December 2014
The Aceh Project
UN Night and CultuRama
Grade 12 and Grade 5
collaboration
Living the mission on a grand scale
By Chris Edwards
Head of College
UWC South East Asia
“How many?”
It was as if all my friends had gone deaf.
At first, I would give my answer to that
incredulous “How many?” sheepishly.
After all, you can’t possibly get to know
all the staff, let alone the students in
a school that size, and how can such
a state of affairs possibly be a good
thing? But now, as my first term at
UWCSEA hurtles towards completion,
I answer the “How many?” question
with the quiet assuredness of Clint
Eastwood. Not only do I look deep
into people’s eyes when I tell them
the UWCSEA enrollment, but I’m also
perfecting a “You gotta problem with
that?” stare to prevent further silliness
about big schools being impersonal
or unmanageable.
How wonderful, how worthy of
celebration, how vital that we have so
many students, so many staff, so many
parents living and promoting the UWC
mission in the heart of the world’s most
dynamic region. UWCSEA is crackling
and fizzing with the movement’s
values, and just as Singapore and
East Asia rush into the future with
outstretched, welcoming arms, so
we must go forward with our scale,
location and passion helping to further
those values that brought most of us to
UWCSEA in the first place. I’ll admit it’s
not all fun and laughter amid the bright
lights: how I sometimes envy the castle
or cliff-top retreat of other UWC’s—
especially when the traffic prevents
me from getting from one campus to
another in good time—but for every
small wave of urban frustration there
is a crashing sea of positive action,
altruism and compassion that makes
every day transformational.
Cheap rhetoric? On the contrary: my
words undersell the reality. You might
expect me to whip out the propaganda
manual at this point and list a host
of student achievements, but instead
I’ll turn to the parents. I am writing
this on a Sunday, and in the week just
gone I attended three large events
organised by and involving hundreds of
UWCSEA parents, all of which raised
money for UWCSEA Global Concerns
in South East Asia. Significantly,
though, I discovered many parents have
established on the ground links with
these charities. These are busy people
not simply giving money—that’s the
easy bit—but offering time, know-
how, compassion as well. And they are
engaging others so that they too might
get involved. That’s the community
I am discovering beyond the campuses.
I am thrilled and, frankly, moved to
discover the reality.
Inside the walls of Dover and East, the
question has not been “How many?”
but the more taxing “How are you
finding it?” Well—and let’s keep that
propaganda manual on the bookcase—
I am finding it inspiring, unique,
imperfect, mission-driven, occasionally
believing its own hype, transformative,
frenetic, outward-looking, often savvy,
sometimes naïve, relevant, complex
and, crucially, so intent on trying to do
exactly what it says it does that I could
cry with gratitude. I can see why lots
of students and staff might not want
to come here: I can see why everybody
should.
It seems to me that you should steer
clear of this place if you are a cynic,
lazy, entrenched or out to change the
world by preaching at people.
(Or maybe such people should
be forced to come kicking and
screaming). This is a doing place.
The mission describes impact rather
than educational experience, and I
am everyday meeting young people
who are not afraid to change, to fail,
to innovate. Resilience is thus bred
alongside ambition. And because of
that, ideals often become actions.
Nowhere have I met young people
so engaged in the world beyond
examinations and parties. Not that
those two pillars don’t have their place
of course—not all my teenage red-
Many articles in this edition have
expanded content on eDunia
(www.uwcsea.edu.sg/edunia)—
look for the symbol as you
read the magazine and visit
eDunia for more photos, video
and expanded content.
Other stories featured only on eDunia:
Primary School
Infants days of sport
A chance for our
students to put their
PE skills on display
One minute squat
The Grade 3 Water Warriors GC
takes action on sanitation
Middle School
The Big Draw
Dover Campus hosts a
week-long draw-a-thon
under the tent
Tiny Toones GC
A story of student action
Vote for soap
Students partner with Hilton, DHL
and soapcycling to save lives
High School
Senior sport
Write ups across
the region including
Football, Volleyball,
Touch Rugby, Rugby,
Golf and more
Community
Alum Linda Steinbock
(Class of 2006)
Reflects on how her
UWCSEA education has
helped her thinking in
her humanitarian work
Cover: High School students performing
a traditional Cambodian dance at
CultuRama 2014 on East Campus
eye mornings were due to revision—
but here they know their place. The
service initiatives—local, regional
and international—are so varied I can
barely credit their scope. There is a
giddy, feverish whirl about the desire
to get out and engage. And yet—this
is the point that I still can’t quite
fathom—there is a profoundly gentle
and intimate quality to nearly all the
human interactions I have witnessed
around the College. It ought not to be
like that in a College this big and this
busy. But there are moments when
UWCSEA can feel like a village school,
and the bustle of Singapore becomes
a rustle of leaves.
And if ever a College bore out Karl
A. Menninger’s maxim “What the
teacher is, is more important than
what he teaches”, it is UWCSEA. I
have already been astonished by many
colleagues’ selfless examples of living
the mission. This applies to academic,
administration and support staff.
What happens in UWCSEA classrooms
is great; what happens afterwards
and elsewhere is greater. A sadness
is that no matter how hard I try to
make it otherwise—and I will certainly
try—my relationship with colleagues
will inevitably be more like that of a
University Vice Chancellor with his
faculty (the comparison serves purely
for scale): I will never get to know all
staff well, anymore than I will get to
know all students well. What I do know
is that there is talent, brain-power and
commitment here that would impress
on Wall Street, in governments,
laboratories, sports fields, the media,
the Arts and a host of other spheres.
I rejoice that such people chose
UWCSEA. (And another thing: I suspect
most colleagues don’t get ‘exciting’
confused with ‘boring’, which is a
surprisingly frequent condition in
many schools).
Honeymoon over. The complaints have
started rolling in. Disputes over matters
of principle (and disputes over nothing
at all) are peppering the in-box. In
some corners, the end of term will
doubtless witness stress, frustrations
and panic. A few people will drive
selfishly and make others angry.
Surveys will repeatedly demonstrate
there is never one hundred per cent
consensus even though people will
sometimes talk as if there is. In all
those respects and many more, this is a
school like any other.
