‘Yes we do want to save the world,’ say eco pupils

Schools that register with the Eco Schools programme commit to making sustainability an integral part of their set-up.

The programme puts the pupils at the forefront of the work and every green idea implemented at the school comes from them.

Elected youngsters carry out an audit on the school, identifying areas where it can improve its waste management, school grounds, energy efficiency and recycling in order to make their place of learning more environmentally friendly.

Once the pupils have completed their review, they come up with ideas to improve the school and parents, teachers and specialists help carry them out.

Schools work through their bronze and silver awards before applying for a Green Flag, which symbolises excellence in the field of environmental activity.

Assessors will then visit the school and they are shown around to see if the criteria is met, and if successful, schools hold on to the award for two years before reapplying.

The latest to receive the award are St Luke’s Primary School in Brighton and Goldstone Primary, Hove. They join Carlton Hill Primary School, Coldean Primary School, Dorothy Stringer School, Downs Infant School, Hangleton Junior School, Hertford Infant School, Moulsecoomb Primary School, Patcham High School, Patcham Infant School, Somerhill Junior School, Stanford Infant School and Varndean School in holding the Green Flag Award.

Fiona Byrne is a teacher at St Luke’s who has taken a lead on global citizenship and geography.

She said: “The flag is essentially recognition for all the goals and targets we have achieved over the last two years.

“Sometimes we’re encouraged to teach about Romans, but I think we need to be teaching youngsters about the world as it is today and what children can do about it.

“It’s very much a student-led project and we’re looking to celebrate it as a school in the next couple of weeks, because it’s a fantastic achievement.

“From an energy point of view we addressed our school’s lighting and changed to low-energy lighting. Every lunchtime we have children monitoring the classroom to make sure lights and projectors and everything else are turned off.

“If they are, then the teacher is given a green tree and if not they get a red one – and they’re all named and shamed by the children in assemblies.

“With waste we have introduced compost collection bins in the playground and we’ve introduced habitats to the curriculum where Year 3 students build bug homes for the school. It has also filtered down to infant school with Eco Warriors in the infant school carrying out some of the work.”

Biodiversity Goldstone’s teacher Vania Seevaramen, who led on the project, worked on energy, biodiversity, litter and waste and said pupils were full of bright ideas.

She said: “Using school iPads, the eco committee decided to run campaigns with filmed adverts that were shown throughout the school.

“This informed the school of the issues and what we needed to address in order to progress.

“It was vital that this was pupil led in order to motivate the children, it helped them realise that they can make changes and they can inspire other pupils to look after and care about our environment.

“It took it beyond a school project and made it part of Goldstone’s ethos.

“From creating the action plan of what we needed to work on, to setting targets on how we were going to do it and then achieving the goals made the children feel a real sense of achievement and pride.”

Eco Schools is celebrating its 20-year anniversary, and one school is currently holding its fourth flag.

Jo Slagter, from Somerhill Primary School, said going green had become part and parcel of school life, and admitted the students’ input was vital.

She said: “It’s essential they are such a key part of the programme.

“For them to be able to make a difference and to be able to see the difference they are making through their actions is what it’s all about.

“I think times have changed and students are much more aware of what’s going on around them now.”

Schools will carry out annual audits this month in preparation for the coming year, and Hertford Infants is no stranger to the process having held three flags.

Ruth Simon-House, class teacher and eco co-ordinator, said: “We’ve held the flag for three years now, so it’s embedded in everything we do at the school.

“It’s in our curriculum and it’s just little things – like after our children have had their fruit the cores and peels will be put on to our compost heap.

“It’s difficult when you ask what exactly it is we do, as we’ve just engrained it into everyday school life.

“We’ve got a garden where we grow produce and the school cook uses those and we try to make sure the pupils understand the process of growing and the sustainability behind that.

“Obviously, we get support from parents and Brighton and Hove Environmental Education help deliver the project.

“But the pupils are so switched on and the staff are on board as well.

“Every year we have a volunteer come in from the Brighton Permaculture Trust with a juicer and all the children take it in turns to crush apples and make the most delicious apple juice.

“Brighton and Hove is the type of city that, if you want something sustainable and green, you can easily get it.”

It’s not only the younger students who are involved in the scheme, with two secondary schools currently holding flags in the city.

When Rob Sandercock and Dr Dan Danahar joined Dorothy Stringer, pictured inset above, more than a decade ago it was a well-established eco school.

It was the only secondary school to achieve the distinction in Brighton and Hove at that time.

During 2010, the International Year of Biodiversity, Dr Danahar worked on behalf of the school, in partnership with wildlife groups, to promote Brighton and Hove’s Big Nature – a concept he thought up in 2009.

