Message from the Deputy Head of Junior School

I often get asked what I want for our students, and without hesitation I say, I want them to be good people. I want our students to be active members of the global community who are motivated and able to make meaningful contributions in the world, understand the responsibilities associated with being internationally minded and appreciate the benefits of working with others for a shared purpose.

But how can you change the world?

This is a very big question; changing the world is a hard job!

Sometimes it is easy to believe that one person cannot achieve this. However, the idea that “I am only one, but I am one; I cannot do everything, but I can do something” really resonates with me.

I am also a firm believer that if you want to create a world rooted in kindness, honour, truth, and justice, you begin with children. We may ‘only be’ Junior School students, but as Greta Thunberg famously said, "you are never too small to make a difference."

This year, we have been inspired by true stories of change makers across the globe and considered how we can take individual and collective action.

Grade 1 advocated for Mastercook to change their packaging from plastic to compostable materials after reading ‘One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia’ which tells the inspiring story of five women who creatively dealt with their village’s plastic trash problem. Despite limited resources and ridicule, Isatou and her friends persevered for more than a decade, eventually realising economic empowerment through their recycled plastic purse project.

Grade 4 were inspired to create sustainable energy solutions for the United Nations Climate Conference 2022, after reading the story ‘The Boy who Harnessed the Wind’ about William Kamkwamba, a young man in central Malawi who improvises a windmill out of bicycle and other scrap yard parts to produce electricity for his family's home.

Just like Istaou or William, our students are the future agents of change.

So ask yourself, ‘What difference I am going to make?’

UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.

-The Lorax

Thank you for another brilliant year at NLCS Dubai. I look forward to welcoming you back in August and making a difference with big hearts and one small action at a time.

Michaela Carney

Deputy Head of Junior School NLCS Dubai