Green School

As it's the start of the school year in Canada, I thought I would do a short post today about where Emmet, Myles and Austin are going to school: the "Green School."

It's a school that was started three years ago by John and Cynthia Hardy, a Canadian and American expat couple who have been in Bali for over 25 years. They made a fortune in the jewelery business here, and then sold their company about 12 years ago. When their daughter was getting older, they weren't satisfied with any of the international schooling options on the island, and so they decided to open their own school. The emphasis was, of course, on being green and sustainable, but they also brought in people with experience in Waldorf/Steiner schools, and so there is some of that too. And then they also decided they needed to be solid academically, so the the school follows the Cambridge International Examination curriculum. A little bit of everything...

But what makes the school so unique is the setting and the architecture. It's set on a large plot of land next to a river... essentially in the middle of a small forest (jungle?). And as John Hardy is a big proponent of building with Bamboo, they built the entire school out of bamboo. It's really quite amazing. Here are a few pictures from what they call the "Heart of the School," the main building of Green School.






Emmet loves the school. He told me today he likes it better than his last school, Ossington Old Orchard, which is remarkable because he really liked OOOPs. He's got a great teacher who has been teaching in Bangkok for the last few years, and who Emmet likes a lot. I think he likes the school because he gets to be outside a lot, but also feels like he's learning. And as the school is very international, everyone is from somewhere else, there's lots of different accents, and that, I think, is cool.

Myles and Austin were a little lukewarm at first about school... but are now into it. Although Austin especially misses Toronto and their last teacher Mr. D. But, they did tell me today they like their class and their teacher. They are doing work in the garden outside their classroom once a week, and are enjoying that. Today they had soccer practice at lunch, and then phys ed right after... and what could be better than that.

And that's all for Green School for now... I've put together a short photo essay on a day in the life at Green School for the boys. Click on the arrows to watch it on this page, or click on the pictures to open up the web album (larger pictures).



Bye for now,

Peter