Maidenhead & Windsor

Pupils at St Mary's Catholic Primary School in Cookham Road, Maidenhead, have set the eco-standard for others to follow – the school has become the first in the borough to earn an Eco-Schools green flag.

The award has taken the school three years to achieve and has been led by the pupils themselves, under the guidance of the school's education for sustainable development co-ordinator, Elaine Hurrell.

Eco-Schools is an international award programme administered in the UK by environmental charity Encams and supported by the government, and aimed at encouraging every school to become a sustainable school by 2020. There are three levels, with the bronze and silver being self-assessed while green flag status requires an inspection by Encams. Inspectors visited the school at the end of February.

Cllr Eileen Quick, lead member for Windsor and Maidenhead children's services, said: "The Royal Borough encourages sustainable education and it is heartening to know that it is the children themselves who have driven this programme. Hopefully this will be an inspiration to pupils of other schools to achieve similar success."

At St Mary's, environmental issues are fully embedded into the curriculum – a requirement of the green flag award. The school held environment weeks in 2006 and 2007, has welcomed environmental theatre groups and pupils have visited a landfill site.

Elaine Hurrell said: "The children are involved at all levels, from our eco-committee of 15 children who make decisions and feed back to their peers, to recycling monitors in every classroom, to the children choosing to give up sweets at break time in favour of fruit and then collecting the leftovers and composting them for our eco-garden.

"The children designed the eco-garden and last year we grew courgettes, lettuces and strawberries; this year we are renovating it so the crops should be even better. We also have a wildlife area with a new pond for dipping, which we use for part of the science curriculum."

St Mary's will not be resting on its laurels after this award. Windsor and Maidenhead Schools have to reapply for their green flag every two years and are only granted permanent green flag status when they have achieved their fourth green flag. Trained Eco-Schools assessors visit permanent green flag schools at random to ensure standards are being maintained. As one of the St Mary's pupils said to the inspectors: "Of course it's not just for today, it's for ever."

Elaine added: "Our goal for the year ahead is to look at travelling to school and hopefully to encourage such initiatives as walking buses and park and stride."

For further information on Eco-Schools visit www.eco-schools.net

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead