PLEASE NOTE: due to COVID restrictions, all people visiting will need to line up keeping 1.5m of distance and  only 4 people will be allowed in each room at a time. 

Where? In front of the DP veggie garden, between Nelson Mandela and the Primary.

Who’s welcome? Everyone! Come, one and all! Day students and residentials! Teachers, staff, and RMs! 

What should you bring? Nothing, just some nimble fingers and a curious mind. 

Why? Well, what better way to release exam/revision angst than by hurling a ball of earth to its ultimate destruction? And if you feel concerned about biodiversity loss, you can do your own part in supporting insect and plant life. The Netherlands contains a quarter of all the habitat types in Europe, and yet studies show that certain types of wildlife have been halved in 30 years. The most affected are birds, marine life, and insects. This is mainly due to The Netherlands's highly intensive agriculture, and its nitrogen pollution, mostly from livestock manure and fertilizer. 

Now, we wanna show some extra love to our insect friends by planting flowers they can snack and live on. Why? Well, many species have been reduced greatly, and are in danger of extinction in The Netherlands. And in nature, insects have a vital role, as they are often the basis for the functioning of ecosystems. Think of pollinators, like bees, flies, and butterflies, or our decomposing and oil-aerating friends the ants. And here’s a bit of controversy, but some believe that insects (and some less cute-looking animals) are more important than pandas! So let’s give our fellow wriggly creatures a (metaphorical) hug.

Come along to make fantastically fertile balls of earth, filled to the brim with wildflowers and grasses! 

Our goal is to make a wildflower meadow in front of the garden that Nathan and Co. (Gardening Service) have been so arduously working on. And maybe sow seeds of buttercups, crocuses, and poppies in at the gates of the school. So let’s all come together and brighten up bare patches of earth! We’ll also have some fun contests, to see who can throw the bombs farthest, for example. 

Good luck on mocks/studies, and hope to see you there, 

Dalya, on behalf of EAG :)

The SDG Youth Mural will be painted live on the three pillars of De Krul in the Sphinxkwartier (close to the Noorderbrug) during the Act For Global Goals Festival on September 25 and 26.

 Design competition for young people (12-27 years old): if you want to see your work of art shine in the beautiful city center of Maastricht, this is your chance! Make a painting or poem and send your design to us before September 20: actforglobalgoals@mondiaalmaastricht.nl

All our MYP2 to DP2 students have received an email about this and they need to send a selfie video to the organisers.

We are benchmarking at the moment best practices in waste management at educational institutions in Limburg and across the Netherlands to explore possibilities in our school while we study our own waste sources and trends and start planning within the Eco-Team the best possible approach to introducing new waste management systems and involving the whole community via workshops, campaigns, and other activities in the process.

When you register for Junior World Food Day, you need to fill out a form to register for the World Food Forum from 1-5 October. On the 5 October, when you enter the platform to come to our event, look for the Cultural Event room! This is where the Junior World Food Day event will take place. To help you navigate the platform, we prepared a guide on how to find your way to the Junior World Food Day event here below.

 

·         Junior World Food Day registration link:

 

·         Quick guide on how to find the Junior World Food Day event:

 

We look forward to seeing you there!

 

All the best,

Well done to all 29 participants! 

Tobias led a very dynamic presentation on the reasons to transition towards a more plant-based diet considering not only climate action and animal wellbeing/rights but also health reasons. It was very interesting to hear about his own experience as a heavy meat eater 22 years ago and he encouraged everyone to do their bit. The questions that followed from the audience show the growing interest in more sustainable eating habits within our community and left none of us indifferent.

This talk was sponsored by funding from the Jong Leren Eten programme.

