Step 1 - Eco-Committee
- At least one pupil from each year group is on your Eco-Committee including KS1 and KS2
- Your Eco-Committee meet at least once every half-term.
- Pupils share responsibility with adults for running meetings and keeping a record of meetings.
- Meeting minutes are displayed on your Eco-Board.
- There is representation from parents, governors or senior management on your Eco-Committee, however, they do not have to attend every meeting. When they cannot attend meetings, the Eco-Committee are responsible for updating them.
- Pupil representatives ensure that there is communication to and from the Eco-Committee to the rest of the school.
Step 2 - Environmental Review
- The Eco-Schools Environmental Review covering all ten Eco-Schools topics is completed by pupils, with adult supervision.
- A copy of your Eco-Schools Environmental Review must be displayed on your Eco-Board and the results communicated with the whole school.
- It is compulsory for the Green Flag award that your Eco-Schools Environmental Review is updated every two years to coincide with your Green Flag renewal application, however, best practice is to complete it every year.
Step 3 - Action Plan
- Your Eco-Committee produces an Action Plan influenced by their Eco-Schools Environmental Review.
- Pupils on the Eco-Committee take responsibility for leading their chosen topic actions: three topics for your first Green Flag and five topics for all Green Flag renewals (changing two of the five topics with every subsequent renewal application).
- Your Action Plan contains timescales, who is responsible for the actions and how your topic actions will be monitored and evaluated.
- Your Eco-Committee shares the Action Plan with the whole of the school.
- A copy of your Action Plan must be displayed on your Eco-Board.
Step 4 - Curriculum Links
- Environmental issues have been covered in at least three areas of your school curriculum; this is clearly evident in pupil’s work and/or schemes of work and lesson plans.
- Your three curriculum links can not all be from the same year group or subject area.
- Your three curriculum examples do not have to be from the same Eco-Schools topics as those chosen for your Action Plan.
Step 5 - Informing and involving
- Your school has a prominent and designated Eco-Board detailing all of your work on the Eco-Schools Seven Steps and chosen topic actions. This includes: Eco-Committee members from all year groups (with photographs if possible), meeting minutes, a copy of your Eco-Schools Environmental Review, your Action Plan, examples of Monitoring and Evaluation and your Eco-Code.
- Your Eco-Board should be regularly updated to reflect your Eco-Schools work.
- Your Eco-Committee should use a variety of mediums to help communicate their topic actions: newsletters, school website, the school’s Twitter account etc.
- Your whole school and wider community is involved in Eco-Schools work in and around the school, for example: parents/carers, local authorities, businesses, other national and regional charities, neighbouring schools and residential groups and homes.
Step 6 - Monitoring and Evaluation
- Your Eco-Committee monitors the effectiveness of their Eco-Schools topic actions: via data collection, our topic specific National Call to Action surveys (or other national surveys), before and after photographs etc.
- Monitoring and Evaluation outcomes are communicated to your whole school and on display on your Eco-Board.
- Evidence and data collected has been analysed and evaluated to help your pupils develop further topic actions.
- Some of your monitoring and evaluation data has been used in the curriculum, for example creating graphs and charts or statistical analysis in maths lessons (this also supports Step 4: Curriculum Links).
Step 7 - Eco Code
- There is an agreement on an environmental statement for your school drawn up by pupils.
- Your Eco-code must reflect the Topic actions that you are working on for your Green Flag.
- Your Eco-Code is displayed on the Eco-Board.
- Your Eco-Code is also displayed around the school for example in classrooms, school halls and even the toilets!
- Your Eco-Code is known and understood by the majority of pupils and staff.
