I am delighted to introduce the latest edition of the KES Community newsletter which has been named the ‘Sustainability Issue’. The lockdown period has given many staff and students the opportunity to reflect upon some of the most significant issues we face today. Many have set themselves personal lockdown challenges, learning new skills and setting aspirational goals.
KES students have been assessing the contributions we, and school, could be making towards supporting climate initiatives. As an International Baccalaureate school, such reflection is central to our educational aims; as the IB puts it: “the aim of all IB programmes is to develop internationally-minded people, who recognising their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet, help to create a better and more peaceful world.” As a school we have taken significant steps in pursuit of this aim during closure.
A first step has been the establishment of KES’s first Sustainability Society. This group of staff and students has been steered by the knowledge and passion of Mr Butler and Ms Irani who have been supported by well-informed and enthusiastic students from across the school. Soon enough, the Society amalgamated with KEHS and is now at the forefront of conversations with the King Edward’s Foundation to ensure a more sustainable future by 2030. The wide range of contributions made by these students to this issue of KES Community is testament to their commitment to create a world for future generations. I hope you find inspiration in what they have to say; students interested in joining the Society should take a look at the ‘Societies in Focus’ section.
Student engagement with global issues has been enlivened by the recent Hay Digital Festival. Many of our students participated in lectures such as Mark Lynas’s ‘Our Final Warning: Six Degrees of Climate Emergency’ or Christiana Figueres’s and Tom Rivett-Carnac’s ‘The Future we Choose’. Others participated in the discussion panels on water scarcity in the UK and deforestation in South America. It was a personal pleasure to witness our students leading their own online KES forums following the Hay lectures. It really was a wonderful sight to see KES students critically examining the topics raised and I’m sure that many will now feel inspired enough to translate these ideas into action in their local communities and beyond.
Enjoy reading!