 

Thus, if you would like to give a second life to a piece of clothing you have cherished very much, please bring your clothes to school until 1 December. Please hang your coat on the hooks or hangers in the indicated spot in the ground floor corridor between Primary and Secondary. If you have other types of clothes, please leave the bags under the hanging place by the wall and write “Winter Collection” or “Juupu” on the outside of the bag. For large donations (more than 2 bags), please contact o.garcia@uwcmaastricht.nl 

During the lesson, children were taught to take a narrative photo around the SDGs (Visual Storytelling)and then given 2 weeks to work on this assignment (including possibly outside school hours). Ultimately, this will result in an exhibition for Year 6 and MYP1 students at our school, followed by a selection of the 5 most striking photos (chosen by the children themselves) that will be incorporated  by a designer into the exhibition in the city.

As they explained it: "Out of all sectors, the fast fashion industry has one of the largest environmental impacts. It is by nature unsustainable, due to its significant carbon emissions, soil and water pollution and inhumane working conditions." Therefore, the EAG invited all to look at 4 facts (see down below) to learn more about the consequences of a clothing purchase and hopefully take a stand against it, embracing sustainable consumption:

EAG members explained "It is necessary that we all think about WHO is making our clothes, and HOW. If you are thinking of purchasing items for Black Friday, please consider going to SWAP SHOP (25th November, unfortunately only residential) instead, or prioritizing other alternatives. Through events and campaigns, we will be allowing access to a range of these alternatives ASAP."

“We have to listen, understand the pain of minorities and amplify their voices [...]. We need to deconstruct our thinking, decolonise our systems. We have to live it and work it [...] It’s all about the importance of human dignity [...]. Once we start promoting Human Rights, there is hope.”

Our visitors were very impressed with the depth of the questions and thoughts of our students and Anthony and David Sheehan (head of AI in Maastricht) enjoyed very much learning more about our school during a tour and were especially happy to hear about the ELL support the school provides and the promotion of mother tongues among our families and students.

The visit was completed by the planting of a plum tree, donated by Boomkwekerij Frijns, to commemorate Human Rights Day 2021 and our ongoing partnership with Shelter City Maastricht. A beautiful plaque engraved by the design technology department now accompanies the tree in the DP garden, behind Nelson Mandela’s residence building, with a quote by Demond Tutu: "It means a great deal to those who are oppressed to know that they are not alone. Never let anyone tell you that what you are doing is insignificant”.

Special thank you to students: Eva G. for the poem she read and to Chihaya, Adela, Gege and Amogh for helping Anthony with planting the tree. 

Voting by the students themselves was under way at the closing of this edition. The final 5 photos selected to represent each year group will be exhibited at the Pathé Cinema in the Sphinx from 17 January, together with those representing other 20 schools in Maastricht. 

Our parent reps have also been busy collecting data about the #ZeroWaste Meals campaign that we launched last September. Thank you very much to all the families and staff members who kindly replied to our questionnaire!

The Carbon Monitoring Service Team (DP students) has also been busy collecting transportation related data from DP students (in this early stage, to be expanded to other community members) and the school’s energy consumption data. More news and updates in 2022.

1) The proceeds go directly to UWC's scholarship fund to support girls from the MENA region to come and study at UWC Maastricht.

2) The trees come in pots and have root balls. You can keep them or return the trees to campus for the Campus Gardening Service team (DP students) to use them as natural fencing for our organic garden.

3) You can use it/ them for inside or outside decoration!

4) Your family will love to decorate it

5) Your home deserves a Christmas tree!

Loose and easy language about equality, resonant resolutions about brotherhood fall pleasantly on the ear, but for the Negro there is a credibility gap he cannot overlook. He remembers that with each modest advance, the white population promptly raises the argument that the Negro has come far enough. Each step forward accents an ever-present tendency to backlash."

-Where Do We Go from Here, Martin Luther King, 1967

Hello, community!

Happy Black History Month (BHM)! February serves as a global celebration of the achievements and triumphs of black people throughout history. Of course, "Black" does not designate a single nation or culture but has gone beyond its initial roots in the U.S and expanded to discuss the larger problem of systemic racism, which appears in many distinct (yet patterned) forms worldwide.

Though this is a holiday of celebration for powerful Black voices, we cannot individually commemorate the event without recognizing the past and existing efforts that make them possible; neither can we ignore the struggle that Black people are faced with every day. The Black community owes it to the great figures of its history to continue the efforts and discussions that led to their liberation. We have tried to spark this discussion today by making various posters you saw around the campus. 

