Annual Report 2023

2023-05-06T06:56:25+01:00May 2nd, 2023|

We are delighted to announce that our Annual Report 2023 has been released and is now available for you to read. This report highlights our organization’s accomplishments, milestones, and progress made over the past year. We invite you to take a closer look at our work and learn about the impact we are making in the world. Leaf through the pages online below or download the report and discover more.

Let the foreword of Hilde Sandvik (Board Member, Producer of podcast “Norsken, svensken og dansken”) stand here uncut:

Hilde Sandvik, Portrett, Burde vært pensum

“On the morning of the 24nd February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. Since then, Europe and the rest of the world has been thrown into a conflict in which we are forced to take a stand. For Norway – which shares a border with Russia – it is a warning of how quickly a neighbour can become your worst enemy. For United World College, the war is a reminder of why the painstaking work of bringing students from all over the world together for education, for togetherness, is so important.

What role can UWC Red Cross Nordic play in the Nordic region?

These are our times: Wars, climate crises, rising inflation, the aftermath of a pandemic. The very foundations of democracy are threatened, freedom of expression is under pressure. In 2022, only 21 countries in the world will be classified as full democracies. Norway is at the top of the democracy index – all Nordic countries are in the top 10. Only ten countries are classified by Reporters Without Borders as having full freedom of expression*. The trust index shows the same: the Nordic region is at the top, but trust is eroding. People don’t trust the authorities or each other.

Why is the annual report for the beautiful school in Fjaler so gloomy and seemingly depressive? Because this is where the opportunities and the gold are: What the school does, learns from and passes on is nothing less than vital learning. In the Nordic region, we can demonstrate in practice what democracy can do, how trust can be built – even how disagreement can be accepted. A heterogeneous society requires more, not less, freedom of expression, the British writer Kenan Malik has written and spoken about this time and again. As a child of Indian immigrants to England, he knows what he is talking about. Learning to disagree respectfully is increasingly important in a world at boiling point.

UWC Red Cross Nordic, nestled in the mountains of western Norway, shows that this can be done – respectful disagreement, different backgrounds meeting and challenging each other, showing precisely that it is through open, free conversation in an open and free society that safe spaces are created. It is when we close the door to our neighbours that everything becomes unsafe.”

*https://rsf.org/en/rsf-s-2022-world-press-freedom-index-new-era-polarisation

Extended Essay in the IB Diploma: Balancing Challenges, Benefits, and a Community-Driven Approach at RCN

2023-03-31T07:56:06+01:00March 31st, 2023|

The Extended Essay is an independent research project completed by all RCN students as part of the IB Diploma Programme. For many students, it is the most challenging assignment that they will encounter in their school career: the workload is estimated at 40 hours, there is a 4000-word limit and students have access to just 4 hours of guidance from a subject-specialist supervisor.

Saying this, the benefits of engaging in the Extended Essay process are enormous. Students’ planning, management, writing, argumentation, research, reflection and communication skills are strengthened. The Extended Essay mimics undergraduate-level research in the relevant subject area, which means (for example) that Literature students perform textual analysis, Language Acquisition students present their ideas in a foreign language, Individuals & Societies students explore contemporary and/or global issues from multiple well-defined perspectives and Science students carry out investigations. And the Extended Essay remains refreshingly low-stakes in the IB Diploma overall; the skill level is high, but the maximum points available are relatively low.

This week, Emma (Academic Programme Leader) launched the Extended Essay with all First Year students in her first Academic Skills session of the year. She discussed the importance of choosing the right discipline for the Extended Essay and shared her insights on how to experience a balanced IB Diploma overall. Students also had the opportunity to find out why we carry out end-of-year internal exams in the First Year, with Emma explaining the value of assessment in any learning process and how teachers will learn more about how to support individuals and classes.

The RCN community also enjoyed the EEvening, which is an hour in which Second Years are on hand to present their work and share their experiences of undertaking an Extended Essay while First Years consider a range of Extended Essay subjects and ask questions in an informal setting. We hope that students are able to make informed decisions and know that our teachers’ diverse expertise will enable us to find the best possible match between our students and their supervisors.

