Social and Environmental Responsibility

The activities carried out at Gimnasio Los Portales, as part of the School´s Environmental Project-PRAE, aim at improving the environmental citizenship skills of its community. According to the Local Environmental Roundtable of Suba -MEAL, there are five research lines on the basis of which the school can delve into an environmental holistic view.

What lines of research do we carry out at Portales?

Business · Environmental
Line

The business and environmental line has liaised with companies, whose mission promotes environmental protection. In the past, the school donated all of its bottle caps to Fundación Sol de Los Andes, who transformed these plastic caps into plastic strings, thus supporting the families of some children undergoing cancer treatment.

Cultural · Environmental
Line

Within the cultural and environmental line, there is a periodic participation in international art and debate contests, focusing on sea and land ecosystem stewardship. Similarly, Gimnasio Los Portales has adopted the Furachoque Environmental Art Contest, which works around topics such as marine wildlife, the beauty of nature during lockdown, or the impact caused by an increased use of plastics.

Territory · Environmental
Line

Regarding the territory and environmental lines, the school carries out pedagogical outings to promote awareness of its environmental territory and similar ecosystems, including La Reserva Biopark and the Humedal Torca and Guaymaral Foundation. Moreover, the school has a wide green area called “El Bosque”, where there are planting days of native plants and walks with students so they can observe improvements of the ecosystem´s balance over time.

Health · Environment
Line

With respect to health and environment, the school had previously worked to promote self-care by ways of a healthy diet, and upon the initiation of the pandemic, the school has followed all of the registered measures within the biosafety protocols, through internal dissemination.

STEM · Environment
Line

Finally, regarding the line of science, technology and environment, there has been a curriculum modification, aimed at including the bio-design insight and the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths) approach in the PYP (Primary Years Programme). Students, in their personal projects, monographs and internal evaluations, have generated connections to improve the use of resources at an internal level.