Green School welcomes South China Morning Post photojournalist, Steve Cray, to our first day opening on September 1st, 2008. Visit Steve Cray's website at www.stevecray.net.
On September 1st, 2008, Green School proudly opened our doors, marking the beginning of an exciting journey for students and teachers alike. Take a look at our first day compilation, and watch as individuals come together to form a community.
Notes from the Director
In this newsletter, we celebrate the opening of our doors or rather our low, lovely, bamboo gates that let in light and air: a good metaphor for what we are trying to do to notions of education. For those of us who have been nurturing Green School's growth over the last year, the start to our inaugural year means we are making the exciting transition from vision to reality, from construction site to living school, from jungle to carefully nurtured, sustainable campus.
One of the only statements we can make with any certainty is that this place will develop and grow in ways that we can only imagine now—and that those of you arriving as teachers, students, parents, and Green School supporters will provide the inspiration and the information we'll need to keep evolving. I welcome you as fellow collaborators and supporters and am deeply grateful for your trust and enthusiasm.
Getting to this opening day has been a thrilling process and I want to pause now to thank all of you who have worked incredibly hard to swing wide those gates and let the real adventure — educating our students, educating ourselves — begin. Those people include our founders, John and Cynthia Hardy; our teams in admissions, design, and publicity; and a superb faculty. I also want to thank the many, many workers whose expertise and dedication brought our buildings into being.
In this newsletter, we highlight several of the key moments from a few of those individuals who made the dream of Green School into a reality: Aldo Landwehr, our visionary Creative Director, Meliana Salim, our meticulous Marketing and Public Relations Manager; Ben Macrory, our tireless Head of Admissions; and Purnami Lestari, our dedicated Admissions and Enrollment Manager. The diversity of their talents and roles has helped us meet the many and unexpected challenges that have arisen in launching Green School. But what they all have in common is this: they all believed they were part of something bigger than themselves and were willing to do whatever it took to create an environment for truly inspirational learning.
I used to like bamboo, but now I love it. Green School has been a journey of design and build, trial and error, and sheer determination. When taking up a challenge as big as “going green”, it’s all about ingenuity and commitment. Without the commitment of PT Bambu’s staff, we would have struggled to accomplish all we have in building Green School. A huge thanks to everyone for their contributions.
Just over a year ago, I took on a challenge to tell the world about a concept, a vision, the reality of a dream school that didn’t even exist yet. For the next 365 days we worked hard to organize recruitment and promotional events…and it all came down to one special day: Green School Opening Day on September 1st, 2008.
Watching Susan Allen perform a shadow-puppet show for the most adorable students in our gorgeous kindergarten classroom was worth all the sweat, tears, and mosquito bites. It has been a life-transforming journey and we couldn't have done this without our dedicated team, our generous community, the supportive press, and the open-minded parents and children who are taking a leap of faith with us. Thank you for believing in us.
After the birth of my daughter and my wedding, September 1, 2008, Green School’s opening day, ranks very high on my list of all-time great experiences. Wandering around the Mepantigan Center and chatting with families who I’ve come to know well over the last eight months, I felt a sense of elation and relief that made all of the stress and hard work more than worth it.
I also felt extremely grateful to the parents and children who were willing to take a chance on a school that until that very day had existed only as a vision. In many cases, they applied before we had classrooms and teachers, on the strength of a gorgeous piece of land and the idea that education can and should be so much more than it is in most schools around the globe, that the challenges faced by this generation of students demand a different way of learning and thinking about problem-solving. And, they went out and told their friends that something special was taking place in the lush hills of central Bali. Before too long, we were facing the enviable problem (and one almost unheard of for a brand new school) of having to start waiting lists. I’m enjoying this journey, and by the sounds of student and parent feedback we’ve gotten so far, so are the families who have taken the Green School plunge!
I love working closely with children--it fills me with joy. I joined Green School last September and I'm still not sure where all the time went. In the past year, I experienced a full range of emotions: from stress to sadness to pure happiness. As more and more applications and enrollments poured in, I felt happy and proud—but I felt that something was missing. I couldn't pinpoint the answer until September 1st, the first day of school for students. It was such a perfect day for me, seeing all the students and parents come together and watching the school start to run like other schools. Green School is no longer just a name of a school, but is now a real school with students, teachers and parents. I would like to say thank you to all of the Green School team for making it happen, and thanks to parents who have given us so much support, faith and honest feedback during the enrollment process—without all of that, we could never be where we are today.
Gods Bless Our School
Friday, September 5th Melaspas Ceremony
To formally commemorate the opening of our campus, we celebrated in true Balinese style: through a Melaspas ceremony. In Bali, the Melaspas ceremony brings buildings to life--all buildings must be ceremonially purified before anyone can dwell in them. Although our campus defies the structure of most buildings--we do, after all, live without walls--we still wanted to ensure that our campus will be harmonious and balanced. The Melaspas ceremony brings new structures to life. As anyone who visits the Kul-Kul Campus can see, Green School has truly come to life.
