Keep Scotland Beautiful, one of Scotland’s leading environmental charities, is delighted to have received grant funding from the Scottish Government to support their flagship environmental education programme, Eco-Schools Scotland.

Scotland is a world leader in the Eco-Schools programme, an international initiative of the Foundation for Environmental Education, which is designed to encourage whole-school action for the environment. Over 3,700 Scottish schools participate in the programme, engaging children and young people in key issues including the environment, sustainability, global citizenship and the value of a low carbon future. The Scottish Government is providing up to £1.3 million over the next 3 years to help ensure schools’ achievements in pupil-led, whole school approaches to sustainability are recognised and encouraged. 

Minister for Learning, Alasdair Allan said:

“Scotland is a leading country within the Eco-Schools movement and pupils are taking forward a wide range of initiatives to increase awareness and involvement in environmental and global citizenship issues in their schools and communities.

“I’m, therefore, pleased to announce the Scottish Government is continuing to fund Keep Scotland Beautiful to deliver this hugely popular programme.” 

“Over 98% of local authority schools are part of Eco-Schools with 40% holding the prestigious Green Flag Award and we want to build on that success.  We want our young people to develop as responsible global citizens with an awareness of how their actions affect their communities and the wider world. This is a key feature of Curriculum for Excellence and involvement with the Eco-Schools Scotland programme offers our young people some innovative new experiences and skills.”



Derek A. Robertson, Chief Executive of Keep Scotland Beautiful, said:

“Keep Scotland Beautiful is grateful for the continued support of the Scottish Government to help fund the Eco-Schools Scotland programme which is estimated to reach in excess of 760,000 pupils.  This announcement gives a sound basis for Keep Scotland Beautiful to work with partners and ensure that young people and schools continue to benefit from this world-leading programme.”

“2011 ended on a high for Eco-Schools Scotland, with more than 1,400 schools flying a Green Flag, and with confirmation of continued support from the Scottish Government for a further three years, we anticipate that 2012 will be even more memorable, with the anticipated award of our 1,500th Green Flag in the summer term.”

This continued funding to Keep Scotland Beautiful for the Eco-Schools programme highlights the Scottish Government’s on-going support for and commitment to sustainable development education. The fact that one of the categories in the Scottish Education Awards is the Sustainable School Award further emphasises this commitment.

Keep Scotland Beautiful is very much engaged in these Awards, as Eco-Schools Manager, Kate Campbell, is a judge in the Sustainable School category, something that she has been asked to be involved with since 2008. This year’s finalists are Bucksburn Academy, Aberdeen; Whitelees Primary School, Cumbernauld and Mayfield Primary School, North Ayrshire. The three schools are being judged this week by Ms Campbell and co-judge Susie Verden-Anderson from one of the Award sponsors, Caledonia Play.

Last year’s winner in this category was Garrowhill Primary School in Glasgow. Winning this category had a very positive impact on the school as head teacher, Richard Buchan, will testify:

“The staff, children and parents in Garrowhill were absolutely thrilled to be awarded the Sustainable Schools Award last year.  The Award was an excellent recognition of many years of our hard work, effort and commitment to promote sustainable education to all in our school community.   Being awarded the Sustainable School of Scotland was a very proud event and a wonderful boost to all of us. 

We have thoroughly enjoyed meeting and sharing our sustainable approaches with many other members of staff from around Scotland, raising our school’s profile.”