Imran Ahmad, the author of 'Unimagined - A Muslim Boy Meets the West', is an endearing, funny author and public speaker. His commitment to world peace and 'detribalisation' is tangible, and we love his use of humour to break down the barriers. We invited Imran, a big fan of The GIN Lady (as we are of you Imran!), to give a personal account of his impression of the Green School in Bali, Indonesia, when he visited last year. Why? To inspire us to follow suit here in the UK and create more Green Schooling to help our future generations... Over to you now Imran - thank you :-)

The Green School is founded on the principle of giving its students a holistic education which equips them to promote a sustainable future for human life on Earth.  It is built on the very principle which it teaches – the primary building material is renewable bamboo.

The location and architecture of the school are absolutely stunning.

Car park - SUV's do make sense here in Bali, but not in Chelsea, London.

Approach to school.

Covered bridge.

Inside the bridge.

Nearly there.

The Director extends a warm welcome.

Typical school corridor.

Stunning buildings.

Report to the Principal's office!

"Nice office, mate."

The Principal is Andrew Dalton. He used to be a teacher somewhere in the Liverpool area of England.  Obviously, he can’t go back there now that I’ve published this photograph.

Andrew Dalton - Principal of The Green School.

The children seemed really happy, engaged, and upbeat.  There is no hint of gang culture, bullying or shallow materialist/fashion competition. The older children play with the younger children, without this being considered ‘un-cool’.  Very importantly, the staff also seemed very content, committed, and not in the least disillusioned or tired. 

Heart of School - stunning!  

A classroom.

Schoolbags.

A typical school desk.

Staffroom.

Such an air of utter calm.

Reminds me of the check-in area at the Four Seasons.

Ron Stone's OBE - one of Britain's most valuable exports.  Come back to Britain, Ron, and fix the education system. 

"Did someone mention lunch?"

The atmosphere in the dining hall was very relaxed and the food was absolutely excellent: healthy, appetizing and visually attractive. This was a far cry from my days of ‘school dinners’ and competition to get the fish and chips before they ran out.  

"What, no Spam?"

No washing up.

Ron told me something really exciting. Whilst the school currently draws on electricity from the local grid, it is planning – through a combination of hydro-electric, solar and wind power generators – to become self-sufficient in electricity, and even to become a net contributor to the grid. 

IT Department.

"Stunning!" - I keep using that word.

Sponsors.

Whilst it’s true that the Green School is a private fee-paying school, with a large number of relatively prosperous foreign families, 20% of the places are given to local children on full scholarships. 

Umbrella stand.

More sponsors.

Workshop in progress.  Uniformed kids are visiting from a local school.

When the children were being taught, ‘Where does chocolate come from?’, they personally performed the entire process themselves: growing the beans, harvesting, crushing, extraction, fermentation, drying, milling,  pressing etc, to produce their own chocolate bars.  And all without any machines.

The students even built their own common room, getting deeply involved in the design and build process. 

Despite this ‘hands on’ approach to learning about things you and I might take for granted (I thought chocolate came from supermarkets), there is no less emphasis on academic subjects: English, maths, science and so on, and the curriculum meets the standards required to achieve rigorous and internationally recognised qualifications.

Why can’t every school be like this?

I’m not suggesting that every school in the world can be built of bamboo, but I do believe that every school could adhere to Green School principles – a holistic environment where the children feel safe and nurtured, the staff are happy and feel appreciated (and safe!), there are no gangs, tribalism or bullying, and the rounded education includes development of the capacity to think, to have compassion, and to actively work to protect and sustain our fragile planet.  From some quarters, such views would get me called a naive dreamer, an irresponsible hippy, or a socialist or communist. 

But looking at the children and staff of the school, gazing at the environment, and breathing in the magical atmosphere, I say, ‘Why not?’ 

Imran Ahmad is an entertaining public speaker and offers his services to both corporations, community groups and schools and has received very good feedback. Why not ask your school to invite Imran to come and visit your children's school as his School Workshops are fabulously entertaining, informative and engaging. Imran, both a father and a professional, gives talks that fit in well with  citizenship education, as well as English, humanities, sociology and religious studies. We also highly recommend reading his wonderful book, Unimagined - A Muslim Boy Meets the West. This book should be on every school child and adult's reading list!