“Help people even when you know they can’t help you back.”

Lions clubs International is the world’s premier community service organization, with 1.3 million members. It is an international secular, non-political service organization founded by Melvin Jones in 1917. As of April 2015, it had over 46,000 local clubs and more than 1.4 million members in over 200 countries around the world. Regardless of the language Lions speak, religion they practice or politics they support, all are dedicated to helping people in need.

Leo Clubs are an extension of the Lions service organization which aims to encourage community service and involvement from a young age. Leo Clubs much like Lioness Clubs are sponsored by a parent Lions Club.

The objective is to provide the youth of the world with an opportunity for development and contribution, individually and collectively, as responsible members of the local, national and international community.

Leadership – Develop skills as a project organizer, time manager and team leader.
Experience – Learn how teamwork, cooperation and collaboration can bring
exciting changes to your community and the world.
Opportunity – Make friends and feel the rewards of community service.

The Leo club of Bangalore host – Global City was established to serve the community. It comprises of like-minded students, of different backgrounds, eager to make a difference and engage in efforts to make the community better. It provides with an opportunity for personal development through volunteering.

Our goals are to empower the underprivileged through simple acts of kindness and to make the earth a better place to live in, to stimulate among its members acceptance of high ethical standard and to develop leadership qualities.

As a first step the election to the post of the office bearers for Leo Club was conducted among the students on 8th February , 2020. The process started with Leo Coordinators Ms. Krithiga and Ms. Kauveri welcoming all of them and introducing Lion Arun to the newly signed members of the Leo Club.

The prospective candidates addressed the members and participated with great zeal.

Climate change has been one of the most debated topics in the past few decades. Climate change is caused by human activities and is threatening the way we live and the future of our planet. By addressing climate change, we can build a sustainable world for everyone.But a number of challenges have hindered the formulation of robust policies and strategies by nation, to address this problem.

With a view to sharing opinions and creating awareness among the GCIS students,as part of the ISA activity on CLIMATE ACTION, wehad an inter-grade competition on “How to make GCIS aGreen School”The participants were asked to present their recommendations along with an action plan on how they would introduce this mindset inthe institution.

Not only students, but the judges too were awed by the plans proposed by the different  teams.The prospect of having organic gardens, rain water harvesting, cycling to school, recycling  plastic and using it for plastic roads were not only creative and thoughtful but also were   perspectives to ponder upon. It was a healthy competition where the children researched for,  accumulated knowledge and had fun too. The participation from students was encouraging and   we  now intend to do this periodically in the school.

 Remembering Mahatma Gandhi’s words –“Change yourself to change the world”, the group felt   that senior students and staff must lead by example, in ensuring the students of our school make   every effort to change some common practices, towards our goal of being responsible towards climate action.

We can and must be the generation to end this climate crisis.

GCIS CLIMATE CHANGE DECLARATION AND ACTION PLAN

Thanks to young activists like 17year old Great Thunberg, the youth have made their voices heard in the alleys of government offices, across the world!

While national leaders need to play their part in putting an end to this madness, As responsible youth in the society, the students of Global City International School, Bangalore have come up with the following declaration for our institution. This shall provide the foundation for action going forward and a baseline for monitoring progress at our school.

The workshop conducted by Mr. Vivek Vashisht, founder Imbue Education, on the topic of ‘Climate Action’ as part of our ISA project gave us wonderful insight on the topic and created awareness on the critical need to address this issue and how each one of us can make a difference.

Declarations:

1. Decreasing energy use in our institution by 20% by proposing and implementing energy efficient solutions to management
2. Reduce the amount of materials we use and waste we produce, re–use materials wherever possible, restore what is deemed to have been destroyed and respect our neighbors and our environment.

       3.Work towards meeting the goal of a green cover of 33% in the school 

Events:

1. Create Awareness – More learning and less activism will be our policy.Host periodic school seminars and competitions on climate change
2. GCIS Eco Club – Make Eco Club members in our school, champions of driving the climate change message and guardians of implementation of actions identified in this declaration
3. Reducing school’s carbon footprint

      a) Transportation Model – monitor current pattern of mode of transport and encourage higher adoption of bicycle,  car pool or walking              to school.

     b) Waste Reduction

1. Composting–Implement wet waste compositing in school premises
2. Litter-free lunches – incentivize classes which have litter free lunches
3. Eliminating bottled water – for all school functions, staff and students
4. Reduce Paper consumption (no, we are not going to do away with exams!!)
5. Conduct Waste Reduction– Week periodically

UNClimate Action Summit 2019 –The Secretary-General’s Call to Action

The Climate Action Summit 2019 (CAS 2019) was held between 2-13th December in Madrid, Spain.The Climate Action Summit reinforced 1.5°C as the socially,

economically, politically and scientifically safe limit to global warming by the end of this century, and net zero emissions by 2050 as the global long-term climate objective for all. Countries need to urgently accelerate work to define what this entails for the short-term (2020) and mid-term (2030) commitments that will be captured in their Nationally Determined Contributions and ensure the alignment of strategies to meet those commitments.

As part of the ISA Activity Climate Action, students of Grades 7 and 8 worked in groups to discuss the Climate Action Summit and what it means to them. Each group brainstormed on two themes presented in the Climate Action Summit. They discussed the theme and results as observed in the Summit and the underlying take-away was summarized by them. The enthusiasm with which the students undertook this activity was commendable.Here is an initiative of a group of students who went ahead in chartering a “Plan for a Carbon Neutral World”, based on their review of the Climate Action Summit report.

