Eco Weeks 2026: Three Weeks of Solidarity, Sustainability and Student Action

This year at ISN, our traditional Eco Week grew into three inspiring Eco Weeks, bringing together students from Kindergarten to High School in a vibrant celebration of solidarity, sustainability, and student-led action. Under this year’s theme of Solidarity, our school community came together to explore what it truly means to care for one another, for nature, for biodiversity, for the oceans, and for the future we share.

Over the course of these three weeks, students took part in a wide range of meaningful and hands-on experiences designed to deepen their understanding of sustainability while encouraging creativity, collaboration, and compassion. From the ITZA Ocean Challenge and marine learning workshops, to gardening sessions, debates, creative projects, and environmental advocacy, Eco Weeks offered every student the opportunity to engage in learning that was practical, purposeful, and memorable. Our wider community, including many parents, also played an important role, showing that environmental education is strongest when it is shared beyond the classroom.

Throughout the programme, students across all year groups demonstrated remarkable enthusiasm and leadership. Younger students explored sustainability through interactive activities such as healthy snack workshops, gardening, and creative projects, while older students took part in initiatives including Code for Climate, debates on marine protected areas, and letters to local politicians linked to environmental policy and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Students also contributed to collaborative projects such as the Intergenerational Tree: Solidarity for Nature, bringing together drawings, poems, and letters from across the school, as well as the Guerre des Bouchons, which united the community through a simple but powerful act of collective action.

Creativity and wellbeing were also at the heart of Eco Weeks. Students designed and introduced our new Buddy Bench (Banc de l’amitié) to promote inclusion and friendship, worked on Design mobile apps focused on wellbeing and solidarity, created musical instruments from recycled materials, and contributed to a High School newspaper for International Women’s Day. These projects highlighted that sustainability is not only about the environment, but also about empathy, connection, and the way we support one another within our community.

ISN was also honoured to host the “Sensibles” exhibition, designed by L214 Éducation in partnership with the Jane Goodall Institute France. This thought-provoking exhibition invited students from Preschool to High School to reflect on the important concept of animal sentience, the idea that animals can feel emotions, experience pain, and interact with their environment in complex and meaningful ways. As an Eco-School, we were proud to welcome this powerful educational experience, which encouraged empathy, critical thinking, and ethical reflection across age groups.

Another wonderful example of solidarity in action was seen in our school garden. During dedicated gardening sessions, students worked together to plant a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers, transforming the space into a living example of biodiversity and sustainable learning. With support from teachers, parents, and student leaders, these sessions helped students connect directly with nature while learning about food, ecosystems, and the importance of caring for the living world around them.

“Working in the garden during Eco Week has helped me put my ESS knowledge into practice: I got to see the natural world and most importantly interact with it directly. Working alongside other students was also an amazing experience; it was educational being able to help them learn whilst planting various nutritious plants into our very own beautiful garden.” - Valeriya Grade 11 Student.

To close these three incredible weeks, the school came together in a joyful celebration of Francophonie and solidarity. Dressed in bleu, blanc, rouge, students and staff gathered for our traditional drone photo, forming a beautiful heart together, a powerful symbol of unity, belonging, and shared purpose. It was the perfect ending to a programme that reminded us all that when a community acts together, even small actions can create meaningful change.

Eco Weeks 2026 were a powerful reminder that sustainability is not only about protecting the environment. It is also about building empathy, responsibility, and solidarity within a community. At ISN, our students are not only learning about the world they live in; they are learning how to care for it, shape it, and improve it together.

Click here to watch a video celebrating the ISN Eco-Weeks, created by Grade 11 students, Sofya and Alexandre