The Only Way Is Eco!

Eco-Schools is an international award programme that guides schools on their sustainable journey, providing a simple framework to help make sustainability an integral part of school life. Eco-Schools can help enhance the curriculum and get the whole school united behind something important.  Currently Iceni Academy is a Silver Award Eco-school.  We are now working towards our Green Flag Award.  Schools work towards gaining one of three internationally recognised awards – Bronze, Silver and the Green Flag award, which symbolises excellence in the field of environmental activity. Bronze and Silver are both self-accredited through the Eco- schools website and Green Flag is externally assessed by Keep Britain Tidy volunteers.

The benefits of joining Eco-schools:

Enhances the curriculum

Links to the community

School improvements

Saving money

Recognition and publicity

What do Eco-schools do?

What we do:
Eco-Schools is pupil- led. We have one representative from each class that is the Eco-monitor, they form and lead an Eco-Committee. Every half term the whole school participates in a Let’s Talk Assembly to discuss matters relating to Eco- Schools. This is then followed by the Eco- Committee meeting to discuss which actions they will take forward and put into place around the school and monitor.

We will be working towards achieving our next Eco-schools award which is the Green Flag award improving both our school and local community.

Our Eco-committee will be the driving force behind our Eco-school work. They work towards:

• Ensuring that the whole school is aware of the Eco-schools programme
• Taking the lead in carrying out the Environmental review
• Ensuring that everyone in the school community is represented in the decision-making process
• Providing a link between pupils, teachers, senior management team, site manager and the whole school community
• Taking the lead in delivering the Eco-schools Action Plan

What the children have to say:

“The Eco-councillors have recycling buckets and we have to put our recycling in them.  It is a good thing to recycle because it helps our planet and it also helps the animals in the sea and on land.” Harry W

“I think Eco schools has improved by the school having more recycling bins.” Felicity

“I think it is a really good idea to recycle rubbish as it helps our environment and teaches us all to take care of our wild life and environment.” Summer

“At Iceni we have assemblies about recycling, we are encouraged to walk to school and we turn lights off when not using them. This has meant at home we’ve been recycling more. We are trying to reduce food waste by eating leftovers and using up food we have. This is to reduce emissions. We use a home Nest system that only heats water & heats home when needed. Eco-schools has made children more aware of the environmental impact on earth. Learnt small ways we can all help environment and opens up a discussion so we can share ideas. I think Eco-schools is a good thing as it makes us aware of climate change and pollution. It teaches us good habits that we can use outside of school.” Mila