growing Still rooted Barely

My branches still growing as I progress in life My roots? Gone

My culture? Disappeared. The Vada Pav, the Pav Bhaji, the Bhel

Once staples growing up All gone. Replaced with burgers French-fries Pizza. India? Gone. Replaced with the west.

Welcoming back SEASAC

UWCSEA is a part of two sports conferences which provide opportunities for students aged 8 to 18 to experience and develop skills in playing sport competitively. In Singapore, ACSIS (Athletic Conference Singapore International Schools) has three seasons and welcomes teams across all age groups.

The College was also a founding member of SEASAC (South East Asian Student Activities Conference), which offers students “opportunities for healthy competition, pursuit of excellence, social and cultural interaction and the development of friendships within the region of South East Asia.”

Predominantly for High School students in the 18U age group, member schools are located in Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar and Indonesia. Senior teams travel to host schools to compete against peers in the region.

While competition continued in some disciplines, for example swimming, the pandemic halted much of the excitement for competitors and spectators alike. On the weekend of 4–6 November we were delighted to welcome visiting schools back to Singapore. The Dover Phoenix joined with Tanglin Trust to host boys and girls Football, while the East Dragons welcomed Volleyball players and spectators alike.

East Campus Infant School Outdoor Learning Programme

By Rachel Rhodes, Head of K1, UWCSEA East

Learning for 4 to 6 year olds at UWCSEA is shaped by a holistic, inquiry-based approach spanning all the five elements of the learning programme: academics, activities, outdoor education, service and personal and social education. It is shaped by teachers in response to the interests of students, each classroom and grade-level pod has centres for art, discovery, construction, mathematical exploration, reading, writing and dramatic play.

An example of this approach in action is the Outdoor Learning curriculum for Infant School students. On East Campus, our team of Outdoor Education specialist teachers have built a dedicated programme focussed on the Conceptual Understanding that “individuals can use their senses mindfully to experience and form connections to outdoor environments.”

Our Infant students have regular explorations in our on-campus green spaces, giving opportunities for students to be immersed in nature with the aim to help them get creative and comfortable in the outdoors.

Acquiring knowledge about the important roles of our gardens and what they can offer adds to the students’ growing knowledge of sustainability, fosters confidence, risktaking behaviours and an appreciation for the natural world around us.

The development of an exciting outdoor learning space in our campus Rain Garden is well underway! This will include a wild pond area to attract wildlife such as tadpoles and frogs, natural areas for children to explore and climb, mud kitchen area to develop creativity and encourage problem solving, as well as outdoor classroom spaces for carrying out wildlife surveys and observations.

Our Infant activity ‘Nature Explorers’ spent time in this new space recently to share their student voice about how they would like to use the area and what could be added to it—what a fabulous range of innovative ideas we received from our K2 and Grade 1 students that we will look to incorporate. Being asked at the end of the session by several students ‘can we come back here every week?’ demonstrates the need and desire for prolonged regular outdoor learning opportunities. It supports connection with the natural environment, through activities such as identifying wildlife, planting and caring for gardens and creative use of a wide range of natural resources.

Keep an eye out for more exciting developments in our on-campus outdoor learning spaces as well as some new trips to local nature spaces to tie in with upcoming Infant units on animal habitats and caring for our outdoor environments.

We

could never have loved the world so well if we had no childhood in it.”

George Eliot

The best classroom and the richest cupboard are roofed only by the sky.”

Margaret McMillan

Diving into marine conservation

Edited from an article written by Jake, Grade 12, Dover Campus

For Grade 12 student Jake, his interest in marine conservation started on a family outing to Monterey Bay Aquarium, California, when he was seven years old. That visit sparked a passion for marine conservation which he brings to his roles as Founder and Chair of the Marine Conservation Service and as Vice Chair of the Marine Science Society (MSS).

With plans to study marine conservation after graduating, he explains how he continues to look for ways to share his passion and inspire a younger generation to continue growing Marine Science Conservation (MCS) programmes at Dover. “We either work on education for younger students about Marine Ecosystems and organise fundraisers to fund our coral propagation work or donate to marine conservation.”

Learning beneath the surface

Both the MSS and MCS groups work towards advancing students’ understanding of reef conservation, by combining pursuit of their passion with their academic interests.

The MCS is dedicated to hands-on activities, such as the seeding and growing of corals, with a priority to teach and inspire younger students. Jake explains, “I collaborated with teachers to found the MCS, create a curriculum, locate a space and encourage Grade 9 and 10 students to participate so they can keep the service going after I graduate.”

