Eco Schools Green Flag Accreditation 2023
Quaggy achieved the Eco Schools Green Flag accreditation in 2022 and are proud to say we have achieved the award with distinction for 2023-24. This is a national accreditation that empowers children to have their say and cause real change to nurseries and schools. The process involves seven steps in order to achieve the accreditation. The first is setting up an Eco Committee. This has seen us facilitate the children being members of the committee and deciding which topics to focus on and to start making changes and developing new opportunities for children and parents to get involved with. This is our journey in 2023. If you would like to read what Eco Schools Green Flag Accreditation said about our work then click here.
The Seven Steps are as follows:
Setting up the 2023 Committee
The first Eco Committee was set up in January 2022. The children were proud to achieve the award in the summer of 2022. Now in 2023 a new committee has been set up as some of the original children had left to go to school. Their first task was to choose what areas to focus on for the award. Staff created voting sheets using sticky dots under each heading. Children voted and the 3 areas of focus were:
Global Citizenship
Waste
School Grounds
At the meetings, which are held monthly, the members talk about what they are doing for the accreditation. Eco activities and projects, discussed at the meetings, are put into practice for all children across the nursery. Children role model to other children, for example we have water monitors who wear sashes and check for dripping taps; this was introduced in the Eco committee and now all children can take part in this.
We have an Eco Board with information and photos to explain what the Eco-committee are doing and the progress we are making. This is a ‘live’ board, so is constantly updated. We use lots of photos, pictures and posters as this is more accessible for children in the Early Years.
Quaggy Children's Centre have been working on the Global Citizenship topic:
Taking an active role in your community and making our planet more peaceful, sustainable, and fair. The team at Quaggy's regularly plan learning opportunities which encourage young people to think about different people, places, and climates around the world. The children also learnt about animals in need around the world, and were particularly interested in hippos in Africa. During Eco-Committee meetings, children and adults discussed what they could do to help hippos and were very enthusiastic when they learnt about a place called the Turgwe Hippo Turst, where people worked very hard to look after hippos in need of help. The children decided that they would like to help the Turgwe Hippo Trust by adopting a hippo. Children where shown photos of several hippos in need of adoption, and voted to adopt baby Harvey.
During Eco-Committee meetings, children and adults discussed the hippos that live in Africa that need our help. Where they live it is very hot and this means there is not enough water and food for the hippos. The good news is, there is a place called the 'Turgwe Hippo Trust' and the people there work very hard to look after the hippos. We decided we would like to help them do this by adopting a hippo. The children were shown photos of the hippos and they voted to adopt Harvey, and because they had been able to choose Harvey it meant they were very invested in his wellbeing! Now the children at Quaggy's get regular updates on Harvey and his friends (who are all doing well) and enjoy following his journey with the knowledge that they have created positive impacts in another part of the world.
Eco Schools have used our work on Global Citizenship as an example
Environmental Review
The children were involved in regularly completing an environmental review of their environment. This involved all 10 topic areas of the award. Children would discuss what they believed their environment did to support the progress in different areas.
It has helped the children look at what they have achieved and identify gaps to focus on. The review also demonstrates the impact that the Eco work is having on the children.
It proved to be a really interactive way to create discussion and develop understanding of the work of the committee
Action Plan
After deciding which 3 topics we were focussing on we had to develop a plan to put things into action. The staff team worked hard on developing this and the children’s Committee were involved in putting this all into action.
The Action Plan was shared in a child centered way at the Eco-committee meetings and activities that come from this involve all the children. The Action Plan was also shared at staff meetings. A copy of the Action Plan is on display on the Eco Board and in the Eco Committee meeting folder.
Curriculum Links
AN EXAMPLE OF A CURRICULUM LINK
TOPIC: WASTE –
Compost food more efficiently
Regular recycled modelling sessions, collect household waste and get creative
Make posters about what should go in which bin
Litter picking
Increase ways of reducing landfill for difficult-to-recycle items (e.g. batteries)
Organise second hand sales/swaps/repair sessions
CURRICULUM LINK: Mathematics, knowledge and understanding of the world, physical, literacy, personal, social and emotional development, communication and language
Involving and Informing
Letters are regularly emailed to parents/carers. Eco boards are on display; these are updated regularly. Information is on our website, this includes our Environmental-hub, which has been developed to demonstrate what we are doing, track progress and offer facts, advice and other resources to support being environmentally friendly. Messages about our Eco work goes out weekly on social media on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter on our Friday Eco Update. There is an Eco news update on monthly parent newsletters and on every report for the Trustees; this is quarterly. A termly Eco Newsletter is produced. There is a dedicated Eco section in our Quaggy Development Trust Annual Review – this goes out to parents, centre users, partners and funders.
Monitoring and Evaluation
A big part of our journey has been getting the message out there about being kind and respecting the planet; why this is so important and how we can really have an impact on sustainability. We have adopted a Hippo as part of our Global Citizenship element of the award. This is a high profile way of engaging children, parents and the community keeping focus on environmental issues. We have been able to teach the children good habits so that they can carry this on for future generations and embedding good practice with staff and getting parents on board too. We have made important links with the community and looked at alternative more environmentally friendly ways of doing things/buying/using resources. As well as this being so important, we have also had fun, been really creative, gained new experiences and learnt new skills!
Our New Eco Code
Our Eco Code for this round of accreditation focusses on recycling. We have increased to amount we recycle in our centres and work to encourage recycling at home too. The Eco Committee set a challenge for parents at home with their children to think of something they can do to recycle more or help the environment in other ways. A sheet was sent home for them to fill in with their children committing to make at least one change at home to help look after the planet.