But where it really counts, this is
like no other school on earth. For
all Singapore’s glass towers, the
commerce, the getting and spending …
Kurt Hahn would know us in a moment.
I have surely come home.
By Pat Meyer
UWCSEA Parent and TEF volunteer
Determined to make a difference in
the aftermath of the Indian Ocean
earthquake and tsunami in December
2004, the UWCSEA community offered
immediate support, but also wished
to make a positive, long-term impact.
Physics teacher Wayne Fozzard wanted
to do something to help the victims
and through discussions with Anthony
Skillicorn (then the Global Concerns
coordinator) and others, the Tsunami
Education Fund (TEF) was established.
Its aim was to provide long-term
financial support to children who
had lost their parents in the tsunami.
The plan was to fund each tsunami
yatim piatu (tsunami orphan) through
their high school education, rather
than provide short-term or one-off
payments. Modest payments would
be made directly to a bank account
in the child’s name; a sum not meant
to make students (or new family)
dependent upon the funds, but to
motivate the students.
The region around Banda Aceh,1 near
the epicentre of the earthquake and
tsunami, had been in conflict for 30
nearly years; it had not been safe for
foreigners to travel there. So in the first
few weeks after the tsunami, Uchu Riza,
an Indonesian UWCSEA parent, travelled
to Medan and then to Banda Aceh
to assess the situation. She took
photographs, looked into safe
accommodation, estimated prices for
food, fuel and transport, and delivered
basic supplies of clothes, shoes and food.
Three months after the tsunami, as
talks on a peace agreement were
underway, the first of many UWCSEA
teams—this one composed of teachers
and an alumnus—travelled to Banda
Aceh. There they saw the extent of
the disaster, but also that schools had
resumed operation—some holding their
classes in tents, while other schools
doubled up to share undamaged
buildings. Led by Susan Edwards and
Dave Allen, this group also began
planning ways to help with the long-
term recovery.
In March 2005, fundraising for the
TEF started with a nine-day, 1,500km
bike ride by UWCSEA teachers Wayne
Fozzard, Douglas Wills, Phil Woolrich,
Angelo Coskinas and Steve Webster and
parent Graham Nyman, from Singapore
The Aceh Project: ten years of helping
to Phuket, Thailand (pictured on
page 5). The successful bicycle
marathon was followed by a record-
breaking basketball marathon2 by
students from UWCSEA and Singapore
Polytechnic, including two students
from Banda Aceh. The basketball
marathon raised funds for rebuilding
sports courts, so that young people
could return to their games and play in
Banda Aceh.
The Aceh Project, which encompasses
all of the work by UWCSEA in Banda
Aceh, commemorates its 10th year in
2015. Many people have supported
this work—teachers, students, staff,
scholars and scholars’ families, a Global
Concerns group, Project Week groups,
alumni, parents, as well as community
members from Banda Aceh. The GC
group began by raising awareness and
fundraising, then helping with record
keeping, and (in later years) maintaining
a Facebook page. The projects have
been learning experiences for everyone
involved—a chance to learn about relief
efforts, to witness the recovery of a
community from a natural disaster and
a 30-year conflict, and an opportunity
to get to know a community through
1 At the tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, is the city of Banda Aceh and the neighbouring district, Aceh Besar. Together they occupy
an area just over four times the size of Singapore. This area was closest to the epicentre of the December 2004 earthquake and tsunami. In
this region alone nearly 23,000 students and 1,300 teachers lost their lives. Over 300 schools were damaged or destroyed. (From Educa-
tion Master Plan, Post Earthquake and Tsunami in NAD and Nias, 13 April 2005, Ministry of National Education RI).
2 Guinness Book of World Records for the Longest Continuous Game of Basketball (pictured on page 5)
sustained involvement in long-term
service projects.
For a while, members of the UWCSEA
community travelled to Banda Aceh
every six to eight weeks. There was
much to do to determine whether it
would be possible to work there: Would
it be safe? Could we find a local partner
who shared our goals? How best to
help tsunami yatim piatu? How would
children who needed help be identified?
How about identifying a school to
rebuild? How could we make sure
that the financial support went to the
intended recipients?
Soon a partner was identified—a
community leader in Banda Aceh with
contacts throughout the area, who was
interested in the long-term welfare of
the region. Bapak Nazar and two of his
children provided essential support:
introductions, translations, knowledge
of the area and of communities in need,
advice, record keeping, report collection,
and transportation. His son and
daughter grew up, finished high school,
and went to university, all the while
keeping track of students and school
reports in the TEF project database.
One of the UWCSEA students who
helped lead student teams on visits to
Banda Aceh, and later managed TEF
financial accounts was Ikram Lailul
(Class of 2008), “I feel most grateful
to the many people who were involved
in the project. They used their time
and energy, to rebuild Aceh. Their
spirit inspired me to work towards the
community. It was this experience that
motivated me to continuously want to
make positive change, such as by doing
a peace project in Aceh funded by the
Davis Peace Project Organization.”
Rossa Darni (Class of 2009), the first
UWCSEA–Trafigura Foundation scholar
from Banda Aceh, concurs, “I am so
honoured to be able to see the project
grow throughout the years. As one of
the earliest Acehnese scholars involved
in the TEF, I am so thankful to get to
work with all of the people who have
contributed to make it successful.
This project was a result of excellent
collaboration between students,
teachers, and parents, and I believe it
gave a little something for all of us. In
this project, I gained a family, people
who until today are still guiding me
towards goodness. Nevertheless, the
TEF inspired me to work for something
that can directly make a difference in
other’s lives.”
Initially, the teams visiting from
Singapore focused on identifying a
school for rebuilding and locating
tsunami yatim piatu. By May 2005,
seven students, all from SMP4, were
registered as the first TEF recipients.
SMP4, a middle school located in the
downtown market area of Banda Aceh
(picture on page 4), had been destroyed.
With generous financial support from
Trafigura Foundation, Global Energies
and UWCSEA fundraising activities,
SMP4 was rebuilt and reopened for
students in March 2006.
Teams continued to visit schools in the
region to identify and register students;
by June 2006, 159 students were
receiving funds through TEF. Monthly
payments were made to each child’s
bank account. TEF supported students
from kindergarten to high school, and,
initially, the amount was just enough
to cover transportation costs to school.
