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Community Service in International Schools
Contents
Appendix
| A Summary of Community Service survey of International Schools 1998/1999 |
| B Useful forms |
| C Bibliography |
| D Further Reading |
| E Afterword and Acknowledgements |
1 - Introduction
It takes the whole village to educate a child - African Proverb
Education is always evolving and changing, through improving already well used techniques
and subjects and replacing obsolete ones. Community Service like all other parts of a
balanced education is also changing; especially it’s role within schools.
Schools are changing from management dominated institutions to places where parents,
teachers, administrators and students share in decision-making.1
These changes have taken place as the ‘community’ has been seen as a useful tool
to the student’s education from a factual growth to an experiential one. With such
changes in mind many schools have or are starting to adopt Community Service into their
ethos or even into curriculum guidelines. Such ideas are not new, but as we approach the
new millennium in education, many schools see it as a way forward for the growth of the
school and their students education.
The United States has taken this on by introducing ‘Service Learning’ programs
and a large number of States have made it mandatory for students to take part in Community
Service or Service Learning. In fact the president of the United States and his four
predecessors, declared their backing for the scheme ‘Learn and Serve America’
which helped set up and sponsor universities throughout the country to train teachers in
this field, and to help fund projects within schools.
Europe as a whole has not approached the ‘Service Learning’ strategy like the
US, but has through service programs and groups, outside of school, offered a wide range
of opportunities for students to take part in such activities. However this has not been
mandatory. Some school diploma programs now expect a student to carry out Community
Service as part of their graduation requirement. The International Baccalaureate
Organisation (IBO) for example, requires student participation in this program for both
their Middle Years Program and the full IB Diploma.2
If a school adopts external awards it is often the case that the school changes its
philosophy to fit the diploma program.
Universities and Employers are now taking into account the ‘whole’ person they
take on and they often use Community Service as an indicator as to the type of future
student / employee they are taking on.
The feeling is now spreading that the education of the past no longer prepares students
for the demands of the future and that the skills of decision-making, responsibility,
group skills, active citizenship and lifelong learning, must be incorporated into todays
schools. Community Service not only assumes students are connected with their communities
to learn from, but that learning benefits others.3
It is with all this in mind that the ECIS Community Service Development Committee, choose
to look at the state of Community Service in International schools, with the goal of
sharing good practices and developing a set of guidelines for schools to set up a
Community Service program or develop a program further. A survey was carried out with the
aim of looking at the role of Community Service in schools and in order to get feedback on
projects which have worked and others which have not.4
2 - What do we mean by a Community Service Project?
This is one of the most difficult and yet crucial questions. There is not one answer to
this, and it depends on the school, the area in which the school is situated and the
make-up of the school which determines what really constitutes a Community Service
Project. Community Service Projects in International Schools will often vary a lot from
national schools around the world due to the clientele and ‘community’ around
them.
It is however possible to define a Community Service project by using general guidelines.
The vagueness of the description for Community Service is important as schools differ
tremendously all over the world. i.e some schools are stuck to school based projects due
to the nature of the community they are in.
3 - Starting a Community Service program
It is very important that new programs have strong leaders, so don’t try to convert
the non-believers at first. Start with teachers, administrators and students who want to
get involved. In fact unless you are really brave, don’t even make it mandatory for
students until you are sure you can cope.
There are four main requirements to set up a new Community Service program.
Support from the Administration and Board
The best way for Community Service to work is to have support for such projects from the
administration and board. If the Board / head of school is in favour of such projects then
it will be a lot easier and far less stressful to set up a program. From the survey 52% of
International Schools and 63% of high school students have Community Service as a
requirement.5
What can the Board do ?
What can the administrators do ?
Support from Students
Some of the most successful projects in Community Service and in other subjects, are
student run. Whether the projects are for Elementary School, Middle School or High School,
ownership of projects often leads to a greater success rate, but it also acts as a
learning process if the project fails. Students will learn more when what they do has
value for them. Teachers need to encourage students to select the service activities they
perform, and to take charge, but it is important that a staff member or another adult
monitors the project to ensure good learning and that the project runs well and safely.10
There will always be some students who are interested in helping others. Start with these
motivated students, perhaps form a club and run a few small projects and if they are
successful allow them to grow. You must be willing to ‘blow your own trumpet’ at
this stage, otherwise no-one else will know about the projects. You must advertise,
promote the projects, and celebrate the successes openly.11
Parental Involvement
Parents can be a great aid to international schools, as they form a large part in the
community of a school. They can offer links to the businesses they are associated with and
can usually offer their time as well. Parents are often well represented on the school
board and if they are in support of Community Service, then many administrative hurdles
may be easier to deal with.
The link with parents may take time and often you may create links after parent
conferences or at other social events run by the school. Many schools have a newsletter,
in which the parents can be informed of the projects running at their children’s
school.
