Woodroffe School were successful in achieving their Bronze Award in February 2007 and are hoping to submit their first Green Flag Application at the end of March 2008. Green issues are high on the agenda of the students and there is also a tremendous interest in sustainable education amongst staff as well as in the local community. The school gave a lot of thought to the long term effects of the changes they were making to the fabric of their aging buildings and to the external environment.
To a certain extent the decision to apply for Green Flag status arose out of the school looking at what it was doing and what it planned to do. It did not decide to apply for the Green Flag and then begin thinking about environmental plans; the plans were in place. Once the school recognised that they were actually making excellent progress, they decided to seek the appropriate accreditation and achieved their Bronze Award.
The evidence for the award is currently being compiled by the Environmental Studies teacher who is working with a member of SLT who ensures that the project has high status and whole school commitment. The twin Environmental Action Teams play a key part here – although the teacher in charge will ultimately complete the application, the students themselves are involved at every stage gathering the evidence and taking part in the various projects.
These events gave fresh impetus to both EAT groups and led to the recent ‘Big Green Day’, an awareness raising day for the whole school. There have been lots of things which have led to a rise in knowledge and commitment across the school: frequent assemblies on green issues, the environmental code prominently displayed in every classroom, articles in the school’s newsletter ‘Rough Notes’, etc.
The core of involvement comes from the EAT group, but the whole school is involved via assemblies, the Big Green Day and citizenship lessons. Convincing students that we should move towards sustainability was easy and Staff and Governors came on board quickly. In-school activities such as the creation of the EAT code were easy; the real problems came when the school tried to engage local services. Getting waste collected proved difficult and initially it seemed that we could only have paper and cardboard collected if we paid for it. Understandably the students were outraged by this and the school had to change their waste company even to achieve their aim. However when they began compacting paper and cardboard, the company refused to take it, saying that they did not cater for compacted waste! Eventually the school negotiated an agreement, though they still have to pay.
In just over a year the school have moved from an interested school to a truly committed one: they now have solar panels, a wind-powered pc, two environmental action teams, regular paper and cardboard waste collections, an environmental code, an annual Big Green Day, closer involvement with the community – and big plans for the future.
Staffing costs have been minimal because a committed team of staff have thrown themselves into the project. There are occasional costs – e.g. a day’s supply for the teacher writing the action plan - and hidden costs (for example, the staff EAT team meets as part of our whole school Working Groups programme which is part of our regular meetings pattern).
| Green Flag: | 1,179 |
| Silver: | 3,924 |
| Bronze: | 4,646 |
