Congratulations to Ings Primary School on gaining their second Eco Schools Green Flag.
This is what the Eco Schools Assessors had to say
"Congratulations!!! Fantastic work Mrs Longbone & Ings Pupils We are very pleased to tell you that you and your Eco-Committee at Ings 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 an extremely 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!
We loved reading the quotes provided by members of your Eco-Committee. They sound like very impressive individuals and their quotes demonstrated how passionate they are about improving their local community and protecting our planet.
Your democratic approach to appointing members is terrific. It’s very mature, fair, and sensible. The meeting minutes uploaded were very professional and impressive. They clearly document talking points from the meeting, and future goals and action points for the Eco-Committee to work on.
It's brilliant to read that the Environmental Review 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 all the 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. Thank you for your question suggestions for next year’s Environmental Review, they’re intelligent ideas that we will take into consideration when compiling next year’s review. Your Eco-Committee 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 such as their class teachers which demonstrates their resilience and team ethos. We love that your Environmental Review and pupil voice 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.
Your Action Plan shows that your Eco-Committee have carefully considered how they can involve their entire school in their planned Eco-Schools’ activities to achieve maximum impacts and raise awareness amongst their school community. It was fantastic to read about your plans to carry out community Litter-Picks! Your Action Plan is a really considered piece of work with a lot of SMART thinking. This is a mature approach - self-reflective practice, research-led planning and critical thinking - and shows an Eco-Committee that’s focused on achieving their goals. Brilliant work everyone!
The three curriculum examples provided are a great example of environmental education. They are practical and fun examples of eco-education with a real-life context that will engage young people. It’s clear that you have embedded environmental issues into your curriculum with great enthusiasm and these issues are being used to enrich learning in your school, whilst engaging young people in important issues.
We loved reading about your environmentally-themed day of learning for tree planting, this is a great way to make eco-education a community event. It would be great to see uploaded examples of your classroom materials and evidence. It shows a clear commitment to ensuring your pupils get engaging environmental education.. Great work by all involved! You have placed a lot of emphasis on informing as many members of your school community as possible in your Eco-Schools work and this is a strength of your application. Getting involved with The Woodlands Trust as well as the Farshare Team are great examples of collaboration. We can create bigger impacts through working together, so it was wonderful to read you collaborated with another Eco-Committee on one of your Eco-Schools projects. Your ability and willingness to partnership is impressive! We’ll need this approach to fight the impacts of climate change in the future!
You have made significant efforts to involve all pupils and your wider school community, maximising the impacts of your Eco-Schools work and benefitting your local area and our planet – We are glad to read you had a positive experience when sharing your hard work with your wider community. We hope all staff members involved in your Eco-Schools work take immense amounts of pride from the parental quote uploaded. 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 greatest successes link clearly to the experience of your pupils. We loved reading about your success in improving awareness and actions towards waste across your school! This is what the best forms of climate action are about – impactful but achievable things that create a positive experience and prompt more action. We love this! Thanks for applying for an Eco-Schools Award, the submission was innovative, impactful, and inspirational – good luck!
Resourcing changes as well as engaging with the parental community is a difficulty familiar with many educators. It creates a pressure and takes resilience to keep going. 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.
Your acrostic poem Eco-Code is beautifully designed, and easy to follow with a powerful message. It’s a great reflection of the ethos your Eco-Committee have created, well done to all involved! Your Eco-Code is very punchy, clear and easy to digest for those that read. It’s a direct call to action. It is fantastic that you have been able to reuse your Eco-Code from your previous experience as an Eco-School. We love this!
It has been an absolute pleasure to read through your application, you are a wonderful ambassador for the Eco-Schools programme and we are delighted, without hesitation, to award you an Eco-Schools Green Flag – congratulations!