Time
Time for projects is important , if they are to be successful. Elementary schools may find
this less of a problem than Middle or High schools, as they are less influenced by
external curriculum. But it is important to remember that all levels of the school have to
fit this program around all the other parts of the schools activities and lessons. One way
to overcome this problem is to place Community Service projects into the lessons, i.e
Service Learning. This has been successful in many US schools, as many enjoy more
flexibility in curriculum planning.
Another way is to place Community Service into the school day as a separate lesson. Only
52% of all International Schools have allocated time to such projects. The Asociacion
Escuelas Lincoln, Buenos Aires for example allows 11th and 12th grade students to take
Community Service as an elective during any period of the day and carry out different
tasks supervised by the Community Service Coordinator, whilst the American International
School of Budapest has C.A.S periods every week, where all Middle school12 and High school students are expected to carry out
Community Service projects.
4 - Mandatory Community Service ?
This is a question that must be dealt with, for each area of the school and with the
Board. There are arguments for and against mandatory Community Service for each area of
the school and it depends on the ethos of the school as well as the community in which the
school is situated.
If you are planning to bring in mandatory Community Service, make sure you and your
school..
5 - Setting up a Community Service
Project (PARA)
Start small and start in school 13
Start Small
Once you have the idea of a Community Service program instilled within the school, you
will need to set up projects. It is always best to start all projects on a small scale ,
if at all possible. The bigger the project the more chance of failures.
PARA14
Successful Community Service Projects should run in a cycle.
There are four main areas to this cycle,
it has been coined PARA (Plan, Action, Reflect and Acknowledge).
Plan
One of the biggest reasons for projects failing is their lack of planning, on the side of
the Coordinator or the person in charge of the project.
Planning should include :
6 - PARA in more detail
Plan
It is very important to plan a project thoroughly, just like a successful lesson. Many
Coordinators have found out that a poorly planned project, is the sole reason for its
failure. Here is a list of things which should be considered during the planning stage.
all of these reflections are valid ways of letting students deal with their experience.
Action
This is really the simple bit, if the project has been planned carefully. But things
always change and things go wrong, just ask Murphy !
Questions the Coordinator should pose at this time are
This is the most important part of a project. It can be dealt with in lots of ways, both
formally and informally. Both types of reflection have merit.
Everyone involved should reflect in some way, from the students, the beneficiary, the
School Sponsor, the Project Sponsor and the Community Service Coordinator.
At first, an informal reflection, just talking within the group, is probably best, as it
will get immediate thoughts and problems out of the way. This should be done very shortly
after the first visit with the students and is usually oral, this can be run by the School
Sponsor or with the help of the Community Service Coordinator. From this meeting, it will
be decided if the project will continue the way it was planned or whether it needs
changing. Sometimes initial meetings, are hard for students if what they have seen is not
a usual occurrence. This may lead to giving the students a chance to process their
thoughts and then talking to them. This could be followed by smaller discussions, even
one-on-one discussions, so that students can vent their views in a more secure
surrounding.
Once the project is underway, the students and School Sponsor should be encouraged to
reflect as often as possible. One of the ways to do this is to ask the students to keep a
journal of the project. 76% of all schools encourage journal keeping.15 These journals can be kept for just personal use, but they
can also provide a good way for the supervisor and Coordinator to see what the students
think. Oral reflection is also a good thing throughout the project. The School Sponsor
could choose to bring the students together for a group reflection or the supervisor can
meet with the students individually or in smaller groups. A lot can also be found out, by
informally talking with the students involved, during the school day, in-passing, at
lunch, breaks, during lessons. Publishing reflections can also validate their experience
and give the community an opportunity to share in the experience.
Session reflections should be considered a vital part of the project. Students should be
encouraged to look back over the session and discuss what changes have happened within
this project.
Reflections can take on many literary or artistic forms, and may not just be a way to
answer the questions above. Remember all students are different. Such sessions can
coincide with a planned acknowledgement of the project.
The Beneficiary
The Beneficiary is the most important part of the project and they should not be forgotten
when it comes to the reflection. They should be involved in the reflection process as
well. Students can spend some of their reflection time with the beneficiary to see what
they feel about the project and whether it is working and are they benefiting from the
experience. The Beneficiary can also be asked to write a reflection on the experience
which can be shared. The Project Sponsor, also needs to be part of this process too.
As the Coordinator, do not be afraid to offer help to the School Sponsors when they are
setting up reflection sessions. They may not ask for it, but may need help anyway; it is
often intimidating to let students vent their powerful feelings effectively. Sometimes a
set of questions can be used to start off the reflection, leading students to open up with
their feelings. These sessions can end up being very powerful experiences in their own
right or can be very low key depending on the type of students who are involved within the
project. Using the questions above may help a reflection start off. The School Sponsor,
may start a reflection by opening up themselves, which may encourage others to do so.
A project must be acknowledged. It is wrong to just let it run its course. It need not
necessarily be a ‘fun-fair’ or ‘party’, but sometimes that may be the
appropriate form of acknowledgement. Students, sponsors and the beneficiary need to feel a
sense of achievement about the project and to see it finalised, or at least feel a cycle
has been completed.
