This school in Bali shows that a space for education can be beautiful and eco-friendly

Located in the lush forests of Ubud in Bali is the Green School, an international school and community known around the world for its holistic approach to education. The academy is strongly focused on sustainability – naturally it is built to be eco-friendly too. Its unique buildings are made predominantly from bamboo, mud and grass, and the campus runs entirely on renewable energy; even food waste is converted into compost.

“We believe that education needs to change. It needs to adapt to the future,” said Sal Gordon, head of teaching and learning at Green School Bali, who has been at the school for nearly a decade. “Our students learn to make the world sustainable, and we believe the purpose of education should be to make the world a better place.”

The wall-less Heart of School is where a lot of the action happens. Unlike other schools where teachers demand the students' full attention, here it is perfectly understandable if some distractions happen.

“Being wall-less has its advantages, obviously it is connected to the natural environment. There are also challenges within that too because it is quite distracting,” said Gordon. He cited cute rabbits hopping in the grass outside the building as one such example. “But it is okay to get distracted by nature.”

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The internationally accredited school admits students aged three to 18 where they have a regular curriculum like science and maths classes. On top of that, students also participate in programmes to develop their entrepreneurial and problem-solving skills from a young age, often with a focus on sustainability.

For example, the middle school students recently started their own kitchen and designed a working restaurant system that included roles such as managers, chefs, accountants and waiters. This project was created so that the students are made aware of challenges in the real world.

“My son was in that class and he was a waiter. And he quit,” Gordon added with a laugh.
But the point of the school’s approach to education is to give the students rich learning experiences, continued Gordon. “They might go home and say I read a really cool book, but they are definitely going home and saying ‘We built a new place for the chickens’. These are the real experiences, the real memories we want to create.”