NAE Global Campus

In assemblies this week our Secondary students were given a brief tour of Global Campus, the online platform that connects our 66,000+ students from NAE schools around the world. Our students are a part of a global community, and though Global Campus they are able to connect, learn, and interact with their peers and cooperate on a range of projects linked to our world-leading collaborations. BIS students can experience discussions led by experts from a number of fields, including STEAM, Performing Arts, and Social Impact. Over the last half term they have been able to access talks by an astrophysicist, a robotics expert, and next week a neuroscientist working in Artificial Intelligence. These really are amazing experiences!

There are a number of events and competitions taking place this year that we will be involved in as a school: World Children’s Day on Friday 20^th November celebrating Children’s Rights, the Creative Writing and Comic Book Competitions around the theme of Climate Action and invention, and the Visual Arts Competition next term. There are also virtual sports and musical events, as well as dance challenges, science experiments, and mindfulness activities, all tailored for our students. Many of these activities have been created by the talented teachers from across our schools, as well as through our partnerships with MIT, Juilliard, and UNICEF.

To find out more about Global Campus, you are invited to attend a webinar introducing you to the platform and sharing how it can be used at home as well as in school. There really are an amazing range of activities and resources available! Please join us on Monday 9^th November at 4.15pm and register via this link:

https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_qEVz_EqMQ1eu-fFv7_Wk0A
 

Reimagine Challenge in collaboration with UNICEF

To end the assembly, our students watched an animation of a poem by writer Arundhati Roy which considers the impact of COVID-19 on our lives. The Pandemic is a Portal highlights some of the issues we faced globally before the pandemic, from poverty, to climate change, to inequality and discrimination, and challenges us to see the opportunity in taking a pause. When we talk about life ‘going back to normal’ we could also consider whether ‘normal’ was good enough.

UNICEF is challenging young people to reimagine a post-COVID world and a new sustainable normal.

Reimagine a greener and more sustainable world.
Reimagine the future of wellbeing and mental health.
Reimagine the future of education and work.
Reimagine a future without discrimination.
Reimagine any other children’s rights or development issues that are important to you.

For the month of November, in the lead up to World Children’s Day, BIS students can take on this challenge through any medium they choose – drawing, painting, sculpting, photography, writing, or any other way they can express their imagination and represent their idea of a new normal. We would love for our families to have conversations about this at home and perhaps work together on a project.

Students are able to view the submissions of other NAE students through Global Campus and can post their ideas in response. We’ll be putting together a showcase of these entries after World Children’s Day and look forward to seeing how our students reimagine the world.
 

Lauren Binnington
Deputy Head Teacher Enrichment
Regional NAE-UNICEF Lead for South East Asia and the Middle East