Projects can be acknowledged as they progress or there can be set times when the
acknowledgement for that project is planned.
Acknowledgement, also serves the goal of informing others as to what has happened, to
encourage others to get involved or to just inform the community of the school and the
local community about what some of the students have been involved in.
Acknowledgement could take the form of some of the following
Acknowledgement also serves as a great advertisement for the school within the local
community, which for Heads of schools and the Board is never a bad thing.
Remember that all those involved deserve a sense of achievement.
7 - Other important things to remember
Two Way Projects
The best Community Service projects, are not just about giving, but projects which invoke
a 2 way relationship between the service provider and the beneficiary.
The Frankfurt International School for example has a project involving refugees, which
allows both sides to learn about each others cultures and improving language skills, with
students from the school and the local refugee centers to spend time together working on
writing and playing games.
St Johns International School, believes that ‘True Service is two-way. The server
should eventually, become the beneficiary, allowing the beneficiary to become the
server’.16 A project running at St John’s
in the Elementary School, involves financial support to third world communities and it is
now working the other way, with students receiving first hand information about the
communities around the world, via video, photos and written contact.
A project in Budapest has seen students visiting old people on a regular basis, where the
students practice their French skills and in return learn about the lives of some old
people - this project has been a great success and is now in its third year with the same
students.
Communication
It is important to keep up a good line of communication between the school and the
project. Actual visits from the Community Service Coordinator will help both sides feel
that the project is working and make it easier to communicate when necessary. This again
goes back to the issue of time, if there is no time for communication, then when something
needs dealing with it is often too late to save a project, even when the original problem
or situation may have been minor.
Make adjustments
Whilst running through the cycle of PARA, it is important to remember that at times
projects may need to be adjusted for students to cope with situations they have not come
previously encountered and since in any case no-one knows at the beginning of a project,
how it will evolve.
Unsuccessful Projects or Ending a Project
Circumstances such as poor community relationships or putting students in danger may lead
a project to fail or come to an end. Most projects that fail, do so due to the lack of
appropriate planning, but sometimes because the project is just not right for the students
involved or the situation has changed in some way. Failing is a useful learning
experience, if dealt with the right way. Projects may also come to an end. You may have
planned a project to run a certain length of time or the environment or need for the
project has stopped, or you may have achieved what the project planned to do, in which
case, there is nothing wrong in ending the project. An example of such is the Kalahari
Experience run by the Frankfurt International School for 6 years.17
Reporting
A good Community Service project should constitute experiential learning and it is
therefore appropriate to report on the students progress and commitment to the project.
The report does not necessarily have to provide the student with a grade, but it should
show acknowledgement of the students efforts to their peers, family and future university
or employer. This could be part of the session report or in the form of an award or
certificate.
List of Contacts
Keep a list of useful contacts. This will build up as the program grows. You never know
when a project in a certain area may be more in favour with the students, or when you may
need to build up more contacts within that field.
There are many great Community Service projects running in International Schools around
the world. This section will look at project examples, which were submitted by Community
Service Coordinators, as part of the ECIS Community Service survey.
Elementary School Projects
The Inter American Academy of Guagaquil, Ecuador
Students in the elementary school took part in a Walk-a-thon which was a fund raising
project. All of the students took part in this project which raised over $1000 for
UNICEF’s Children’s Fund. Dozens of parents volunteered to help and all who
participated had fun. The head of UNICEF’s fund raising department visited the
school, after the fund raising event to receive the check and to talk to the students
about the different UNICEF projects and how the money collected will be helping the
children of Ecuador and other parts of the world.
John F Kennedy School, Switzerland
Students raise money for a children’s hospital in Kenya, with direct feedback from
the Coordinator of the project to the schools students.
Students also raise money for local projects and directly provide some service support to
local museums, play grounds, hiking trails, music academy and a hospital.
The Inter American Academy of Guagaquil, Ecuador
The Community Service Club in the Elementary School started a sponsored a drive a month
program, which was not running properly at first, but with some rethinking is now a
success. Each month they collected something new to donate to a local orphanage (e.g
School supplies). The drive started strong with a large number of students participating.
However, as the year went on the participation decreased. I think for many students, they
did not see how their donation helped a child. We are now having the students deliver the
goods directly to the orphanages. This is giving them an opportunity to meet the children
for themselves.
Middle School
Escola Americana do Rio de Janerio, Brazil
The 8th grade has an annual Winter Needs Drive. The students collect and then deliver the
items to houses and also assist with the selection of families which the school helps.
This has probably worked because it had a definite beginning and end to it. It occurred at
the end of the school year. It also worked because the students have been studying a great
deal about the problems in our society and wanted to find ways to help. The success of the
project has allowed the 8th grade to make this a year-long, service-learning project.