Latest News

.

Go to News Archive

Collaboration Across UWCs: Differentiation Workshop at RCN

2023-03-15T13:32:18+01:00March 15th, 2023|

Collaboration across UWCs is often tricky to organise face-to-face, but for three days at UWCRCN, colleagues from Dilijan, Adriatic, Maastricht, and Robert Bosch gathered for a workshop on Differentiation in Approaches to Teaching and Learning (Learning Support).

The workshop was planned and organised by the Learning Support Team from RCN and led by Suzanne Gaskell (Dilijan) and Miriam Nash (Adriatic). These expert facilitators employed differentiation strategies in their sessions, which ensured that all participants could be exposed to our biases, be reminded of the variety of student experiences, and learn at an appropriate pace.

A range of topics and focus points were covered during the sessions, including sharing best practices, the social model of disability, case studies from different IB subject groups, and planning of collaborative ways forward. Two sessions were shared with the entire education staff at RCN.

Perhaps the biggest lesson we will all takeaway is that it is not a student’s ‘condition,’ but instead, the student’s needs that should guide us in planning and teaching; creating opportunities for student autonomy are more likely to succeed than making assumptions about accessibility.

As hosts, RCN colleagues prepared a pizza social evening before the start of the workshop, took visiting colleagues hiking, swimming, and for yoga, and provided a campus tour and the chance to engage with RCN students and staff. Even the Northern Lights made a welcome appearance!

We are hugely excited to have played a small part in creating this professional and trusted network, and we know that all our students will benefit from the ideas for policy and practice that we shared. We all look forward to follow-up sessions hosted by one of our sister colleges!

Latest News

.

Go to News Archive

RCN Model United Nation: Developing Global Perspectives

2023-03-01T09:38:51+01:00March 1st, 2023|

The annual Model United Nations at RCN is a moment for the 1st year class to bond in something intellectually challenging, emotionally engaging, and also a little physically demanding. All of those things game together, more of one, depending on who you were and what each student needed from the week.
 
The conference was facilitated by a dedicated team of 2nd years who poured their hearts and souls into making the experience exciting and fun. This year we had even more topics with the addition of more committees spread across the Security Council, as well as a Historical Security that went back in time to solve some issues from 30 years ago, UN Women, the Economic and Social Council, the UN Office of Drugs and Crime, the UN Environmental Programme, the World Health Organisation, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the Human Rights Council, and the Special Conference.
 
This was the longest preparation for the conference for a while. The second-year chairs have been working on their committees since October, having been choosing through a mix of presentations, interviews, and even some cloak-and-dagger politics. This year the 1st year cohort got to engage with MUN training as an EAC, and the weekly practice shone through as many of the speakers stood up and delivered stirring performances. All students also had three in-depth preparation sessions over a month to get everyone on the same page. Hats off to all the committee chairs and the security team for deftly managing all the interventions and the personalities in all the sessions.
 
On Thursday, we had two very inspiring talks.
 
The first was with Fioralba Shkodra, the Head of the United Nations Resident Coordinator’s Office in Serbia. She has worked with Sustainable Development Goals for over a decade in multiple countries. It was good to learn from someone engaged with making aspirational SDGs become achieved goals. She helped us appreciate how she works on both long-term continuing programs and emergencies.
 
The later talk was with Alexander Stubb, a former Finnish Prime Minister. He shared his life as lawmaker, government minister, and prime minister and the demands of each role. He spoke about his life in the European Investment Bank, and his return to academia, and he gave us many ideas on how we can contribute across different spheres.
 
The General Assembly debate on the final day focused on protecting journalists worldwide. You can imagine how fun and hectic getting agreement among a hundred delegates can be – even in something we can all agree on.
Copyright 2019 UWC Red Cross Nordic | All Rights Reserved |
Go to Top