Funding continued through high school,
as long as students submitted their
school reports and remained in school.
Some students used the money for
books, transportation or tuition; others
used it for food for themselves and their
elderly guardian; and a fortunate few
had guardians who were able to provide
for all their needs, enabling the student
to save for their future.
Through our visits to the region,
we came to understand that while
financial help was appreciated, the
encouragement and psychological
support from the regular visits and
contact were just as important. The TEF
students saw themselves as part of a
group; they knew that people in Banda
Aceh and Singapore cared about their
progress and would be visiting again.
Photos supplied by Pat Meyer and Susan Edwards
Rahmat Ashari (Class of 2016), a
UWCSEA–Trafigura Foundation scholar
from Banda Aceh explains, “Instead
of looking at it from an economic
perspective, I have learnt that the
values acted in the works of TEF are
truly essential. It is not only about
transferring money, it is also about
building up the relationship between
TEF, the TEF’s students, and TEF’s
helpers in Aceh. I learnt that going from
asking “How much money have we
donated?” to “How have we impacted
our recipients’ life?” is a great jump. In
this context, UWCSEA, through TEF, has
absolutely brought me beyond turning
ideas into action to expanding the social
connection through actions.”
On our early visits we saw many foreign
organisations and NGOs involved in
the rebuilding effort. But after three
years, most were gone. Although the
individuals involved in the Aceh Project
have changed, the TEF project continues
till today.
The Aceh Project has been successful in
large part because it is a relatively small
project with strong local links. Through
regular visits, we have gotten to know
the community and been able to closely
follow its progress. Because UWCSEA
students, staff and teachers make the
visits, we have a clear understanding
of the situation on the ground, and
we have not had problems with
“fabricated” students or missing funds.
Still, there were frustrating challenges.
There were differences in educational
cultures and priorities. Keeping up to
date with the students and receiving
their school reports on time was a
huge challenge. Many students and
their guardians were unfamiliar with
bank operations; distances from the
students’ homes to the bank or record
collection point were formidable,
older guardians were illiterate. Yet,
people came together to find solutions.
Teachers, headmasters, security guards
alerted us to tsunami yatim piatu. In
one middle school, a biology teacher
collected all the TEF reports and
submitted them. In another remote
community, the guardians of the
elementary-age TEF students formed
a network, and a grandfather collected
and submitted all the reports. The
headmaster and deputy from another
distant elementary school brought
their TEF students and reports to the
open house by motorbikes. Singaporean
university students developed an
online programme to allow people in
Singapore and Banda Aceh to share TEF
student records and information. Teams
from UWCSEA held long discussions
with Bapak Nazar and school leaders,
conducted teacher training, invited all
TEF students to open house sessions,
and visited tens of schools to track
down students and their reports.
We visited TEF students at over 80
elementary, middle or high schools in
the region. Over 700 students have
received support. Currently we’re
funding 70 students in middle or high
school, and will continue funding until
they all complete high school. We are
heartened to meet TEF high school
graduates looking ahead to the future
with confidence. Some students will
continue further training in hospitality
or nursing while others are studying at
UNSYIAH, the branch of the national
university in Banda Aceh.
Kirkha Kaharsyah (Class of 2014),
a UWCSEA–Trafigura Foundation
Acehenese scholar observes, “What I
have learnt from TEF is that the smallest
changes that we made, it could make
a big impact. I have seen students who
received the scholarship become quite
successful on pursuing their education
after high school. They received
invitations and scholarships from some
universities. I know that the scholarship
provided by TEF is not the most
prestigious scholarship, but the students
made the best out of it which makes me
think that UWC values are reflected not
just in UWCSEA students, but also in the
people who are helped by every existing
global concern that we have.”
Rossa adds, “The TEF project has shown
me that you are never too young to
bring positive change to a society.
I learned how education can really make
a difference in people’s lives. Working
with the Acehnese children throughout
the years motivated me to study and
work harder so I can find more ways in
the future to give back to my people and
develop my hometown. Listening to the
children’s life-stories and future goals
taught me that there is never a reason to
give up. Despite of everything
they have been through, they
never stopped smiling.”
By Susan Edwards
Head of Global Concerns
Dover Campus
In December of the year Jackson English
arrived at UWCSEA, the world was
rocked by the devastating impact of
the Asian tsunami. Local communities
all along the west and north Sumatran
coasts were decimated and SurfAid, an
NGO founded to support communities
in the isolated Mentawai Islands and
which Jackson was already involved
with, began to respond to the disaster.
Soon after his arrival Jackson was
involved in supporting two large
marathon events to raise funds as part
of UWCSEA’s tsunami relief initiatives.
First, a group of six community
members rode bicycles from Singapore
through Malaysia to Phuket, Thailand to
raise funds for the Tsunami Education
Fund and then a few months later,
a group of UWCSEA and Singapore
Polytechnic students broke the
Guinness World Record for the longest
continuous game of basketball.
However, very little tsunami relief had
arrived to the communities on the
remote Mentawai Islands that were
supported by SurfAid. It was during
a morning swim session that Jackson
thought of organising the first 24 Hour
Swim Challenge. The concept was
simple: open the pool for 24 hours and
invite the College community to swim
as many laps as possible.
The first 24 Hour Swim Challenge was
held in 2006 at the Dover Campus pool.
Close to 500 staff, students and their
families swam as many laps as they
could in a carnival-like atmosphere.
Since that first event, the College has
hosted eight ‘swims’—the last three at
the East Campus, and now known as
Swim4Life. At the 2014 event in May,
over 1,500 swimmers participated over
the 12-hour event.
Jackson recounts three significant
memories around the swim events:
After the first 24 Hour Swim Challenge
participants were asked to return money
raised to Jackson’s classroom by the end
of term. On that last day of Term 1, a
staggering $30,000 cash was submitted.
At the 2008 swim, 10 year old Grade
4 Dover Campus student Eleanor
Diggle (now in Grade 10) swam 100
laps. Earlier in the day her father had
committed to donating $100 per lap.
After the 2014 Swim4Life, East Campus
student Jeremy Kemp (Grade 6) said,
“The reason I never gave up swimming
for the whole 12 hours was because I
knew that every five laps, I was buying
one mosquito net for the people
struggling with malaria. That is why I
swam 23.5km (188 mosquito nets).”
