The Government in England wants every school to be a sustainable school by 2020. The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) launched their Sustainable Schools Framework in 2006, setting out challenging long-term aspirations for schools to mainstream learning about sustainable development issues and sustainable practices into everyday school life.
Eco-Schools is an international award programme that guides schools on their sustainable journey, providing a framework to help embed these principles into the heart of school life.
It is now easy for Eco-Schools across the world to get in touch and explore ways of working together on environmental issues. Visit www.eco-schools.net where you will find instructions on how to register your school and carry out a search. After finding an Eco-School that matches your criteria, you can then contact the ‘match’ school by post, telephone or email!
Joining the Eco-Schools programme is free and makes tackling sustainable issues manageable and easy for all schools, whether they are children’s centres, nurseries, primary schools, secondary schools or schools with special status.
Once registered, schools follow a simple seven-step process which helps them to address a variety of environmental themes, ranging from litter and waste to healthy living and biodiversity.
Children are the driving force behind Eco-Schools – they lead the eco-committee and help carry out an audit to assess the environmental performance of their school. Through consultation with the rest of the school and the wider community it is the pupils that decide which environmental themes they want to address and how they are going to do it. Measuring and monitoring is an integral part of the Eco-Schools programme, providing schools with all the evidence they need to really shout about their environmental success.