At Middlethorpe Primary Academy, we are delighted to be embarking on our Eco-Schools journey.  

Eco-Schools is a global programme engaging 19.5 million children across 67 countries, making it the largest educational programme on the planet. 

For over 25 years, Eco-Schools has been empowering children to drive change and improve their environmental awareness through the simple Seven-Step framework in order to achieve the international Eco-Schools Green Flag award. 

Eco-Schools develops pupils’ skills, raises environmental awareness, improves the school environment and creates financial savings for schools as well as a whole host of other benefits. 

One of our first steps was to establish our own Eco-Committee made up of representatives from each year group. It was explained that we would be looking for volunteers who had a keen interest in the following areas: Biodiversity, Energy, Global Citizenship, Healthy Living, Litter, Marine, School Grounds, Transport, Waste and Water. We were incredibly proud that so many children showed an interest in being involved.  Candidates from each year group answered questions or wrote a manifesto about why they would be the best person to represent their class on our Eco-Committee and each class held a ballot. We now have a dedicated team of pupils who are keen to make a start on improving our environment. 

Our committee meets weekly at the moment and one of their first jobs has been to undertake a school-wide Environmental Review. The committee completed a questionnaire with their class, focusing on one of the key areas in the Environmental Review. Following this, we have ascertained that our areas of focus this term will be waste, recycling and energy. The committee have already begun a trial in school to establish how much paper is wasted on a daily basis and will be implementing measures to rectify this wherever possible.