Jackson has also combined his passion
for the ocean and paddling with raising
funds and awareness for SurfAid on
his own time. In 2007, he paddled
from Sentosa to Batam and back, over
two days. Then, in 2010, as SurfAid
celebrated their 10th birthday Jackson
again competed in the grueling world
paddle board championships; a 32 mile
paddle between the islands of Molokai
and Oahu in Hawaii, to raise funds for
SurfAid programmes.
Since 2006, under Jackson’s guidance,
UWCSEA has helped raise over
$500,000 for SurfAid and their projects,
specifically for the Malaria Sucks and
Mother and Child programmes. Our
contributions have made a positive
impact on the lives of thousands of
people. For this, Jackson was recently
honoured with SurfAid’s ‘Humanitarian
of the Year’ award. Jackson accepted
the award not for himself, but for all
those at UWCSEA who have helped
contribute to SurfAid’s programmes
over the last eight years.
Congratulations, Jackson and
thank you.
A SurfAid story
Congratulations SurfAid Humanitarian of the Year 2014, Jackson English
By Mireille Couture, Head of
Environmental Systems and Societies,
and Kath Lane and Andrea McDonald
Grade 5 teachers
East Campus
With a shaky voice the lesson began
… the teachers seemed younger than
usual. They were in fact the Grade 12
students from the IB Environmental
Systems and Societies (ESS) diploma
course at East Campus and today they
faced a new kind of challenge. They
were tasked with teaching Grade 5
students different sampling methods
to collect biological and ecological
scientific data. “It was hard for me to
speak and explain well … However, they
seemed curious about the things we
taught,” said one ESS student. “To go
out of our comfort zone and take the
role of a teacher, being the one having
to explain the method to someone
else, adjusting to the right level of
understanding, was a challenge.”
The Grade 5 students were in the
midst of preparing to embark on their
expedition to Taman Negara, the
oldest rainforest in the world. What
better place for students to observe,
investigate and immerse themselves
in the natural world? This expedition
enables students to bond with their
new class and also provides teachers
with the ideal outdoor classroom. Here,
lessons on biodiversity, adaptation,
and interdependence spring to life.
Kath Lane explains, “It is imperative
for students to experience the awe
and wonder of the natural world, if
we are hoping they will protect our
planet in the future. With our busy
urban environment, some children are
not afforded opportunities to feel this
affinity with nature. Watching students
float down a tropical river, step
cautiously along the canopy walkway,
and hearing their excited whispers
as they observe a wild tapir, snake or
scorpion is pretty magical.”
In addition to studying biodiversity,
part of the Grade 5 curriculum involves
introducing students to fair testing and
the scientific process. Grade 12 students
modeled the fieldwork sampling
techniques that they would use on
their own field trip to Tioman Island for
their younger peers to conduct in the
CULTIVATION OF
COLLABORATION
rainforest. Mireille Couture and Kath
Lane thought this would be a perfect
opportunity for a meaningful learning
experience that would deepen the
understanding of rainforest ecosystems
and investigation skills for both grade
levels. Reflecting on the success of this
approach, one Grade 12 student said,
“Teaching someone else skills that
you have developed allows for your
knowledge to expand and you are more
likely to remember it.”
Essentially, the Grade 12 scientists
were helping their Grade 5 buddies to
understand that practical ecosystem
investigations require a variety of
methods, tools and technologies to
collect reliable measurements and
record observations. They were able
to analyse and derive meaning from
the connections that exist between
living and non-living components of
ecosystems such as: canopy cover,
light intensity, plant population
and tree circumference. One Grade
12 commented, “This type of team
activity taught me how to work in a
group in a more efficient way. It also
taught me that we underestimated the
Grade 5s and they knew more than we
thought they knew. It helped me revise
and think about the ways we will be
collecting data.”
The Grade 5 students, for their part,
were impressed by the expertise of the
older students and willingly undertook
a scientific study for their buddies in the
high school. Once they returned to the
classroom, they set about analysing the
data they had collected and reflecting
on their initial hypothesis. They were
able to use reasoning skills to determine
the veracity of their results and to
consider why the experiment did not
reflect their original hypothesis. One
Grade 5 student noted, “The guides
from the rainforest gave us additional
information and we understood that
different tree species and ages have
different requirements. This might have
impacted our results.”
While on Tioman Island, the Grade
12 environmentalists independently
designed investigations for data
collection to measure and compare
primary and secondary rainforest.
They collectively shared data from
their seashore study on molluscs,
sponges and padina algae species to
increase sample sizes and reliability of
the data. In the mangrove ecosystem
students quantified different types
of pneumatophores, measured
conductivity and salinity levels and
crab holes as indicators of population
density. A snorkeling trip had them
identifying fish species from published
keys and applying underwater line
transect techniques.
In early October, after their trips,
several groups of Grade 5 and Grade
12 students had the opportunity to
meet again and share the results
of their experiments. Both groups
had new insights and a greater
understanding of ecosystem dynamics.
With the overwhelming success of the
collaborative work, the High School
and Junior School teachers are looking
forward to repeating this partnership
again next year.
This Grade 5 student sums up the
collaboration, “Thanks to the Grade 12s,
we now have the experience and know
how to do experiments. We can think
about how we can find out the answers
to our questions. We might even study
ecosystems ourselves when we go
to Middle and High School
because it’s all so interesting.”
Photos by Andrea McDonald and Mireille Couture
10
outdoor education course. For many of
those I interviewed, the experience had
taken place eight to 10 years before. A
significant majority stated that they
derived benefits from that experience
that had transferred to their personal
and professional lives, that they
continued to draw from 10 years later.
Really? Airplane pilots got something
out of an outdoor education experience
that was so powerful it continued to be
relevant to their lives, a decade later?
This may be difficult to believe, but it
makes sense if you look at the history
of outdoor education as an academic
discipline. Just like law, music, medicine
or other disciplines, practitioners can
earn advanced degrees. It requires
mastery of specific knowledge and
skills through formal education and/
or practical experience. Extensive
theories, research and evaluation
support it as a practice and profession.