These posters highlight a few things that Black people are faced with daily within and beyond the school community and are intended to serve as conversation starters about such issues. We hope they serve their purpose and remind you that Black Liberation is Global and affects every aspect of our lives. 

Please feel free to approach any Black student about the posters or any questions about BHM. We don't know everything but will try our best to answer and discuss them with you. Please be respectful when you approach anyone and note that they are under no obligation to answer your questions if they don't want to. 

"We are dedicated to conserving both our local and global environment by utilizing an app known as ActNow, which allows us to keep track of the essential impacts we have on the environment by sustaining a healthy lifestyle and environmentally-friendly habits."

To find out more, visit their website above.

Well done MYP3B!

We hope that this is an opportunity for the students to apply their theoretical knowledge learnt within the classroom which will now find an application in the real world and that they will also learn a little more about their host city/country and from the rich interaction which will take place in this market place from 9 am - 3 pm. 

The students will have support from the Maastricht Markt Meesteers [Harry, Richard, Debbie and Roland] and Ms Hannie [Leader of the Sellers Union of MFM], good samaritans  of Maastricht  and several sellers in the Markt [Charlie’s Coffee, Vietnamese Stall, Meijer-Scharis, Beeing Pure, Argentinian Food stall, Raeven, Doeleman… to name a few].

We wish all students and their very supportive teachers a great day of data collection and that they make the best with the knowledge they've learnt in the classroom this year.

Further presentations will follow in Primary by the Primary Eco-Team reps either before this school year or at the start of next school year.

These waste separation stations will replace the bins in each classroom and have proved very successful in reducing the amount of general (residual) waste at several other educational institutions in Limburg.

Residual waste reduction is one of the goals set by the Eco-Team for 2021-2023 and with the assistance of these new tools and a regular and ongoing communication as well as the relaunch of the #Zero-Waste Meals campaign we hope to make this theme one of relevance for everybody in our community next school year.

We are a certified Eco-School since 2016 and with the portfolio we have already submitted and the outcome of the visit we expect to receive the re-accreditation for our next Green Flag, which symbolises we are an Eco-School completing all the 7 steps of the program.

The Eco-Team has now grown to almost 50 members, including 10 Primary students (half of whom will become great Sustainability ambassadors in MYP1 next school year); Secondary student representatives -from the MYP & DP Student Councils and the many services, clubs and student-led initiatives working on Sustainability themes such as Climate, Nature, People and Waste-; staff with specific related roles within the school or with an interest in Sustainability and parents representing the Parent Association, Participation Council and other groups.

Our guests had the opportunity to speak with 10 Primary students, 10 Secondary students, 10 staff members and 2 parents throughout the day and enjoyed very much experiencing lunch in mensa, visiting a residential floor, the bike shed and learning more about the bike repair service, our solar panels, the new waste separation stations that will be installed next school year per floor, the Permaculture garden, the Swap Shop and Lost&Found services. They also visited a Primary Outdoor Learning session, a Year 6 class, a DP Geography class and learnt about the exciting plans for the new Primary playground.

It was a fun day in which they were especially impressed by our Eco-Team structure; the fact that parents are so involved also in Sustainability matters and our ability to connect and collaborate with like-minded organisations locally. Our students did an outstanding job presenting what they are working on regarding Sustainability at UWC Maastricht and what they would like to accomplish also next year. It was fascinating for our visitors to discover how the students have taken the lead in so many areas and are bringing about positive change. We will share the outcome of the visit in a few weeks!

Thank you to all the students, parents and staff who made this visit such a success!

Basil - ready to eat

Chilli - starting to fruit and getting hotter!

Lettuce - ready to plant for eating in another week or so

Sunflowers - ready to plant for August flowering

Strawberries - for planting and growing on for fruit next June.
Rainbow Chard and Rocket Salad - eating immediately

All have been raised inside the polytunnel so will benefit from being in a sheltered spot in their new gardens/terraces.