International School of Amsterdam
The school is involved with a Bulgarian Orphanage which has provided students with
opportunities to identify with Community Service projects in a variety of ways: by using
fund-raising events, clothes and toy collections, writing articles for publicity, web-page
design, translating information into Dutch or Japanese, making a video. Since Bulgaria is
relatively close and a couple of us have visited, there is a strong sense of identity. The
children there are the same age as our group and have the same basic interests, so there
is a real understanding of their situation.
Mercedes College, Australia
Each year the Year 6 and 7 students get involved in a lunchtime ‘mini fete’ to
raise money for Caritas. Students run this event. It is highly enjoyable, well organised
and financially successful.
High School
American International School of Hong Kong
Student have been YMCA Camp Counsellors - the kids loved it and all benefited
American International School of Zurich, Switzerland
The 10th grade homeroom planned and participated in a Halloween Party at the Lower School,
inviting local schools to take part. The kids enjoyed it very much.
A senior had a longstanding commitment to Operation Smile and has managed to light a fire
in our school and we now have a very active support group that is cutting across the
grades. The project works because it is student generated and the student leader is
dynamite.
Brillantmont, Switzerland
Students take part in the International Awards Programme. Projects such as spending time
with pensioners, the blind and a ‘creche’ for immigrants’ children.
Escola Americana do Rio de Janerio, Brazil
Rocinha After School Activities (R.A.S.A) is a program which runs twice a week. 10 of the
High School students have been tutoring or coaching (basketball and soccer) to 15-20
underprivileged adolescent students from the slum across from the school. It has been an
excellent way to have teenagers from very different socioeconomic levels to get to know
each other in a safe environment (the school campus). It has been personally rewarding for
our students and the recipients who come, who have both been very enthusiastic about the
program.
Marymount International School, London, UK
Students visit a home for the elderly. Make sandwiches for a weekly soup kitchen.
Students collect money for a charity in Mali, Africa
American Academy for Girls, Kuwait
The school sponsors a food drive for a local charity which is associated with the Moslem
religion. Students are asked to bring in non-perishable items which will be distributed by
the charity to the poor. Only about half of the students get involved, but those who do,
do so with great enthusiasm.
Academia Britanica Cuscatleca, El Salvador
Students teach English to local children in an orphanage nursery for children between 3
and 6 years old.
American School of Yaounde, Cameroon
Students asked a local business to donate old computers and they are planning to teach
basic computer skills to Cameroonian students in schools without computers.
Colegio Internacional de San Salvador, El Salvador
Through a Contemporary Issues Class, students have chosen to visit a tuberculosis
hospital, cleaning up benches, cheering up the elderly at an asylum, planting trees and
teaching locals how to read.
International School of Basel, Switzerland
Contact with a school for orphaned children in Katmandu. This involves money raising and
culminates in a trip to Katmandu for students to work at the school.
International School of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Students in grade 11 organised a Peace Walk with the proceeds going to provide resources
for an orphanage in Bulgaria.
American International School of Budapest, Hungary
Romanian Orphanages - The High School sponsors two orphanages in Romania. Raising money
throughout the year from various fund raisers, including a senior auction which often
raises in excess of $3000. Visits to both places are organised throughout the year, to
deliver the resources we have collected and to spend time with the children, who need all
the love we can give.
Ecology Club - Students raise the awareness of our planet through projects. Students have
been involved with Elementary students to teach them about the forest and recycling. The
students help recycle the schools massive use of paper, producing pads to be reused. See
http://welcome.to/AISB for more information.
Asociacion Escuelas Lincoln, Argentina
Our very special project involves our students with rural schools in Chaco, a province in
northeastern Argentina. Students collect goods and send them to four needy schools and
families. Once a year students visit the area and work for five days, painting, restoring
and working in Toba Indian reservations, doing all kinds of chores.
International School of South Africa
Students on a weekly basis help out at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals, where they wash, groom, feed and walk the animals. The school works in
conjunction with the local community distributing food to the homeless, which has come
from the Boarding houses. The school has a young ‘litter hit squad’, to try and
combat the litter in the school and the surrounding region.
Whole School Projects
International School of Paris, France
The school is twinned with a large Primary/Middle school in Goko, Zimbabwe. The students
work through the school year to raise funds involving the whole school in the process, It
generates many different sorts of activities and has a unifying effect on the group.
Occasionally older students go out to Goko during the summer to work there.
Frankfurt International School , Germany
Kalahari Project. The school ran a six year project in the Kalahari, South Africa. The
students raised money to provide building materials for schools and houses. The older
students in High School visited the site and helped construct bricks and then helped on
the building. The older students and teachers shared their experiences with the younger
students through lessons. The theme of living elsewhere was used throughout the school in
lessons. -This was successful because the whole school took this project on as theirs, as
well as the leader of the project having a lot of energy and time for it.
International School of Latvia
The whole school had a Community Service project where children went out into the local
community to help clean up the beach and environment. They made posters in the school to
remind others to recycle paper and aluminium cans, they made bins for recycling.
SAAS Russia
Being a small school, our whole school has been involved in a soup kitchen and visiting
people in the home for elderly people and war veterans. We help feed them and perform,
dance and sing.
