We won a Green Flag Award!

Read the email we received from the Eco Schools Team telling us the news!

We are very pleased to tell you that you and your Eco-Committee at Foxdell Primary School have been successful in meeting the requirements for the Eco-Schools Green Flag Award.

We reviewed your application and noted the following:

• You have a large Eco-Committee supported by 2 adult members of staff. This demonstrates a whole school approach to the Eco-Schools programme and a commitment to environmental education and pupil-led eco-action. Great work!
• It’s brilliant that the Year 5 and 6 members of the Eco-Committee were able to take minutes for your meetings. This will allow them to take ownership over the Eco-Schools programme and develop their listening, communication and teamwork skills and it would be great to build on this by allowing more members to take minutes in the future.
• We loved reading the quote provided by a member of your Eco-Committee. They sound like a very impressive individual and their quote demonstrated how passionate they are about improving their local community and protecting our planet. We would also like to commend you on the success of your whole school Earth Day, it sounds fantastic. We loved seeing the photograph that you provided of the Eco-Committee all together!
• We loved your approach to completing the Environmental Review as a team whilst also involving other members of the school community. It's brilliant to read that the Environmental Review completed by your Eco-Warriors helped your pupils appreciate everything that your school is already doing to benefit our environment and identify areas to work on in the future.
• It was lovely to read the detailed comments on your Environmental Review and gain a real insight into the debate and discussion that took place whilst completing it.
• It’s clear your Eco-Committee are constantly considering what actions they can take to improve their local community and benefit our planet. Your Eco-Warriors didn’t let any tricky questions on the Environmental Review defeat them, instead they sought out other experts in their school to help answer questions which demonstrates their resilience and team ethos.
• We love that your discussions and results of the Environmental Review inspired the choice of projects in your Action Plan. It’s a strong approach to work on things that will produce visible impact and change, and a great example of critical thinking.
• We love the variety of activities that you and your Eco-Committee have included in the Action Plan. This will no doubt support multi-disciplinary skills and shows how integrated environmentalism is in your school.
• It would be great to see a completed Action Plan in the future so we are able to see the full impact of your work.
• Your Curriculum Link examples are imaginative, practical and fun, making environmental education accessible and engaging for a variety of needs across your school.
• It is great that you have been able to improve general understanding about a variety of issues, well done for managing to include EYFS alongside KS1 and KS2.
• It is commendable that your staff have committed to integrating the Eco-School Topics, well done!
• It is fantastic to read that Eco-Schools and environmental issues have become an embedded as part of your learning.
• We loved seeing the fantastic variety of work that was completed during these sessions, especially your mini beast sessions and visit to the zoo – well done!
• You have placed a lot of emphasis on informing as many members of your school community as possible in your Eco-Schools work through your Eco-Board as well as contributing to the school newsletter and this is a strength of your application.
• Getting involved with a variety of organisations and members of the wider community such as hosting a uniform exchange and joining in our Big Clean Campaign across both your sites is a great sign of your outstanding commitment to collaboration. We’ll need this approach to fight the impacts of climate change in the future. This is what all Eco-Schools should aim for.
• We hope all staff members involved in your Eco-Schools work take immense amounts of pride from the parental quote provided.
• Your hard work and dedication has inspired young people and empowered them with the belief that they can positively impact our planet – this is something incredibly special.
• Your Eco-Board is fantastic, clear and informative – well done! Your greatest success is a brilliant achievement.
• Your success in raising awareness of the work your Eco-Warriors do across the school is brilliant. It’s clearly something that pupils will be proud of and leaves a great legacy to build upon and have a lasting impact.
• The challenge managing and planning time is one that many Eco-Schools face. It creates a pressure and takes resilience to keep going as you have been. With this context, your achievements are even greater and we feel lucky that you’ve committed to our programme and delivered the achievements that you have. This is a big achievement.
• We love your collaborative approach to creating an Eco-Code, this approach has allowed young people to take ownership and create a final code that will be treasured by everyone at your school.
• It is fantastic that you were able to work together to focus on key points you wanted within your Eco-Code. We love that you were able to use ECO-CODE to formulate your fantastic acrostic Eco-Code.

Well done! Thank you so much for submitting such a terrific application. We have loved reading about your journey and are incredibly impressed by all you have achieved. We have no hesitation in awarding you an Eco-Schools Green Flag, congratulations!

A big congratulations and thank you to everyone involved.