WATER IS LIFE SCHOOLS ASSOCIATION: A NETWORK OF ACADEMICALLY ELITE GLOBAL SECONDARY SCHOOLS WORKING TO ADDRESS ACCESS TO CLEAN WATER

The Water is Life Schools association is an initiative bringing together internationally-minded, schools with dedicated global citizenship programmes to help face the challenge of ensuring accessible clean water for all. The program was borne of the Global Alliance of Leading-Edge Schools with many of that association’s members also participating in that initiative.

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ABOUT

In an age of increasing internationalisation and globalisation, many of the world’s greatest secondary schools have sought to work closer together in order to further their sense of a global community and to better understand the place which their student bodies occupy. Many such schools have also sought to further cement their international ties and to cooperate with their global peers to share knowledge and experience and to build capabilities to solve the greatest problems faced by their current and future graduates.

One such intitiative that has seen a consortium of the world’s most famous academically challenging schools coming together to present ideas to solve the ongoing problem of access to clean water is the Water is Life Schools association (previously known as the Water is Life Association).

It is an international network of schools that are committed to teaching students about the importance of water and its conservation. The network was founded in 2014 by a group of educators from Raffles Institution and Maurick College who were concerned about the growing water crisis around the world. The association’s core membership is centred around a select group of elite schools, many of which also participate in other global schools conferences focussed on creating future generations of world-leaders and problem-solvers such as the Winchester Network; the Strategic Alliance of Global Educators; or the Montgomery Bell Academy International Network.

The association’s work builds upon the wider Water is Life agenda, as founded in 2006 and championed by organisations like UNESCO. This includes over 1,000 participating schools in over 100 countries who have committed to:

• adopting a water education curriculum;
• hosting water education events; and
• utilising water education resources.

The schools brought together for the inaugural Water is Life Association conference, hosted by Raffles Institution in Singapore in 2014 sought to take this agenda further and to capitalise on their existing relationships to develop student-led, real-world solutions applying the knowledge acquired through the Water is Life programme.

Participating schools are invited to explore a number of water-related issues, at local or international level, whether that be access to drinking water, conservation or efforts to ensure pollution-free waterways. The schools meet every two years around a common theme for a conference hosted by a member school. Previous conference hosts have included: Maurick College, the Netherlands in 2016; Shibuya and Makuhari Junior and Senior High Schools, Japan in 2018; and the scheduled but canceled 2020 conference slated to be held in Florida at Saint Stephens Episcopal School. The 2024 conference is scheduled to take place at Oak Bay High School in Canada.

A number of schools have participated in the Water is Life Schools network since it’s foundation with a core group of select schools having attended all of the conferences, with delegations of students and faculty. The schools listed below are known to have been recent participants in research under the Water is Life Schools umbrella or have attended recent conferences.

You can find out more about the initiative here.

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MEMBERS AND ASSOCIATES

SELECT THE FIRST LETTER OF THE SCHOOL NAME BELOW OR CHOOSE LIST VIEW FOR A SIMPLE LIST OF ALL LISTED SCHOOLS. ALTERNATIVELY, YOU CAN SELECT SCHOOLS USING THE MAP BELOW.

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