Oaklands School is a proud supporter of the Eco-Schools programme.

Eco-Schools is the largest sustainable schools initiative and operates across the world. It was devised as a result of the United Nations conference on Environment and Development (Rio Earth Summit) in 1992, when it was identified that children and young people need to be involved in the sustainability and environmental protection of our planet.

We are passionate about the environment and sustainability at Oaklands. We have a well-established Eco group which has been working tirelessly towards our Green Flag goals. This group is made up of representatives from each class, responsible for investigating, recording and spreading the Eco word. But our Eco journey is a whole school effort, every pupil is involved in some way in our Eco work.

Working towards our 4th Green Flag

2025-2026: The Eco reps are a lively bunch this year and it’s been great fun meeting and working towards our Eco goals. We’ve been very busy leading in all sorts of areas. We’ve been out planting trees to create a natural barrier between the road and the secondary playground. We’ve helped with litter picks around the school grounds. We’ve given out responsible jobs to classes such as screen and lights out monitors. We’ve also been out investigating biodiversity in our woods and playground. This spring we are becoming journalists and entering the ‘Young Reporters for the Environment’ competition. This is an international competition that takes place every year. This year’s theme is ‘Food and the Environment’ and we are taking a close look at where our school food comes. Each Eco rep has taken on a responsible role as either a photographer or an interviewer and in the coming weeks will be out across the school investigating the food we eat. At our most recent meeting, we chose our favourite locally grown fruit and vegetables and at our next meeting we plan to create recipes that include them all. We are confident that with all our hard Eco work, we will achieve our 4^th Green Flag by the end of the school year.

Our 3rd Green Flag

We were delighted to be awarded our 3rd Green Flag in July 2024. It was definitely a whole school effort as we focussed on our three chosen areas: Climate Action, Food and the Environment and Global Learning. We are very proud of our achievements. Highlights include: raising money to twin 19 toilets around the world, supporting local charities including a local food bank, promoting and encouraging active travel and staying active initiatives, growing our own food, updating our school waste management and recycling processes and learning about and celebrating different cultural festivals from around the world.

Click here to see our Action Plan document for our 3rd flag.

Our Previous Green Flag Work

We started our renewed Eco journey in 2019 by carrying out an Environmental Review of the school and grounds. We looked at all areas from energy and waste to biodiversity and our outdoor spaces. Our Eco reps left no corner of the school un-investigated! They checked for leaky taps, lights left on, litter in the school grounds and what was going into the recycling. They used communication devices to interview Barbara, our fantastic school cook, about where our food comes from and how it’s packaged. While out looking for wildlife in our school grounds, they even spotted a fox.

In our first year we chose to focus on Litter, Waste Minimisation and Biodiversity. Highlights of our work included:

• A No Glitter Litter campaign in the run up to Christmas. We demonstrated and shared ideas for environmentally friendly and glitter free decorations.
• Litter picks. We regularly collect litter from the Millennium Woods and our local environment. We even have pupils out along the cycle paths on bikes and walkers collecting litter.
• We raised awareness of what can and can’t be recycled along with organising efficient and regular recycling around the school.
• We built bug hotels and bird feeders to encourage more wildlife within our school grounds.

Even lockdown didn’t prevent us from continuing with our Eco work. Families shared evidence of all the great things happening at home from cycling to garden projects. We were delighted then to be awarded our first Green Flag in the spring of 2020.

We were awarded our 2nd Green Flag in July 2022. We focussed on Health and Wellbeing, Global Citizenship and Litter. We had lots of exciting projects on the go including a new partnership with two schools in Malawi. Our International School Partnership continues and we will be planning some new and exciting collaborative projects to do together. We are looking forward to now working towards our 3rd Green Flag!

The Eco-Schools International Green Flag Award is designed to encourage pupil-led, whole school action for the environment.