In 1959, the United Nations officially adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, which asserted that children are entitled to receive education and equal opportunity, such that they can develop their abilities, judgement, sense of moral and social responsibility, and ultimately, become a useful member of society. Moreover, it was agreed that children should be “protected from practices which may foster racial, religious and any other form of discrimination,” adding that, “[they]should be brought up in a spirit of understanding, tolerance, friendship among peoples, peace and universal brotherhood, and in full consciousness that [their]energy and talents should be devoted to the service of [their]fellow [humans].”

A lofty ideal to be sure, but certainly not anything that doesn’t seem absolutely necessary for an equitable world.

Flash forward to 1989, and the UN, working with its partners at UNICEF, went one step further when they ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which outlines 54 Articles describing how children the world over should be protected and advocated for, so that they all have an opportunity to thrive.

While it’s one thing for a bunch of adults in faraway places to make these rules, it is something else entirely when children themselves are privy to the plight of their peers; children the same age as them, who have few of the same chances to succeed in life.

That’s why Going Blue, a project within Yew Chung International School of Beijing’s (YCIS Beijing’s) G100 and Life Skills curriculum, is such an important initiative. According to the project’s description, Going Blue provides students at YCIS Beijing the opportunity to “[raise]awareness of and [educate]others about Children’s Rights, as outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.” They did this by working individually, or in small teams, to create public service announcements (PSAs) that touch on one of the Convention’s articles, culminating in a presentation of their work that coincides with UNICEF’s World Children’s Day on Friday (Nov 20).

When asked why he thinks this project is important, Duncan C., year 9, told beijingkids, “I think that it is important because if people don’t care about others before themselves, then there would be a ton of chaos and world wars. There wouldn’t be any progression in the making of technology.”

One of YCIS Beijing’s mission statements is to raise globally competent student leaders who exemplify the school’s commitment to the tenants of the CARES philosophy: Critically explore local and global issues; Act for and believe in a better world; Respect and value all with compassion; Ensure equality, peace, and sustainability; and Sense a belonging to humankind. And in speaking to students involved with Going Blue, it’s clear that these qualities are shining through.

According to Jenny Y., year 7, “This project has taught me that children’s rights to make decisions are widely neglected,” adding, “[Going Blue] is important because not many rights are followed and children are not being respected.”

Likewise, Seraphina W., year 8, expressed a similar sentiment when she told beijingkids that, “This project has affected me because it has taught me a lot about children’s rights.”

Despite the fact that these UN resolutions were passed 60 and 30 years ago, respectively, it’s quite clear that globally, we still have a long way to go in protecting the rights of children worldwide. Nevertheless, through projects like YCIS Beijing’s Going Blue and its student leaders, we are one step closer to ensuring an equitable future for all.

For examples of the work students did, follow the links below;

Rights of a Child PSA by Eamon

Rights of a Child PSA by Gabriel

Photos: Mina Yan

For many, making the world a better place is a dream they would one day like to accomplish. Through our collaboration with UNICEF, The British School of Beijing (BSB) Shunyi provides students with activities and challenges so that they can take direct actions to make this dream a reality.

The British School of Beijing (BSB) Shunyi belongs to Nord Anglia Education (NAE), a family of 66 premium international schools in 29 countries. NAE’s collaboration with UNICEF offers unique life and learning experiences to BSB students, helping them develop into mature and successful global citizens. Through special activities and events with UNICEF, our students research and debate challenges facing our society and take actions to address them. Our education focuses not only on ensuring academic success but also on inspiring students to positively impact their local communities and the world at large.

BSB Edward (second from right) speaking at the 2018 UN High-Level Political Forum

Working with UNICEF

UNICEF is the world’s leading advocate for children, operating in 190 countries to save children’s lives, defend their rights and help them fulfill their potential. UNICEF is empowered by the United Nations to take collective action for a better world. Our teachers benefit from resources from UNICEF through lesson plans, videos, and creative content.

Annual Global Challenge

Every year, UNICEF challenges students at BSB and NAE schools to raise awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through creative projects and activities. The SDGs are a collection of 17 goals set by the United Nations regarding social and economic development issues that we hope to achieve by 2030. Also, our BSB Eco-Committee which consists of Primary and Secondary students and teachers, help motivate everyone in the school to create a more sustainable BSB.

Sharing Ideas on the World Stage

BSB students are encouraged to express their concerns in their local communities and on the global stage. Each year, NAE students are invited by UNICEF to engage with and influence world leaders at global summits. This is a unique opportunity for BSB students to contribute to the discussion and influence policy at the highest level.

