Dover's first Rainforest Restoration Graduates!

Two Dover students from the graduating Class of 2015 came back to the Campus just days after the ceremony to receive yet another prestigious certificate! Aayesha Fazal and Puthyda Keath were dedicated members of the College’s Rainforest Restoration Project and the first to receive their Certificate in Rainforest Restoration Practice from Dover High School Principal Danny O’Connor. This new UWCSEA qualification recognises the development of some of the nursery and field skills as well as knowledge needed to contribute effectively to rainforest conservation.

Both Aayesha and Puthyda achieved a Distinction in their final assessment, having acquired considerable technical understanding of reforestation issues in the region and competencies ranging from data collection and monitoring for research to publicity and management of work schedules.

We will sorely miss the committed contributions of Aayesha and Puthyda to the project. Aayesha was the project’s leader at Dover and longest serving member (4 years) and both her and Puthyda gave up countless hours working in the nursery and planting at sites across Singapore.

We wish both of them and all of the project’s grade 12 graduates at both campuses a happy and successful future - planting trees wherever they are!

Greening the Megablock

New buildings are a massive use of resources and source of emissions so ensuring they are as energy - efficient as possible during their lifetime is essential for a school aiming for sustainable development.

On a tour of the Megablock this week Operations Director Simon Thomas showed us the large planting areas that will help keep temperatures cool as well as some of the innovative air conditioning engineering that will help us control electricity consumption.

Simon's designs mean that we will be able to plant as many as 50 indigenous trees within the building footprint alongside flowering plants and vegetables. The cooling system designed in collaboration with the Future Cities Lab at NUS means the building will have a much smaller impact than a building this size would normally have.

At the moment the MegaBlock just looks, well, like a Mega block, but within a year or so we should see it transformed into a green building we can be proud of.