St. Andrews International School, Green Valley in Rayong, is a proud recipient of the globally-recognised environmental award, the Green Flag Eco-Schools Award. The Green Flag, awarded by the WWF and part of the world’s largest sustainable schools’ programme, is the very best attainable Eco-Schools award, recognising and celebrating the ecological achievements of young people inside faculties. It acknowledges St Andrews International School, Green Valley for his or her eco-literate instructional philosophy and their dedication to youth-led climate motion that drives in the direction of a extra sustainable future.
St. Andrews International School, Green Valley was the 7th college in Thailand to achieve the Green Flag award. The prestigious award has made St. Andrews a globally recognised eco-school and among solely nine schools in Thailand to have achieved it.
The faculty obtained the award in June this yr, with the Green Flag introduced to the school’s Eco-council on Tuesday, December 6. Tested obtained the award from WWF’s Country Communications and Corporate Engagement Manager, Rungsima Kasikranung, who commented:
‘The Eco-warriors at St Andrews International School, Green Valley have proven wonderful examples on the method to take positive actions towards a sustainable future. Although the Green Flag is an exceptional achievement, the greatest achievement is the change that the students are making in the world.’
In line with St. Andrews Green Valley’s emphasis on an eco-literate education, the school’s Eco-council, consisting of each students and staff inside the neighborhood, have carried out over 10 eco-projects and carried out a full school curriculum review, ensuring that sustainable practices, an ecological understanding and a dedication to caring for the world are embedded into the day-to-day life of the school.
Each of the tasks are linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and search to promote 10 areas: 1) biodiversity, 2) group gardening, 3) beach cleaning, 4) valuing nature, 5) sustainable meals, 6) decreasing, reusing and recycling, 7) green energy, 8) cycling, 9) afforestation, and 10) a green community.
Making use of the school’s amenities, which embrace an onsite forest school, biology pond and over 30 rai of tropical and spacious land, the projects included the event of community gardens during which the scholars plant and grow their very own fruit and vegetables. These gardens, known as the Giving Gardens, contribute to a sustainable food cycle within the group, whereby the grown fruit and vegetables are used inside the school’s own cooking practices or are donated to native charities inside the community.
In addition, the scholars have also introduced green energy onto the college site through photo voltaic panels and a student-designed irrigation system which uses photo voltaic vitality to water the neighborhood gardens.
The faculty can additionally be giving again to the setting in other methods, including an afforestation venture which seems to introduce more healthy bushes into the environment. Seedlings grown in the school’s onsite tree nursery are nurtured by college students and are later planted throughout the group. Not solely this, however the faculty has additionally supported a mangrove planting project which has reintroduced mangroves back into the ecosystems of native islands.
Other projects inside the school additionally embrace the composting of food and plant waste, recycling of plastic to create living plant walls and eco-brick furnishings, and the promotion of a healthy and sustainable out of doors life-style. Let’s not neglect concerning the cycle paths in and around the faculty campus, and the Forest School the place students be taught in regards to the biodiversity of the campus and the way to take care of it.
‘As a faculty, we are committed to creating the following technology of future changemakers – students who’re actively engaged as leaders within their neighborhood. The Green Flag Award, due to this fact, is not the top of our journey; it’s merely the beginning. We are immensely excited for what the means forward for our college seems like as we cleared the path in eco-literate education in Thailand’
– Charles Grayhurst, Head of School