The MSS facilitates learning about ocean acidification and the importance of marine conservation through handson activities and educational posters. They seek to raise awareness about the fragility of marine ecosystems and the impact humanity can have on nature.

With MSS guidance, Grade 3 students have grown their marine ecosystem knowledge by managing an aquarium research tank, conducting intensive research and troubleshooting to tackle an episode of algae bloom. They also experimented with eggshells to observe the effects of acidification, similar to the way corals and crustaceans experience due to climate change.

Nurturing a community that cares

“It has been a great privilege to see their eyes light up at the sight of luminescent coral. Many have never seen coral before and marine conservation was, at best, an abstract idea for them,” says Jake, “This hands-on environment has had a profound impact on their interest and awareness of the importance of protecting our coral reefs and ecosystems. I am now often asked what help they can do to provide help after school or on weekends.”

Jake is hopeful all of this activity has established positive groundwork for the next generation of High School students to embrace and continue with the passion connected to the Marine Conservation Service. “I tell younger students interested in Marine Conservation to be actively looking for groups they can join and ways they can contribute to marine sustainability.”

Testing the waters

The success of the Primary School student engagement with both the MSS and MCS has prompted a re-think of the tank’s location. To provide better accessibility, the tank will be moved from the High School Science block to the Main Reception in December 2022. Jake is planning more opportunities for younger students, including looking for ways to

incorporate Virtual Reality into lessons on ecosystems. These learning opportunities are set to include further knowledge on corals specific to Singapore waters. Meanwhile, the MSS is planning a field trip for older students to St John’s Island later this school year, to provide a handson experience of coral propagation.

What’s more exciting is that another tank, once again generously funded by donations to the UWCSEA Foundation, is in the works! Jake is involved in planning the second tank, which will highlight mangrove ecosystems, extending the learning to other aquatic ecosystems.

At the East Campus, Middle and High School student members of the Conservation@SEA Environmental Initiative (EI) are just as passionate. Their focus is on ‘Life Below Water’, the 14th UN Sustainable Development Goal, and focuses on the conservation and sustainable use of marine resources.

The group worked hard to bring to life the tank system that was installed over the mid-year holiday break. The tanks have since become both community talking points and rich learning resources, and the EI group has led an interactive marine-focused treasure hunt for Primary School students, started an awareness raising website, and filmed educational videos explaining the tanks and the fragility of the marine ecosystems they hold. A popular feature in both the Grade 5 Exhibition and the Grade 11 Extended Essays, the tank systems have sparked deeper interest among many students.

Building wellbeing in Middle School

Learning through the practice of positive education

By Ardene Mandziy, Middle School Vice Principal–Wellbeing, Dover Campus

Those of us fortunate to teach Middle School have a front row seat to witness our students growing in independence as they transition through Grade 6 to Grade 8. We describe it as a time where parents are encouraged to start stepping back in order for their young adolescents to start stepping up. We also recognise this as a pivotal period in the lives of our students, where the correlation between academic success, a safe and supportive environment and personal wellbeing is tantamount. Adolescence is a time of tremendous growth. Before our eyes our students develop physically, socially and emotionally at various paces during their time in Middle School. Often tentative to raise their hand to ask a question during the initial weeks of Grade 6, before we know it they are approaching us during playground supervision to genuinely ask staff how we are doing and inquiring about our plans for the weekend. With so much change going on during the adolescent years it’s a roller coaster of highs and lows. Emotions can run high and the journey is a very individual one. As many teachers and parents can attest, what works for one child doesn’t necessarily work for another. Each journey is individual and complex in its own right.

In our Middle School we aim to consistently provide our students with the tools to help them support their wellbeing as they navigate the adolescent years. Encouraging our students to draw on acquired knowledge and skills and seek support enables them to play an important role in orchestrating their own successful journey through the myriad of changes that occur during adolescence. One of the many ways we do this is through the teaching of Positive

Education and providing opportunities for our students to engage whole heartedly in these practices.

