Green School strives to maintain balance in the world with a diverse student body, and one of the ways in which we aim to achieve this is through our Scholarship Initiative. In order to support Bali’s local youth, Green School eagerly seeks those who would like to play an active role in a Balinese student’s life and provide education.

Click here to learn more about sponsoring a Balinese child at Green School.

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. The Heart of School will house our library, computer room, meeting spaces, exhibition halls, offices, and much more.

To see the completion of the Heart of School, Green School needs your support. We encourage you to participate in building the Heart of School through bamboo donations. To show our appreciation we will mark each gift by carving your name (or an elected name) onto a bamboo pole. Once the construction is complete, you will be able to see the names of all the donors who’ve made this project possible, including your own, through partnership. Thank you for sharing our respect for holistic education, environmental sustainability, Balinese culture and natural beauty.

On Saturday, October 18th Project Concern International (PCI) graciously donated US$ 1,400 for the supply of bamboo to help build the Heart of School. The names of PCI members will be skillfully carved onto the bamboo supply in demonstration of our deep gratitude for your invaluable contribution. Thank you for strengthening the Heart of School!

Project Concern International is a non-profit health and humanitarian aid organization dedicated to preventing disease, improving community health, and promoting sustainable development. For more information on PCI, please visit their website at www.projectconcern.org.

At Green School, many of our animals, including our cows, live on the west side of the river and students visit them every day. Balinese cows look almost like deer, with their fine light brown fur, wide dark eyes and alert expressions. Yet these creatures are also prime resources for compost, methane gas used to fuel our stoves, and slurry that is used on the crops around campus…

We work hard to live up to our Green School name. This includes being "green" with everything from our waste management to the design of our buildings and permaculture gardens. There's still a long way to go before we can really be as green as we aim to be. Nevertheless the energy, commitment, and desire is present, and it's most evident in the classrooms - where the students are learning about the ever-changing Ayung River; planting crops such as rice or sunflowers; and building huts from coconut fronds.  

In short, the children bring a unique critical element that is necessary to live in a community committed to sustainability: joy in learning about the natural world. With joy in their minds, bodies, and in the earth, we can hope to live up to the high expectations our name carries. It’s going to take a lot of ingenuity, grit, and yes, a lot of dirty hands, but we'll get there. In this newsletter, we welcome the chance to share our exciting, green, and muddy journey.

The world is starting to take note of Green School! Aside from some great international press, Green School Director Brad Choyt and I have been invited to speak about cultivating environmental leadership at this year’s Asia Pacific Regional Rotaract Conference, held in Bali between 19-23 November. The aim of this conference is to bring Rotaractors (Rotary in Action) from around the Asia Pacific region to one venue to discuss how to best create the leaders of the future.

We are looking forward to this great opportunity for us to spread the Green School message to an audience from around the region (between 500-700 participants are expected from as far away as India and Mongolia). It is increasingly obvious that today’s young people will face a series of daunting global challenges when they leave school, and we feel confident that an education premised on sustainability is a vital tool for tomorrow’s leaders.

Green School’s classrooms have no walls, serving as a reminder to all to think creatively and explore limitless possibilities while respecting the natural beauty that surrounds us. Take a peek at our Green School students learning in these extraordinary classrooms.

Almost everything we do at Green School reflects our concern for the world we share. We’ve put together this presentation to highlight some of the things that make Green School green.

Click the image below to view our presentation.

This conference aims to develop Global Citizens who have the knowledge, skills, and values to help create a sustainable and more peaceful world. Through collaborative hands-on, teacher-centered workshops at 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.

Click here to register now!

It was a small dream that John and Cynthia Hardy had; it’s being managed by a wonderful Balinese woman name Sri. The food is coming from Kadek and her team who are master chefs in their kitchen and it’s a terrific possibility in Bali. The rates are still introductory, so when you have friends come to Bali, or when you come to visit Green School, please come and share the magic of Bambu Indah.

Learn more about Bambu Indah by glancing through the website at www.bambuindah.com, or read the recently featured article on The New York Times below.

When asked what the name Green School means, Seraphine Lishe Jong, Year 1-2 student answered: "It means to be kind to the whole world and kind to nature".

Read more about what our parents and students are saying here.

Green School Indonesian architect, Effan Adhiwira was short listed as one of 5 finalists out of 103 entries for the Green Design 2008 competition hosted by GRIYA Asri, the leading architectural and design magazine in Indonesia. When asked about the meaning of design Effan responded, that “it’s about adapting and adjusting how we create, build, and construct in harmony with the land that we live on. We should always respect nature first and foremost.”

Effan’s green residential design included using reusable materials such as aluminum, a wastewater management system, insulation panels, natural air-cooling systems, and an elevated design to allow for open areas for growing crops. At Green School, Effan shares that he really likes pushing the limits as he works and manipulates the uses of bamboo. Outside of Green School he works on entries for other green competitions including designing zero-energy buildings as well as a green public toilet design. Good luck Effan!

Read more about Effan in GRIYA Asri here.

Green School expert permaculturist shares some insights about permaculture and Green School.

“Permaculture is the balance between our needs and our responsibilities. It is a design system for harmonizing the individual characteristics of landscape (landform, climate, soil, water, vegetation, animals) with the needs of the people utilizing it in order to create an agricultural system that is natural, beautiful, productive and sustainable in the long term. This is the type of system we strive towards at Green School.”

Click here to read more about Chakra.


Green School permaculturists Pak Tri (left) and Pak Chakra (right) proudly display their healthy crops, grown on our very own Green School land.

National Geographic emerging explorer, Dr. Tierney Thys, visited Green School on Friday October 17th to share her research regarding the habits and life cycle of the Ocean Sunfish, or Mola-mola. Dr. Thys is currently working in partnership with Conservation International Indonesia and Bali Hai Diving Adventures to do research, study, and protect the ocean’s population of this incredible fish.

During the workshop presentations, Dr. Thys explained that Mola-Mola can grow to over 3 meters, but not very much is known about them despite their size. Kindergarten through Year 8 enjoyed her lively talk with images and documentary footage about this remarkable creature found in ocean waters around the world. To learn more about Dr. Thys and her research or to adopt a Mola-mola, please visit www.oceansunfish.org.

“I talk to a lot of kids groups because I think that the Mola is a great ambassador for the ocean. Its’ got these big eyes and a goofy look that draws you in to the ocean environment and sparks more questions. We want to get people thinking about the ocean and not thinking that land is separate from the ocean but that it’s a big continuum. We can’t have healthy land with an unhealthy ocean.” – Dr. Tierney Thys