“We are thrilled to have Nord Anglia students around the world learning about the SDGs and taking positive actions in their schools and communities year over year.  The Nord Anglia Student Summit is an excellent opportunity for students to share their ideas and efforts to leaders at the United Nations during the annual High-level Political Forum (HLPF), where different stakeholders meet to share ideas and assess progress on the Global Goals,” said Shannon O’Shea, Team Leader: Public Partner Advocacy and Visibility Section, UNICEF.

Shannon O’Shea, Team Leader: Public Partner Advocacy and Visibility Section, UNICEF, speaking to NAE students at the Summit

This is the third year in a row that BSB’s Year 12 students participated in the Summit in New York and this year, our Student Ambassador Luca Coban represented BSB at the 2019 NAE-UNICEF Student Summit. Students joined various workshops hosted by UNICEF representatives and discussed ways students could help raise awareness in our schools and what projects students would like to take on.

In the Model United Nations (MUN) event, students acted as representative of different nations and debate resolutions. Luca was honored to be selected as 1 of the 3 students who acted as Deputy MUN Chairs alongside our 3 main MUN Chairs from New York University.

For the High-level Political Forum, NAE students speak on stage to the audience at the UN Headquarters, sharing how they were taking steps to make the world a better place through the SDGs in their own schools.  2 NAE students also presented at the ECOSOC Chamber at the United Nations as a part of governments’ voluntary national reviews. This was held in the iconic General Assembly Hall.

Student Ambassador Luca Coban (first from right) represented BSB at the 2019 NAE-UNICEF Student Summit

Luca also had the opportunity to go up the One World Trade Center, went on the Staten Island Ferry to view the Statue of Liberty up close, ride the New York subway and experience the culture and history of New York City.

Back at The British School of Beijing (BSB) Shunyi, Luca has brought back insights and action plans from the Summit and it is always inspirational to see our students sharing ideas and discussing what they will be doing this new school year at BSB to make the world a better place!

The British School of Beijing (BSB), Shunyi is a large International School offering Primary through Secondary education to 1,000+ students from over 60 nationalities. Driven by a philosophy of ambition, we inspire every child to achieve more than they ever imagined possible.

BSB students follow an enhanced English National Curriculum completing IGCSE exams at aged 16 followed by the IB Diploma at aged 18. We also offer a German Curriculum for native German speakers in Klasse 1-4. As part of a family of 60+ Nord Anglia schools, our curricula are enhanced by collaborations with preeminent organizations such as The Juilliard School, MIT, and UNICEF. Year-on-year our world-leading teachers ensure that students experience accelerated learning and achieve excellent academic results to enable them entry into the world’s leading universities.

Contact us to book a visit! admissions@bsbshunyi.com

This post is provided by BSB Shunyi
Photos courtesy of BSB Shunyi

We Beijingers are obsessed with air quality. We clean out our Xiaomi air filters religiously, shut windows on gray days, keep a bin of good respiratory masks by the coat rack, and swap stories of high AQI days like war stories. But just how badly is air pollution affecting our young children?

The statistics are grim. According to a new study by UNICEF, nearly 17 million infants worldwide are exposed to deadly air pollution, potentially affecting brain development. The vast majority, over 12 million, live in South Asian countries like India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. But, statistically, China has the infamous distinction of having the world’s deadliest pollution. Bad air causes over a million preventable deaths a year in this country, says The World Health Organization.

For infants, the importance of unpolluted air is unparalleled. In the first few years of child development, the brain grows more than at any other point of life. Pia Rebello Britto, the UNICEF chief of early childhood development, says “The brains of babies and young children are constructed by a complex interplay of rapid neural connections that… shape a child’s optimal thinking, learning, health, memory, linguistic, and motor skills.”

According to a research study done in Quanzhou, Fujian province, air pollution can lower IQ, negatively affect memory, stunt growth, and cause depression, anxiety, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in young children during this critical early brain growth period. This is on top of other possible non-neurological aliments, like asthma.

What can be done? Besides the masks and air filters, cities with access to green spaces, good public transportation, proper waste management, clean energy, and less reliance on coal burning for fuel unsurprisingly fair better. Beijing has made efforts over the years with hybrid buses and numerous parks.

In the meantime, take advantage of blue sky days when they happen. We hope in the near future advances can be made to limit our children to toxic air conditions, and we can instead swap stories of fluffy clouds in the park, but until then remain vigilant.