It is interesting to note that this
research points to many human health
benefits of positive experiences in
By Dr Michael Gassner
Oregon State University
During the 2013/2014 school year,
the College made the decision to
participate in a seven-year longitudinal
study that will help to evaluate the
Outdoor Education programme, and
better understand the impact of the
programme on overall student learning
and development. The study is being
conducted by faculty researchers at
Oregon State University, Dr Michael
Gassner and Dr Christopher Wolsko, who
are experts in the fields of experiential
education and social psychology. The
study was launched this term. Here,
Dr Gassner reflects on the study and the
thinking behind it.
Last September, I went for a long walk in
Pasir Ris near the East Campus. I needed
some time to think, having recently
returned from a Grade 7 expedition to
Pulau Sibu. My colleague and fellow
researcher at Oregon State University,
Dr Christopher Wolsko, and I are starting
a seven year, long-term project that
will be looking at the contributions
the UWCSEA Outdoor Education
programme makes to overall learning for
students from Grade 6 to Grade 11.
This outdoor education project is
attempting to answer some difficult
and complicated questions. We want
to know what exactly the students are
learning on these expeditions. Does
outdoor education make a difference in
their academic and personal lives? What
do students perceive outdoor education
contributes to the their overall learning?
What are the specific knowledge, skills,
and qualities that graduates of UWCSEA
leave with that may be attributed to
the Outdoor Education programme?
Which expeditions instill what qualities
and skills? Great questions, but no
easy answers.
As I continued to walk, I reflected
back to 2006 when I was in Singapore
working on a different project. At
that time, I interviewed a number
of Singapore Airlines pilots who, as
cadets, had undertaken a three week
Journey as destination:
evaluating the UWCSEA Outdoor Education programme
Photos by Karen Niedermeyer
11
the natural world. Programmes and
interventions in a variety of educational
and health-related contexts have been
designed with these benefits in mind.
In other words, the positive long term
impact—physiological, emotional and
psychological—of outdoor education is
well documented.
The UWCSEA study involves students
on both campuses, who participate on
a purely voluntary basis. A short survey
before they undertake their expedition,
and another after they return home,
provide us with some insight into their
attitudes to the natural environment and
their self-perception. As we build a view
over time, we expect to see some trends
in terms of changes in attitudes, skills or
qualities that we can trace back to the
students’ outdoor education experience.
Some preliminary data from our trial
surveys in April 2014 shed inspiring light
on what may lay ahead. In open-ended
reflections, many students commented
on building tremendous self-confidence
after meeting the substantial challenges
of their expeditions. Learning to work
in a trusting and cooperative manner
with one’s peers is also coming to the
forefront as a core quality that is clearly
being nurtured in these environments.
All of this work reminds me of a phrase
Yvon Chouinard, founder of outdoor
clothing company Patagonia and
legendary mountaineer, has used on
occasion: conquistadors of the useless.
He was referring to a long journey he and
some friends took in the 1960s: from
California in the USA to Patagonia in
South America, to climb a mountain. At
the time, many of his friends and family
asked him why he was undertaking
the expedition. He admits that he did
not, at the time, have an answer to
the question, but that was the point.
It was the journey that mattered, not
the outcome. The process of going,
trying, and reflectively seeking along
the way was what made the journey
transformational.
Although our study is informed by
prior outdoor education research and
practice, in many ways it shares some
characteristics with Chouinard’s South
American journey. We are intentionally
limiting our preconceived notions
of what we may find and have fully
committed to the idea that it is the
journey that teaches. While in some
ways this makes the project more
challenging, we are confident that by
continuing to ask the right questions, we
will discover the answers.
We know that the study will have a
positive impact on student learning by
providing feedback that will help the
UWCSEA outdoor education staff to
adapt and develop the programme to
further enhance the student experience.
For students, it will also be a way to
safely and anonymously document their
journey through a series of outdoor
education expeditions from Grade 6 to
Grade 11.
The outcomes for parents are less
obvious. While any improvement in
the student experience is a benefit to
parents, I would also argue that the
enormous trust in their children (and the
school) that allows a parent to send their
13 year old kayaking in Chiang Mai for
two weeks, is a growth experience that
matches any mountain a student might
climb during their time at UWCSEA!
There is no doubt that though parents
are not on the expedition, they too go on
a journey as their children leave them for
outdoor education experiences.
It is our hope that this longitudinal study
will confirm what we know anecdotally
and through experience: that outdoor
education experiences have a positive,
long term impact on students that stays
with them and is transformational.
12
and culture of their home country,
which facilitates a smooth return, and
ensures growth as balanced bilinguals.
The programme also contributes to
preserving language diversity at a time
when UNESCO estimates that half of
the languages spoken around the world
will have disappeared by the end of
the 21st century. High School students
at UWCSEA East have celebrated
International Mother Language Day by
sharing poems and songs with students
and staff, learning about endangered
languages, and reflecting on what
it means to be part of a global, yet
diverse world. Some IB students of
School Supported Self-Taught (SSST)
Literature have also participated
in panel discussions with parents,
outlining the challenges of growing up
bilingually and building literacy skills in
multiple languages. So, not only does
the programme uphold the UWCSEA
mission of peace and sustainability, but it
also incorporates elements of service as
well as personal and social development.
In more practical terms, the IB
Diploma’s SSST Literature course gives
students the opportunity to study over
57 languages at Standard Level. The
course involves studying 10 literary
works, including two in translation.
Through learning about literature,
students not only develop analytical
and writing skills which they can
transfer to other disciplines, but they
also learn about their cultural heritage
and are able to relate better to their
communities of origin. This definitely
fosters the cultural and linguistic
sustainability that the school aspires to
develop in students.
The ambition of the programme is high;
so is the level of commitment required
from students to be successful in the
SSST course. Besides being fully literate
in their mother tongue, they need to
show skills and qualities which they
will further develop as they engage
in the learning process. In the past I
have had model students who were
Mother tongue and
literacy at UWCSEA East
By Laurie Kraaijeveld
Head of High School Languages
East Campus
Since the opening of the East Campus,
the mother tongue programme in
High School has been expanding, a
development which will continue with
the introduction of a school supported
language and literature course in
Grade 9 in August 2015. The campus
is committed to catering for the needs
of mother tongue students as part of
embracing the growing diversity of
the student body. School supported
self-taught literature programmes play
a demonstrable role in breathing life
into the UWCSEA mission statement
of “mak[ing] education a force to unite
people, nations and cultures for peace
and a sustainable future.” How is
this achieved?
