RWA Wins Again!

Congratulations, RWA!  You are awesome! 

EVERYONE did their part! Keep it up.

Thank you to the CLEAN ENERGY BUSINESS COUNCIL for sponsoring a competition (link to our announcement) between schools to REDUCE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT during the months of April and May 2016!

Once again... RWA prevailed and won a very cool solar panel bank and battery system! Now we can be even greener! Here are some energy use statistics from our school and information on how we are working to have a small carbon footprint here at RWA!   LINK

Our facilities team does a great job reducing energy consumption... but here are some things YOU CAN DO!

• Keep the A/C at 24 degrees.
• Shut doors when the A/C is on.
• Use natural light when you can.
• Turn off the lights when they aren't needed.
• Turn off computers, projectors, and machines.

The CEBC has a great school support program, sponsoring many competitions and school enrichment programs. They are a great partner for RWA in our quest to become Greener and Greener and Greener!

Here is a video made by the eteam as part of the competition:

Action!

'Tis the season for gardening in Dubai. 

The temperatures are finally down and we may eventually get a day of rain. The E-Team is making great progress on the yearly re-planting of the annual plants in our Eco-garden (those are they type of plants that only grow for one year, and have to be planted over and over.) 

We have received some donations of seeds and plants, and PARIS (the parents association) is supporting us with a small donation of tools. Thanks to everyone!

The E-Team's vision

The E-Team's vision

Unfortunately a lot of you may not have heard about the E-team, but it has been a committee in raffles world academy for years now. however it is relatively new compared to the other committees. despite all that we are always growing and innovating ourselves trying to come up with better things to make the school and our surrounding environment a better place. although we usually dismiss it and don't think much of our actions, we can make a huge difference by doing little things. I know it sounds cliche but our little actions can have a huge impact on the environment. One piece of paper being wasted, one water bottle being thrown away on the floor, all these little things can go a long way. Here in the E-team it is our duty to raise awareness and make a difference, and we can only do that with your help.

The Present:

Right now there is an eco garden going on in school, in which we will be growing our own garden to help give back to nature. Also the E-team holds assemblies and is constantly trying to get back our green flag.

The Past:
In the past the E-team did a lot as we had our KG1 gardening program, in which we had the kindergarten students make a garden to teach them the importance of nature and to raise awareness. In the E-team we also have the eco month in which we have the fashion show, the bottle collecting and the bottle recycling. this just a month of continuous care for the environment and raising awareness. It is filled with fun activities and assemblies to help raise awareness and make a change. We also had the PYP grade 5 exhibition in which we aimed to raise awareness within the next grades to ensure that raffles continues going on that path of conservation and raising awareness.

The future:
The E-team has a very similar calendar this year in which we will provide the school with activities and assemblies to raise awareness. our aim is to get our green flag back and make raffles a better place.

GARDEN DRIVE!

This month, October 2016, we are having a GARDEN DRIVE to renew and re-invigorate our Eco-Garden. It is a big part of maintaining our GREEN FLAG status.

Our campus and gardens are well maintained and all of the annual plants are thriving well, even over the summer. But now is the time to plant our perennial garden plants - veggies, herbs, flowers and such things (that die each year and have to be replanted). 

We will be collecting donations of seeds, plants, and tools to help us do so! 
If you'd like to support us - please bring your donations to Ms. Manahil's (Grade 3E) room G118, on the ground floor in the primary school atrium. You can also email her at ManahilG@rwadubai.com

Welcome Back!

After a few breaks and long weekends, we are back in the thick of it for the 2016-2017 school year!

We are happy to announce that we have successfully renewed our GREEN FLAG status! Thank you to all the hard work of RWA students, teachers, and administration. We have an ambitious Action Plan (linked) which you are welcome to explore to see what's coming up this year. 

See you next year!

As the 2015-2016 school year comes to a close, we are so proud of all we have accomplished. Here is a quick summary and a send of for the summer!

First, we are so happy to announce our renewed partnership with the GLOBAL ECO-SCHOOLS program. Thanks to our local partner in the UAE, the fabulous and knowledgeable Mr. Moaz at ECAT (Environmental Center for Arab Towns), we have been able to energize our students to accomplish even more!

Second, we would like to highlight our goals for next year (also found in our Green Flag Action Plan):

Continued Action Points:

- keep up with the Eco garden

- keep up the Eco dimension within the school (eco-monitors, promotion, competitions)

- keep up healthy food promotion in the cafeteria, especially meatless Mondays.

New Action Points:

- find partners to come in and organise practical & hands-on events to keep up the ECO awareness (Solar energy workshop & others).

- Reinforce the need for recycling through competitions & short videos to show during assemblies.

- Improve understanding of local bio-diversity.

- Finalize ban on Styrofoam at RWA.

HAVE A GREAT SUMMER! 

PYP Grade 5 Exhibition

One of our favorite things about the end of the year is our PYP Grade 5 Exhibition, which are the grade 5 research projects. There are always many ECO THEMED projects.

This year they had their own blog for the exhibition... Here is a link!

Curriculum Highlights

Here is an example of how our school learns about the importance of natural resources! 

Eco Garden Salad!

Although it is starting to get hot already, our Eco-Garden produced some fine vegetables!

Check out our teachers sampling our ECO-GARDEN goods!

YUM!

RWA Students Adopt Turtles !

Two of our KG students, twins Jad and Lily, adopted sea turtles with the 

Emirates Marine Environmental Group 

Please enjoy the Show and Tell presentation that Jad gave to his class: 

Bottle Recycling is picking up speed!

Remember the brand new Water Bottle Recycling bin that SUEZ donated to the school (see the blog post here)? 

