Eco Schools is a Europe-wide scheme and encourages the whole school:
“To move from environmental awareness in the curriculum to environmental action in the school and wider community”.

Eco Schools is very much pupil led and enables children to make important decisions about the impact that their school has on the environment.

Many teachers and staff want to encourage their pupils to be more environmentally aware but are unsure how to go about it. The Eco-Schools Award provides a structured approach to environmental action rewarding and accrediting schools that have made a commitment to continuously improve their environmental performance.

It is also a learning resource, raising awareness of environmental issues through activities that link to curriculum subjects. Schools must demonstrate that they have made significant progress towards improving their performance before the ‘Green flag’ status is achieved.

The aim of the Eco Schools programme is to make environmental awareness and action an intrinsic part of the life and ethos of the school – both for pupils and for staff.

The Award

There are 3 awards that schools working on the scheme can aim for;

The Bronze and Silver awards are self assessed and can be applied for online.

The Green Flag is awarded after completion of a report and an assessment visit by a trained Eco Schools assessor. Two years after the Green Flag has been awarded, schools are assessed again and re-awarded the flag if they show continuous improvement. Several Leicestershire schools have already managed this prestigious achievement.