Eco-schools is a fantastic programme for schools and the awards are a brilliant achievement for both the pupils and the school as a whole.

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1 Eco-schools is a fantastic programme for schools and the awards are a brilliant achievement for both the pupils and the school as a whole. At the moment 46 schools in Bexley are registered for eco-school, 34 have a bronze award, 17 silver and 3 green. Below is an information pack to give you the main information you need to complete eco-schools. Lots more information is available on the website There are seven elements to the eco-schools award. Eco-committee (action team) Environmental review Action plan Eco-Code Whole school and wider community Linking to the curriculum Monitor and Evaluate Eco-committee An eco-committee needs to be set up as soon as you decide to take part in ecoschools. How this committee is elected is up to the school. It could be a few members from an eco group, some or all of the school council or an elected member of each class. The eco-committee needs to: Take the lead on all project (they do expect that in infant schools the teachers will need to be more involved). Ensure the whole school is involved. Meet at least once a half term and take minutes (ideally a pupil would do this). Have members of staff who can help them. Ideally the head or a senior teacher would be on the committee as well as a governor, parent, local authority staff, kitchen staff, caretaker etc SWAC: Are happy to be part of the school s eco-committee Environmental Review An environmental review of the whole school is the first job of the eco-committee. The review looks at all 9 topics. This is the baseline for any work you go onto do. Teachers will need to help with this but it should be lead by the children. A template for your review can be downloaded from the eco-schools website.

2 SWAC: Can work with the eco-committee to do a waste audit. This means we go through all the schools waste and look what is being thrown away and how much is recycled. This can form part of your review. The environmental review can help you decide which areas you would like to work on. (The review needs to be repeated yearly) Action plan This is where you decide exactly what you want to do and start setting targets. The action plan should include: Topic (which of the 9 you have decided to cover i.e. waste) Action (what you are going to do i.e. introduce paper recycling bins, run a waste awareness campaign) Target (what you want to achieve). This could be a change in the way the school operates for example a target could be 100% of classrooms to have paper recycling facilities by the end of the Autumn term. Targets could also relate to behaviour change e.g All recycling bins are used properly and do not have any inappropriate materials in them by the end of the Autumn term. To bring about this behaviour change you might do a poster campaign this could be used to demonstrate progress towards your target. All targets have to be SMART and something which is measureable. Timescale (when you want to achieve it by i.e. end of autumn half term) Responsibility (this will usually be the eco-committee but there are some things which other people will need to do for the children). Actual result (what did you achieve i.e. By the end of autumn half term every school have a paper recycling bin). Prioritise actions based on what has the lowest costs and is the easiest to achieve. A template can be download for this from the eco-schools website. SWAC: After the waste audit SWAC can work with the children to come up with an action plan to reduce the amount of rubbish thrown away and increase recycling. Eco-code This is needed for silver and green flag only but schools can also introduce an ecocode anytime after registering if they choose to do so. This can be a song, poem, statement, pledge, rap any format the school chooses, the more creative the better! It is the schools mission statement for the environment. It should link to the actions which the school is trying to achieve. The whole school should be involved in developing this eco-code, and schools should display their eco-code prominently (e.g. in each classroom, on the eco-board etc.) so that the majority of staff and pupils get to know and understand it.

3 Whole school and wider community Everyone needs to know about the work which is being done as part of eco-schools. They also need to be able to put forward ideas. This can be done in lots of ways below are a few ideas: Assemblies Newsletter Letters to parents Homework projects Suggestions box Hold an eco day. Press releases Website SWAC: Would be pleased to be kept upto date with the work you are doing (if you are covering a waste topic) and this would help to show you are involving the wider community. Eco board This is needed for all the awards and is a way to communicate with the whole school. This needs to be in a prominent location and should include: Names and photographs of the eco-committee (so other pupils can approach them with ideas) Details and pictures of ongoing projects. Examples of pupils work (e.g. letters, graphs, posters) Schools eco-code (if relevant to award) Actions currently being worked on. Linking to the curriculum Eco-schools can be linked into lots of parts of the curriculum. This includes: Science Geography History Maths and ICT PE and drama English and modern languages Design and technology It can also be used to address cross curriculum issues: Citizenship Sustainable development Personal, social and health education Global issues See the Eco-Schools website for more guidance and ideas for lessons that link the 9 Eco-Schools topics to the curriculum.