Through the academic study of their
mother tongue through literature,
students in Grades 10 to 12 expand
their knowledge of the language
13
exemplary in their study habits, level
of self-awareness, drive, discipline
and maturity, such as a student from
Swaziland who got up every Saturday
at 8am to skype with her Siswati tutor,
herself a UWCSEA alumnus, who is
based in the United States.
“If I couldn’t study my mother
tongue, I wouldn’t be able to
define who I am and what I
should do to be Cambodian.”
Kimheang Chham, Grade 11
Whilst the course presents students
a number of challenges, it also brings
many rewards. Upon graduating,
students often tell me how much they
have learnt about their home culture
and how much more confident they
feel in relating to their relatives and
home communities.
Schools that offer a strong mother
tongue programme are places
where diversity thrives as a fantastic
educational opportunity. They are
places where the voice of every single
student is heard and valued, where
students are welcomed as who they are,
and develop an understanding of how
multiple identities enrich personalities
and communities. They are places where
educators understand that students’
“cultural and linguistic experience in
the home is the foundation of their
future learning and we must build on
that foundation rather than undermine
it,” as Canadian professor, educator
and linguist Jim Cummins puts it. This
understanding lies at the heart of the
UWCSEA learning principles, together
with the need for learners to be
supported and challenged, to interact
and understand the purpose of their
learning as well as to take ownership of
it. All of these principles are embedded
Amu Muyanga (Class of 2014) reflects on her experience: My journey in
taking a self-taught language has had moments of uncertainty and frustration,
but also a tremendous amount of growth.
The first part of the programme was based on works in translation that all
the self-taught students covered, so we actually got to interact as a class to
discuss elements of plays and novels. Because the IB has very few Zulu past
papers, I did all the IB Zulu exams ever set and it took me only a week to finish
all of them. There was no IB prescribed list of authors, so I had to make my
own list. It was challenging to find books that were at the level of the course
that IB would approve and also that I could understand, given the fact that I
had never studied Zulu literature as in depth. Zulu back in South Africa was
very basic: grammar, language, some literature, some analysis of literature,
but I had never done a course that is completely based on analysing motifs,
themes and other elements. So the course in English has been challenging and
even more so in Zulu.
However, I have not been alone in this journey. My grandma back in South
Africa is a qualified Zulu teacher, and she was hired as my tutor. We worked
over Skype on Saturday mornings. Working one on one with a tutor and not
having another student as a reference can make it difficult to gain an objective
assessment. I was the only IB student my grandmother has ever taught;
everybody else she has taught has been within the South African system.
Taking Zulu has been much more taxing than if I had decided to take a
language ab initio, because you have to manage your own time, resources, and
set your own internal deadlines.
But you strive to do everything to the quality that you would like to present
as your best work; that has a lot to do with managing your time and having
standards for yourself and being responsible for that in yourself and not
handing the responsibility to an external teacher. The experience has been
incredibly demanding and incredibly frustrating at times, but I think the
lessons I have learnt have been invaluable.
in the SSST literature programme at
UWCSEA East.
Every year when the exam season starts
I am in awe of what the students are
able to do. While recording the students’
final orals, I am amazed by what
students who have learnt to read and
write with their parents and may never
have received instruction in mother
tongue prior to joining the programme
achieve … Not that I could understand
what the student from Zimbabwe
was talking about in his individual
oral commentary and presentation …
It was all in Shona, a language I know
nothing about, but which encodes a
worldview, knowledge and texts which I
learned about while guiding the student
through the course. However, despite
my ignorance of the Shona language,
I was witness to the passion that he
radiated, manifesting itself through
body language that I had never had a
chance to observe before. The singing
tone of his voice also communicated a
love of the language that fascinated me
and drove home the value and rewards
of the programme.
14
Every year in Term 1, on opposite sides
of Singapore, small groups of Middle
and High School students gather
in classrooms, halls, the canteen,
the sports fields, corridors between
buildings, Primary School playgrounds
and even the Dover car park to rehearse
complicated moves and dances from
around the world. The goal? To perform
in one of two events that showcase the
joyful diversity of nationality and culture
that makes UWCSEA so special: UN
Night (Dover) and CultuRama (East).
How do students who have never
been to South Africa or New Zealand
give such meaningful renditions of
the gumboot dance or the Haka? It
seems that, with training from student
experts, knowledge of these dances is
passed down from student to student
and from year to year as they learn and
perform dances from countries on the
opposite side of the world to their own,
with conviction, with commitment
and above all, with heart. This
extraordinary alchemy takes place on
both Dover and East, and for two nights
(five performances) the community
can enjoy polished and authentic
UN NIGHT 2014
15
expressions of the cultures represented
at the College.
But there is more than heart at work.
Both productions are organised,
produced and presented by the students
themselves with minimal involvement
from teachers, and the quality of the
work is exceptionally high. Auditions are
tough and students hold themselves to
a standard that teachers might hesitate
to expect from them.
At both events, the community comes
together to provide food from around
the world in the tent plazas, and
an important part of the evening is
wandering through the stalls, eating
smoked salmon from Ireland, followed
by kimchi from Korea and finishing it
all off with kanelbulle from Sweden. Or
whatever (untraditional) combination
you fancy.
Two exceptionally talented
communities of students, two
highlights of the year, one valuable
purpose—the celebration of
the wonderful diversity of our
College community.
CULTURAMA 2014
16
By Susan Edwards
Head of Global Concerns
and Cathy Elliott
Head of Local Service
Dover Campus
Surely every day at UWCSEA is a
UWC Day? However, it is not everyday
that 3,000 students take the time to
explicitly address the UWC mission
through action and service. Every two
years on UWC Day, the entire Dover
community enjoys a day away from
their timetabled classes to engage in a
wide variety of activities.
Some activities were designed to
enhance our campus environments,
from gardening projects involving
mulching, weeding, pruning and
propagation, to tending worm farms,
to painting walls and art projects,
which included painting canvases of
international leaders of peace, justice
and environmental activism, to hang in
the canteen. Students also smashed the
last of Pete’s Smashing Pots, collecting
the contents for the College’s service
programme and using the shards to
decorate plant pots.
