Green light for schools to enter eco awards

The Green School Awards celebrate schools’ environmental achievements from teaching pupils about nature or recycling all the way through to encouraging families to walk to school.

The deadline for nominations is Sunday 1 December and anyone associated with a Primary, Secondary or Special school can submit an entry including teachers, support staff, governors, volunteers and parents.

Awards’ judges will assess the best school-led activities in the following categories:

• green travel to school and road safety
• energy and nature conservation
• clean air
• recycling
• health and wellbeing.

Green School Awards 2019 from Inspire Schools on Vimeo.

Winners in 2019 included Kings Hill Primary in West Malling, named Health and Wellbeing Champion for its Healthy Lunch campaign. Pupils researched and created a family leaflet with ideas for fun and nutritious lunchbox meals as part of a healthy lifestyle.

The Recycling Champion Award 2019 went to St Teresa’s Catholic Primary in Ashford for its top-to-toe approach. Items reused or recycled ranged from food waste to furniture, paper to printer ink, and clothes to Christmas trees.

In the same year, Garlinge Primary School and Nursery in Margate was named Green Travel Champion. A long-term supporter of Walk on Wednesday, the school devised a competition for Walk to School Month. Pupils shared the type of wildlife they saw on their walk to school for the chance to win a weekly wildlife-related prize.

Award entries over the years have included much-loved school crossing patrol offers, a beekeeping club, forest school activities, ‘plot to plate’ projects, drives to reduce plastic waste and green energy schemes.

The event’s coordinator Karen Brinkman, of the KM Charity Team, said: “These awards are about rewarding efforts that make a difference to the community. At one school, pupils collected huge amounts of litter which had been dropped in nearby woodland and took it back to school to recycle it. That is such a straightforward thing to do, but it is transformative for everyone who visits that woodland and an important lesson in our impact on the environment.”

Winning schools will be presented with their accolades in February 2020 at a ceremony staged at the Ashford International Hotel. The schools will also be able to display the Green School Awards logo as a mark of excellence on the school website, in brochures, newsletters and elsewhere within the school.

A booklet detailing winners’ projects will be available for free download to share ideas and spread best practice.

For more information or to enter by 1 December, visit the Green School Awards website

Eco-aware organisations backing the event include Streetspace Urban Structures, Loop CR, Ethical Earth Company, East Kent Recycling, Golding Vision, NCS Technology and Medway Council.

Contact Details

Karen Brinkman
Telephone: 01227 475 953
Email: kbrinkman@thekmgroup.co.uk