Her daughter struggled in school with dyslexia, so she moved all 3 kids to Bali to try hands-on learning in bamboo classrooms

She had chanced upon a TEDTalk video by John Hardy, who founded the Green School in Bali with his wife, Cynthia, in September 2008. The school has since expanded to new campuses in New Zealand and South Africa with a total global enrollment of just under 1,000 students.

Since May 2021, the school has been managed by Education in Motion, a Singapore-based education company, although the Hardys are still involved as ambassadors.

“I remember getting up and telling the family, ‘We’re moving to Bali for the Green School,'” Jackie said. “And here we are.”

The application process varies depending on which grade potential students are enrolling in. Those applying for primary school need to submit school reports, teacher recommendations, and a video as part of their application. Those applying for middle school need an essay on top of that, while those applying for high school have to sit for an interview too.

As a result, she often got put into a lower learning program than her peers.

However, in Bali, Mila said she got personalized attention from her teachers.

“The teachers would move around the classroom, ask me questions, and point me out individually. Since it was a 10-person classroom, I actually understood things,” she said.

The school’s teaching model involves using practical examples, Mads Hedegaard, the director of admission, marketing, and communication, told BI.

“It can be a giant coconut slingshot to understand how to calculate trajectories, our seed-to-table cafe where the youngest students learn how to grow vegetables, and our middle schoolers learn entrepreneurship by running the cafe themselves,” Hedegaard said. “Or it can be hands-on projects like building a yurt to learn math, physics, and practical arts at the same time.”

For instance, Mila recently completed a project in collaboration with a local women’s shelter.

“I made my own artwork to raise awareness of domestic violence, sold it, and then made enough money to help them with appliances in the shelter,” Mila said. After completing it, she had to give a presentation about her experience.

A different grading system

Classrooms at the Green School don’t have walls. Students learn about the natural world, care for animals, and grow plants.

Only high-school-level students receive grades at the Green School; younger students at the primary and middle school levels get a progress report instead, Hedegaard said.

That said, the school does support students who wish to take the SATs or other kinds of exams for university admission, Jackie said.

The website for the Western Associates of Schools and Colleges (WASC) — an institution that accredits high schools in the US — shows that Green School is also accredited under the commission. A WASC representative told BI that the school has been accredited since the 2016-2017 school year.

“The GPA averages earned with our school can also be transformed into many other schooling systems globally,” Hedegaard said, adding that Green School in Bali currently has 510 students enrolled across 39 nationalities.

There are around 70 Indonesian students at Green School Bali, of which half are on full scholarships, he said.

A pricey education

But all of this comes at a hefty price tag: Yearly tuition fees start from 117.95 million Indonesian Rupiah, or $7,260, for pre-K students and can go up to 302,1 million Indonesian Rupiah, or $18,650, for Grade 11 and 12 high school students.

While those prices might not shock Westerners used to paying for private schools in major, developed cities, they are considered high for the island of Bali.

The average monthly net wage in Bali is about 3.04 million Indonesian rupiah, or $187.75, per the latest February 2019 data from data company CEIC.

That said, tuition fees at Green School Bali are comparable to those of other international schools on the island. Yearly tuition fees for Canggu Community School start at 105 million Indonesian Rupiah for preschool and go up to 245 million Indonesian Rupiah for year 12 and year 13 students.

“The fees are not high compared to other international schools,” Hedegaard said, adding that many parents experience a decline in fees moving from other parts of the world.

Adjusting to life in Bali

Jackie said that although her daughters easily settled into life in Bali, her son needed a longer adjustment period.

“When we came here, my boy — up until the end — didn’t want to leave New Zealand,” she said, adding that the first six months after moving to Bali was a struggle.

“Every day, I’d ask him, ‘How was school?’ And he would say, ‘I hate it, I hate that you brought me here,'” Jackie said. “But the thing is, so many families coming to Green School go through this. They’ll have one child who hates it. And I’m always saying to them, give it time.”

“For some reason, one day, it was like a switch went off,” she continued. “And he made great friends, and he didn’t hate school.”

Less stress, more confidence

For Mila, the educational environment at the Green School has helped her grow into a more confident person.

“I learned how to present myself and communicate my ideas with others, especially when speaking to adults or in front of a camera,” Mila said.

She doesn’t feel the same kind of academic pressure that she did back in New Zealand.

“Tests are so much more daunting, and they don’t have them here. It’s mostly presentations and you learn after a few years how to be confident and not really stress over it,” Mila said. “I just take a lot of different classes, and I get to try a lot of things.”