Khawla school takes top seniors spot in Riffa Views Eden Challenge

In the second of our profiles of the winning schools in the 2009 Riffa Views Eden Challenge, this week’s spotlight falls on the Khawla Secondary Girls School, winners of Category D – for senior students between 16 and 18 years of age. The Khawla School, founded in 1979 and currently ‘home’ to 917 students, came out on top against eight other schools in the secondary school category, all of whom were submitting detailed project designs for ‘water conscious gardens’.

The School’s Eden Challenge project team was selected based on those students showing most interest in participating in the Riffa Views Signature Estates organised schools’ environmental competition. According to the School’s Vice Principal and teachers, the girls on the Eden Challenge team worked incredibly hard to research the Challenge – using the internet and libraries, visiting gardens and plant nurseries all over the island to get ideas for their project.

And their efforts certainly came through, based on what the judges thought of the final project submission; Chris Beardshaw, Chairman of the judging panel, commenting that the judges viewed the Khawla School’s entry as “…. a well considered and well worked scheme that demonstrates a good understanding of the possibilities offered by a designed landscape. The incorporation of the Riffa Views Eden Challenge logo was well received, as was the level of detail and thought demonstrated in the model and associated works.”

Taking part in the Eden Challenge gave the students a great opportunity to learn more about plants and gardens and the environment. They were able to use this new appreciation in their project entry – a water conscious garden, demonstrating a space of beauty and energy where it is possible to enjoy and engage with the outdoor environment. In addition to including innovative water saving devices, the Khawla School students also considered safety aspects such as security exits, facilities for special needs people and the use of environmentally friendly natural products.

All of which found great favour with the Eden Challenge judges, “The standard of workmanship involved in the submission was highly praiseworthy and clearly this represented a significant investment of time and skills.” And not only with the judging panel, also with the rest of the School and the parents of the students taking part in the Challenge, who were all very supportive of the girls’ efforts and delighted to hear of the project’s success.

The School plan to use the category winning cash prize of BD1,000 to improve the School garden and add to the School’s environmental focus in the class-room. The School will also have the pleasure of seeing their entry turned into a real, live garden on the Eden Challenge stand at the Riffa Views Bahrain International Garden Show 2009 (“RVBIGS 2009”) – the judges felt that “…..for the purposes of the Show, a section through the project entry design would be the best way of demonstrating the principles of water movement, use in the landscape and water conservation issues.”

And it won’t just be the design on display at RVBIGS 2009 – the School are looking forward to being as interactive and as creative as they can with visitors to the Eden Challenge stand and already have ideas of printing information flyers and having staff and students, all dressed in relevant costumes, present on the stand during the Show as a way of explaining more about their garden.

Richard Browning, CEO of Riffa Views Signature Estates, welcomes the School’s enthusiasm, “I think it’s great that the School want to be so involved with the stand. They are very proud of their winning entry and rightly so; their desire and commitment to share their garden and its ideas with visitors to the Eden Challenge stand are exactly the type of ongoing interest and commitment to the environment that we were hoping for when we established the Eden Challenge competition. We look forward to working closely with the students and the School at RVBIGS 2009.”

Umm-Al-Qura School takes two Riffa Views Eden Challenge Awards

Um Al Qoora Primary Intermediate Girls School is one of the stars of Riffa Views 2009 Eden Challenge, having been awarded first place in Category B (Primary, 10-12 years) and a highly commended runners-up spot in Category C (Intermediate, 13-15 years) of the environmental schools competition organized by Riffa Views Signature Estates.

Currently with just over 500 students, the school was founded in 1990 to cater to both the Primary and Intermediate levels. Based on its entry in last year’s Eden Challenge and the resultant ‘highly commended’ category award, the school was keen to enter Eden Challenge 2009 and go one step better this year. Well, that’s exactly what it managed to do – taking its category win by beating the 16 other schools in Category B, all submitting water mosaic artwork projects designed to inform and remind viewers of the prestigious role played by water throughout history.

As with many of the schools, Um Al Qoora relied on the arts class to provide the students to take on the Eden Challenge. The basic design for the school’s mosaic was chosen from drawings produced by all of the art class students, inspired by the overall ‘water’ theme; the final choice being a combination of two drawings – one based around the famous and historic ‘Delmon Stamp’ and the other depicting a ‘drop of water’.

The judges enjoyed the team’s creative and imaginative approach – Chris Beardshaw, chairman of the judging panel, commenting “The symbolism of this mosaic is clear and relates very well to the themes of the challenge. The use of historic symbols with water, vegetation and the profile of the child are strong.”

The school’s teachers used the competition to instruct the students about the history of mosaics and their different designs and structures; this instruction was obviously taken well to heart by the project team as they created a winning entry that will be built up and displayed as part of the Riffa Views Eden Challenge stand at the 2009 Riffa Views Bahrain International Garden Show (“RVBIGS 2009”).

The judging panel was obviously very impressed by the finished entry, with Beardshaw commenting further, “The quality of production is high and the choice of materials good for this initial stage. The final mosaic will clearly form a key element of the Riffa Views Eden Challenge garden and we look forward to seeing the finished sculptural piece at RVBIGS 2009.”

Whilst participating in the Eden Challenge was exciting for all the students, their parents and the teachers, winning the two awards made it very special for everyone connected with the school. Aziza Al.Hussaini Nassar, the school’s Art Teacher, said “The Principal, the teachers, the students, everyone was so happy when we heard that we had won the awards …… we had many calls that day to congratulate us”. Infact, the Principal was so proud and excited that she apparently interrupted classes and exams to tell the whole school of the good news!