Positive Education draws on the work of Professor Martin Seligman, a pioneer researcher in the field of Positive Psychology. It combines best practice teaching with the core components of Positive Psychology, most significantly through Seligman’s PERMA(H) model. We encourage our students to consider how they can include the PERMA(H) strands in their everyday life in order to support our own personal positive wellbeing. These include:

• Experiencing frequent positive emotions

• Being fully engaged in learning, activities and opportunities

• Fostering and maintaining positive relationships

• Feeling a strong sense of meaning and purpose

• Accomplishing goals

• Encouraging a healthy lifestyle There are many ways to see Positive Education in action through all five elements of the Middle School learning programme. We aim to consistently provide opportunities for our students to flourish. In our daily Advisory sessions our students can be seen practising mindfulness, visualising their best possible self, sharing strategies to get a productive nights sleep or learning to juggle or solve a rubix cube in record time as part of a unit on Growth Mindset. An abundance of opportunities to build resilience, develop character and practice gratitude are at the core of our Outdoor Education programmes. Feeling a strong sense of purpose and compassion towards others is generated through our Service programme. Team work, leadership and curiosity are integral components of our sports and activities programmes. In the classrooms opportunities for personal reflection and goal setting are prioritised in order for our students to identify their strengths and demonstrate a growth mindset toward their learning journey. A visit to our Middle school assemblies will often see student initiated presentations on a variety of topics to promote adolescent wellbeing including mindfulness, values, self-regulation, gratitude, self compassion, character strengths and Random Acts of Kindness.

Each week our Middle school students attend Life Skills lessons which explicitly teach positive psychology interventions. In our classrooms you might see our students:

• identifying the personal benefits gained through demonstrating kindness, compassion and forgiveness toward themselves and others

• practising Active-Constructive responding during conversations in order to build relationships

• completing the Value in Action (VIA) survey to identify their signature strengths

• focusing on their own strengths and strength-spotting in their peers

• debating why character matters

• discussing values important to them

• sharing personal stories and strategies to exercise resilience during times of adversity

• identifying healthy and unhealthy thinking patterns

• learning about neuroplasticity and the evolving nature of their teenage brain

Through an articulated Grade 6–8 programme these lessons are designed to equip students with a significant tool box they can draw from in order to play an active role in supporting their own wellbeing. We are always reminding our students that ‘wellbeing is not a spectator sport’.

Promoting wellbeing for our students is integral to their successful engagement in all five elements of our Learning Programme. We know that feeling good and academic performance have a reciprocal influence on each other, and this is why our UWCSEA Guiding Statements have the Learning Principles embedded within our Wellbeing Principles. We believe that creating a safe environment with a strong sense of community wellbeing where our students can speak openly, share and examine their values and proactively develop strategies and skills required to navigate the ups and downs of their adolescence is essential for our Middle School students to flourish. It is exciting to be able to incorporate the science of Positive Psychology into our Middle School practice and to witness its positive impacts on the growth and development of the young people in our care.

References

Seligman, Martin E. P, Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being. New York, NY, Free Press, 2011

VIA Character Strengths https://www.viacharacter.org/

Recommended reading

Waters, L. The Strength Switch: How The New Science of Strength-Based Parenting Can Help Your Child and Your Teen to Flourish. New York: Avery, 2017.

Recommended podcast

The Happiness Lab with Dr Laurie Santos (Pushkin) - Happier Parents, Happier Kids Pt 2: Letting Children Try and Fail

THE HOUSE THAT TABITHA BUILT

A special tribute to Global Concerns partner, Tabitha Foundation

UWCSEA’s Service programme has been woven into the fabric of the College our founding and our service partners have been integral in bringing our mission to life both within Singapore and abroad.

One such partnership has spanned nearly three decades and now sadly, will draw to a close early in 2023. Tabitha Foundation is a much loved global Global Concerns (GC) partner whose mission is to

enable the poorest of the poor in Cambodia to recognise and develop inherent skills and resources in a way that brings dignity and respect within the people we work with; within the country and within the world; and that will result in measurable and visible improvement in the lifestyles of the people we work with.”

Tabitha Foundation’s people and programmes have left an indelible mark on the lives of those who have participated in the many house-building projects and fundraising efforts over a 28-year partnership.

As we reflect on this special partnership we take you on a journey back to the beginning, to see how the tapestry of this enduring relationship became so much more than just a programme, but was woven into a beautiful story of people on a shared mission for grass roots change in a country torn apart by genocide.

Like most great partnerships, the story of Tabitha and UWCSEA began with a fortuitous meeting of characters. The protagonist, Janne Ritske meets Andy Payne, a Design and Technology teacher at UWCSEA. Both have different backgrounds and a different set of skills, but they share a dream of breaking the cycle of poverty for the Cambodian people.

