Eco-Schools
This year, our school has made the decision to work towards the Eco-Schools Green Flag accreditation: you can find out more on the Eco-Schools website here: https://www.eco-schools.org.uk/.
As an IB World School, we develop internationally minded pupils who, recognising their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet, help to create a better and more peaceful world.With the world beginning to experience the effects of climate change; different species of plants and animals becoming extinct every day; and microplastics being found in the most remote locations on Earth - now is the time to educate future generations about the impact of our actions on the planet that we call home.
The Eco-Schools programme does this, through providing a simple seven-step framework that has been designed to raise awareness of environmental issues, whilst empowering young people to make a positive difference by taking a lead on environmental actions and projects in their school and local community.
Within Eco-Schools’ simple framework, young people have the freedom to decide on the environmental issues they would like to tackle, represented by ten Eco-Schools topics. Once young people have chosen their topics, they decide what actions they would like to take, and how they are going to involve their school and community.
The seven step process takes around one academic year to complete and culminates in an Eco-Schools’ assessor looking over a school’s application and evidence, with a view to recognising and celebrating their achievements.
What happens at each step?
Step 1 Time to form an Eco-Committee
An Eco-Committee is a group of young people who take responsibility for delivering the Eco-Schools programme, with the support of an adult Eco-Coordinator.
Step 2 Complete the Environmental Review
The review is a set of questions designed to help an Eco-Committee identify environmental areas in their setting that can be improved.
Step 3 Create and work on Action Plan
The Eco-Committee plan environmental projects and actions to work on throughout the year focusing on three Eco-Schools topics.
Step 4 Curriculum Links
This step asks us to provide three pieces of evidence demonstrating that our setting delivers environmental learning. This evidence can link to any of the ten Eco-Schools topics.
Step 5 Informing and Involving
Throughout the academic year our Eco-Committee will inform others about our progress and will plan opportunities to involve pupils and parents in action plan projects.
Step 5 Monitoring and Evaluation
The Eco-Committee monitors the progress of the projects and evaluate the outcomes.
Step 6 Create an Eco-Code
This can take any format and is a promise to continue protecting our planet.
Step 7 Green Flag Application Window Opens
The Eco-Schools Green Flag application window is open May 1st to July 31st every year.
How do we think about Global Learning and the UN Sustainable Development Goals?
Children from across the school contributed to the work that we are doing, including Eco Team members, school council, Eco Warriors club as well as our SRP pupils.
Here are some of the dual language posters written in the home languages of the pupils at COPA and the infographics they have created to raise awareness on current global issues.