American International School of Budapest, Hungary
The High School set up a project with a local Leukaemia ward for children. Students from
the school visited the children and spent time with them. The first year this was a great
success; the Community Service Coordinator went down with them initially and set things up
and occasionally followed them down throughout the year. This project continued into a
second year, but fell apart about half way through the year - mainly because the new set
of students did not speak Hungarian as the first group had done, they were also younger
and found it harder to deal with what they saw and the Coordinator did not keep up
communication with the staff involved.
American International School of Hong Kong
High school students soliciting money downtown for charities.
Escola Americana do Rio de Janerio, Brazil
We were asked to help in a fund raising drive to send money monthly to a ‘sister
school’ of our choice located in northeast Brazil. The ‘sister school’ was
supposedly visited by UNESCO and the money was to be used for school lunches in an area
affected by a long drought. During the process of sending the first donation, we found
that the ‘sister school’ had never heard of the program and there was no way to
verify if the money would be definitely used for food for the hungry children. A lack of
credibility for the program caused us to quit.
Frankfurt International School, Germany
Members of the High School visiting refugee project. It basically failed through lack of
planning.
Academia Britanica Cuscatleca, El Salvador
Failed in one particular old peoples’ home, because of change of management. The new
management expected students to do work for which they were not trained
American International School of Zurich, Switzerland
Recycling compost project has not gone well, in fact the teacher who started the project
is now stuck with it!
International School of Paris, France
Attempted to link school to official volunteer services to try to get them out into the
community. One or two were given placements but there was reluctance on the part of the
organisation to take on students under 18.
The previous examples show that there are many common strategies behind a successful
Community Service project. The main ones are..
11 - Different types of projects / clientele
There are many types of Community Service project, but they can generally be broken down
into the categories of working with young children, teenagers, elderly people, animals,
the environment, international projects, local community, charities, global organisations,
or within the school community. Each type of project has particular benefits for the
students involved, but they also create particular situations, of which the organiser must
be aware.
Working with young children
Students are much better at communicating with smaller children; they almost become the
parents in the project and can in most cases, set up a very quick relationship with the
beneficiary in the project. Many schools find these projects successful for this reason.
However, it is important to remember that an adult must be available at all times, just in
case. Such projects can include working in local orphanages, teaching language, working
with younger students within the school.
Working with teenagers
Students find working with this age group, very hard at times, as they feel less in
control and sometimes frightened by dealing with people bigger, older or even the same age
as than themselves. However there have been a great many success stories in this type of
project, once the barriers have been broken down and the project becomes a two way
process. Remember the ‘served’ are almost certainly feeling very similar to the
students ‘serving’. It is a good idea with this kind of project, to have
meetings and maybe training sessions before hand, so that the students feel more confident
and less intimidated by their interaction. Doing teenage things is always a good way of
breaking the ice with them. e.g soccer or other sports. As an example the American
International School of Budapest has an orphanage project for both teenage and younger
children. The project has had successes and failures. The failures were usually due to
lack of planning for the broad age range of orphans and training of the student servers
themselves. The successes were for basically the same reasons, of being well prepared.
Working with elderly people
This is a very useful project to both sides. Many students in International Schools, have
no older relatives of their own nearby and they can build up very successful one-on-one
relationships with the older generations. These are good projects for students who are
proficient in languages or who wish to be. It is very important within these projects to
have very definite dates for visits and arrangements, as many older people become very
reliant on the visits. Students should be made aware that sometimes the elderly may pass
away. An example of such a project could be a companion project, where the student and the
elderly person spend time together forming a friendship.
Working with animals or the environment
Students can get a lot out of working with in this area, because communication is no
longer an issue. Many students can deal more with this project than ones involving people.
Make sure that the animal projects have health and safety standards and there are people
in charge of the program. Successful projects can also be linked to a core subject’s
curriculum, e.g science and geography. These projects can have more people involved than
those which interact with people. This is useful when you are trying to find places for
all students who wish or have to do a Community Service program. These are also very
successful as they can usually start in the school community and then build further. An
example could be linking Biology and other classes with a special event such as Earth Day.
Working with International Projects
These kinds of projects, are a great way for the whole school to take ownership, from
Elementary School through to High School. Many schools have some form of International
Project. The most successful projects, like local ones, have the students feeling
ownership over the project. It is possible for all to see the end product, either by
actually visiting the project or having interaction with visitors or communication with
the people involved. These projects take a long time to set up, but can be very worthwhile
once they are in place. More than anything else, they give everybody the opportunity to
see that the world is one place and help is required everywhere.
Working within the communities around you
One of the biggest problems International Schools face, is interacting with a foreign
community and it often becomes easier to do projects at school or with one or two
connections, within a community that can cope with the language barrier. It is however
only a simple barrier and once it is broken down, almost all communities have so much to
offer the school as the school and the students can offer them. This is the hardest to set
up but perseverance and a little help with the language will go a long way. This is where
an active Community Service Coordinator is needed; they should get into the community and
make contacts with leaders of groups, schools or other associations.