To hear more about this journey, we interviewed Susan Edwards, Head of Global Concerns on Dover Campus, who has been part of the house building programme since its early days. We asked her to help tell the story of how this special service partnership with Tabitha began. In the following pages Susan shares the history of UWCSEA’s special partnership with Tabitha.

Houses over 1,000 homes built

Schools 11 in Svay Rieng and Prey Veng provinces

Water sources over 1,000 wells and ponds

Family partnerships countless; Dover Campus donated over S$1.5 million between 2014–2022

Photo by Tom Soper

Janne Ritskes, founding of Tabitha Foundation

To know Tabitha you need to first know its founder, Janne Ritskes. Janne was born in the Netherlands before emigrating to Canada in 1951. In 1992 she relocated to Cambodia, bringing with her a wealth of experience from working with large non-government organisations and a dream to help the Cambodian people.

When she arrived it was still very dangerous—there were bullets flying around after dark and she would sleep in her bathtub for safety. One of the only foreigners in Cambodia not associated with the UN, she was isolated and exposed.

In spite of the dangers, she was determined to help effect grass roots change for the people of Cambodia and help them rise out of poverty by their own volition, in an individual and dignified way.

Her idea, savings programmes for families; her method, to resurrect some of the cottage industries that had nearly disappeared during the years of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime.

She started with silk and found artisans who still knew the traditional methods of crafting silk. She became a significant player in regenerating a traditional and cultural industry in Cambodia, one that had been all but decimated under the Khmer Rouge. She provided a safe place for women to craft and began to look for ways to sell the goods and generate an income for these women. These silk goods were the small beginnings of Janne’s big dream, and they signify the birth of the Tabitha Foundation.

A woman of very strong Christian faith, Janne had connected with what was left of the Christian community in Cambodia. Through these connections she was introduced to an orphanage in Phnom Penh. Although an orphanage was not in Janne’s initial plan, she did have some professional child protection experience, so she went about creating a charter

for child protection. This charter was eventually adopted by the Cambodian government and is how Janne met Andy Payne and his wife Mary.

Making the UWCSEA connection

Janne was looking for good families who were able to take care of the orphaned children. Andy and Mary were both teachers at UWCSEA Dover. Andy taught Design and Technology and Mary, Mathematics. In 1995 the Payne’s travelled to Cambodia to visit the orphanage and were introduced to Janne. They quickly gained an understanding of Janne’s bigger plans and could see the progress she had already made.

Andy and Mary began taking bags of silk and craft goods back to Singapore where UWCSEA would hold fairs and open house craft days where people could purchase the small hand made crafts. As interest grew, the cottage industry operation became more sophisticated.

Andy then had the idea to marry his job as a Design Tech teacher with a real need in Cambodia—the provision of safe housing. He took the concept to Janne, and had to work hard to convince her that this would be a good project. He eventually convinced her and so began the first house build.

Founding a partnership

The idea of a house building programme was borne from a combination of factors: Andy’s background in Design Technology; GC partnerships had to be able to offer a project accessible to students; and most importantly, they had to address a real need—in this instance, safe housing for families in Cambodia. And so began the partnership between UWCSEA and Tabitha.

The first build was in 1995, for a house in a low-income area in Phnom Penh with Grade 11 students and teachers. They had found a very kind family who agreed to dismantle their house to accommodate

the build, but their neighbours warned them, “Don’t be stupid. You know you’re going to dismantle a very good house that you already have and there’ll be problems thereafter.”

By the end of the first afternoon, the house had a definite tilt. Soon after, a part of the house collapsed. There was a bit of blood and a bit of consternation and people went off to get medical help. Nothing that couldn’t be solved, but not a great start.

The UWCSEA troupe regrouped that evening to replan and restructure. Back at the house the neighbours were relishing the moment, “We told you! These people are not going to come back and do the job. You’re going to be homeless!”

I’m happy to report that the UWCSEA crew came back the next day and finished off the job but it clearly highlighted that they were better teachers than they were builders!

From that first (shaky) house-build a solid foundation for a sustainable building programme grew. Tabitha employed Heng, a local survivor of the Khmer Rouge genocide. Heng, who is still with Tabitha, took over the overseeing of the construction process, the materials and the support groups.

At first we took Grade 11 students, then we included the Grade 8 students. Then we created a History unit in Grade 8 and so on. Slowly but surely, momentum grew. Andy Payne was regularly going on house building trips, and Mary would ask, “when can I go?” Some of the other wives joined in and so it was suggested that they do their own women’s trip. And so they did.

