Northwood College children commit to Earth Hour and beyond

The students, teachers and management of Northwood commemorated Earth Hour 2013, held on Saturday, 23 March by accepting the challenge of convincing 1000 households to switch their lights off for one hour between 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. Northwood students visited Orange Electric factory, Hameedia and Virtusa Corporation and appraised staff and management on the dangers of global warming.

“The participation of the students from Northwood College at Earth Hour 2013 program added a lot of colour and meaning”, said Virtusa Manager Marketing and Sustainability Rasika Withanage. “It is very important that the message of saving the planet is understood by future generations and the ‘Green Dream Team’ from NC set a perfect example to their fellow students as well as adults on committing to this cause”.

The Retail Manager of Hameedia’s flagship store at Wellawatta commended the efforts of those so young who have taken the initiative to educate those older of the dangers of climate change.

“We were very impressed with the effort made by the students of Northwood College in making a positive difference celebrating the ‘Earth Hour’ 2013. The students made a tremendous impact upon our staff members, when they visited our office,” said Orange Electric Group Director – Corporate, Legal and HR, Channa Ranasinghe.

Northwood with its strong corporate partnerships, focus on providing children with early leadership and corporate exposure. The prize for achieving the target was the donation of toys to needy children. The students are also on a quest to convince their households to save at least 10% of their monthly electricity consumption. The students also had the opportunity to meet the Head, Earth Hour Sri Lanka Abdul Qadir Uvais. Uvais had this to say of the children: “It was wonderful to see how children from Northwood College took part in this year’s Earth Hour campaign. They took to the streets to send a powerful message to the masses and promised to donate toys to less privileged children if 1000 people observed Earth Hour, not just in a symbolic act of switching off for one hour but ‘beyond the hour’ in which people change their life styles to that which is environmentally friendly. It was indeed inspiring to see the great initiatives of these wonderful children”. At Northwood the earth is sacrosanct. Students learn to appreciate the earth and the dangers of climate change by doing activities such as growing their own vegetables in school premises.

The vision of Northwood College is to prepare the students to become future leaders with strong local values and creative global minds. In an ever so rapidly globalising world, a child who is well prepared to face the future will win the day.

“Our mission is to make our children future ready,” said Northwood College Head of School Kumari Wickremasinghe. “We are pioneering a new approach which brings together several key aspects into education: We use child centred inquiry based learning where our children are encouraged to discover and learn under the guidance of the teachers. We include leadership and technology to day-to-day curriculum early on. We help our children develop a special appreciation to nature and ethnic harmony. We help our children develop a strong sense for values and self-discipline. We believe the combination of the above approaches and a teaching environment where teachers are motivated and excited to groom the students, are the recipe for nurturing a successful future leader”.