Working for charities and global organisations
These are often ideal for international students, as there are often people working within
such organisations who can communicate in the common language and they will have already
planned what they intend to do. The students can be given jobs which are suited to their
skills and these can grow as the student works with the organisation. Useful global
organisations include The Red Cross, Amnesty International, World Wildlife Fund,
International Rescue. These organisations are often listed in the local phone books, or
you can find info about them via the internet.18
Working within your international community or within school
Some of the first projects set up in new programs which are successful, are generally ones
which are ‘closer to home’. These present less of a language barrier to students
and they feel more comfortable working with people they may know. Useful projects to get
involved with would be ones like Parent-Student groups, American Women's Club or similar
clubs, Peer Tutoring, Working with Lower School Students and school based Environmental
Groups.
12 - Recommendations to ECIS
The recent research and development of this booklet has led to the following
recommendations to the ECIS for use within International Schools
To include Community Service in the accreditation of schools
The accreditation of a school looks at the school’s ability to educate the whole
student, and Community Service should be part of this. Community Service need not be
mandatory, but the ECIS should advise schools to have it as part of the school ethos.
To produce guidelines for Community Service
The core subjects, taught within the schools, have definite guidelines for each grade
level, produced by ECIS. Community service should be included in this system as well.
Perhaps a recommendation for a certain quality of Community Service for each level.
To offer courses in Community Service
Training of professionals is an important part of the continual development of a subject.
Community service should have courses and workshops available to the professionals
involved, in order to bring this subject up to the level of others.
To produce a set of booklets on Community Service for International Schools
The sharing of good practices, is an important way for Coordinators to set up their own
programs. A set of pamphlets would be an ideal way of showing successful and unsuccessful
projects in the different categories of Community Service Projects, following complete
life cycles.
To Require ECIS Schools to complete official ECIS surveys
ECIS puts a lot of energy and money into the sponsorship of professionals to research
various areas of education each year. These can be more successful if all schools involved
or a large percentage of accredited schools complete surveys sent out from ECIS. The
surveys could form part of the schools accreditation or reaccreditation process.
Appendix A
A Summary of the ECIS Community Service Survey 1998/1999
The Community Service survey was sent out in two parts. Part one was a preliminary survey
sent to 10% of International Schools in September 1998, with a response rate of 33% (15
responses). The findings from the preliminary survey were examined and presented at the
ECIS November 1998 conference. Through examination and feedback the second survey was
designed. This was sent to all International Schools, via e-mail from ECIS in December
1998 and February 1999, and was later followed up with 200 letters in April 1999 and was
available for access via the internet. This received 31 responses. In total the two
surveys amounted to just under 10% of the International Schools, fully registered with
ECIS. Although the data is low, very little difference can be seen between the first and
second set of results.
The survey was in two main sections. The first section was for the head of school to
complete, and included general details about the school and its role in Community Service.
The second section was designed to be completed by different grade levels within a school.
The Community Service Coordinator or person in charge of Community Service was asked to
complete this survey for Grades 1-5 (Elementary), 6-8 (Middle) , 9-10 (Lower High School)
and 11+ (Upper High School). The High School was initially split into two, so that if the
IB or a similar program was running in the last few years, it would not affect the other
Grades’ results.
The Heads of School Survey.
From the Heads of school the following results were found :
72% of schools have Community Service in their school statement of philosophy.
32% of Elementary Schools have a Community Service Coordinator
55% of Middle Schools have a Community Service Coordinator
71% of High Schools have a Community Service Coordinator
Chart 1 : Chart Showing Percentage breakdown of Heads responses to statements about
Community Service
| Community Service (C S ) | Agree | Neither | Disagree |
| C S is an essential part of any educational program | 90 | 10 | 0 |
| C S should be mandatory | 68 | 7 | 25 |
| C S is as important as other core subjects | 52 | 22 | 26 |
| Our school's role in C S is adequate | 67 | 12 | 21 |
| Our Community has no need for projects from our students | 11 | 5 | 84 |
| Our location makes it difficult to set up C S projects | 19 | 11 | 70 |
| The country has a very good CS program already | 29 | 16 | 55 |
| The Country's politics makes setting up C S projects difficult | 23 | 16 | 61 |
| The area around the school is unsafe for students | 7 | 11 | 82 |
| Our staff are experienced to set up their own projects | 55 | 18 | 27 |
| There is enough time to fully integrate C S into our school | 36 | 20 | 44 |
| C S should be left to outside groups and not be part of school | 5 | 7 | 88 |
The Coordinators Survey.
