You Don't Know You're Ill Until You're Well : meet Chris Edwards, CEO & Stuart MacAlpine, Principal at Green School New Zealand

This Episode took me to the newest member of the Green School, the second school of a growing group guided by sustainable practices, whose first site is in Bali. Private environmentally-conscious school groups such as Green School International are growing fast. Green School New Zealand opened in February, and there are two more planned to open in 2021 in South Africa and Mexico. An average day at these schools might include developing a renewable energy system to learning water safety skills while surfing. Traditional subjects are blended with enterprise and environmental studies.

The school’s futuristic looking teaching pods, or wakas sit on a idyllic 120-acre site the west coast of the north island of New Zealand.

It was here, in a café converted from a barn, where I met Chris Edwards, CEO, and Principal, Stuart MacAlpine. This was week two of the school being open, so I started out by asking Chris and Stuart  how they’d found themselves here after several years of working together at the United World College in Singapore, and why they had chosen this particular kind of project to get stuck into.

The idea of  trying to "do childhood properly" really stuck with me after this interview. Editing this during coronavirus lockdown in Spain, it seems utterly fitting that Stuart focused in on the phrase “you don’t know you’re ill until until you’re well”. Schools are having to undergo unprecedented change as we speak right now, with online learning now a necessity, major examinations cancelled and teachers and learners in real anxious flux.

However, those schools like Green School that have an eye on the well-being of students not only seem to be thinking about preparing young people better for the changing nature of the external environment and the world of work, they are going to be able to build resilience and adaptability in their learners. After all, if your school has co-created your learning with you, you might just end up better prepared for the slings and arrows of life.

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