Mepantigan Championship
Green School hosted the 1st Open Mepantigan Bali Championship on Friday, August 15th and Saturday, August 16th at the magnificent Mepantigan Center.
Origami met aerodynamics when, on September 4th, class was disrupted by paper airplanes. Fortunately, the paper airplanes were a welcome intrusion: they were part of a demonstration by “The Paper Airplane Guy.” A guru who has made a science out of a schoolyard staple, John Collins has appeared on CNN, CBS Morning and the Discovery Channel. Here at Green School, he awed students with an introduction to the science of folding. Demonstrating the difference between a dart and a glider and presenting such original feats of folding as “The Super Canard,” Collins explained the laws of aerodynamics and taught students how to manipulate them through lessons on creating the ultimate glider. His spirit of innovation is a testament to Green School’s vision of expanding boundaries and discovering the undiscovered.
Collins’s message was ultimately practical—and vital for the future of our planet: “The world really needs scientists. We’ve got water shortages and energy shortages and global warming, and there are no spare brains. If you think everything’s been invented, it has not.”
The three interconnected spirals that encompass the building will
stand over 20 meters high. It will be Bali’s largest bamboo
structure and quite likely it’s most beautiful as well. Heart of School will house our library, computer room, meeting
spaces, exhibition halls, offices, and much more.
This conference aims to develop Global Citizens who have the knowledge, skills & values to help create a sustainable and more peaceful world. Through collaborative hands-on, teacher-centered workshops at the Green School, GCS will include resources, strategies, and activities to link sustainability and global issues to a school’s existing curricula: relating learning to the realities of the outside world. Workshop leaders include representatives from the IBO Community Theme Project, UNESCO’s Education for Sustainable Development Program and United World College Global Concerns Department.
In early August, Green School founder Cynthia Hardy and School Director Brad Choyt sat down to talk with Nobel Laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus about some of the challenges faced by social entrepreneurs as they strive to make a positive impact in the world. A native of Bangladesh, Dr. Yunus has become well-known for his successful implementation and popularization of micro-credit, the extension of small, low-interest loans to the poor.
Green School opened on September 1st, 2008 for students in Preschool and Kindergarten through Year Eight, with highly talented students and faculty from communities in Bali and around the world. Our beautiful eight-hectare Kul-Kul Campus is located in Sibang Kaja, Bali, 15 minutes north of Denpasar or 20 minutes south of Ubud.
In this newsletter, we celebrate the opening of our doors or rather our low, lovely, bamboo gates that let in light and air: a good metaphor for what we are trying to do to notions of education. For those of us who have been nurturing Green School's growth over the last year, the start to our inaugural year means we are making the exciting transition from vision to reality, from construction site to living school, from jungle to carefully nurtured, sustainable campus. 
I used to like bamboo, but now I love it. Green School has been a journey of design and build, trial and error, and sheer determination. When taking up a challenge as big as “going green”, it’s all about ingenuity and commitment. Without the commitment of 
Just over a year ago, I took on a challenge to tell the world about a concept, a 
After the birth of my daughter and my wedding, September 1, 2008, Green School’s opening day, ranks very high on my list of all-time great experiences. Wandering around the Mepantigan Center and chatting with families who I’ve come to know well over the last eight months, I felt a sense of elation and relief that made all of the stress and hard work more than worth it. 
I love working closely with children--it fills me with joy. I joined Green School last September and I'm still not sure where all the time went. In the past year, I experienced a full range of emotions: from stress to sadness to pure happiness. As more and more applications and enrollments poured in, I felt happy and proud—but I felt that something was missing. I couldn't pinpoint the answer until September 1st, the first day of school for students. It was such a perfect day for me, seeing all the students and parents come together and watching the school start to run like other schools. Green School is no longer just a name of a school, but is now a real school with students, teachers and parents. I would like to say thank you to all of the Green School team for making it happen, and thanks to parents who have given us so much support, faith and honest feedback during the enrollment process—without all of that, we could never be where we are today.
To formally commemorate the opening of our campus, we celebrated in true Balinese style: through a Melaspas ceremony. In Bali, the Melaspas ceremony brings buildings to life--all buildings must be ceremonially purified before anyone can dwell in them. Although our campus defies the structure of most buildings--we do, after all, live without walls--we still wanted to ensure that our campus will be harmonious and balanced. The Melaspas ceremony brings new structures to life. As anyone who visits the Kul-Kul Campus can see, Green School has truly come to life.
Origami met aerodynamics when, on September 4th, class was disrupted by paper airplanes. Fortunately, the paper airplanes were a welcome intrusion: they were part of a demonstration by 