4 Monitoring and Evaluation This tends to be what schools struggle with most. As said under action plan make sure your targets are measureable as you will need to demonstrate physical evidence that you have monitored progress against targets set and evaluated the success of your results. By green flag a folder of evidence is needed. What is included in this will depend on the topics you covered and what your targets were. Schools should include some evidence of monitoring and evaluation carried out as part of curriculum work, e.g. meter readings used in maths or ICT, or essays on climate change issues produced in English. for evidence are: Data from the Pod (details of this are on the eco-schools website) Example posters from campaigns Picture of eco board Store old material from eco board Utility bills Photographs of projects SWAC: If SWAC have done a waste audit they can provide data on the amount of waste the school produces and the recycling rate. After you have carried out your action plan they can come back and repeat the audit and see where there is improvements. There are 9 topics within eco-schools. Not all of these need to be addressed to get a green flag (see awards section). Litter Litter Waste/recycling Energy (compulsory) Water Transport School grounds Biodiversity Global perspective Healthy living Litter picks community litter pick or regular class litter picks Encourage less packaging Split litter/recycling bins Litter campaign

5 Keep Britain tidy Campaign for protection of rural England Local authority SWAC: Can run a litter assembly in the school and give advice on organising a litter pick. Waste/recycling Introduce new recycling schemes Have a day a week where lunches are waste free Have reusable water bottles Have scrap paper trays Set printers to double sided SWAC EDF Energy the Pod Waste Watch Recycle now Bag2school Recycool SWAC: Are happy to help with anything you want to do as part of this topic and can also help with ideas. London Borough of Bexley have free recycling services for paper, food, plastic bottles, cans, glass and drink cartons. If your school does not have one of these service then we can provide this for you. SWAC can also run waste reduction and recycling activities with each class which link into the curriculum and gives the whole school more information on this topic (this help you to meet the 7 stages of the framework). Energy (compulsory) Display energy certificate and report (legal requirement) Switching off appliances (you could have monitors for this) Energy saving bulbs Close windows and doors Draught excluders Get an energy monitor money saving expert can tell you where free monitors can be brought from EDF Energy the Pod Carbon trust Eco-Schools energy award Carbon reduction partnership Local authority

6 Water Saver flush bags/water hippos Waterless urinals Turning off taps Installing push or spray taps Learning about water cycle Rain water harvesting Installing water butts EDF Energy the pod Utility provider Water Aid Corporate e.g DIY Stores Transport Travel plan (Local authority can help with this) Car pooling Walking bus Reward scheme for walking or riding to school Cycle stores EDF Energy the pod Sustrans sustainable transport charity Local authority travel planning officer AA/RAC planner can calculate carbon footprint. School grounds (works well with biodiversity) Allotments Creating habitats such as mini beast Interactive play Friendship benches / buddy bus stops Mini farm Gardening club Sensory garden Woodland trust free trees Local community Retail Local authority - tree officer

7 Biodiversity Attract/ learn about wildlife and native plants Wild spaces Wildlife areas Ponds/swamps Meadows/hedgerows Mini beast habitat EDF Energy the pod RSPB Woodland Trust World Wildlife Fund BBC breathing places resources still available online Natural England Urban wildlife Global perspective Learning about climate change and global warming. Learning about different cultures Learning about fair trade Learning about global poverty Link with other schools Fairtrade Seal and global dimensions UNICEF, Samaritans, Water Aid and other charities SWAC: Can run assemblies in secondary schools on global warming. Healthy living Healthy school diners Exercise / dance classes Walking / cycling to school Provision of drinking bottles Cookery club Fruit Healthy schools award Wake up shake up ASDA etc community liaison

