Aims of the presentation Overview of the Eco Schools programme How it can benefit your school travel plan.

Aims of the presentation

•Overview of the Eco Schools programme

•How it can benefit your school travel plan

Eco-Schools - BackgroundEco-Schools - Background

Developed by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) in 1992 following the Earth Summit in Rio

The summit concluded that there was a need to involve young people in finding solutions to environmental and sustainable development challenges

Eco-Schools was introduced into the UK in 1994

Eco-Schools operates in 53 countries to date

There are over 40,000 Schools registered world-wide

More than 10,000 schools have achieved Green Flag status globally

More than 17,000 schools are working towards achieving green flag status in England

Over 1600 schools currently fly the green flag in England

The Eco-Schools Framework, Topics and Awards

Ten Topics

Transport

Waste

Water

Litter

School Grounds

Global Perspective

Healthy Living

Energy

Biodiversity

Green Procurement

Awards

Bronze

Silver

Green Flag

Seven step Framework

1. Eco-Committee

2. Environmental Review

3. Action Plan

4. Eco-Code

5. Involving the whole school & wider community

6. Linking to the curriculum

7. Monitoring & Evaluation

New role

Ambassador

Bronze & silver level Awards → self-assessed. School completes online and prints out certificateGreen Flag Award →Online award renewal (every 2 years) with an assessor visiting the school. The school receives a certificate and a Green Flag

AwardsAwards

Eco-Schools Ambassador Role – for schools which have held a green flag for at least 2 years → promote best practice

1. Role of Eco-committee1. Role of Eco-committee• Composed of pupils (all year groups), staff

(teaching & non-teaching), senior management, parents & governors

• Meet at least once every half-term• ideas generation, decision-making, raise

issues, check on progress• Must be led by pupils who chair meetings,

decide agenda and lead projects – empowering, encouraging creativity

• Adults’ role to support (not dictate)

2. Environmental Review2. Environmental Review• Pupils/Eco-committee must carry it out• Must cover all 10 Eco-schools topics• Schools can use their own or download

templates from website• Results are recorded, discussed with Eco-

committee and should inform Action Plan• Results are communicated to whole school• Carried out at least 1x every 2 years

3. Action Plan3. Action Plan• To cover in detail at least 3 topics in detail

(including Energy – compulsory)• For G.F renewals to add 2 more topics• Drawn up by Eco-committee • Responsibilities shared between pupils,

staff & parents• Timescales included• AP communicated to whole school

4. Eco-code4. Eco-code• Mission statement/sustainability

policy• Should be short and memorable

(some schools produced rap)• Pupils can produce with staff (e.g

class competition)• To cover as many topics as possible

5. Involving whole school & 5. Involving whole school & wider communitywider community

• Prominent Eco-schools notice board• Regular communication (assemblies

– run by pupils, posters/displays, newsletters, campaigns, events

• Inviting wider community to events builds better relationships

6. Linking to curriculum6. Linking to curriculum• Topics to be included in daily

lessons/in curriculum planning• Resources for teachers available on

Eco-schools website and The Pod.• Pupils can be involved in designing

leaflets/posters (Art/English), graphs/data analysis & collection (Maths/science), planning safe routes (Geography)etc.

7. Monitoring & Evaluation7. Monitoring & Evaluation• Data collection, surveys and analysis • Important for pupils to be actively

involved • Some data used in curriculum work• Targets set based on results• Results & targets communicated with

whole school (esp. successes and achievements) via assemblies, noticeboard, newsletters,etc.

Examples of Examples of monitoring/evaluationmonitoring/evaluation

• Check lights left on, taps dripping, etc.

• Create surveys (travel, waste, energy use)

• Bills/meter readings• Weighing waste• Before & after pictures (school

grounds, litter, biodiversity)

Assessment visitAssessment visit• Tour of school (led by pupils – usually

from Eco-committee)• Show evidence of progress (file,

displays, photos, curriculum work, lesson plans, up-to-date STP)

• Speak to Eco-schools coordinator, senior management & other pupils if possible

Main advantages of Eco-schools Main advantages of Eco-schools method for STP Championsmethod for STP Champions

• Gets whole school actively involved in Travel Plan (not all down to one person)

• Ownership of projects to pupils and parents → higher chance of achieving targets as interested in results

• Sustainable travel habits will extend outside school → pupils and families will be fitter & more active

• Wider community/neighbours more likely to support TP initiatives (e.g. parking management, speeding, engineering measures, etc)

For more information about the programme visit www.keepbritaintidy.org/ecoschools/

For free resources: http://www.jointhepod.org/