The Power Of After-School Activities: BSB Shunyi's Eco Committee

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What happens after school is just as important...

Real learning happens all the time, inside and outside of the classroom. Thus, what a school offers in terms of co-curricular activities or extra curricular activities after the school bell rings for the last time in a day, should be taken into consideration as much as its curriculum. But with such a plethora of after school activities available these days, which ones should we pick? Two international schools choose one of their after-school programs to talk about at length, to elucidate us on its benefits.

*This is the second and final part of this article, click here to read about the other school we interviewed.

British School of Beijing (BSB) Shunyi's Eco-Committee Co-Curricular Activity (CCA) is overseen by Assistant Head of Primary Emma Brown and Year 6 teacher Anna Warman.

Tell us about the Eco-Committee co-curricular program and what makes it attractive for students to join.

The British School of Beijing (BSB) Shunyi’s Eco-Committee is made up of a group of dedicated students that work on making our school more environmentally friendly. Each year students complete a rigorous application, showing their passion and dedication to the environment. These students then work incredibly hard putting changes in place, running events and educating students (and staff!) about important issues.

Students love being part of the Eco-Committee because they can make a real difference – both to our school, our community and the environment. As the future leaders of our planet, it is important that students are well-educated on these issues so they can work hard to make our planet a better place.

How would you describe BSB Shunyi’s facilities and teaching support for the Eco-Committee?

The Eco-Committee has been running for many years and is a strong force for change in our school. The student leaders play a huge role in making changes at BSB, for example they installed bird feeders around campus after conducting an audit on our biodiversity. They also ran many fund-raising days using the proceeds to support charities, and recently also purchased plants for our classrooms to ensure our facilities are as environmentally friendly as possible. 

Our teachers are also very supportive, running other co-curricular programmes such as ‘Roots and Shoots’ and ‘Green-fingers Club’ that support and continue the work of the Eco-Committee. Our Chef and Food Committee are also highly supportive, implementing ‘Meat-free Mondays’ and reducing single-use plastic in our canteen. One of our popular Eco-Committee events in the canteen is the House Food Waste Competitions with all Houses competing to see who can waste the least food and what we can do to reduce food waste – an important lesson for everyone about how much food is thrown away each day.

What accomplishments has the Eco-Committee achieved?

BSB wants our students to be empowered to make a difference in their local communities and globally. Our partnership with UNICEF helps us do this by developing learning materials based on the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that allow students to think practically about how to effect real change in ongoing projects.

We are proud to support CNN’s Call to Earth Day, a global event that joins forces with schools and organisations across the world to raise awareness of environmental issues and conservation education. The biggest event in our calendar is Earth Week, with the whole school spending the week celebrating our planet and learning about important environmental issues.

The Eco-Committee ran assemblies for every year group that were fun and interactive. They also led activities and workshops throughout the week, such as planting new trees and plants in our garden, making recycled art and carrying out environmental audits. Other fun activities included dressing in green to raise money for environmental charities, having lessons outdoors and having parts of the week that were completely electricity free. We’re already excited about Earth Week 2023!

Images: BSB Shunyi

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