Largest Environmental Sustainability Lesson

More than 3000 students joined hands across Dulwich campuses in Asia to drive forward the global sustainability agenda on 30 October 2019.

The world’s largest environmental sustainability lesson (multiple venues) was taught in-person by Mr Anthony Reich at Dulwich College Shanghai Pudong and broadcast to all 11 schools within the Dulwich College International (DCI) network spanning eight cities – Beijing, Xi’an, Suzhou, Zhuhai, Seoul, Singapore and Yangon, in addition to Shanghai. A total of 3006 students participated in the lesson, and we achieved a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title.

According to the UN, quality education is the foundation for creating sustainable development. Besides improving the quality of life, inclusive education can equip students with the tools and skills they need to develop innovative solutions to the world’s biggest problems. With this in mind, DCI built sustainability education into its curriculum to empower its students to shape green, low emission and climate-resilient societies.

“Our vision is for our students to Live Worldwise – to have the skills and motivation to make a positive difference in the world,” said Fraser White, co-founder, CEO and Chairman of Dulwich College International. “The environmental issues facing our planet are both a challenge and an opportunity. It is our responsibility to create future leaders who will champion sustainability across the globe but this also gives us an amazing chance to find new ways of working and new ways of teaching. The Largest Environmental Sustainability Lesson at Dulwich is a collaboration between the school and our students so they are engaged in designing and directing the learning experience. We are proud that this collaboration that the students co-designed has created a movement across all our campuses in Asia and clinched a world record.”

Themed “Living a Sustainable Lifestyle”, the lesson demonstrated the importance of environmental protection and focused on enabling students to effect tangible positive change in their life. Students from Year 3 to Year 11 all played a critical role in all aspects of creating the learning experience, even developing the lesson content and designing the “sustainability pledges” to help support meaningful lifestyle changes.

Fifteen-year-old Isaac, former DCSPD student now at Dulwich College Beijing, combined his interest in web development with his love for the planet by developing together with Mr Phil Whitaker, Director of Educational Technology and Innovation here at DCSPD, from scratch the webpage to host these pledges.

“My previous experiences of being the main web developer at HakD, DCS hackathon, provided me with the opportunity and confidence to now be on the web development team of the homepage of the Largest Environmental Sustainability Lesson,” explained Isaac. “I love using the skills I’ve learnt to bridge my passions for STEAM and web development with an initiative that brings attention to the climate crisis, a massive problem facing our species.”

The Largest Environmental Sustainability Lesson kicks off “Sustainable November” – a larger month-long movement encouraging sustainable living across not only here at DCSPD but all of DCI’s family of schools. Students and staff will be encouraged to stay committed to the pledges they made as part of the lesson and support one another in building habits to make tangible and permanent lifestyle changes that will create a long-lasting impact. A big thank you to all the students and staff members that worked together with Mr Reich, Mr Whitaker, Mr Abass and the DCI team led by Jessie Wang to create a wonderful lesson for all our students from Year 3 to Year 11.  We are sure your children will come home excited about their 5 challenges, their teaspoons of change, that they will try and live by for the month of November. We hope you will join them.

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