Eco Schools

St Peter's School Eco Action Plan

Eco-Schools is an international award programme that guides schools on their journey to becoming greener and more sustainable. The programme uses a framework to help schools on their journey to gaining ‘Green Flag‘ status.

Eco-Schools helps to promote sustainable behaviours and gets everyone thinking about how we can save resources, be greener and help the environment around us.
The benefits of joining Eco-Schools include:

• Benefits for the local environment
• Links to and enhancing the curriculum
• Links to the community (St. Peter’s Church recycling)
• School improvements and possibly saving money
• Recognition

What do Eco-Schools do?

Schools follow a simple seven-step process which helps them to address a variety of environmental themes, ranging from litter and waste to healthy living and biodiversity. There are ten Eco-Schools topics to choose from. https://www.eco-schools.org.uk/about/howitworks/
Pupils lead the Eco-Schools programme – they form and lead an Eco-Committee and help to carry out an audit to assess the environmental performance of the school. Pupils keep the school community included and involved in their progress
Undertaking the Eco-Schools programme is a long-term journey and it can take time for schools to implement the different elements of the framework and engage their staff, students and community with it.
Schools work towards gaining one of three internationally recognised awards – Bronze, Silver and the Green Flag award, which symbolises excellence in the field of environmental activity. Bronze and Silver are both self-accredited through the website and Green Flag is externally assessed by Keep Britain Tidy volunteers.

What is our school doing?

As of July 2022, we are now Green Flag holders.  We achieved the Green Flag status with distinction, which is the highest level of award.   

We received excellent feedback. Here are some of the comments made from the awarding body: 

‘Your uploaded Environmental Review has very insightful notes throughout. It really gives the Eco-Schools Team an insight into the rich discussions that rook place whilst your Eco-Committee completed it.’ 

‘Judging from the certificates and monitoring information included later in your application, your Waste actions were very successful! Your Biodiversity actions are practical and fun, we loved seeing the photos of pupils involved. For Energy, you have given young people total responsibility, empowering them to make a difference which is what the Eco-Schools programme is all about. The tracking document shared is fab, as are the friendly reminder signs!’ 

‘It’s great to read that you had no difficulty finding your Curriculum Links. This is a great testament to staff members at St Peter’s! Your selected Curriculum Links were clear, creative and innovative. The idea to create a recipe to look after our planet in RE is particularly unique and we really loved the example uploaded!  

‘Your Eco-Board is great. Your board is visual and engaging and promotes your brilliant Eco-Schools work. It’s also good to see your Eco-Committee members on the board. This is a great way to raise their confidence and esteem. Your Eco-Committee have also used a variety of other methods to promote their work, e-mailing parents, delivering worships, speaking to governors, and using social media? wow, well done to them!’ 

‘We hope everyone involved in the Eco-Schools programme at your school takes great pride in the parental quotes provided - through your efforts you have allowed young people to engage with environmental issues in school, enriched their learning and increased their confidence. This confidence has empowered them to make a positive difference in and out of school.’

‘Your Eco-Code is brilliant. It’s beautifully designed and the rhymes really made our team smile! It’s a really lovely tribute to your fantastic Eco-Schools work and wonderful application.’ 

What’s next? 

We will be looking to improve further on our achievements in the coming academic year, including focusing on new eco topics.