That first ever ladies group then expanded into our parent community, who have organised annual ladies house building trips ever since.

And so that is the story of how our GC partnership started with a conversation at an orphanage and went from strength to strength to become what it is today.

Closing its doors

There are myriad reasons Tabitha is now closing its doors. A main driver has been, as for many organisations, the impact of the pandemic, which put a hold on most Tabitha activities on the ground. Jan also had to return to Canada at the start of the pandemic due to personal health concerns.

There has also been a dramatic change in the fabric of Cambodian society since Tabitha’s inception almost 30 years ago. There are now many micro-banks and micro-lenders, urban migration has exploded, and some of Tabitha’s initiatives, like silk weaving, are sadly becoming outdated.

But there are some happier reasons as well. Many rural men now have experience in construction due Cambodia’s rapid economic and urban growth, so are able to work on their own housing projects. With this economic growth, the general level of poverty in Cambodia has decreased, and with it the number of people requiring the kind of aid Tabitha gives.

The UWCSEA and Tabitha Foundation partnership is not over just yet. In January 2023 there will be a final house build. The Gill Family (all alumni), Dover Campus teachers Kate Lewis, Ally Garland, Susan Edwards and all their families will join other Tabitha stalwarts from around the world to build 90 houses in two days. “It will be a sad goodbye but we plan to go out with a bang!” says Susan Edwards.

Our UWCSEA community will remain forever grateful to Janne, Heng and the Tabitha Foundation team, for the opportunity to partner with them over the years. This partnership has enriched the lives of our entire UWCSEA community—students, staff and parents, in more ways than can be expressed. At the heart of this partnership are the beautiful families in Cambodia who always warmly welcomed us with their big smiles and warm hospitality.

We thank Janne for her commitment, her leadership and for showing us what it means to selflessly serve others in the pursuit of peace and equity for all humanity. Thank you.

Photo by Tom Soper

Anecdotes

The UWCSEA–Tabitha partnership has touched so many lives in so many different ways. As we prepare to close this special chapter in the history of our GC partnerships we asked some of our community to share their poignant moments and memories of this special partnership.

“Back in 2001, I joined the school as a Grade 2 teacher and, one day early on it was explained to me that Janne Ritskis from Tabitha would speak to the Grade 2s that afternoon. Wanting to make a good impression in my new school, I sat my class down and led a discussion that had as its theme “People Less Fortunate than Ourselves”. Happy that I had prepared them well for whatever this lady might say, we took our seats after lunch. Within minutes of beginning her talk, however, Janne proceeded to destroy my street cred! And gave me a lesson in the process about the kind of school I had joined. I never forgot it.

She described a phenomenon in which people, (nearly always grown-ups she explained), insist on using the phrase “people less fortunate than ourselves”. She wanted to know if any of them had ever heard adults use this phrase because she needed their help in getting them to stop it.

“There!” a child gave me up. “There’s one of them right there! He’s been saying it all day!”

Poor Janne—she wasn’t really expecting to expose a teacher in the room as one of her intended culprits, particularly one who looked so helpless and condemned as I. She tried politely to change tack but really it was too late.

When people use this phrase, Janne explained, they usually mean “stuff” or money. She told a story about a boy she knew, who got to go to school every day. And every day, when he returned home, his Mum and Dad are there waiting for him. When they see him enter the village in the distance, they jump up and down and wave and shout and laugh. He reaches them and they smother him with kisses and with love and then he teaches them everything he can remember that he learnt at school that day, while they listen and don’t interrupt.

“Now hands up”, Janne said. “Put your hands up if you would like that to happen to you every day when you get home?”

Of course every hand shot up—and not just because it was expected—every earnest hand.

“And keep your hands up if you won’t see one of your parents, probably your Dad, at all today or maybe for the rest of the week?’ A depleted forest of raised arms—but a forest for sure.

“Who is less fortunate now?” Janne smiled kindly at them all. “Who’s less fortunate now?”

What a lady. And what a school. I had never encountered anything quite like it honestly. Seven-year-olds being exposed to this kind of thinking, made so accessible to them. Their hapless teacher learning the greatest lesson of all.”

The several Tabitha house-building trips I was fortunate enough to be a part of continue to be one of my fondest memories to this day, seven years after my last visit to Cambodia. It was in Cambodia’s rural provinces that classroom lessons about poverty and deprivation were actualised, and yet the people we met were some of the kindest I have ever come across.

