GEMS Wellington International School

What is SEE Change?

SEE stands for social, economic and environmental change. The word SEE represents the three pillars of Sustainability. We have a group of SEE Change students who are taking action to make our school and wider community more sustainable.

Our SEE Change student leaders visited the Year 4 class as part of their Beach Topic. They taught the students a lesson to introduce the term ‘Nurdle’. Nurdles are the building blocks of all our plastic products. They are transported around the world as cargo on ships. Often the cargo spills resulting in the nurdles ending up in the ocean and then littering our beaches.

Year 4 put their new knowledge into action this week at the beach and collected the nurdles littering the Dubai coastline after a spill in February of 2023. The found hundreds. One of the saddest facts we learnt was that Nurdles cannot be recycled so Year 4 are planning to turn them into art work to educate our wider school community about the devastating effects our plastic consumption is having on our marine ecosystems.

This iniative is part of our plastic reduction efforts as part of our continued commitment to “The Plastic Pledge”.

Dulsco Recycling Bus

Children in Year 4 and 2 were thrilled to  visit the Dulsco Recycling Bus in school today. As part of our plastic pledge and sustainability drive, children have been learning about SDG 14 and SDG 15 in their respective “The Beach” and “Under the sea” topics. The informative session helped them learn the importance of reusing, recycling and reducing the waste.  Children were buzzing to witness the inside of recycling bus, understand recycling process and pledged to look after our planet by reducing the use of plastic around school.

Next Gen World Majlis

Four students represented WIS at the Next Gen World Majlis students were selected based on their audio response to one of the following briefs:

• What are your hopes for COP28?
• What frustrates you the most about the current global response to climate action?
• If you could speak to all world leaders at COP28, what would be your message?
• How effective are COP conferences? Could they be done differently?

Congratulations to our shortlisted representatives:

• Ryaan Datta
• Elysia Page
• Aleksandra Wiacek
• Ragaa Abdalbary

Round 1 included guest speaker Sara Shatila - United Nations Communications and Advocacy Manager for the UAE. Students had the opportunity to ask questions and then participated in a quiz.

Ragaa Abdalbary was selected to progress to Round 2 on the 2nd November. An incredible achievement. 120 students attended Round 1 and only 20 are selected to progress to Round 2. During Round 2 students will delve deeper into the Sustainable Development Goals and participate in a Climate Fresk. Only ten students will move to Round 3 based on their active involvement and collaboration. We wish Ragaa all the best in Round 2.