SIDS PLEDGE TO ACHIEVE 100% RENEWABLE ENERGY BY 2030 WITH TECHNICAL AND FINANCIAL SUPPORT IS LAUDABLE AND TO BE SUPPORTED BY HIGHLY DEVELOPED NATIONS.
DEVELOPING SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT SYSTEMS AND DECARBONIZE URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE SECTOR WILL YIELD EXCELLENT RESULTS IN ACHIEVING THIS OBJECTIVE
LOCAL GOVERNMENTS SHOULD SET ASIDE POLITICAL DIFFERENCES AND MUST SUPPORT PEOPLE WHOSE LIVES AND LIVELIHOOD IS IMPACTED BY FACTORS OF CLIMATE CHANGE – LIKE CYCLONES, DROUGHTS, FLOODS AND STORMS
THE LDCS ASSURANCE TO NET ZERO GHG EMISSIONS BY 2050 IS A BOLD STEP AND SETS HIGH STANDARDS FOR MORE DEVELOPED COUNTRIES TO LEAD BY EXAMPLE.
PRODUCING SHORT AND LONG-TERM IMPROVEMENTS PLAN THAT IMPACTS LIVES OF PEOPLE, IS NEED OF THE HOUR
AMONGST THE KEY PLAYERS, THE SHIPPING INDUSTRIES, PLEDGE TO FULLY DECARBONIZE THEIR VALUE CHAIN BY 2050 IS A WELCOME MOVE
Results on the twelve themes of the Climate Action Summit is presented in the form of table below.

As part of the ISA Activity ‘Renewable Energy’, a case study was done by students of Grades 10 and 11 on the feasibility of various sources adopted to conserve energy in India. This motivated them to find ways to conserve energy in GCIS and conduct an electricity audit. As part of the audit, it was decided that students would form multiple groups with each group having different responsibilities. Ground work was done to determine appliances dependent on electricity. The consumption pattern of these were collated and analysed. Office administration supported our data collection efforts with the help of prior period expenditure pattern. Review with the project team was conducted where all material compiled was discussed. Basis which recommendation was prepared for consideration of management on adoption of solar energy panels to address the issue of high energy consumption in the school.

This activity helped in creating awareness among the student groups on our energy consumption pattern and its adverse effects. This has made them think and act more responsibly with regard to conservation of energy and act as responsible global citizens

“Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit.” – Jawaharlal Nehru.

We at GCIS believe that exposing children to different cultures is very vital to personal
growth. In Kindergarten, the children are taught the cultures of other countries every week. They learn about the food habits, attire, animals, plants and amazing facts of these countries through art and craft activities. They are able to associate the countries just by looking at the flags. Social graces like “thank you” and “hello” are taught in different languages. This not only teaches them diversity but also allows them to forge new friendships. Children participate in the ICL activities by bringing in food related to the countries taught. They also exhibit show and tell activities which raise their general awareness. Teachers make it interesting by playing “quiz time” to revise the various things taught about the countries.

By Arush Karayil, CAIE VI

The Dream Tournament

On 7h of July 2018, we from Bangalore Soccer Academy left to Denmark to play the Youth Soccer World Cup representing India. The opening ceremony of Cup no.1 was grand, and bearing the Indian flag, we waved to the cheering crowd .We played our first league match against Germany and lost badly. But, in the next match I scored a goal against Peru. It was our opening score and then there was no looking back. We won against Denmark in the semis and ended up losing to Brazil in the finals. The opening ceremony of Gothia cup [Sweden] was just fantastic.

We started our league matches bad by losing to England. Later, we started playing better, drew with Germany, won against Lebanon, but lost the final to Dubai .We returned to India with two silver medals. We were proud to play for our country.

It is essential for us to keep learning at GCIS as we aim at helping the constant growth of every single member of our community.

USPU has conducted the 4th Teacher Training Seminar at our school for 12 of the facilitators and leaders on 17-27 August. Prof. Daria Starkova and Prof. Olga Alifanova of Ural State Pedagogical University have taught us on Cognitive and Methodological Science. The 10 days program included learning on Concepts, Frames, Visualization in Teaching, Remembering a Cognitive process, Hemispheric Asymmetry in our teaching process and Communication and Observations.

“Every journey, no matter how big or how small, must first begin with a will to try…”

We’re looking forward to the continuation of our friendly and fruitful USPU collaboration.

Fancy Dress Competition was an opportunity for the students of CBSE – Grade I to V to dress up in their traditional attire. The students were looking gorgeous in their colourful costumes. The bright dresses coupled with the innocence of the children, lighted up the whole atmosphere. The competition was not about winning or losing it aimed was to improve the communication skills of the students as they were pushed to come out of their comfort zone and express themselves in front of an audience.

The more opportunities we expose our youngsters to the better choices they make about their lives and career. Students of grade IX to XI of both the Cambridge and the CBSE wings attended a career guidance session lead by Col. V. Jayaraman this morning. The session focused on job opportunities in the defense sector with specific reference to NDA. We express our sincere gratitude to Col. V. Jayaraman and his team and apprecite our senior students for being such a wonderful audience. Sure they went back home with much more understanding of how the Indian defence services operate.

It is a moment of great pride for all of us at GCIS as we welcome Professor Daria Starkova and Professor Olga Alifanova to our campus. In collaboration with Ural State Pedagogical University, Russia, GCIS is offering its facilitators a two year diploma programme on Innovative pedogogical practices.

This is the fourth stage of our collaborative teacher training project with the USP university that took off in March 2017.

There is no land on Earth that celebrates diversity like our Mother Land, no nation that rose like a phoenix from where it laid prostrate under the feet of the mighty British empire, no people that strive to live, fight work, and die as we do for the honour of their country. And so we have every right to celebrate our independence and keep reminding the younger generation of the sacrifices made, battles fought, and lives lost.