Cambodia will forever hold a special place in my heart and so too Tabitha, for demonstrating that small steps are a catalyst for big change, and to never underestimate the impact you can have as an individual but more importantly as a collective.

I never viewed my time fundraising or house building with Tabitha as self-fulfilling. I always felt I was adding to something bigger than myself. While it is likely that Tabitha left a larger impression on me than I did on it, I will always remember the experiences and I am honoured to have represented it.

One memory that stands out particularly is 2019 UN Night. As Chair of Tabitha HS GC, I oversaw the running of three stands, and I noticed just how much it meant to everyone there. The people who came to buy crafts or make donations were overwhelmed by the amount of awareness-raising we were doing. Onlookers and other stallholders would come to just listen to stories about Tabitha, and I could see their genuine interest. I viewed UN Night 2019 as a success for much more than the amount we raised, but for the interest and awareness that was built in our community.

I would like to thank Janne and the Tabitha team for the opportunity to help those who needed it most for 28 years. UWCSEA was lucky to have such a special level of partnership with an organisation like Tabitha.

Brian Ó Maoileoin

Primary School Principal, Dover Campus Jake Gill ’15

Oscar McAuliffe ’21

Taking in the good

Meet Seema Desai, High School Principal, Dover Campus

By Aliya and Kaira, Grade 11, Dover Campus

Seema Desai joined UWCSEA Dover as the High School Principal in August 2022. Starting her career as a Post Doctoral Research Fellow at Imperial College in London, she quickly realised her passion lay in teaching and thus began her journey in education. She lived all over the world, including Sri Lanka, Oman, the UK, Australia, Italy, and the USA before landing in Dubai to spend 15 years as the Secondary School Principal at Fairgreen International School.

Drawn to UWC’s mission and our values-based education, she says her move followed engagement with UWC alumni, who inspired her to learn about our approach to a holistic education that has enabled many to become thought leaders in varied industries and make a real-world impact. She says, “It is an aspirational institution of which I am proud to be a part of.”

“In a world that’s more volatile, broken and uncertain than ever, we need institutions like UWC that makes education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future. The world would be more united and peaceful if leaders demonstrated the UWC values of compassion, integrity and trust.”

Reflecting on the numerous issues in the world that require addressing—climate crisis, growing humanitarian conflict, mental health issues, gender inequality, unemployment and more—Seema believes that UWC must continue to focus our efforts toward making an impact in each of these areas.

She finds inspiration in a concept outlined by Yuval Noah Harari a historian, philosopher, and the author, who spoke in an interview about the “Future Of Jobs and Education” in 2021, about how the biggest struggle for the masses in the 20th century was against exploitation, whereas the big struggle in the 21st century is going to be that of irrelevance. He used a metaphor which struck her as apt for today’s students, describing education in the past as being like a stone house with very deep foundations. Whereas education is now more like constructing a tent that you can fold up and move to another location very quickly and easily.

I am really honoured to have joined UWCSEA where there is already a strong culture of care rooted in an environment that provides meaningful and authentic learning opportunities for all.”

In view of this, Seema believes that one purpose of education is to “enable students with emotional intelligence and mental resilience, to be comfortable with ambiguity and the unknown. We must aim to empower them with the ability to keep learning and keep changing themselves throughout their lives.”

She aspires to build and strengthen the learning environment in the High School, believing it is important “for our community to work hard to be innovative and creative in our thinking while maintaining a culture of care. The starting point for our students is not about what they want to be, but about the problem they intend to solve.”

Born in Asmara, Eritrea, Seema speaks English, Gujarati and a little bit of Hindi. Her life motto is ‘Take in the good’ which, she says, serves as a daily reminder to focus on the beauty around her, the positives in her own life, and what she is grateful for. While she loves travelling and has had the privilege of living, working and visiting many countries, she is truly passionate about how education can empower children from disadvantaged backgrounds, especially girls, allowing them to craft their own destiny and create a better standard of living.

Scan the QR code to watch

Yuval Noah Harari’s interview ‘Future of Jobs and Education’:

UWC DAY: PEACE BEGINS WITH US

21 SEPTEMBER 2022

UWC Day is our annual global celebration of the UWC mission and values. Held each year on the International Day of Peace, at UWCSEA we invite our whole community to come to school dressed in a way communicates an aspect of their identity that is important to them. For many that means national dress—and this year, as we celebrated without masks at last, we were so pleased to see the universal language of the smile.