Eco-Schools makes a difference…

Eco-Schools empowers pupils, raises environmental awareness, improves the school environment and also creates financial savings for schools. It engages the wider local community, links to the curriculum and can help deliver Ofsted requirements.

Making a difference to pupils’ lives

The Eco-Schools programme provides a unique opportunity that empowers pupils to lead change within their school and have a positive impact in their wider community. The programme encourages pupils of all ages and abilities to work together to develop their knowledge and environmental awareness. Independent research into the Eco-Schools programme in England found evidence of the positive impacts on pupils, including increased confidence, development of leaderships skills, improved pupil well-being and behaviour and greater motivation at school.

Waste less and save money

As well as the pupil benefits, which have a hugely positive effect on the whole school community, individual schools benefit from reducing their environmental impact. Eco-Schools consume less water and energy and produce less waste – in turn saving money that can be allocated elsewhere in the school.

What about Ofsted?

The Eco-Schools programme also meets the Ofsted requirement on schools that measures how effectively a school works in partnership with external agencies and the community (including business) to ‘improve the school, extend the curriculum and increase the range and quality of learning opportunities for pupils’, outlined in the 2015 Ofsted School Inspection Handbook.

In a Schools and Sustainability Ofsted report, Ofsted made this statement:

‘It provides a simple programme to enable schools to analyse their operations and become more sustainable. A key element is the involvement of pupils in the whole process, including monitoring, action planning and decision making, leading to ownership of the programmes and an increase in their sense of responsibility to the environment and the local area.’

Switch Of Fortnight:

Newfield school are currently participating in Switch  off a forthright with the aim of reducing our carbon footprint.