Chart 2 : Chart showing percentage breakdown of Community Service Coordinators’
responses to Community Service Statements.
| Community Service | Agree | Neither | Disagree |
| C S is an important part in a students education | 85 | 10 | 5 |
| The faculty actively support the C S projects we offer | 72 | 20 | 8 |
| The parents actively support the C S projects we offer | 61 | 31 | 8 |
| The students actively support the C S projects we offer | 75 | 17 | 8 |
| We offer an adequate number of C S projects | 58 | 15 | 27 |
| We offer an number of school sponsored C S projects | 56 | 19 | 25 |
| We offer an number of student sponsored C S projects | 47 | 21 | 32 |
| We offer an number of externally sponsored C S projects | 47 | 24 | 29 |
| C S should be integrated into core subjects | 61 | 19 | 20 |
| C S should be a requirement | 74 | 14 | 12 |
| C S projects are easy to set up within school | 53 | 19 | 28 |
| C S projects are easy to set up within the local community | 39 | 19 | 42 |
| We should be doing more C S | 58 | 19 | 23 |
| We need to have more C S trained faculty | 58 | 18 | 24 |
| Reflection is essential | 90 | 9 | 1 |
| Students need to maintain their own C S journals | 69 | 20 | 11 |
| Students should go out and find their own CS projects | 15 | 30 | 55 |
Chart 3: Chart showing percentage breakdown of Community Service and its components within
schools, showing all the schools combined and then a further breakdown into Elementary,
Middle and High Schools.
| All | Elementary | Middle | High | |
| C S is a requirement ? | 52 | 32 | 45 | 63 |
| Time is allocated in the timetable for C S | 47 | 41 | 43 | 51 |
| There is a written policy for the C S requirement | 77 | 67 | 75 | 80 |
| There is a C S Coordinator | 77 | 56 | 68 | 88 |
| Time is scheduled for the C S Coordinator | 52 | 33 | 41 | 60 |
| The C S Coordinator was hired for this job | 36 | 20 | 45 | 38 |
| The Coordinator has had previous experience in C S | 49 | 30 | 27 | 65 |
| The C S Coordinator has qualifications in this field | 28 | 30 | 27 | 27 |
| Students reflect on their C S projects | 70 | 67 | 59 | 77 |
| Students who reflect, write a reflection | 76 | 50 | 78 | 83 |
| Students who reflect, orally reflect | 82 | 83 | 93 | 80 |
What is a Community Service Project ?
Chart 4 : Chart showing percentage of Heads of Schools and Coordinators who consider the
following examples of projects as Community Service projects.
| A Student who ..... | Heads | Coordinators |
| works weekly in a Soup Kitchen | 76 | 87 |
| cleans up an art room at the end of the lesson | 34 | 38 |
| works actively within the schools Amnesty International Group | 79 | 94 |
| is learning to drive | 14 | 19 |
| helps an old lady across the road | 66 | 57 |
| tutors a peer, on a regular basis | 86 | 85 |
| keeps score at sports matches on weekends throughout the year | 66 | 64 |
| tutors a blind girl English | 93 | 96 |
| spends time with pensioners, on a regular basis | 97 | 98 |
| works in an ecology club, clearing up the school and the local area | 97 | 94 |
| teaches a sport to other students regularly | 83 | 83 |
| prepares and helps run a school dance | 59 | 67 |
| carries books for a teacher | 14 | 20 |
| attends another school in the evening | 14 | 17 |
| raises money for various charities at school events | 86 | 96 |
| helps out with the lower school students on a regular basis | 90 | 91 |
| is part of a group who visit an AIDS orphanage, during holidays and weekends | 93 | 98 |
| belongs to the student council | 66 | 69 |
It should be noted that the survey also looked at the actual numbers of students involved
in various types of projects and the spread of projects within schools. This data varied
immensely and many schools completed the Heads survey and not the Coordinators section, or
vice versa. This made relating the Heads data against the Coordinators data impossible, so
it is therefore invalid to combine this data to look at schools as a whole.
Appendix B
Useful forms
In this section there are two types of form for the
Coordinator’s use...
These may be useful to a new Coordinator, keeping an eye on different projects. Both were
designed with PARA in mind. A completed example of the Project Life
Cycle Sheet is also included.
Appendix C Bibliography
CEESA 1 - Buford C & Winecoff L. (1999) Service Learning Guide K-12 for
International Schools. CEESA (Central and Eastern European Schools Association) -
Taken from Plan, Implement, Reflect, Acknowledge.
Harrison 1 - Harrison D. (1999) C.A.S Conference - Setting Up Local Projects - http://welcome.to/AISB
Harrison 2 - Harrison D. (1999) C.A.S Conference - Student Run Projects - http://welcome.to/AISB
Shumer 1 - Shumer R. (1992) Service-Learning and the power of participation - The
National Service Learning Clearing House, University of Minnesota -- http://www.nicsl.coled.umn.ed
Shumer 2 - Shumer R. (1997) What Research Tells Us About Designing Service Learning
Programs.
St John’s 1- Anderson J. (1999) What Constitutes Community Service? St
John’s International School, Waterloo, Belgium.
Appendix D Further Reading and Contacts
Benson R. & Shumer R. (updated 1997) - Impacts and Effects of Service Topics
Bibliography - Center For Experiential Education and Service-Learning. Available from
the University of Minnesota Clearing House. http://www.nicsl.coled.umn.ed - This is very
useful guide to lots of material written on service and service learning.
