Whitby's Eskdale School just one of 3% in UK to be awarded Green Flag

It joins the ranks of 749 schools in the UK - just 3% - that also have a Green Flag award.

Head of Science Leila Aldous said to get there, the school had to complete seven steps.

1 Establish an eco-committee and ensure we had members from across the school involved.

2 Completing an eco-school’s audit to establish the areas that we needed to improve.

3 Developing an action plan. This involved increasing the number of recycling points around the school collecting crisp packets for charity, removing plastic from our oceans, and increasing awareness of environmental issues and alternatives to plastic.

4 Implement an action plan at the school. Including publishing what we were doing in the local community and establish curriculum links across the school.

5 Informing and involving the wider school community.

6 Monitor and evaluating the actions we put in place. Evaluate lessons in school to see where eco topics are being covered.

7 Develop an eco-school ethos

“These students have not let anything get in their way, not even the pandemic.

“A special thank you to Mrs Winspear, Miss Kotadia and Mrs Bedingfield for their continued enthusiasm for keeping Eco-schools running throughout the pandemic and working hard in Eco club now.

“I would also like to thank Mrs Westwood for her continued support and care for our Eskdale School garden area.

“We are currently working on some great project including recycling used pens and other stationery items, selling eco cleaning products to reduce our plastic waste, planning for the Eco-roadshow headed up by Mrs Winspear and the SPEED project, planting trees around our new 3G pitch and looking into developing a thrift swap shop with other local schools."