Sustainability
Kingston International School has made sustainability a core part of its mission and operations. The school has implemented numerous initiatives to reduce its environmental impact and educate students on the importance of sustainable practices.
From an educational perspective, sustainability is woven throughout the curriculum. Students learn about renewable energy, conservation, and environmental protection in their IBPYP Units of Inquiry. The school also organizes regular field trips to local sustainability-focused organizations and features guest speakers on environmental topics. Additionally, the school has an active environmental club, the Kingston Environmental Group, where students take on sustainability-focused service projects both on campus and in the local community. The school also has a robust recycling programme to divert waste from landfills.
Kingston International School believes that cultivating environmental stewardship in students is crucial for creating a more sustainable future. By leading through example with its own sustainable practices and empowering students to take action, the school is helping to develop the next generation of global citizens committed to protecting the planet.
Kingston Environmental Group (KEG)
The Kingston Environmental Group (KEG) was established in 2012 with the mission of enacting student-led green initiatives across our two primary campuses. Since its inception, the KEG has proposed and led energy-saving initiatives such as our ‘lights-out, air-con off’ procedure that applies to all classes. Additionally, the students of KEG have helped maintain our recycling program and have held many activities to help raise awareness of our environmental responsibilities at school and at home. Thanks to the KEG, the Upper Primary has a food composting programme, which in turn has helped the students to enrich the soil in which they plant their crops rather than sending food waste to landfill.
School Garden
A school garden allows students to directly participate in sustainable practices getting hands-on experience with eco-friendly processes. Maintaining and caring for a school garden can teach students tangible lessons about the resource-conscious mindset and cycles underlying sustainability. Each year, the students of KEG prepare, plant, maintain and harvest our campus gardens. When the crops are harvested, the vegetables are shared amongst the student community. In our Kindergarten we have a vertical garden and also during our unit of inquiry on How the World Works our students plan, plant and take care of their own class gardens. The vegetables and fruit grown in the garden are then cooked and eaten by our students at school.
Field Trips
Field trips allow students to directly observe and interact with sustainability concepts in real-world settings. Seeing sustainable practices in action and understanding their real-world impacts can make abstract sustainability topics more concrete and meaningful for students. Some examples of field trips that are incorporated into our students’ learning are: Urban Oasis Organic Farm, H2Hope Centre, Ocean Park Workshop (Ocean Carnival), Crossroads Trail of Need, Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, Hong Kong Wetland Park, Hong Kong Science Museum, Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD), Ark Eden Native Tree Care Programme, Tai Mo Shan Country Park, and the Y5 Overnight Camp
Guest Speakers
Inviting guest speakers with expertise in sustainability can provide students with valuable first-hand insights and perspectives that textbooks and lessons may not fully capture. Hearing directly from professionals working in the sustainability field can help students better grasp the complex challenges and innovative solutions involved in transitioning to more sustainable practices. Some examples of guest speakers that we have invited to Kingston include World Vision and Jordan Hattar.
Reusing and Recycling
Kingston maintains a classroom-based and student-run reuse and recycle program. Recyclable paper, plastic and metal items are brought by students from the classroom to our campus recycling bins. This is a much-coveted classroom job and all students are able to participate during each school year as classroom job duties are rotated on a regular basis.
Unit Related Learning Engagements and Experiences
In 2017, Kingston began to incorporate the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) into our IBPYP Program of Inquiry. The SDG are an excellent fit for an already-rigorous environmentally-conscious educational framework and have been featured as guiding principles for multiple Primary Years Program Exhibitions (PYPx) since their integration into our program.
Sustainability is the bedrock on which a significant number of units of inquiry are built. Human impact on our environment is examined alongside potential and current realistic solutions within our organizing themes of ‘Sharing the Planet’, ‘How We Organize Ourselves’ and ‘How the World Works’. With Action at the heart of the PYP program, Kingston students are often required to propose formal solutions to environmental problems and present these in exhibitions and other assessment engagements.
On overseas trips, our Year 6 students have the opportunity for solution-based environmental education through hands-on learning engagements such as those offered by the NeWater Visitor Centre and the Marina Barrage Sustainable Singapore Gallery in Singapore.
