Sustainability & Global Citizenship
At Dulwich International High School Programme Suzhou, we aim for our schools, staff and students to “Live Worldwise”. This means Sustainability and Global Citizenship are infused and embedded across our whole organisation. Our goal is to encourage our communities to make informed choices, take inspired action and create positive impact.
As part of a holistic education, we are committed to providing purpose-driven learning experiences that are guided by a deep sense of connection to people and the planet. As an organisation, we are also committed to developing, measuring, and maintaining sustainable practices.
We have defined four pillars that shape our sustainability and global citizenship goals and outcomes: Learning, Planet, People, and Policy.
Learning: We are committed to meaningful and relevant learning that nurtures students as global citizens.
Through delivering innovative and world-changing education offerings that are wellbeing-focused, academically rigorous, socially and emotionally enriching, safe, holistic and world-class, we nurture leaders who are passionate and equipped to create solutions to the world’s problems, both today and in the future.
Planet: We are committed to maximising positive impact and minimising harm, with sustainable and regenerative ideas and practices for the planet.
We have embarked upon a carbon roadmap across all of our schools in a three-step process of carbon mapping, carbon reduction and carbon offsetting.
People: We are committed to working together as a rich and diverse community for the benefit of all.
To reflect this, we continually invest in staff through our “Accelerate” programme and have launched the Worldwise Alumni Network (WAN), which provides alumni with shared lifelong social and professional opportunities. We continue to focus on the health and safety of our students and staff, prioritising wellbeing and offering meaningful engagement as active citizens and through community participation.
Policy: We are committed to building the systems and strong organisational structures to support collective ambition.
We are compliant in all areas across all our schools, including rapidly developing our cybersecurity and data privacy capability and have established a robust internal Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) framework to ensure we hold ourselves accountable at all levels of our organisation.
Sustainability and Global Citizenship at Our School
Learning that relates to sustainability and global citizenship and is relevant, meaningful and contributes to a sustainable future
Our vision underpins everything we do at DHSZ. We aim to offer a rich and varied curriculum that helps prepare global citizens who make a positive difference to those around them and the wider community. Four domains guide global Citizenship Education at DHSZ; Environmental Sustainability, Economic Sustainability, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and Cultural Understanding. As we embark on a curriculum review this year, these lenses are essential to refining and developing our curriculum offering. We are also deliberate in ensuring our curriculum is appropriate and respects our students' needs, and our host country's culture.
Our academic curriculum is broad, including compulsory PE, Drama and Lifeskills at all year levels, a combination of internal and external courses, including courses developed to recognise student needs and interests, such as SE21, Digital Skills, Liberal Arts and History of Art. Our approach towards supporting English language learning, translanguaging – respects and honours the linguistic abilities of our students and their native languages.
Recently, a team of teachers have completed Compass Education's Systems Thinking for Sustainability in the Classroom programme, which will inform our curriculum development. We are also learning from the THRIVE programme, which aims to ensure our curriculum is inclusive to all learners.
With over 350 students in boarding, our boarding programme, tutorial programme – Dragon Spirit Time - small group mentoring, Lifeskills and assemblies, and social & emotional counselling supports the development of our students to thrive in our community.
We recognise the importance of educating our students to be confident in and aware of the world around them. We reflect on and develop opportunities for our students to involve themselves in service and charity projects, the Chinese Citizenship Curriculum and global citizenship education that is relevant and meaningful to them.
Environmental sustainability ideas and practices for our planet
Dulwich International High School Programme Suzhou is one of the first in the Dulwich family to offset our carbon footprint and be awarded the ”carbon neutral" certificate. This is a great first step towards sustainability until we can make some bigger changes to our infrastructure and reductions to our footprint.
Dulwich International High School Programme Suzhou is pioneering energy management in schools, with initiatives including replacing fluorescent lights by LED and replacing street lights by solar type, saving 21.8% more electricity than in 20/21.
Our Save September challenge focused on reducing electricity and water waste, with a noticeable reduction compared to usage from the previous year. As part of No Carbon November, we have integrated our activities with our House System to encourage participation.
Our wellbeing, working together as a rich and diverse community, and connecting with others
At DHSZ we are extremely proud of our multinational and diverse staff and student body whilst also recognising the importance of engaging with the culture of our students and host country. Our diverse community helps foster a caring and respectful environment, in which we hope, that both staff, students and parents can Grow in Dulwich, Thrive in Life.
Our school offers opportunities for students to contribute positively to those around them and the wider community. Developing empathy and consideration for others is at the heart of student organisations and CCA groups. Opportunities in this space have included programmes such as Lungs & Love, GRASP, Suzhou Culture, LUNA, Wingsplan, Ripple, Dulwich Medical Programme, Her Voice and others.
Our students contribute to our community in many ways. This may be as members of the Student Council, Boarding Prefects or Student Ambassadors, or through the Dulwich TV studio which helps educate our foreign staff about our host country through short, student-produced videos. Other choose to support through acting as photographers during school events, helping the AV team behind the scenes during the school musical or other events.
Our students also recognise the importance of mental health for teenagers. This year we are offering I-ACT training to our students, who, as our Mental Health Champions, support wellbeing initiatives in our school and boarding programme.
Recently a group of teachers across departments completed Compass Education’s Systems Thinking for Sustainability in the Classroom programme, with learning shared within departments to embed sustainability and systems thinking in the classroom.
We are proud members of AIELOC (the Association of International Educators and Leaders of Colour). We encourage and support members of our staff body to engage in training and activities to support their development in a manner that is empowering and appropriate given their life experiences. For example, two staff members are completing the Aspiring Leaders of Colour programme, while others have joined various affinity groups and online training sessions.
We offer a rich and varied professional learning programme to all staff, appropriate to their needs and career aspirations.
At DHSZ we are committing time and resources to develop our DEIJ policy this year. This is an opportunity to reflect on how our school can be a welcoming space for students, staff, parents and the wider community. We are also deliberate in considering our local context, ensuring our curriculum, approaches, and policies are relevant to our students and staff.
Systems and structures to make positive contributions as a collective
Student and staff wellbeing is another area of focus this year. Our Director, Sarah Tielman, is leading the group-wide staff and student wellbeing initiatives to develop frameworks which will be used by individual schools and tailored to their specific contexts.
We are also considering ways to reduce our environmental footprint by reviewing areas of the school that are resource intensive. With 350 boarding students in our boarding houses, they are opportunities to reduce water and electricity usage. Our catering service runs a pre-ordering system that allows them to estimate demand for food items, cater to student wants and minimise waste.