Educational insights

A Postcard from Sunbeam School Lahartara – The Music and Mysticism of Banaras

Sunbeam School Lahartara, Varanasi, India got an opportunity to take some of the Round Square members on a journey to unveil the ethos of Banaras. The Round Square Postcard call that was planned for 13-15 age range was a soul stirring experience with an inspiring keynote session, stimulating baraza discussions, meditative musical performances and was a great way to explore the vibrancy and chaotic pleasure of the oldest living city of the world.

A Postcard from Chadwick and The Athenian School: A Dive Into Californian Culture

Chadwick School and The Athenian School jointly hosted a one hour Round Square Postcard with the theme ‘Dive into California’s Culture’. Over twenty schools took part in addition to our hosts, connecting more than 140 students from the USA, Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, India, Oman, South Africa, and the UK. On the call we were introduced to different aspects of Californian culture before students split into breakouts groups for discussion and then participated in an online teams quiz.

Cela fiesta- a melting pot of diverse Literature

In times like these, with uncertainty surrounding our lives, what we truly need is something that brings us together – not by virtue of our nationality, religion or even language. But by virtue of our passions that shape our lives.Literature is where we must seek our objective. Literature is the medicine for distress. It is the channel for the voiceless. It is truly awe – inspiring, the power of art, to move people, to bring people together – like it has in the fiesta.

Video and pen-pal exchanges across continents

In September 2020 Chadwick International school in California, and Renaissance International School Saigon engaged in a cultural collaboration that saw our students exchanging emails, and creating Flipgrid videos that had them speaking about a wide range of age-appropriate topics in order to learn about students from across the globe. These emails and Flipgrid videos allowed our students to explore the diversity in our student body as well as hone their cross-cultural communication skills.

A Postcard from Scotch Oakburn College – Backyard Aussie Adventures

For our postcard, the students at Scotch Oakburn College shared experiences of how we are all staying active in our backyards, gardens or lounge rooms during lockdown. We invited participants to compare and contrast how students in different parts of the world were keeping active. During the zoom session we shared stories, images and videos. We also discussed ideas in small groups and even got moving. The initiative proved to be a great opportunity to meet young people from around the world and share the variety of our experiences.

Immigration Forum hosted by Nightingale Bamford School

The vision for “The Forum on Immigration to the USA” was to raise awareness about the issue of immigration which German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called “The defining issue of our generation”.It was organized by a Nightingale Bamford Grade 11 (Junior) student, Antonia Brillembourg.It took the form of a Zoom webinar and featured three professors; experts in various aspects of US Immigration history and policy.It lasted 90 minutes and one hundred participants from fifteen RS schools took part. Participants were able to submit questions to the speakers for a response.