News from the College

Towards the end of term, the following departing members of staff – Kathini, Larry, Simon, Marloes, Cristina and Avis – held a garage sale for the staff, student and local community to raise money for the Foundation Year Scholarship programme at UWC Red Cross Nordic.

This was a new initiative held in the Rektor’s garage one Saturday morning – with furniture, cutlery and crockery, pot plants, sporting equipment, clothes and much more for sale.

In total 21 members, beyond the original team of departing staff, made donations in exchange for items – with students taking books, clothes and other items for free.

NOK 14,055 was raised which will, in turn, be matched by the Davis Impact Programme – for a grand total of NOK 28,110.

Thank you to all who contributed to the organization and to the raising for money for the Foundation Year Programme.

If you would like to make your own donation to the Foundation Year Programme, please click here.

 

Arnett Edwards, Principal of UWC Li Po Chun, visited RCN this week as part of research he is conducting on leadership within UWC and students’ understanding and enactment of UWC mission and values.

As part of his itinerary, he met with individual members of the management team, students selected to represent Hong Kong, members of the Student Council and other student groups. He also gave a stimulating presentation on our sister College LPC and some new initiatives they are introducing.

He also took the opportunity to try fishing in the Flekke River (with some success – a mackerel and sea trout landed) and also joined in for an evening of Parafootball with students and our adult partners in Dale.

The last time Arnett was here was for the UWC International Board Meeting in February 2016 when there was lots of snow – and the Knights (with Mean as his guide) took him to Langeland for his first ever ski. Springtime in the fjords was quite a contrast!

It has been a pleasure to host him and we look forward to developing the partnership between our two Colleges.

On Wednesday 6th June, our Baking House was formally opened.

Invited guests, students and staff joined together for the opening mid-afternoon. It started with an introduction to the development of the Nordisk Tun (Nordic Yard), pizzas freshly cooked in the wood-fired oven, speeches and musical performances (with a Swedish theme for their National Day).

We were delighted that Marianne Andresen and her children Johan, Eva and Birgitte were present at the opening with Marianne cutting the ribbon to mark the official opening.

Later in the afternoon, guests were invited to K2 for an introduction to projects run by students as part of our Humanitarian Pillar.

Thank you to everyone who helped fund, design, build and launch the Baking House. It promises to be a wonderful resource for students, staff, patients at RKHR, Leirskule and participants in our summer camps – a building that complements our Silent House on the Nordic Yard.

(Photos by Simon Ramsay and Suzair Mohamed Laish)

Purposeful diversity is the key to UWC education and is a guiding principle for selection to RCN. We strongly believe that bringing together young persons from different backgrounds – cultural, political and social – for a shared educational experience is mutually beneficial to all, given that we create arenas where all take part on the same terms. Our aim for the students is that they shall learn and grow in all fields during their time here; be it in the residential, academic or extra-academic areas.

Every year some students arrive at UWC RCN linguistically and academically unprepared to manage the demands of the two year IB Diploma Programme. These students are identified early by the Academic Support Team and invited to attend the UWC RCN 3-week Summer Course (in advance of the start of the academic year), which gives them exposure to and lessons in English, helps orient them to their new environment, provides them with a supportive network of friends and introduces them to UWC values, expectations and activities.

The Foundation Year is a tailor-made course focused on English language development, study skills, and foundation in Maths, Science, Humanities and IT – alongside a holistic approach as expressed in the UWC Educational Model through extra-curricular challenges and our residential programme, emphasizing trust and a sense of belonging. The participants will take our UWC Red Cross Nordic Foundation Diploma – and this will be awarded at the end of the course. The main aims are to build confidence, nurture participation in our deliberately diverse student community, and prepare students for the demands of the two year IB Diploma or course certificates. Each student will be given a tailor-made timetable and individual tuition with more appropriate challenges, organised / supervised by the Learning Support Team.

Our human environment of purposeful diversity becomes a resource for all when each and everyone is equipped to learn, progress and share.

For more detailed information about the Foundation Programme, please click here for a written description and here for a visual flow chart.

Thanks to the Høegh Foundation and the Davis-UWC IMPACT Challenge for enabling us to set up the support infrastructure through our 20th Anniversary campaign in 2015 – and to Zoya Taylor and Harald Møller for their generous donation to the programme in 2017. The Foundation Year is a crucial component for our purposely diverse recruitment.

Read the stories of some of the students who have been on the Foundation Programme: this year’s students – here, and from last year, Hari, Ladiba and Sara.