International Mindedness at Green Shoots International School

September 15, 2022

“Students in today’s international schools, growing up to be global leaders of the future, will require a remarkable insight into people and cultures across the world, and an unprecedented concern for the well-being of the world community” (IBO, 2017). At Green Shoots International School our students grow as responsible global citizens through embracing our school values in everything that they do. In a world where the number of international schools continues to grow exponentially (over 100 in Vietnam alone), the meaning of ‘internationalism’ must be carefully considered. While many schools may offer international curriculum, in reality few have the international diversity that we are fortunate to celebrate with nearly 20 nationalities represented in our student body. 

With all of this being the case, over the past year, through our international memberships and ongoing full accreditation process with the Council of International Schools (CIS) and Council of British International Schools (COBIS), our community has been considering what we feel represents the definition of international mindedness at Green Shoots International School. =

Since January, teachers, students and parents have been involved in a series of activities to consider the question of what international mindedness means and through this we have been able to come to a community definition for Green Shoots; 

Through our actions as open-minded, independent and curious critical thinkers, we recognize International Mindedness as a multifaceted concept of understanding that respects diverse cultures, backgrounds and belief systems. 

We see the world with an empathetic, open-minded perspective exploring different points of view, acknowledging individual cultures, recognizing our deep interconnectedness, bringing people together, and promoting unity.

We commit ourselves to engagement in international mindedness activities in our host country and our communities home countries as we explore the new challenges of the world with courage.

We see these positive actions as being part of our day to day activities as its practice is initiated throughout the school within the classroom and beyond.

This statement will be updated and reviewed to keep it current with our ever changing school community and real world changes.

It is clear from this statement created collaboratively as a community that we value not only our diversity but more importantly the need to be active global citizens in our community. This is something that is embedded in our teaching and learning as well as in initiatives such as the Secondary Global Citizenship projects and teacher Global Citizenship groups. 

We now take this definition as a guide for our growth as an international community and as a part of our candidacy for authorization to teach the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme and to become an IB World School. 

We thank all of our community for their active involvement in this process. 

Matt Buxton

Deputy Head of School 

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