Imagine you are in a helicopter, soaring over an Indonesian jungle. Looking out of the window at the landscape below, a school might be the last thing you would expect to see emerging from the thick forest.

And yet, there it is: a school set around a central building formed like three intertwining nautilus shells.

This is Green School on the island of Bali. Its bamboo structures stand in the middle of the jungle and are home to more than 400 pupils, aged from 4 to 18.

The unique school was founded in 2008 by John and Cynthia Hardy, a pair of Bali-based jewellers who were struggling to find a progressive school for their daughters.

Sal Gordon, the school’s head of teaching and learning, explains that the couple found themselves “moved to find a new way of educating children by creating a community of learners that would make our world more sustainable”. This is a school with a mission. Its website proudly proclaims that “Green School isn’t just a school, it’s a global movement to raise changemakers - because our world needs us now.”

And going hand in hand with the school’s green ambitions is a focus on the wellbeing of its pupils. “At Green School, a student’s wellbeing matters more than their grades,” Gordon has said.

The idea is that supporting student wellbeing and taking care of the environment are interconnected goals. You can’t achieve one without also working towards the other.

And while the jungle set-up of Green School might make what happens here feel a world away from classrooms in the UK, there is plenty about the school’s ethos that could inspire teachers around the world.

So, what makes Green School so different?

“From the beginning, John and Cynthia wanted to create a wall-less, nature-based learning environment with a minimal footprint,” Gordon says. “They worked with local artisans to construct more than 100 bamboo buildings, all made from sustainable local materials.

“As a result, there is very little distinction between the classroom and the natural world. The ‘indoor is outdoor’ design of the campus allows students to draw inspiration from the natural environment and pursue their own curiosity about the world around them.”

The effect is something that looks more like an eco resort than a place of learning. Rabbits, pigs and chickens roam freely around the playground and from time to time a snake makes an appearance. Pretty much everything on campus is made from natural materials or recycled, and many students arrive via buses that run on old cooking oil.

Yet while the school’s campus might look like a resort, it is still a place of education. There are formal lessons and goals - maths and reading are prioritised in primary, for example. But teaching frequently takes place outside or through practical tasks, such as cooking experiences that are used to deliver maths lessons.

There may be days when pupils do not pick up a pen, and there is a huge focus on creative arts and entrepreneurial thinking.

The guiding pedagogical mindset - for all age groups - is that students learn more from how they are taught, rather than what they are taught. The belief is that “learning is most impactful when it is holistic, inquiry-based, real, interconnected, collective, challenging, democratic, interpersonal, iterative, safe and lifelong”.

“These learning principles are designed to create a sustainable environment in which students can grow and nurture their skills and competencies,” the school’s website explains.

How do these principles play out in practice? According to Gordon, students are encouraged to develop “a new kind of IQ - intelligent questioning - to actively pursue the questions they have about the things that interest them the most”.

From there, teachers first take a focus on issues of sustainability, and then “integrate more traditional areas of study, such as math, science, art, literacy and so on into the projects students decide to pursue”.

To ensure that students’ goals and interests fall in line with the school’s sustainability ideals, staff employ tools such as the sustainability compass (which looks at impact on nature, wellbeing, society and economy), as well as the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and Permaculture principles.

Crucially, staff at the school believe that this unconventional, sustainability-driven approach to the curriculum has also helped them to place wellbeing at the very heart of everything they do, which, in turn, feeds back into better academic outcomes.

“Schools do not need to be a place where students are stressed about exams or single-mindedly focused on scores and grades,” the website states. “We are living proof that school can be a place where students learn about themselves, believe in themselves, challenge themselves, deal with adversity, harness opportunities and develop a mindset that everyone can make change in the world with their ideas, and by taking collective action.”

Of course, it would be unrealistic to suggest that the average state school in the UK could exactly replicate the Green School approach, not least because the costs associated with it would be prohibitive.

Fees at Green School Bali range from £5,800 a year to almost £15,000 a year depending on year group, plus almost £3,000 for admissions fees.

And while Gordon insists that the school is not only for “the privileged few” - at least 20 per cent of places are reserved for children from local Indonesian families and offered on a scholarship basis - the fact is that creating a comparable environment here in the UK would be a massive undertaking.

Yet the school’s founders are clear that much can be achieved through making small adjustments to the ways schools operate that wouldn’t cost the earth.

“Is this doable in your community? We believe it is,” John Hardy said, speaking in a TEDx talk about the ethos behind the school. “Green School is a model we built for the world. It’s a model we built for Bali. And you just have to follow these simple rules: be local, let the environment lead and think about how your grandchildren might build.”

That doesn’t mean you have to knock down classroom walls and replace the school hall with bamboo structures. It might simply mean recognising that placing a greater focus on green initiatives could have benefits not just for the environment, but for student wellbeing, too.

Molly Bolding is a freelance journalist

This article originally appeared in the 13 August 2021 issue under the headline “Welcome to the jungle school”