On the evening of November 5, 2021, the British Chamber of Commerce in China announced the results of the first annual British Schools Awards 2021. Malvern College Chengdu’s Eco School Project won the Students for Sustainability Award.
There were 7 award categories including:
Note: The Chinese names of the above awards weren’t officially provided, please click on the organizer’s official website for more information on the original text. https://www.britishchamber.cn/en/british-schools-awards-2021/
For this year’s British Schools Awards, the jury received over 70 applications. An independent panel of experts was responsible for each award and three schools were selected to advance to the finals. The entire selection process took 43 days. After three difficult rounds of evaluation, Malvern College Chengdu won the Students for Sustainability Award.
Due to the pandemic, the award ceremony was live streamed from Beijing. Let’s take a look at some exciting moments in the video.
Click the video to watch this exciting moments
What were the criteria for the award selection?
Students For Sustainability Award: First, the school’s entry must focus on sustainability, and the project must be creative and demonstrate the spirit of innovation. Most importantly, students must have a real understanding of how sustainability impacts the environment and community by studying the project.
You’re probably wondering, what kind of Eco School Project made Malvern College Chengdu stand out? There’s a “mystery person” who played a crucial role in the project; she is the Deputy Head of Primary School/Head of Early Years, also Founder and Head of the Eco School Project, Abbie Holmes.
Click the link to know more information about Abbie Holmes：最让你心动的小学师资团队（二）
“We set aside a special area on campus,” Abbie said: “We developed it into a chicken coop, duck house, pond, planting area, and ‘animal elf lodge’. It’s not a large area but the children think of it as one of the loveliest places, and they’re proud of it”. When Abbie first joined Malvern College Chengdu, she felt that city children rarely have the opportunity to enjoy any time in nature, so the entire MCC campus was designed with ecological and sustainable development in mind. She worked together with other teachers, and shovel by shovel, they created this little planting area. Extremely supportive of the project, Abbie’s husband helped design and reclaim the chicken coop and planting area. He also built recycling facilities for agricultural water.
After nearly three years of development, Malvern College Chengdu has remained dedicated to sustainability. We also created the Eco Warriors club, where every term, early years, primary, and secondary school students join in eco-friendly endeavors. Students hoed and plowed under the guidance of their teachers using greenhouse techniques to grow vegetables and fruits. Children also learned how to hatch chicks and ducklings. After harvesting grains and vegetables, the children handed everything over to the chefs in the kitchen. From farm to table, from the classroom to the outdoors, from the sports field to the planting area, the students and teachers worked together in a small field to understand the relationship between people and nature, life, the environment, and ecology.
On January 19, 2021, the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) published the results of the 2020 (10th) International Eco-Schools “Green Flag” certification after evaluations and reviews by experts from the Center for Environmental Education and Communications of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. Malvern College Chengdu had officially become certified as a 2020 (10th) International Eco-School for a period of three years. This Students For Sustainability Award from the British Chamber of Commerce was a reaffirmation of our philosophy and practice of sustainability education. Let’s continue to work hard to create a healthier and better Malvern community.