Photo: CNN 

British School of Beijing, Shunyi (BSB, Shunyi) is a wonderful example of how project-based learning can be implemented in a variety of ways. Throughout the school this new approach is engaging students in new ways of learning, which will help them meet the increasing demand for well-rounded learners and the unknown requirements of employers of the future.

Andy Puttock, former principal of BSB, Shunyi and now educational director of Nord Anglia, explained: “For us, project-based learning is about students gaining knowledge, skills, and understanding through projects over an extended period of time, which are multi-disciplinary and that they investigate and respond to problems and challenges which are real world, authentic, and complex. So it takes students and teachers out from their comfort zone.”

One difference we discovered in the way that project-based learning is being implemented at BSB, Shunyi is that in primary school it is used in most lessons, giving these early learners the responsibility of coming up with ways to gain proficiency in core subjects by tackling real world problems. This in our opinion is a concrete way for students early on to understand the benefits of learning rather than it being an abstract activity, to which there is no apparent purpose. This can be an especially daunting time for early learners. If they are given the freedom outside of the classroom with their homework to develop themes and problems to solve in their own time, instead of just using the “complete section 3 of chapter 12” approach, then the effects of nightly homework can become immediately tangible and more appreciated.

The fact that independent and project-based learning is slowly becoming the mainstream in educational institutions around the globe does not mean that the current system is necessarily broken, but in many ways it is in need of some modification to adapt to the new requirements of life in the future.

To this Puttock’s response was that “the true marker for change in educational systems around the globe will come from what top companies are looking for when they are hiring.” These requirements for future workers subsequently trickle down from these companies and are fed into universities, then secondary, and primary schools. For young learners, thinking about your child’s career and their future employability might seem a long way off, but it’s never too soon to start preparing children for the very different world ahead of them, and tech companies are leading the way in mapping out this unknown future.

When Puttock first arrived in Asia four years ago, this wasn’t the case and exams and grades were still the primary focus. But, recently he believes there has been a big shift taking place, and educators the world over are beginning to favor new methods that have been making a significant difference in creating the confident and creative employees of the future.

Whether it be in primary school, International Baccalaureate (IB), or the STEAM program, project-based learning concepts are actively being incorporated to grow the next crop of engaged learners. One recent success story demonstrates how presenting students with real world problems in the project-based learning framework is changing things for the better. Nord Anglia Education has just formed a partnership with UNICEF, and they are working with them to help develop their United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Each year now, they’ll be setting a challenge based on these goals which include ending poverty, ending hunger, ensuring healthy lives, achieving gender equality, and conserving and sustaining our oceans.

Tildie, Helen, Sunny and Sabrina, a gang of four brilliant IB students, decided to join in the effort of helping Grade 9 and primary school students develop projects based on these Sustainable Development Goals for UNICEF’s High Level Political Forum 2017. Like all IB students, they needed to complete a Creativity, Action, Service (CAS) requirement, and their supervisor for this very open-ended aspect of the curriculum told them that there was a great opportunity to represent Nord Anglia Education at this UNICEF conference at the United Nations in New York City.

With their combined past experience in Model United Nations and the debate team, they were the perfect addition to help guide the younger students. They worked closely with their schoolmates and developed ideas to creatively respond to these issues related to hunger and health. One was learning about compost bin systems and building one on campus, while the primary school kids created a garden on campus to grow vegetables to be used in the school’s cafeteria.

What started as a simple but worthwhile assignment has turned into a life-changing experience for these students and brought them to the UN, from July 10 to 19. This unique opportunity gave them a platform to contribute to the discussion and influence policies at the highest level. While this sort of cooperation between Nord Anglia and the UN allows students to use their project to learn about these important issues affecting countries worldwide, it also takes these concepts outside of the classroom to provide a channel for young people to communicate ideas and influence policy makers from around the globe through organized debate.

Out of the 87 students present at the forum, Sabrina was selected to address the UN, along with a small handful of other students from other Nord Anglia schools. They presented their ideas on ending hunger globally, along with a plan for how Nord Anglia Education will continue in aiding these development goals in the years to come. Sabrina described how working with this project has shaped her in becoming more aware of these global concerns: “One of the main things is that it has helped us realize the importance of these international issues. So by looking at the sustainable development goals we had to do research, and we had to talk about it, and we also had to cooperate with younger students about it, so it has helped raise awareness about these topics within ourselves concerning these issues and what we can do to help.”

As active members of BSB, Shunyi’s Model United Nations, when they return to school in the fall they plan on using this experience to create a Model UN summit at the school. This will help build another student-led experience that is sure to benefit all who are involved, continuing the enrichment of the student population with the authentic, real world experiences which are the basis for a 21st-century education.

