Be an eco-school!

Eco-schools look at environmental impact of schools and promotes awareness about the environment in national curriculum subjects. There is also an award scheme, which can promote schools. The achievements come in three stages; bronze, silver and The Top Green Flag.

The eco schooling system includes everyone involved in the school, such as teachers, children, non-teaching staff, school governors, parents, the local authority, the media and local businesses. The scheme encourages team work and an understanding of what it takes to make such a scheme work in a school. It also teaches everyone how to respect and enhance the environment.

So what type of issues do eco-schools cover?

• Litter
• Waste and recycling
• Energy
• Water
• Transport
• Healthy living
• School grounds
• Biodiversity
• Global impacts

I think schools introducing these ideas into early education will benefit the future, because unlike the older generations who are not educated with environmental issues or environmental sciences, the younger generations will be educated and hopefully it will not be too late to prolong the existence of the Earth we know today.

So how do schools promote these issues?

• Forming an action team: meeting new people
• Undertaking an environmental review: educating the environmental issues
• Formulating an action plan: Teamwork
• Creating an eco code for the school: children learning to work under rules from an early stage and parents and teachers helping their children to understand why these rules are put in place and why it's important to follow them.

I hope these schools really take off, because it's a great way to promote eco-awareness. But what about people who aren't involved with an eco-school?

Here are some ways to get involved with the environment on the internet:

• WWF-UK - providing fun and information for children on environment and sustainability issues. Here's their page for teachers.
  
• Young People's Trust - trying to encourage young people's understanding of the environment.