UWC DAY 1 October 2014
Another unique project was the creation
of three large scale panels honouring
our late UWC President, Nelson
Mandela. One Grade 12 tutor group
worked in collaboration with a talented
artist from the HIV Patient Care Centre
to create the design prior to UWC Day
and then painted the panels on the
day—now we just need to find a wall big
enough to house them!
Middle School students experienced
dragon boating, learned the gumboot
dance, walked the Green Corridor,
tested their UWC knowledge in a quiz,
learned about apartheid, and watched
the film Girl Rising.
Visitors from Local Service partners
included young children from Healthy
Start, Child at Street 11 and Lee Kong
Chian Gardens School who spent the
day doing music, art, sport and drama
sessions with K1 and a number of High
School students. Elsewhere on campus,
students hosted the workers at our
new High School block to lunch, and
welcomed senior citizens from a number
of our Local Service clients to a Diwali
celebration in the Main Hall.
On campus, some students became
pen pals with the Manus Island
detainees seeking asylum in Australia,
or wrote letters of protest to politicians,
leaders and policy makers. Others
took part in the ‘We Can!’ campaign
to break stereotypes, while another
group documented the day as
photojournalists. The Grade 4’s learned
more about the people on their campus
by interviewing those who help to make
our campus clean, safe and efficient. The
Grade 5’s updated their iconic jigsaw
and tracked the campus’ biodiversity,
while Grade 1 learned about their ACRES
Global Concern, and created t-shirts
promoting animal conservation with a
little help from High School students.
Venturing off campus, groups of High
School students hosted a number of
outings including showing residents at
H.O.M.E around the Marina Bay area,
and escorting friends from MINDS
to the Trick Eye Museum on Sentosa.
Other groups carried out maintenance
at Riding for the Disabled, and mucked
out animal enclosures at ACRES, while
still others packed donations bound
for Cambodia or planted trees with
17
National Parks. Others visited the
Botanical Gardens with K2 and went
on a materials treasure hunt, or helped
Grade 3 clean up Pasir Ris Beach. On
Pulau Ubin, High School students
collected rubbish and recorded data
as part of the International Coastal
Clean-up co-ordinated by the National
University of Singapore.
A lasting legacy of the day are the
relationships between younger and
the older students, forging community
engagement, not only with our local
service partners, but also within our
own community. The High School
students no longer see those light blue
shirts as a moving mass, but know them
by name and it was touching to see
some students reconnecting over the
following days. In a very large school,
this was a welcome outcome.
It really was a day where the students
on Dover Campus were “a force to unite
people, nations and cultures
for peace and a sustainable
future.”
18
the shade of the awnings in front of the
Primary Clinic, where circles are formed
and the fun begins.
Can you help us with new singing
games?
At UWCSEA Dover, we are striving to
develop a broad repertoire of singing
games from around the world. One of
our favourite call and response songs is
‘A Keelie,’ a call to play that originated in
Ghana and is sung in the Twi language.
UWCSEA Dover Junior Music Teacher
Luiza Pliszka is teaching us the Polish
games Baloni (The Little Balloon) and
Pingwin (Penguin). We have also had
requests for Haida, a traditional Eastern
European Chassidic that featured in
last years UN celebration. This is a
dance that gets faster and faster with
each repetition. We are also looking at
introducing an Indonesian version of
Scissors, Paper, Stone.
Some of our English language favourites
are: Jump Jim Joe (USA), Love Sombody
(UK), Bungalow (USA), Double Double
(UK) and Syncopated Cyril (Australia).
By Susanne Khalek
Infant Music Teacher, Singing
Playgrounds and G2 Singers
Coordinator, Dover Campus
Whilst walking through the playground
at Dover Campus on at Friday lunchtime,
you may find yourself transported back
to your own childhood as you hear the
laughter of children and the enchanting
refrains of many different singing games.
Singing Playgrounds is an exciting
addition to our playground environment
in both the Infant and Junior Schools.
Developed in the UK by Ex Cathedra,
the Singing Playgrounds concept fosters
children’s personal and social skills
across the grade levels, through a child-
led culture of singing games. The idea
is not new, nor unique to the English
speaking world.
Term 1 saw the launch of Singing
Playgrounds into the Primary School.
At the beginning of the school year, a
variety of singing games were taught
in Music lessons. These games assisted
classes to get to know one another
whilst preparing a common repertoire,
across the grade levels, to facilitate an
easy transition into the playground.
When the idea was first presented to the
children, the enthusiastic response of
those wishing to become Song Leaders
was overwhelming. So as to enable as
many children as possible to embrace
a leadership role, a new team of Song
Leaders will be formed each term.
Leadership training includes developing
skills to lead singing games, and to
encourage other children to become
involved. The four golden rules are:
1. reach out to invite
2. make eye contact
3. smile
4. give a clear starting note … ‘Ready,
Steady, Off We Go!’
After the initial training session, Infant
Song Leaders travelled to Tanglin Trust
School where they met with their
counterparts and shared singing games
in the Music room before venturing out
into the playground to engage other
students. We look forward to Term 2
when Tanglin will visit us.
UWC Day provided a great opportunity
to share the Singing Playgrounds
initiative with others in our school and
in the local community. In the morning,
K1 children, supported by Grade 11 and
12 students, hosted children from Child
at Street 11. Each class visited the Music
room and played singing games. Later,
in the afternoon, K1 children with their
new Grade 11 and 12 friends joined
the Grade 1 students to form singing
circles down the length of the Primary
playground, a truly wonderful sight.
Since then, on Friday at both Infant and
Junior School lunch breaks, the children,
who wish to participate in Singing
Playgrounds, meet at the Song Stop, in
SINGING PLAYGROUNDS … ‘READY, STEADY, OFF WE GO!
Photo by Joseph Tan
Should you recall any singing games
from your childhood that you believe
would be suitable to teach our
children, please contact Susanne on
skh@uwcsea.edu.sg to arrange a time
to share.