The school is very thankful to Riffa Views Signature Estates for organizing the Eden Challenge competition; it believes that the Eden Challenge has changed a lot of schools’ approaches towards environmental issues and it is certainly going to concentrate on educating the Um Al Qoora students more about the environment in the future.

Not only is the school intending to improve the students understanding and enjoyment of the environment inside the class-room, it is keen to provide an enjoyable environmental atmosphere outside the class-room too – plans are already afoot to spend the cash prize from the Eden Challenge win on providing ornamental water fountains around the school and developing the school’s garden.

And who knows, that ‘investment’ could turn out to be even bigger if the school goes on to become the Overall 2009 Eden Challenge Winner and pick up the overall winner’s prize of BD3,000. Chris Beardshaw will select the top school from the four category winners during RVBIGS 2009 in April – and as Aziza Al.Hussaini Nassar puts it, “Winning two awards is fantastic for the school, but we wish we can be the overall winner too!”

Schools delighted with Eden Challenge win

There are four very happy schools in Bahrain this week, safe in the knowledge that they are category winners in this year’s Riffa Views Eden Challenge schools competition. The results of the environmental challenge, open to all schools, were announced last week and the four winning schools contacted directly by the Eden Challenge organizing team with the good news.

Amena Bint Wahab Girls School have two reasons to be delighted – not only did they win Category A, they were also awarded ‘Highly Commended’ in Category B. Category A covered the Junior Primary age group for children between 6 – 9 years and required project entries to produce a water based sculpture.

Safeya Kamal, Administrative Supervisor at Amena Bint Wahab said, “We were delighted to hear this news, the girls and teachers worked so hard for it. When we saw the entries last year, we thought that we could enter again and win this year. We would like to thank Riffa Views for organizing such an interactive competition and giving us the chance to win. Last year when Richard Browning visited our school for tree planting, we thought it was a great and kind gesture…I am happy to say that the tree is coming along very nicely.”

The other school to take two awards was the Um Al Qoora Primary Intermediate Girls School– they were awarded the top spot in Category B, as well as being ‘Highly Commended’ in Category C. Category B required Primary schools, with children between 10 – 12 years, to produce a mosaic artwork image, highlighting the prestigious role played by ‘water’ across the course of history.

Reem Abdulaziz Al Arrayedh, Um Al Qoora’s Art Teacher was very happy to comment on their awards – “Obviously we are very glad that we participated in the Eden Challenge – it was really great news that not only did we win one category, we got the highly commended in another category as well. When we were told about us winning, the principal, the teachers and the entire school was happy – we received so many calls to congratulate us. We are looking forward to Riffa Views visiting our school so that we can show more of our work.”

Al Qayrawan School took the top prize in Category C, which covered the 13-15 years age group at Intermediate schools. Entries in this category had to design a Water Mobile to demonstrate the way in which the power of water can be harnessed to perform technical tasks.

Al Qayrawan’s Principal Mrs. Raja Al Zayani was delighted with the result, “We are very happy to hear that we won the prize as the school and children enjoyed working for the competition, it gave a great atmosphere to the school; it was quite hard for us in the beginning, but the whole experience was just great. To be honest, I didn’t expect that we were going to win – it was a surprise for all of us because all the other entries were so amazing; when we saw last year’s entries in the Eden Challenge calendar, we decided that we needed to take part this year and try to make a difference. We love gardens and take good care of ours; this is the first time that we have received a cash prize for the school and its so overwhelming because we already had plans to redesign the school’s garden – I had a whole plan in mind and just needed the funding, so this is the best gift from Riffa Views to make our school’s dream come true.”

Rounding off the honour roll was the Khawla Secondary Girls School, who were the winners in Category D for Secondary School students between 16 – 18 years; project entries in this category required the teams to design a Water Conscious Garden, where the garden design had to interact with the environment and include innovative water saving devices.

Seham Al Kooheji, Community Service Specialist at Khawla, expressed the excitement of the school, “When we first heard the news, I called everyone to the principal’s office and shared it with them, they were extremely happy …many schools called to congratulate us. This year’s competition was really hard and required a lot of information – it was a huge challenge to come up with a water conscious garden, so the girls researched through the internet and our library; then one of the girls came up with the idea of using the Riffa Views Eden Challenge logo as a base for the entry and all the hard work came together in the garden that we submitted. The girls are really happy and would like to thank Riffa Views for giving us this chance.”

All the schools are delighted to have come out on top of the competition so far, but they are all hoping to go one better and be judged the Overall 2009 Eden Challenge Winner when Chris Beardshaw, Riffa Views’ Garden & Landscapes Ambassador and Chairman of the judging panel, makes his final selection from the four proud category winners during the Riffa Views Bahrain International Garden Show (“RVBIGS”) in April.

Richard Browning, CEO of Eden Challenge organizers, Riffa Views Signature Estates, is under no illusion as to how hard that final selection will be, “The judges had a very hard time selecting the four category winners from the many wonderful entries the schools came up with, I have no doubt that Chris will find it even more difficult to select the overall winner as all four schools are worthy of the title. I am looking forward to seeing the winning entries displayed on the Eden Challenge stand at RVBIGS and congratulating them all on their great achievement; it has truly been a pleasure to support the schools once again this year with the Eden Challenge.”

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