Status Open Province Bali Number of students 400 | Enrolment 400 Phone +62 361 469875 | |
School type Private Alternative/ Sustainability Education Address Jalan Raya Sibang Kaja, Banjar Saren, Abiansemal, Sibang Kaja, Abiansemal, Kabupaten Badung, Bali 80352, Indonesia Founded September 2008, Bali, Indonesia Profiles | ||
Green School (Bali) is a non-profit, private and international pre-kindergarten to high school located along the Ayung River near Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.
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The school was founded by John and Cynthia Hardy. The Hardys reportedly conceived of Green School in 2006 after reading Alan Wagstaff’s Three Springs concept document for an educational village community, but have also attributed the inspiration to the Al Gore documentary An Inconvenient Truth. The School’s bamboo bridge, spanning 22 meters across the Ayung River, was completed in November 2006. Green School opened in September 2008 with 90 students and a tailor-made campus that emerged from the jungle and rice fields. Since then it has grown to approximately 400 students.
Ecological design
Despite early intentions to live off the grid, as of 2014 the school's 70+ buildings are not off the grid, but use some renewable energy sources, including micro-hydro power from a "hydroelectric vortex", and solar power.
The campus is designed around the principles of an organic permaculture system, and the students cultivate an organic garden as part of their learning activities. Buildings are constructed primarily from renewable resources including bamboo, local grass and traditional mud walls. The campus has been reported as an example of the large-scale building potential of bamboo architecture, especially “The Heart of the School” - a 60-meter long, stilt-structure constructed with 2500 bamboo poles. The school also utilizes renewable building materials for some of its other needs, although senior students are required to use laptops.
In January 2015, the Green School high school students launched the Bio Bus, a student-led social enterprise to provide sustainable transport services to Green School students, teachers and community. This initiative looked at solving the transportation system to the rural setting of Green School, which mainly consisted of private cars, carpooling and motorbikes. The Bio Bus now has three 18-seater buses that run purely on biodiesel (B100) made from used cooking oil.
Curriculum
Green School Bali’s vision is to educate young green leaders in global citizenship. The curriculum is a progressive model of learning that connects the timeless lessons from nature to a relevant and effective preparation for a fast-changing future within the guiding values of integrity, responsibility, empathy, sustainability, peace, equality, community, and trust.
The school consists of four learning neighborhoods - Early Years, Primary School, Middle School & High School. Special programmes include Green Studies, environmental science, entrepreneurial learning, and the creative arts. The structure is the Three Frame Day which includes the Integral Frame, the Instructional Frame, and the Experiential Frame.
The school reportedly "prepares students to be stewards of the environment, teaching them to be critical and creative thinkers, who champion the sustainability of the world and the environment."
TRIHITA ALAM ECO SCHOOL, in Denpasar area. also green and play-based curriculum.
Kul Kul Connection
Founded in 2016, the Kul Kul Connection is a community program, hosted after school for more than 210 local students. The main focus of the program is the English language and sustainability.
Board of Directors
In 2015, Green School launched a Strategic Review process to include members of the faculty, parents, local community and board of directors in the spirit of the progressiveness of the school. To meet this evolution, the governance structure of Green School was updated and made public. School Board Members have included Roger J. Hamilton David Heffernan. Ronald Stones, Nadya Hutagalung, Mickey Ackerman, Chris Saye, Derek Montgomery and Theo Bakker.
Awards
Green School was awarded the 2012 "Greenest School on Earth" award by the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council. The school was a finalist for the 2010 Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
Notable students
Melati and Isabel Wijsen, the founders of initiative Bye Bye Plastic Bags, are students at the school. In September 2015 they spoke at TEDGlobal London and in December 2015 at Wonderfruit in Thailand about the problem of plastic pollution on the island of Bali. Through their efforts the Governor of Bali has committed that Bali will be free of plastic bag use by 2018.