Photos: Courtesy of BSB, Shunyi

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This article originally appeared on p 52-53 of beijingkids August 2017 issue.
Download the digital copy here.

Youth bloggers out there, hear ye! If you’re looking for ways to practice writing and extend your reach, UNICEF’s online youth community has opened its doors for a 10-week blogging internship from August to October 2017.

Voices of Youth is looking for 5-10 young people to join two UNICEF campaigns that address major issues affecting children globally:
– End Violence: “Violence against children marks them forever – and ending it is everybody’s business,” and
– Children Uprooted: “Millions of children are fleeing violence, disaster or poverty – and we need to protect their rights and their futures.”

This remote internship opportunity is open worldwide, so expect a lot of applications. Interested youth bloggers must fill in this Google form (VPN required) on or before July 28 (Friday) for the August batch. For more information, see the details below.

VOY Blogging Internship

This is your chance to apply for a 10-week blogging internship (August-October 2017) with Voices of Youth – UNICEF’s vibrant online community.

We are looking for 5-10 young people from across the world to join two UNICEF campaigns addressing major issues impacting millions of children: End Violence & Children Uprooted.

Candidates should have a clear passion for one of the campaign issues, be eager to blog and improve their writing skills, participate in online discussions regularly, and attend expert speaker sessions.

How does it work?
You will pick ONE of the two campaigns and craft blog posts that focus on the issues it addresses. For each blog post you receive feedback on your writing, get access to tips & tricks on how to write a good blog post, exchange ideas with other blogging interns and hear from experts.

At the end of the internship you will have improved your blogging skills, gained new insights on global issues, been connected to a network of international young bloggers, and have been a part of a worldwide campaign.

Please note that this internship is done by remote participation – so you will NOT be required to travel anywhere.

How to apply?
If you are interested to be part of the interns batch that starts in August, please apply to the internship by submitting this Google form: https://goo.gl/forms/BRw9b8Djpg66depB3

The deadline for applications is 28 July 2017.

In total, 5-10 interns will be selected to participate in this internship round. Due to the high demand and limited number of spaces available, Voices of Youth will only contact candidates who are selected for the internship.

In case you are not selected for the internship – don’t worry! The Voices of Youth community is open to everyone – submit a blog post, comment on posts, participate in our discussions, or simply browse through the inspiring articles on our website. Also, don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Photo: Free-Photo via Pixabay; Voices of Youth

More stories by this author here.
Email: andypenafuerte@beijing-kids.com
Instagram: @coolkidandy

 The mothers of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China’s  Beijing office now have a place of their own. The Chamber launched its Mothers’ Room earlier in April, to provide private, dedicated facilities for staff to breastfeed or to prepare breast milk for later use and refrigerated storage.

The idea came from a variety of sources, including the European Chamber’s Pediatric Nutrition Desk (PND) and staff members, said Adam Dunnett, Secretary General of the European Chamber, in a telephone interview. Twenty percent or more of the Chamber’s female employees in Beijing became pregnant or gave birth during 2013, spurring both the organization’s desire and need for the space.

“We have a very strong baby and family culture here in the Chamber office, and we are always asking what we can do for Chamber staff,” Dunnett said. He added that women without access to dedicated spaces find themselves having to handle breastfeeding in places like public lavatories, which, when preparing milk for later use, will not necessarily meet desired hygiene levels.

The move is part of a trend supported by the Women Workers Committee of the Beijing Federation of Trade Unions to build 1,000 more such rooms over the next three years.

Breast milk is the best source of nutrition for newborn babies and infants, the European Chamber’s Pediatric Nutrition Desk said. Beijing currently has 3.25 million women of childbearing age, but only 7 percent of nursing mothers have dedicated maternal space, according to a report by Women of China. With the relaxation of the one-child policy expected to spur a new baby boom, there will also be an increasing need for such facilities, the report said, both at workplaces and public areas like airports and railway stations.

UNICEF is also in on the action, having launched its China-only “10m2 of Love” app for the iPhone for mothers to conveniently locate breastfeeding spaces. The UN organization calls it “a digital breastfeeding advocacy campaign that aims to locate, register, certify and publicize breastfeeding rooms, both for employees during work hours and for patrons and customers in public buildings and stores.”

Dunnett said that their Mommy Room is not only available to staff and European Chamber member company employees, but also to employees in the Kempinski Office Building where they are located, and users of the UNICEF app.

Does your employer offer a Mommy Room? Why or why not? Let us know in the Comments section below.

Photo courtesy of Le Leche League