Eco-Schools is an international award programme that guides schools on their sustainable
journey, providing a framework to help embed certain principles into the heart
of school life.
Eco-Schools aim to inspire young people to gain a lifetime awareness of how we live our
lives; how our actions and their consequences affect the options we have for creating a
more sustainable way of life. In joining the Eco-Schools programme and following our
simple, seven step framework below, our school will gain a whole host of benefits.
Eco-Committee
Environmental Review
Action Plan
Involving the whole school and wider community
Linking to the curriculum
Monitoring and Evaluation
Eco-Code
Over time and through commitment to the Eco-Schools seven step process, improvements will be
seen in both the learning outcomes, attitude and behaviour of students and the local community
and ultimately the local environment. Evidence of success in these areas will eventually lead to
our school being awarded the prestigious ‘Green Flag’.
There are 9 areas of focus:
Waste
Energy
Transport
Litter
Water
Healthy Living
Global Perspectives
School Grounds
Biodiversity
Our Eco Team is made up of 16 representatives; two children from each class from Years 3-6,
who meet up every half term.
To apply for the Green Flag we will need to complete in-depth work on at least three of the EcoSchools nine topics, one of which must be energy. Our Eco Team has decided to work on the topics
of Litter and Water.
These are some of the activities taking place in school this year:
Year 5 children spent the morning learning about water and how to save it when a representative
from Severn Trent Water visited the school. We also had a visit from the Recycling Team and
the junior children enjoyed a fun-filled interactive assembly.
Year 4 children are our ‘Litter Bugs’ - we have teams of 3 children, who twice a week maintain
our school grounds by picking litter!
Year 5 children are our Recycling Team. Twice a week the recycling team collect the whole
schools’ recycling and take it to the recycling bin situated on our school site. On Fridays the
team collect the paper from the shredders and this is used for composting.
Year 5 children are also responsible for maintaining the school’s allotment. Every Thursday
afternoon in the Spring, Summer and early Autumn, the children assist with the up-keep of the
allotment. The classes will water, plant, grow and harvest. Parent helpers help with this too and
volunteer to do the watering in the summer holidays!
Some of the produce from the allotment is then cooked in our school kitchen and used for our
school lunch! The school kitchen staff do their bit by ensuring that they put any suitable leftover
fruit and vegetables onto the school compost heap. In the Summer term our Year 2 children will
start collecting the peelings, cores etc from the infant children’s morning snack to add to the
compost heap.
We are taking part in a project to build a greenhouse made entirely from recycled plastic bottles!
We have collected 1500 bottles so far and the children in Year 5 will start to construct the
greenhouse with the help of Mr Smart, the Caretaker, after the Easter Holiday.