Green School Tulum
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GREEN SCHOOL TULUM TULUM, MEXICO FOUNDING HEAD OF SCHOOL START DATE: FALL 2021 WWW.GREENSCHOOL.ORG The Green School Way We educate for sustainability through community-integrated, entrepreneurial learning, in a natural environment. Our holistic, student-guided approach inspires and empowers us to be green leaders. This is the Green School Way. OVERVIEW Green School Tulum is a brand-new and one-of-a-kind endeavor. With the guidance of experienced school founders and visionaries, Green School Tulum plans to open in fall of 2021. It will be the fourth school to be established in the global Green School network. The first school, Green School Bali, was established in 2006. Green School New Zealand will open in 2020 and Green School South Africa will open in 2021. Crafted on three hectares of lush jungle and cenotes, Green School Tulum will be a place that celebrates the individual while fostering a cohesive community of learners. Green School Tulum will stand strong at the heart of a holistic residential project within the magical jungle of Tulum, a couple of miles away from the Caribbean Sea. Built out of low impact materials, Green School Tulum will incorporate bamboo and locally sourced woods and materials, as well as permaculture principles, into its operation and design. The school will be an extraordinary milestone for the local community, an inspiration for other schools in Mexico, and a reliable reference for the rest the world. Respecting and embracing nature are at the core of the Green School experience, and, with that foundation, the school will offer students and their families a learning program unlike any other – one that prioritizes community well-being, a systems-thinking approach, and the development of problem- solving skills. Green School Tulum will prepare its graduates for the here and now by instilling in them the confidence and competence they need to have an impact on the world around them. The Search Group | Carney, Sandoe & Associates 2 [email protected] | www.carneysandoe.com In the words of the founder: “We want children to be aware of the future for the environment and create a link with an emotional intuition, so that the world encourages them to admire the possibilities of life.” -John Hardy Currently, Green School Tulum is seeking a Founding Head of School who is ready for a once in a lifetime opportunity. Strong candidates will be life-long learners who are action-oriented and passionate about environmental stewardship. The new Head will also be a deft communicator with strong interpersonal skills, and someone who can engage confidently with a variety of people and cultures. THE SCHOOL By design and intent, Green School Tulum will be a dynamic place where young people are always changing, growing, and learning. The curriculum will constantly evolve and embrace research-based, progressive learning principles designed to nurture the qualities and competencies to advance us all toward a sustainable future. For today’s young people—who are social and curious and eager to experiment—the joys and challenges of our complex world are best explored by doing, engaging, and experiencing. There is no place for fear, and there must be room for mistakes along the way. These are among the stepping stones that nurture resilience and success. Green School believes in rigor and discipline, but it also believes that it is infinitely better to have those qualities grow within the child rather than be imposed on the child. The Green School community is convinced that the ethical, creative, entrepreneurial mind will best serve the damaged planet’s future and believes that young people should, therefore, develop holistically. Green School staff and teachers will come from all corners of the globe, with a passion for education and the natural world. Teachers will be empowered to bring their passion, individual talents, and commitment to sustainability to the overarching curriculum. Green School teachers will be highly qualified and will have been involved in social, humanitarian, or environmental volunteering. Among them will be lawmakers, entrepreneurs, scientists, authors, designers, poets, and others. The Search Group | Carney, Sandoe & Associates 3 [email protected] | www.carneysandoe.com Operating as a private, bilingual (English/Spanish) school, Green School Tulum will be an inspiring example of education for sustainability preparing today’s students for a changing world. The school will be driven by the Green School mission statement: Thrive with purpose. Green School Tulum will serve students in PreK through Middle School (8th grade) in its first year of operation, growing to become a PK-12 school. The school expects to open with 120 students and to grow to a total enrolment of 700 students by 2025. iRESPECT VALUES Green School subscribes to a set of values captured by the acronym: iRESPECT. These are the values of: integrity, responsibility, equality, sustainability, peace, empathy, community, and trust. Green School encourages all teachers to honor and recognize these values in their students at all times with ongoing dialogue, discussions, and reinforcement. • Integrity – being honest and ethical with thoughts and actions. • Responsibility – being accountable for thoughts, actions, and deeds. • Empathy – understanding and caring for the feelings of others. • Sustainability – ensuring that your own body and surroundings are cared for, so they are clean and healthy for as long as possible. • Peace – contributing to a state of harmony. • Equality – respecting everyone as an equal and as an individual. • Community – being part of a group seeking common goals and taking care of each other. Trust- building and maintaining strong relationships with each other, the school and the environment. The Search Group | Carney, Sandoe & Associates 4 [email protected] | www.carneysandoe.com LEARNING PROGRAM Green School is committed to a natural, holistic, student-centered learning environment that empowers and inspires students to be creative, innovative change-makers. Green School Tulum will educate young leaders in a global citizenship by championing a new model of learning that connects the timeless lessons from nature to focused preparation for a fast-changing future. The holistic learning at Green School will focus on “The Big Four” intelligences: the physical, emotional, intellectual, and expressive development of a child. The pedagogy to be used in Green School is based on three principles: 1. Thematic classes: cross disciplinary learning around a theme 2. Proficiency classes: mathematics, English, science, humanities, and foreign languages. 3. Experiential classes: enterprise, environmental studies, arts, health, and wellbeing. This defines how the school will deliver the content of its courses in the classroom. This scaffold is designed to provide a consistent, relevant, well-rounded, and comprehensive learning experience, and forms the basis of the Green School curriculum and approach to learning. In the primary years, the school architecture will inspire students to connect with the environment, chase adventure, and pursue their passions. Primary students will strive to master core competencies in math and literacy in a highly supportive learning environment. Student-guided, hands-on projects will promote entrepreneurial thinking, environmental education, practical skills, and the arts, while fostering students to become effective collaborators and communicators, empowered decision makers, and willing risk takers. The Search Group | Carney, Sandoe & Associates 5 [email protected] | www.carneysandoe.com The intermediate program will give students the freedom and responsibility to build their own learning program. Students will have a significant amount of choice, while maintaining a firm grounding in foundational subjects. They will be able to choose their own arts, PE, and English literacy courses, empowering, supporting, and challenging them to take control of their own learning program. Throughout the intermediate years, Green School will focus on developing students’ critical thinking skills—to question, challenge, and seek to discover answers and solutions for themselves. The program will be structured and delivered to leverage the natural desire of this age group to become independent thinkers, to work with friends and peers, and to discover rather than to be told. Across all grade levels, a comprehensive green studies and environmental science curriculum will evolve from ecology to sustainability, while connecting students to Green School’s local geographic and cultural context. The aim of the green studies curriculum will be to nurture respect for the natural world, heighten students’ environmental awareness and promote stewardship, and develop deep ecological values. Talented arts professionals will develop and lead Green School’s creative arts curriculum. The arts programming will be richly influenced by its geographical location—the nearby natural and cultural features. Students will regularly explore several forms of creative arts, with curricular sophistication growing as students mature. At weekly assemblies, campus art galleries, and other community venues, students will have regular opportunities to display their art and perform in a supportive environment. Green School will also offer a range of sporting, musical, cultural, artistic, and recreational activities after school, changing offerings from term-to term and including options for all age-groups. The Search Group