Eco-Schools Awards

We have been a ‘green school’ for a long time but we are always looking for ways to improve. Last year we put together an Eco-Committee and since we have been working hard towards the Eco-Schools Awards. We are happy to announce that we have now gained the Bronze and the Silver awards and are now working towards achieving the highest award, the Green Flag.

The Bronze award criteria focuses on getting the Eco-Schools structure set up so you have everything in place to tackle the eco work you have planned. The Bronze award is attained by self-assessment.

Bronze Award criteria:

Eco-Committee

• Pupils volunteer and are then nominated by their peers to be on the Eco-Committee. This includes all KS1, KS2, KS3 and KS4 year groups in the school.
• Pupils are given the opportunity to invite along non-teaching staff to join their meetings to help them with a particular topic they have chosen to work on.
• There is a representation from the parents or governing body on your Eco-Committee.
• The committee meets at least once every half term.
• Pupils share responsibility with adults for running meetings and keeping a record of the meetings.
• Minutes are displayed on your Eco-Board.
• Reports of your Eco-Committee meetings are made available to the Board of Governors and PTA.
• Pupil representatives ensure that there is communication to and from the Eco-Committee to the rest of the school.

Environmental Review

• An informal Environmental Review covering all nine topics is carried out by pupils (with adult supervision).
• A copy of your Environmental Review must be displayed on the Eco-Board and communicated with the whole school along with detailed plans for activities for improvement.

Action Plan

• One Eco-Schools Topic only
• Eco-Committee produces an Action Plan influenced by their Environmental Review.
• Pupils on the Eco-Committee take responsibility for leading the actions.
• The Action Plan contains timescales, who is responsible and how targets will be monitored and evaluated.
• The Eco-Committee has shared the Action Plan with the whole of the school.
• A copy of the Action Plan is displayed on the Eco-Board.

The Silver award is attained by self-assessment.

Silver Award criteria:

Monitoring action and evaluating progress

• Our Eco-Committee monitored the effectiveness of their Eco-Schools work via data collection or with before and after photographs etc. You are able to see some of our results on the Eco-Board, which shows that we are now recycling more and wasting less.
• We used the monitoring data to create graphs for a visual comparison.
• The data and evidence we collected has helped us evaluate and plan our next moves to make the school a more environmentally friendly place.

Involving your whole school and wider community

• Our school has a prominent and designated Eco-Board detailing all Eco-Schools activities, including a copy of your Environmental Review, Action Plan, minutes, before and after photographs and photographs of Eco-Committee members
• Our Eco-Board is kept up to date with new projects and photos of things we are proud of.
• We involve the community in considering their own environment, through the use of assemblies or events.

Linking to the curriculum

• We have looked at the environment in a number of areas of the curriculum. This helps the children understand the challenges we face as well as how to better to improve their own environment.