Norbury High School for Girls has been awarded Eco-Schools Green Flag certification.
The Green Flag acknowledges, rewards and celebrates the achievements of young people in making their school more environmentally friendly and raising awareness of ecological concerns.
The international award helps to provide students with the confidence and motivation needed to continue actively engaging with environmental issues; it also indicates a “forward-thinking” learning environment that “promotes youth-led environmental education and action.”
The Eco-Schools programme was established in 1994 and is now delivered in more than 70 countries.
Adam Flint, Eco-Schools England Manager, describes the Green Flag as “an internationally recognised symbol of high environmental standards”. Students and staff, Flint said, “deserve immense credit for their hard work, determination, and creativity.”
Norbury High School for Girls has been working towards the award for some time. After forming an Eco-Committee, students conducted an environmental review to assess the academy’s eco-credentials, reviewing everything from biodiversity in the school grounds to the ways students and staff travelled to and from Norbury High. The Eco-Committee then planned a year of action designed to advance their school’s green credentials and improve the local environment, developing an Eco-Code to encourage best practice.
The Eco-Schools programme reported they were “really impressed” at how Norbury High School for Girls had “linked environmental issues to a variety of curriculum areas.”
“We are certain,” they said, that students “will have greatly benefitted from your involvement with outside organisations such as Cancer Research UK, the Refugee Council and Books to Africa, for all of whom you did excellent charity fundraisers, and the Woodland Trust, who helped with your great tree planting efforts.”
