School Blog

Environmental awareness and sustainable development are two of the HQIS core values and integral parts of our education and life. This philosophy can be traced back to 1997, when our school opened its doors. At that time, our campus was located in Shanghai Zoo, an authentic piece of wild nature in Shanghai.  Our children had the chance to immerse themselves in a natural environment with cute tadpoles in spring and beautiful fireflies in summer. In 2006, HQIS held its first Earth Day, which received positive feedback from the whole city community.

HQIS integrated the UN Sustainability Goals into its own agenda. These goals, adopted with a United Nations resolution in 2015, are a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a “blueprint” to achieve a better and more sustainable future.

The SDG Workshop

On Thursday, October 14^th, our Primary School and Upper School students gathered in our theater for a morning workshop about the UN SDG goals led by an official UN SDG ambassador, Ms. Anastasiia. During the workshop, students learned what the SDG goals are and why they are important for the current and future development of our society. The presentation covered several topics such as social justice, gender equality, end of poverty, biodiversity, and other crucial aspects of sustainable development. There were many moments of interaction between the audience and the presenter; our students were in fact very curious, and asked many questions.

Take Action

Our students will ultimately take action by engaging themselves in a creative project related to sustainable development following the workshop guidelines. Students will design their own “sustainable city” using the famous Minecraft 3D engine. The ideal city they are going to make must be built upon ecological and sustainable parameters, and students will have to describe what kind of sustainable solutions they used for their project.