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This year our school is also keeping its eye on the ball. Our umbrella five-year strategic plan is the framework that guides us. However, aligned with that is a sense that we need to ensure that whatever we do is future-proof, a building block for what will come next. Leadership is focused on the theme of “building towards sustainability” as a pathway which embraces all the work we are doing across our community, keeping the sustainability idea in the back of our minds in everything we do, setting up systems that will work beyond the individual and teaching the students about taking responsibility for their future.
Sustainability is, in the first place, associated with our environmental responsibility and as such we are having conversations across the school about how we can be more pro-active in this area, we already have Bye-Bye Plastic Bags in HS and the Earth Club in Grade 5 paving the way towards actively taking control of our environmental awareness, but what more can we do? As Head of School, I started with the Boosters and was delighted at how receptive they were to the idea of making the Boosters events more eco-friendly. Our recent Back-to-School BBQ experimented with recyclable cups and plates, however, this initiative needs everyone’s support, we could bring our own utensils to the Booster events and join in their conversations of how we can make this happen. Wouldn’t it be a proud thing to say by the end of the academic year that all our community events are “plastic free & sustainable”, a challenge for sure, but definitely possible. The world is giving us more and more opportunities to make this part of what we do, not just an abstract concept.
Sustainability isn’t limited to the environment, it can also be about sustainable ideas, in terms of ourselves it means what you do today should count towards tomorrow. I talked to all our students about this at our whole school assembly; academically they are studying today to be successful tomorrow but it could also mean that a kindness today will pay off tomorrow and indeed if we look after ourselves today we will have a better chance of being healthy tomorrow.
I am a great believer in the phrase “it’s not about me it’s about us”. Our student profile asks for our students to be “ethical contributors”, and as I said to the students this includes thinking about how we contribute - whether by helping out at a Booster event, looking after your classmates or simply by following the rules of the school you are contributing to making VIS a place to be proud of. However, as I say to the staff, the student profile isn’t just for the students, we should all be honoring and role-modeling it.
2018-2019 Verdala International School Staff