8 Bronze Silver Green Flag Green Flag Ambassador please see Eco-Schools website for more information on the new Green Flag Ambassador Award, launched in Bronze and silver are self assessed and the awards can be downloaded from the eco-schools website. For the Green Flag award an online application needs to be submitted and a team will come out to the school to assess if they feel the school desires a Green Flag award. Below are the criteria which need to be met to get each award. Bronze Eco-Committee The school has an Eco-Committee consisting of pupils and adults The group meets at least once every term Records are kept of meetings Environmental Review The Eco-Committee has completed an Environmental Review covering the Eco-Schools nine topics Results of the review have been discussed by the Eco-Committee Action Plan The Eco-Committee has produced a basic Action Plan influenced by the Environmental Review and shared the plan with the rest of the school community The Eco-Committee can identify progress towards achieving elements of the Action Plan. This does not mean you have to have met the targets you have set but you need to have started working towards some of them. Linking to the curriculum The school can indicate that environmental issues have been covered within curriculum work Involving the whole school and wider community The school has a prominent, designated notice board, detailing Eco-Schools activities Silver Inclusive of the progress already made to achieve Bronze award: Eco-Committee The school has identified an Eco-Committee consisting of pupils and adults which meets at least once every half term Pupils share the responsibility with adults for running the committee. (The level of responsibility expected depends on the age and ability of the pupils involved)

9 The Eco-Committee includes a parent and/or governor representative Records are kept of meetings Environmental Review The Eco-Committee has completed an Environmental Review covering the Eco-Schools nine topics Results of the review have been discussed by the Eco-Committee and communicated with the whole school Action Plan The Eco-Committee has produced a detailed Action Plan The plan contains timescales, targets and who is responsible The Eco-Committee has shared the plan with the rest of the school Linking to the curriculum The school can indicate that some environmental issues have been covered within curriculum work in most year groups Involving the whole school and wider community The school has a prominent, designated notice board, detailing Eco-Schools activities The Eco-Committee regularly communicates Eco-Schools activities to the whole school and wider community (eg. via assemblies and newsletters) Monitoring and evaluation The Eco-Committee monitors the effectiveness of Eco-Schools work (eg. via data collection, before and after photographs etc) Eco-Code The school has an agreed, adopted and displayed Eco-Code Project work The school has completed in-depth work on at least one of the Eco-Schools nine topics Green Flag Inclusive of the progress already made to achieve Silver award: Eco-Committee The school has an Eco-Committee that meets at least once every half term Pupils take significant responsibility for running the committee (the level of responsibility expected depends on the age and ability of the pupils involved) The Eco-Committee includes a parent and/or governor representative Environmental Review The Eco-Committee has completed an Environmental Review covering the Eco-Schools nine topics and recorded the results Pupils were involved in carrying out the review Results of the review have been discussed by the Eco-Committee and communicated with the whole school Action Plan The Eco-Committee has produced a detailed Action Plan The plan contains timescales, who is responsible and how eco work will be monitored and evaluated The Eco-Committee has shared the Action Plan with the rest of the school Linking to the curriculum Sustainability has been covered in at least three curriculum areas by most year groups Involving the whole school and wider community

10 The school has a prominent, designated notice board, detailing Eco-Schools activities The Eco-Committee regularly communicates Eco-Schools activities to the whole school and wider community (eg. via assemblies and newsletters) The school has shared good practice with other schools who wish to join the Eco-Schools programme Monitoring and evaluation Physical evidence has been collected of the school s progress including data collection and analysis (graphs etc) Some monitoring data has been used in curriculum work Eco-Code The school has an agreed, adopted and displayed Eco-Code The Eco-Code is displayed on the Eco-Schools notice board and in all classrooms The Eco-Code is known and understood by the majority of pupils and staff Project work The school has completed in-depth work on at least three of the Eco-Schools nine topic (Note: if you re renewing an existing Green Flag award, you should have worked on a further two Eco-Schools topics since you gained your last flag. Please see the comprehensive renewal guidance on the Eco-Schools website.)