He said: “We slowly began to recognise that our objective should be to move towards a common understanding of the value of our local environment and that this should not be restricted to just us but to the entire city.”

The school has a host of green initiatives, and the woodland that runs along the northern edge of the grounds and Stringer Way forms the Dorothy Stringer School Nature Reserve.

Studies of historical maps show there has been woodland on this site for at least 400 years though many of the larger trees were lost in the 1987 hurricane.

In 2004 the school created a large pond thanks to the Barclays New Futures Award and last year students began to grow their own fruit and vegetables.

Meanwhile at Varndean School they are preparing to renew their application ready for re-inspection next year.

Michelle Asbury, eco co-ordinator at Varndean, said: “As far as the school grounds goes, we planted an orchard full of local, Sussex species of apples, pears and plums and that’s starting to come on nicely now.

“The students set up our own Varndean Eco Code which outlines how we should treat the environment and the pupils held assemblies to reaffirm the code.

“For us, the Eco Schools scheme is just what we were aspiring to be.

“We’re quite a green city, we have a Green MP and the pupils are very aware of the issues surrounding sustainability.

“Even when the assessors came round, it was the students who showed them around and staff just tagged along in the background.

“And that’s the beauty of the project – it’s not a top-down thing and I think it needs to be inclusive.

“If we want youngsters to pick up their rubbish or look after the environment, it’s got to come from their peers.

“One of the real stand-out moments was when Caroline Lucas came into school and held a question-and-answer session. The interaction and breadth of questions was amazing.

“The scheme epitomises what we are trying to achieve and the Green Flag Award gives us recognition and allows the world to see we’re a green school.”

Patcham High’s Eco Schools co-ordinator Tim Holtam had been working for two years with a group of environmentally-minded students in gaining the flag, which was awarded in February.

Ms Lucas attended their spring term event and said: “Patcham’s Eco Reps were impressive and obviously did a wonderful job.

Recognition Matheus De Silva, a Year 11 senior eco rep, said: “We are all so happy today to see this flag finally go up.

“We have been working towards this for two years. It is great to have the recognition and now we will see it every day outside our school to be reminded of what we’ve done and what we still need to do.”

Stanford Infants School now boasts a greenhouse made entirely of recycled plastic bottles thanks to the project.

Head Madeline Denyer couldn’t be prouder. She said: “We’ve been doing lots of eco work and we now have a new garden and a school greenhouse made entirely out of recycled plastic bottles.

“We also have switch-off days, which initially caused a bit of a stir because parents thought we were shut with nothing on. The pupils are very much at the forefront of this and have been really keen on waste and recycling. They designed paper bins which are now all around the school and they hold assemblies to teach others what can be recycled.

“Students were interested in where the waste food from the canteen ended up, so now we have a compost heap in the garden.”

She said it is “vital” that pupils’ ideas are supported and they are encouraged to take the lead on them.

She said: “Because they are quite young, we have to rely on support from parents and specialists coming in to accommodate their ideas. But the pupils have completely bought into it all. They’re so well informed.”

The school has already carried out its audit and wants to see the statistical changes it has made since initially being awarded the Green Flag Award in 2011.

Mary Ward, eco co-ordinator at Downs Infant School, said: “We were awarded our Green Flag Award in 2013 and we were concentrating on composting, recycling and developing our school grounds to host a variety of habitats.

“We now run a garden club which is proving to be popular but it’s all come from the pupils.

“They carried out a review and it was what they wanted to see implemented that we facilitated.

“Every child in the school has been involved. We’ve set up Apple Alley, so that will be the next big project as the children maintain it.

“We set up an eco council, and pupils from year one and two put their names forward if they want to sit on the panel.

“There’s then a secret ballot and one boy and one girl is chosen from each class to head up the council.

“The Green Flag status lets people around the community know the work our children are doing.

“It’s important that the pupils are the main focus. It’s how the Green Flag programme was designed to be run and it’s a great help to dip them into the process and get them doing as much as they can.”

West Sussex also finds itself in the top 20 local authorities in the country with 38 of its 344 schools holding Green Flags.

MP praises schools

Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, said: “It’s fantastic to see more and more schools in the city getting involved with this scheme and it’s been a pleasure to watch them make such brilliant progress and make it their own.

“They’ve embraced sustainability as an integral part of the lives of their schools and education of their students.

“The students are able to take real leadership, which provides them with a valuable insight into a sustainable future, what it means, what can be achieved.

“I hope more schools will champion the scheme and be justly recognised for their great work.”