We hoped it would spur on good practices, and it has raised awareness indeed!  More people are recycling! Our Eco-monitors show the difference.

CEBC Carbon Footprint Competition

Just a reminder that for the months of April and May we are aiming to reduce our carbon footprint in order to win SOLAR PANELS from our great friends at CEBC Schools Environmental Protection Program!  (Here is a link to our original announcement)

Even if we don't win it will still be important to follow these recommendations from the CEBC SEPP!

Eco Month : FASHION SHOW !

We at RWA love, love, love our ANNUAL RECYCLED FASHION SHOW! 

This year we spiced it up by inviting people to include COSPLAY character costumes made from recycled materials.

Students from KG1 to Grade 12 participated! As always it was a great success!

> PRIMARY ROCKS IT!

>KG1 COSPLAY KINGS!

>AWESOME!

 >BEAUTY QUEENS!

Eco Month : Bottle Collection

A challenge we have faced at RWA is ensuring that our plastic water bottles are recycled...
(we encourage re-usable water bottles, but are still working for more of this in action - until then... )

We have partnered with our good friends at SUEZ Environmental to get a beautiful and VISIBLE recycling cage. The bottle collection cage is more visually encouraging to students to use, and the collection will be done especially for our school by SUEZ.

> Installation!

 > Everyone recycled!

 > The E-Team shows us how it's done!

>Nice Shot!

 > YES!

Eco Month : EARTH DAY!

Earth Day fell on 22 April 2016 - A Friday, so we at RWA celebrated on Thursday the 21st!

We had so many activities it is hard to show them all here! 

Earth Day celebrated in Primary by singing RWA Eco code song, writing a pledge and making Greenclass agreements!  Students and teachers had t-shirt making, dressed in green, and kept the lights out all day!

YAY RWA! 

GREEN CLASSROOM PLEDGES

ADDING PERSONAL PLEDGES TO THE WALL DISPLAY

SINGING THE ECO CODE SONG! 

Earth Day! 

PARENTS GOT INVOLVED IN PLANTING! 

SHOWING OFF OUR T-SHIRTS!

SHOWING OUR GREEN SPRITS! 

Eco Month : COIN ART !

Each year at RWA the month of April is dedicated to all things ECO!

We kicked it off this year with our annual COIN ART display, which was a way to raise awareness and to raise money for our Eco-garden and Fashion Show.

Unit of Inquiry in Primary School

One of the best parts of our PYP and MYP curriculum is the UNIT OF INQUIRY activities. Students are encouraged to do all sorts of projects related to their interests - - math, art, writing, reading.

This holistic approach explicitly incorporates environmental issues like biodiversity and pollution. Here is one of our KG1 students who has made a display of Clean and Dirty things he found at the beach in Dubai and Animals that he saw there.

This group of fourth graders were exploring surveys and statistics. They surveyed their fellow classmates about BIODIVERSITY AWARENESS. This was the MOST POPULAR theme in this project! Different teams asked about specific species, protections, charity organisations, and actions that their fellow students had taken to protect wildlife. 

Clean Energy Business Council Schools Program

Engaging with the Dubai Environmental Community is so important.  We love participating in the CEBC Schools Program. (Check out all the cool stuff they do with that link there.) It connects us with other schools in a great spirit of competitions.

Ms. Sarah De Clercq presented RWA with a certificate of participation for the RECYCLED FOREST display (see post below). Here is a link to ALL the schools who participated in the competition.  WHAT WONDERFUL PROJECTS for the many schools.

Check out the CEBC Competition Page to see RWA and other schools activities!

Energy Use SUCESS!

RWA would like to highlight the great work of our FACILITIES TEAM, headed by Mr. Andrew Johston, who have implemented the BMS = or Building Management Systems, which helps manage the energy usage on our campus.

We compared data from last winter to this winter and we have reduced our per capita energy use by about 50%... And that includes a new addition of classrooms, more students, more science labs, and more computers and equipment!

We need YOU!

It is our greatest pleasure to announce that RWA is participating in the 

GreenHouseGas audit / competition 
(links to competition details page)

that will be calculated by V4 advisors, in collaboration with the 

Clean Energy Business Council and Tanweer Solar Energy Technology.

GOAL: Reduce RWA energy use during APRIL and MAY 2016 more than any other school! 

PRIZE: Solar Power System for the school (holy cow!)

Now, We're a little nervous, because it's getting warmer, so we might be tempted to use more energy.

BUT,  Since last year, we have already seen what YOU can do! 

Overall, we have already reduced our energy usage per student by almost 50%.

SO 

WE 

NEED 

YOU 

TO STEP IT UP A LITTLE MORE! 

• Keep the A/C at 24 degrees.
• Shut doors when the A/C is on.
• Use natural light when you can.
• Turn off the lights when they aren't needed.
• Turn off computers, projectors, and machines.

During the months of May and April we will be monitoring our energy use closely and we hope to measure a big decrease in energy consumption. 

We are competing against other schools, so we have to commit and stick to it! 

The school that has been successful and reduced their Carbon Footprint with the highest percentage, during those 2 months (April 1->May 31, 2016) , shall win the competition and shall be winning: 

-      Solar Panels (Solar World German Brand) 4 Panels.

-      1 KW on Grid Inverter (SMA, ABB, Ingeteam, Solar World).

-      Solar Bloc, Innovated Concrete Foundation Spanish Brand- 5 Nos. Tanweer Sole agent in the MENA.

-      Cables, Breakers & Container Box.

KG1 Gardening

Even our tiniest cuties get into the GREEN theme at RWA! 

Our KG1 classes have been busy growing flowers and grasses for their last PYP unit on seasons.