19
Collaborative online spaces
By Andrew McCarthy
Assistant Director of Learning
Technologies, UWCSEA
and Adrienne Michetti
Digital Literacy Coach
East Campus
Since its inception in 2011, UWCSEA’s
iLearn initiative has broadened our scope
of 21st century learning. While our early
focus was on providing students with
necessary digital tools and supporting
teachers to use technology effectively,
over time it became clear that our
traditional classrooms were expanding
to encompass a variety of online spaces.
One valuable effect of this is that our
online spaces allow for continued
discussions and learning long after the
bell has rung. Over the last three years
we have used Google sites, documents,
presentations and a variety of other
web-based tools to help classroom
learning continue online.
As our face-to-face classrooms in
Middle and High School evolved with
the addition of laptop computers, it
was inevitable that our online learning
spaces would also evolve. During the
2012/2013 school year, we began to
research and evaluate how online
environments might naturally extend
face-to-face learning. We established
working groups to test and pilot various
platforms that would support ‘blended
learning’ (the seamless amalgamation of
face-to-face and online learning).
Research suggests that blended
learning environments can be beneficial
to student learning under the right
conditions; that is, when they combine
the best of face-to-face learning and
online learning. Blended learning
environments need to have two key
elements to be effective. First, the
system must support asynchronous
and constructive dialogues; ie, they
must allow students to collaborate and
provide one another with feedback,
even when they are not online at the
same time. Secondly, there must be
opportunities for learners to digest
important content and teacher
explanations before a face-to-face
lesson (Luckin et al, 2012). Our vision at
UWCSEA is to provide online tools at
an institutional level, accessible by all
teachers and students, to support this
emerging best practice.
The result of our working groups’
research and development has been
this academic year’s soft-launch of our
new UWCSEA Online Learning Platform
(OLP). At the East Campus, the OLP
replaces and expands the components
of East Curriculum Online, and at Dover
Campus, it supersedes StudyWiz and
other Google Sites in the Middle and
High School.
A primary reason for needing a
new online learning environment
was to increase opportunities for
communication, collaboration, and
socialisation around learning now
that our face-to-face classrooms had
evolved. Further, we recognised a need
to provide ready access to curriculum
content resources such as unit outlines,
teacher instructions, or multimedia
materials. Long term, it will also allow
us to more effectively collect and give
feedback on student work, which will
help us to expand the ways we might
use student assessment for authentic
learning. Already habits are changing:
our OLP has become a one-stop shop
for learning and resources, resulting in a
noticeable reduction in emails.
The OLP is currently living and
breathing in a variety of ways across
the College Middle and High Schools.
In Music, students are sharing example
compositions with classmates, while
some History classes are using it to
encourage co-construction of meaning
and collaboration. Science departments
are developing units which allow
students to progress flexibly with course
material, or to review concepts ahead of
class to activate prior learning.
All teachers using the platform are
now posting homework tasks online;
doing so allows the OLP to synchronise
information from each student’s
multiple courses into one personalised
calendar. As such, our students now
have access to a dashboard all of their
individual homework, allowing them to
prioritise tasks and manage their time
to meet deadlines and other extra-
curricular commitments.
Over the last 12 months, UWCSEA’s
Digital Literacy Team have worked
closely with developers of ‘Teamie,’ the
Singapore company behind the OLP
framework. We continue to tweak and
enhance the system so as to effectively
support learning at the College. We
look forward to the continual evolution
of our learning spaces, mindful of best
practices for student learning with
digital technologies.
Sources
Luckin, R., Bligh, B., Manches, A., Ainsworth,
S., Crook, C., & Noss, R. (2012). Decoding
learning: the proof, promise and potential
of digital education. Retrieved from http://
eprints.lancs.ac.uk/66044/
Screenshot from Online Learning Platform
20
very individualised one for students.
However, since it is attached to what
is probably one of their first major life
decisions, what is sometimes forgotten
is that actually, the holistic admissions
process grew out of the desire of the
university to match its student intake
to its own goals and its own values. The
process, when viewed through this lens,
is a whole lot less personal.
What is holistic review, from a
university’s perspective? As the
University of Wisconsin explains,
holistic review is: “An individualised,
non-mechanical review of the
applicant. To do that effectively, the
admission decision should include
an evaluation of the applicant as an
entire person. The decision-making
process should consider a broad range
of factors that reflect the student’s
readiness for college, potential for
success, and contributions he/she can
make to the student body. Such factors
might include:
• Academic factors
• Demographic factors
• Socioeconomic factors
• Race/ethnicity
• Work experience
• Leadership and extracurricular factors
• Accomplishments
• Personal qualities
• Skills and abilities
• Other factors determined by the
institution”
Don’t take it
personally:
thoughts on
the holistic
admissions
process
Why are we concerned about the
mindset with which our students view
this process? This past spring, Stanford
University made the news for being
the most selective US undergraduate
institution in history, admitting just
5.1% of applicants for the Class of 2018.
With this trend of the highly selective
universities becoming even more
selective, we feel we need to help our
students better understand how to go
about deciding what type of university
is right for them.
Recently, Brian Wright, formerly a
University Advisor at UWC Costa Rica
and currently an Advisor at the new
UWC Dilijan in Armenia, gave a TEDx
talk about applying to universities
that use this holistic review. (You can
find the link on eDunia or search for
TEDxUWCCR on the TEDx Youtube
channel). He argues that it is necessary
to change the way students construct
their understanding of the university
application process at these universities.
Many students have the frame of
mind that by being something or
doing something they deserve a place.
However, as Wright explains, this is
not the case. Many other factors play a
part in a university’s holistic admissions
decisions—and as a result, students
should stop taking it all so personally.
The first step is examining how our
students are deciding what their “dream
university” really looks like. For many
students, the dream university is the
university they have heard about since
Johanna Fishbein
University Advisor
Dover Campus
When students enter the IB Diploma
programme and begin thinking ahead
to life beyond UWCSEA, students
(and their families) have some big
decisions to consider. Universities
around the world have very different
admissions processes; some are very
straightforward, like Australia, where
students are admitted based on their
IB Diploma points, and some are very
complex, like the US, where a holistic
admissions process is utilised.
As we guide our students through
the holistic review process we are
often struck by how personal it all
feels for them. And it is true that
the holistic admissions process is a