GEMS Legacy School, Dubai

INDIA’S CLIMATE CHAMPION

The students and staff of GEMS Legacy School were thrilled and privileged to host Ms. Licypriya Kangujam, an 11-year-old climate change activist from Manipur, India. Licypriya’s clarion call, “Activism is my rent for living on the planet”, inspired both students and staff at GLS to do their bit and more to leave behind an inheritable Earth.

A ROLE MODEL FOR THE YOUTH

Licy, as she is fondly called, is a powerful voice for the marginalised, the indigenous, the war-troubled, the poverty-stricken and all those plagued by the biggest pandemic of all - climate change. During her visit to GLS, Licy planted a Ghaf tree and participated in a town hall discussion with the middle school students, sharing activism anecdotes and suggesting sustainable solutions that could be implemented in our everyday lives.

YOUNG CHAMPIONS OF THE EARTH

The school’s journey of environmental science and sustainability education began with Mrs. Asha Alexander completing a United Nations Climate Change (UNCC) Teacher Training Course in 2019 and subsequently encouraging 360 staff and a large number of parents and students to do the same. This put GLS on the world map as being the first school in the world with a climate change teacher ambassador in each of its 170 classrooms.

THE GEMS PLOGGERS

GEMS Education, as a part of its GEMS Global Ambassadors’ Society (GGA), launched its first-ever, distinctive ‘GEMS Ploggers’ in September 2021. Aligned to the 30X30 Dubai Fitness Challenge, initiated by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, this enterprise helps construct a fitness-focused mindset and inspires residents of the country to seek healthy and active lifestyles.

GLS – POWERED BY SOLAR PANELS

The GLS primary school campus has been fitted with 952 solar panels with a capacity of 518 KWP that will generate 855,872 KWH power annually at GEMS Legacy School. GLS is proud to have become a solar-powered school helping to reduce the carbon footprint!

E-WASTE COLLECTION

GEMS Legacy School regularly hosts an E-Waste Collection drive inviting all stakeholders to responsibly dispose of their e-waste for recycling in the E-waste bins placed on the campus. The school’s recent E-Waste Collection drive from November 2022 to January 2023, collected 500+ kgs of e-waste from all stakeholders.

ONE PERSON’S TRASH IS ANOTHER PERSON’S GOLD!!

In 2019, GLS collaborated with DULSCO (EXPO 2020’s official waste management partner) to set up composting stations around the school. The school implemented a mandatory policy to segregate wet and dry waste, and students used compost machines to convert the wet waste into compost, fully internalizing the process. The compost generated is sold to parents, teaching students entrepreneurial skills and some of it is used as manure for the GLS organic garden.

GEMS GLOBAL AMBASSADORS’ SOCIETY

GGA is a global collaborative community, founded in the year 2021, and has student and teacher ambassadors from 50 schools across 15 countries. A large number of participating schools are from the GEMS Education network. The Society’s core mission is to spread awareness, take concerted ’action and provide innovative solutions towards achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 in a grassroots attempt to transform the world. The movement aims to empower student agencies towards the SDGs through a wide range of collaborative community projects in partnership with the twinning schools locally and internationally.

GLS UNCC AMBASSADORS!

538 students of GLS Middle School, from Grades 5 to 7, completed 6 UNCC Learn courses to become climate certified champions and ambassadors of UNCC Learn. Some of these students helped to translate the courses and support their peers from the local schools to also complete the UNCC courses.

DULSCO RECYCLING BUS

The DULSCO Bus is a recycled ex-commercial vehicle that has been given a new lease of life to support Dubai’s recycling education and awareness efforts and is a regular feature at GLS. Along with educating people and raising awareness, Dulsco’s recycling bus will be travelling around communities to physically collect recyclable waste and transport it to its various waste recycling facilities, including the new state-of-the-art Materials Recovery Facility in Ras Al Khor, Dubai.

NUTRITION EDUCATION

GEMS Legacy School is leading the future of community health with Dubai’s first K-12 innovative ‘Nutrition Curriculum’ specializing in nutrition, health, and food innovation. The school is partnering with Mr. Sameer Shaikh, Founder and Nutritionist at Ninjafit Warrior and Ms. Neha Chohan, Co-Founder, and Nutritionist at Ninja Fit

Warrior to develop nutrition-centred content and strategies that are cross-curricular and can be flexibly integrated into lessons as well as executed effectively throughout the school day.

The GEMS Legacy School Nutrition Curriculum is designed to give teachers and students the information, tools, and motivation needed to make healthier choices. It aims to inspire all school stakeholders to create a fitness-focused mindset and move toward healthy active lifestyles.

PLANT A LEGACY - #PAL

A worldwide planting drive by GEMS Legacy School helps restore and green a desert by empowering students with high levels of climate change awareness and collaborative global problem-solving skills to build sustainable climate solutions. More than 40,000 trees have been planted through PAL across 42 countries.

