Eco-School Green Flag Award 
Recently, we have started the journey to become an international Green Flag Award Eco-School. The programme is designed to raise environmental awareness among young people and is run by the environmental charity keep Britain Tidy. Internationally, the programme is the largest educational programme in the world present in 67 countries and 52,000 schools. Our school is now part of this global community working to create environmental change for the benefit of future generations.
The Eco-Schools programme empowers students, raises environmental awareness, improves the school environment and can also lead to financial savings for schools. Being an active member of the programme will be something our students will remember for the rest of their lives.
The programme focuses on ten important global issues: Biodiversity, Energy, Global Citizenship, Healthy Living, Litter, Marine, School Grounds, Transport, Waste, Water.
Every school taking part in the Eco-Schools programme follows the same simple Seven Step framework that takes schools between one and two academic years to complete. After achieving our first Green Flag, our school can continue in the programme to gain multiple Green Flags. One of the most exciting things about the programme is that the process is designed to engage a whole school and its wider community – which is why we have taken the time to inform you about our participation.
We have had volunteers across all year groups to help lead this scheme, which is amazing. Where year groups have more than 3 volunteers, their peer groups will vote for representatives to sit on a committee and feedback to their year group.
Any student can join in and participate on the school projects. If you would like to get involved in the Eco-School programme by sharing your time, ideas or skills please contact me. If you are struggling for spare time, don’t worry we will keep you updated on our progress regularly and invite you to any Eco-Schools projects or events that the students decide to organise. We hope you will be as excited about our Eco-Journey as we are!
Amy Heard (Eco School Co-ordinator)
At the hotel we got our skis and boots fitted; the slopes were at our doorstep which was useful because it meant we could start skiing sooner. We skied for 3 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon with a lunch break in the middle. There were plenty of slopes which meant that it was never too busy. There were four groups ranging from beginner to advanced, which were the perfect size to learn and have fun at the same time - the instructors were also funny but also helped you improve your skiing. Our favourite parts of the slopes were the jumps and going on the black run at the very top of the mountain because they put our skills to the test. We liked how there was different types of snow on the range of runs as you could see what your skiing ability was like on other surfaces. We found it really tricky to ski on the icy snow although it was a challenge we enjoyed.
In the evenings after skiing the teachers kept us entertained with a variety of events every night. On the Tuesday night Mr Sargent held a general knowledge quiz and also had a competition of who could build the tallest tower made out of marshmallows and spaghetti; our team won! Our favourite activity was the torchlight decent because taking part in it was exciting and watching people ski down was beautiful. Afterwards we all got delicious hot chocolate and danced to the music that was playing. We made loads of new friends from across the forms and even some from other schools!