All plants have been given away to staff for  free! However, a voluntary donation box will raise funds to stock up with some different seeds for next season.

It is a pleasure to see what great work our students have been doing over the past year outside!

All the money raised goes into the Swap Shop Foundation which then redistributes the funding back to the community by supporting student-led projects.   

The result is amazing! Our playground is now the Green Heart of the Campus that we envisioned when we started this project over 2 years ago.

But...the grass will need 2 more weeks to root and attach itself to the soil. Only then it will be strong enough to play/ walk/ run on. As much as we would have loved to tell students: you can now use the play structures, but do not run over the grass... Sorry, we tried that at the beginning of the year, and practice showed us that that is not going to work. Unfortunate as a result we had to make the decision to close down the playground for 2 more weeks...We hope students will be patient, the reward is worth waiting for!

Thank you all for you understanding and cooperation. 

All in all 178.57 euros were raised for the Swap Shop Fund. Year 7 to Year 13 student teams can apply for those funds (there are 4 deadlines throughout the year) if they have projects that would impact the community.

Last but not least, Year 5 and Year 6 students in the Eco-School Club will be also planning next week a Second-Life Market from items they own and donations, which will take place in the Atrium on Wednesday 30 November from 3 to 6pm. This is a collaborative initiative with the Year 6 parents to fundraise for the Year 6 Graduation while promoting the idea of Reducing and Reusing in our lives.

There will be kids size and perhaps adult size clothing, toys, books, accessories, decorations, perhaps hand-made items too. Ideal place to find the Sustainable gifts you have been looking for with a different price range! 

For the closing speech,  Dr. Tero Musten, Regional Representative for the Circumpolar Arctic, took the stage. Dr. Tero is also the President of the Snowchange Cooperative, an internationally-awarded non-profit organization led by indigenous people in the Scandinavian regions, which brings forward indigenous knowledge and research, as well as leading policy making for environmental action. Dr. Tero talked about Snowchange, as well as the arctic biocultural marine ecosystem, using two case studies from arctic environments. 
The five workshops offered were:

1. City Building Simulation:  as the leader of a country, how would you deal with the sea level rise? Let's discover it!

2. pH Experiment:   learn about the power of the Algae to heal the sea with this workshop!

3. Mix & Match:  test your knowledge and learn about all the astonishing species that live in the ocean! 

4. Water Filter: learn to make this potentially life-saving invention from scratch!

5. Video game:  build your own community and protect them from catastrophe.

Here is the trailer of the documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaGp5_Sfbss&ab_channel=Untold

A discussion with students and some staff followed the film about how and at what cost our clothes are made. 

Betty’s project aims to address “eutrophication, which is algal growth in harmful amounts due most commonly to excessive amounts of the nutrients phosphorus and nitrogen, which come from inadequate wastewater treatment, intensified agriculture, and soil erosion.

The solution addresses two other environmental problems: fossil fuel emissions and the overconsumption of high-GHG-emission animal products. Both problems contribute to climate change, which inequitably causes increased temperatures, extreme weather, and sea level rise.

[Betty’s] idea is to build ATS systems beside nutrient-overloaded lakes to reduce and eventually eliminate eutrophication while harvesting the algae for vegan dietary supplements and biogas. To avoid emissions from virgin materials, [she] will manufacture the system with recycled plastic (for the screens and pipes) and steel (for the frames).” 

On 27 February Betty will find out if her proposed solution makes it to the final, in which case she would have to proceed with her plan to contact the local government in Limburg and a USA based company that could potentially help her with her solution.

UWC Maastricht is one of them and Primary in particular will have more time allocated for those with a special Eco-Week Assembly; the launching of the new waste separation stations; planting activities; a drawing competition and other.

Secondary students will be invited to fill in their Carbon Footprint 2022-2023 information about travel and food.

The students have been planning and creating, in teams, their own ways to convey to other students in Primary what the Eco-School Club is, how to separate waste in the new waste separation bins soon to be placed in Primary and ideas for more sustainable lunches. The students will present at the Assembly on 18 April.