Hengel M. & Shumer R. (1997) - An Annotated Bibliography on Service-Learning,
National Service, And Character Education - Center For Experiential Education and
Service-Learning. - http://www.nicsl.coled.umn.ed Available from the University of
Minnesota Clearing House. This is very useful guide to lots of material written on service
and service learning.
Kelly A. (1999) : Frankfurt International School - Assessing the subject of C.A.S - http://welcome.to/AISB - C.A.S Conference section.
Kelly A.(1999) : Frankfurt International School - C.A.S an Experiential Learning
program - http://welcome.to/AISB - C.A.S
Conference section.
Murphy M. (1998) - Community Service Workshop Package for MYP. Available from the
International Baccalaureate Organisation. http://IBO.org
Shumer R. & Berkas T. (1992) - Doing Self-Directed Study For Service-Learning -
Center For Experiential Education and Service-Learning. - http://www.nicsl.coled.umn.ed -
Available from the University of Minnesota Clearing House. This is very useful to reflect
on the state of a project or a program.
Silcox H. (1993) - A How To Guide To Reflection - Brighton Press Inc, Philadelphia,
PA
South Carolina Dept. of Education (1997) - Service Learning Standards Pamphlet. http://www.state.sc.us/sde
South Carolina Dept. of Education (1997) - Service Learning Handbook for Teacher
Educators and Practitioners - http://www.state.sc.us/sde - A large reference manual
full of examples of projects which have worked, along with a large reference section, for
even further background reading.
Useful Contacts
Amnesty International - http://www.amnesty.org
International Rescue Committee -
http://www.intrescom.org
National Youth Leadership Council - http://www.nylc.org
The Red Cross - http://www.redcross.org
World Wildlife Fund - http://www.panda.org
Appendix E
Afterword and Acknowledgements
As a scientist and mathematician, my first goal was to produce a satisfactory analysis of
the state of Community Service within the International Schools registered through ECIS.
This goal changed as the survey returns were not as expected and it was with the help and
encouragement of others that I continued this project and produced this handbook for
International Schools as a guideline to setting up projects. I hope that this booklet is
of use to administrators, Community Service Coordinators and classroom teachers.
It is has been hard to write many specifics about Community Service and how to set up
projects as every school and every country is unique and many particular ideas that work
in one school, cannot work at all in others.
I have now been involved in Community Service as a Coordinator for five years and have
seen it grow in its popularity within schools. It is the nature of schools that changes
take time and Community Service is no different to other changes, for those of you
starting out new to this field, be patient and believe in what you are doing, because what
you are doing is right.
Administrators and the Boards of schools need to see the role of Community Service as
benefiting their schools and the students within them, and this takes time. One of the
best ways to encourage them, is to show them working models of schools which have a
successful Community Service program up and running. Most of the schools which are
successful are only too happy to show others. I am sure all the schools which responded to
the survey and shared with us some of their successes would be willing to share other
ideas with schools within their regions.
I would like to thank the following people for helping me through this project
Mr. J. Johnson, The Director of the American International School of Budapest. My mentor
for this project and who has always been behind my work on this research and all my other
work in the ECIS Community Service Committee and my work with the IB and CAS - Thanks
John.
Mr. A. Kelly, Community Service Coordinator, The Frankfurt International School. My life
long mentor and friend, who dumped this on me. Thanks Ambrose.
Mr. J. Lewis, Principal of the American International School of Budapest. Jeremy is always
there when you need to talk about anything and has been a useful advisor for this whole
project.
The ECIS Community Service Committee - The whole team has been behind my research and I
would like to thank them all for their support.
The ECIS staff, Dixie, Jane, Gayle and all the others who have helped get this project to
its conclusion.
The American International School of Budapest staff - who are just an amazing bunch of
professionals who do a great job everyday and support Community Service within our school.
Ms. A. Dorrell, Mr. A. Hickling and Mr. M. Lavoie of the American International School of
Budapest who helped proof read this booklet.
The ECIS Schools - I would like to thank all of them that responded to the survey and
helped me collect the data which was so useful in the production of this booklet.
Community Service is there for everyone , everybody
has talents to share and everybody has something to learn from others around them.
Students deserve every opportunity we can give them.
David Harrison - August 1999, Budapest.
1 Shumer 1
2 IBO - for more information http://ibo.org
3 Shumer 1
4 See appendix A for a breakdown of the statistical findings of the survey.
5 See appendix A for a breakdown of the statistical findings of the survey.
6 As an International School, many international businesses will have direct links to the school, through students attending the school.
7 For a working schedule contact The American International School of Budapest - http://AISB.hu
8 Appendix A
9 Appendix A
10 Harrison 2
11 Harrison 2
12 starting Fall semester 1999/2000
13 Harrison 1
14 CEESA 1
15 Appendix A
16 St John’s 1
17 see successful projects section.
18 See Further reading, Appendix C
