October Newsletter!
Hello! We hope you have had a wonderful start to the new academic year and are currently busy preparing for a relaxing half-term break. By now, many of you will have downloaded this year’s new Environmental Review and we hope it has provided plenty of inspiration! The Eco-Schools Team want to thank all those who submitted new questions for this year’s Review in their application, they were an incredibly high standard and we included many of your suggestions in what we think is our best Environmental Review yet – thank you!
We have also responded to several requests and updated the Eco-Schools logo to show 2022-2023 for all those who achieved an Eco-Schools Green Flag last academic year. The digital award pack link sent via e-mail will still work and will take you to the updated logo, if you no longer have this e-mail, get in touch with the Eco-Schools Team!
Learning About Forests
This year we are delighted to relaunch a simplified Learning About Forests project. This fun, bitesize programme has been designed to give young people a deeper connection to the green spaces around them, from local forests to parks, gardens, and their school grounds.
To achieve a LEAF award, a group of young people need to complete 3 (from 5) LEAF activities over an academic year. Activities include: building animal habitats, growing grub and befriending a local tree.
Participation in the LEAF award can also be used as evidence for multiple topics when applying for an Eco-Schools Green Flag. Click the link below to find out more!
Leadership for Sustainability – Free Chapter!
The Eco-Schools Team can heartily recommend David Dixon’s Leadership for Sustainability, Saving the planet One School at a Time! In fact, Eco-Schools Green Flag award winners will know it is one of the discounted book offers we included in your digital award packs.
In the book David draws on his own doctoral research (and 20 years of head teacher experience!) to show how schools can embed eco-friendly practices in the day-to-day running of their schools that will also contribute to overall school improvement. Click the link below to read Chapter 1 for free!
Blippit
Schools in the North West have been using a new tool called Blippit Boards to monitor and save evidence for their Eco-Schools Green Flag applications.
The simple-to-use App allows teachers to document and file their Eco-Schools activities instantly, labelling and filing them under our Eco-Schools Topic or Seven Step titles. These can then be accessed quickly for digital presentations, or downloaded as PDF for sharing.
Click the link below to find out more!
WWF People’s Plan for Nature
The People’s Plan for Nature is the biggest ever conversation about the future of nature in the UK and our friends at the WWF have produced a PowerPoint to help school’s give young people a voice!
Click the link below to download the slides and find more information on how young people can share their thoughts before the 30th October deadline.
And if you missed last month’s newsletter, don’t forget to also check out WWF’s wonderful Schools Sustainability Guide which the Eco-Schools Team helped to create!
Eco-Fact: 66,566 Community Members Participated in Eco-Schools Work in 2021-2022!
Eco-Schools work begins in schools, expands to communities and creates national impacts, which is why we were delighted to see 66,566 community members were involved in Eco-Schools actions during the last academic year!
Watch out for next month’s Eco-Schools Newsletter, when we will be sharing our first ever Impact Report, designed to highlight the colossal difference young people and educators made in 2021-2022!
Shevington High School – Supporting Biodiversity and Transforming School Grounds!
As you begin to think about this year’s Eco-Schools Action Plan, we wanted to share a brilliant project from the last academic year to provide a little bit of inspiration and motivation! Shevington High’s biggest achievement during the last academic year was turning a neglected corner of their school into a haven for wildlife and place for students and staff to unwind.
Having completed their Environmental Review, the Eco-Committee decided that they could do more to support local Biodiversity and, as mentioned, they identified an unloved corner of their school as a perfect place to start. They began by clearing the area, calling on their local community for support and asking for any donations (everything in the finished garden was donated by student, staff, parents, and other members of their community). Next, they decided to split the garden into sections – sensory, vegetable, and wildlife! The Eco-Committee spent the Spring Term planting and building habitats, the results (which you can see above) are fantastic.
Now, their garden is a relaxing space for students, staff and wildlife, and its creation has even prompted the entire school to focus more on outdoor learning! More bugs have been spotted on school grounds, and Shevington also had birds nesting in one of the bird houses the Eco-Committee installed… on top of this Shevington has also been awarded Level 1 of the RHS and achieved an Eco-Schools Green Flag!