THE GEMS PLOGGERS

In partnership with Dubai Municipality, the plogging event took place at 4 beaches across the city, namely – Mamzar Beach, Sunset Beach, Umm Suqeim Beach, and Al Mina Beach. Celebrating UAE’s ‘Year of the 50th’, each location accommodated 50 volunteers signifying the vision of the leaders of the UAE towards a sustainable and healthy tomorrow for its students, teachers, parents, and the global community. The GEMS Ploggers initiative symbolises an amalgamation of the EXPO 2020 themes - Sustainability, Mobility, and Opportunity.

WASTE TO WONDER

The school collaborated with DULSCO, Dubai Municipality and the Dubai International Boat Show to design and construct a 17.8m x 6.5m x 8m blue whale artefact using 8,000+ plastic bottles, and 1,000+ plastic bags and involved 800+ man hours. This February 2023 project was helmed by the school’s Art Department and brought together 5 schools to symbolise plastic’s devastating impact on our oceans.

SHARING OF BEST PRACTICES

A vibrant team of 12 seasoned educators from the Balkans led by Ms. Željana Radojičić Lukić, Founder EduBalkan and recipient of the Best Serbian Educator Award, visited GEMS Legacy School on 21st March 2023. The school tour and interactions concluded with a tree-planting ceremony and notes of gratitude with an open invitation to visit their schools in Serbia. A memorable morning with passionate educators reaching out to collaborate and learn from each other transcending borders of language, culture and country.

SCHOOL CONFERENCE OF PARTIES EXPOSITION

SCOPE is a unique student-led conference, an inter-school forum of student voices and action against climate change, currently uniting 50+ schools and students from all corners of the world, as they collaborate and discuss the pertinent issues of climate change across the globe.

The two-day event empowers students to explore solutions and use their creativity to express their passions and concerns about climate change based on a specific theme or Sustainable Development Goal.

GEMS HUB SCHOOL OF SUSTAINABILITY – KASHMIR

GLS established Delhi Public School, Budgam, Kashmir as a Hub School for Sustainability in May 2023. The school is excited to work with DPS Budgam on a new project to promote ‘Environmental Sustainability Endeavour’ and make climate literacy available to underprivileged schools worldwide.

HYDROPONICS GARDEN PROGRAM

To commemorate Earth Day on the 22nd of April, 2022, GEMS Legacy School - Dubai in collaboration with the Dubai Police inaugurated a hydroponics garden in addition to planting several trees around the newly opened Secondary Campus. Through their generous donation of 100 saplings, the Dubai Police have now become an integral part of the school’s ‘PLANT A LEGACY’ initiative.

PLANT A LEGACY - #PAL

To celebrate Earth Day on April 22 2022, students and teachers of the GEMS group of schools were graciously invited to the neighbouring National Charity School to plant saplings on their premises as a cemented partnership to carry forward these planet-building initiatives.

ECO ART

Eco-art education integrates art education with environmental education as a means of developing awareness of and interaction with environmental concepts and issues, such as conservation, preservation, restoration, and sustainability.

WORLD WATER DAY

On World Water Day, GEMS Legacy School was honoured to have joined hands with Shardein School in India for a global walk for water. The purpose was to raise awareness about water scarcity and preservation and stand in solidarity with our ESD Hub School – Central High in Malawi who couldn’t actively participate in the walk due to the aftermath caused by Cyclone Freddy.

GEMS HUB SCHOOL OF SUSTAINABILITY – ITALY

The establishment of the first GEMS Hub Schools for Sustainability was in the communities of Sarmede, Capella Maggiore, Fregona and Colle Umberto in Italy in October 2022. A ceremony was held in Italy to set out the Hub School partnerships and their aim of achieving the UN SDGs. In attendance were the mayors of each of the Italian communities as well as the GEMS’ Climate Change Executive Leader - Mrs. Asha Alexander.

GEMS HUB SCHOOL OF SUSTAINABILITY – INDONESIA

To build deeper connections and contribute to greater cultural and social understanding among the student groups, Mrs. Asha Alexander travelled to the Sekolah Bogor Raya school in Indonesia to establish a GEMS Hub School for Sustainability in a second country. Both schools are currently working on projects that focus on SDG-6: Clean Water and Sanitation, SDG-12: Responsible Consumption and Production, and SDG-14: Life Below Water.

GEMS HUB SCHOOL OF SUSTAINABILITY – MALAWI

Mrs. Asha Alexander travelled to Blantyre, Malawi in April 2023 to officially declare our ESD twinning partner - Central High International School, Malawi as a GEMS Hub School for Sustainability. Under the umbrella of the GEMS Global Ambassadors Program, the school twinning initiative ensures a healthy and productive exchange of ideas that would benefit both the school communities.