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For their first Green Flag Award, schools must deliver an effective litter prevention strategy and any two other environmental study topics outlined in the guide, or adopt a project or projects which combine overlapping elements of the six principles. (Litter must ALWAYS be addressed – a badly littered school will fail any Green Flag assessment.) The school must also undertake and produce a curricular audit of SDE inputs across the majority of subjects.
AN APPLICATION FOR A GREEN FLAG AWARD FROM A SECONDARY SCHOOL MIGHT TYPICALLY INCLUDE EVIDENCE FROM BOTH APPROACHES OUTLINED ABOVE.
Remember - it is the school which gets the award – not the Eco Committee. All activities going on in a school which contribute to SDE can be offered as evidence towards a Green Flag Award. The Eco Committee should both instigate environmentally friendly activities and also coordinate evidence from other groups across the school such as Fair Trade groups.
The ultimate aim is to become a school where sustainability simply becomes the norm and an accepted part of the school ethos.
We recommend that secondary pupils be offered the opportunity to receive recognition for the work they do within Eco-Schools through some form of accreditation of wider learning.
A school which provides pupils with any form of accreditation of this nature will be allowed to offer this information as part of their evidence towards Green Flag status.
There are several avenues through which this may be achieved.
1 - SQA National Qualification – “Working with Others” Intermediate 1 – Sustainable Development (work in progress – schools will be advised when this is available to pupils)
Working with Others helps pupils develop skills in planning and carrying out projects in small groups, sharing out tasks and responsibilities.
This is the essence of the Eco-Schools programme – identifying an environmental need or issue, breaking down the task into manageable elements and allocating the tasks to group members on the basis of their individual strengths.
Eco Schools Scotland have commissioned Continuing Education Gateway to produce an on-line assessment instrument which will allow pupils to record and store their evidence centrally (a sort of diary of events) which can be verified at the end of the year for SQA recognition and certification.
2 - Millennium Volunteers Certification – Volunteer Development Scotland.
Millennium Volunteers are young people aged 16-25 who offer their time to support voluntary activities – such as Eco-Schools.
Certificates are offered for 50, 100, 200 etc hours of volunteering and signed by an appropriate MSP.
VDS has developed a ‘passport’ to Millennium Volunteer Certification which is available to young people through their website. Young people can register with the MV website, record their volunteering hours and have these validated by a designated teacher/staff member towards their first and subsequent MV certificates.
3 - Other Accredited Activities with possible SDE Inputs
Duke of Edinburgh Award
Many schools offer the Duke of Edinburgh award as part of their extended curriculum. The ‘service’ element of the scheme may involve some form of environmental improvement/sustainable communities work and as such can be acknowledged for Eco-Schools purposes. Similarly the Gold Level ‘residential project’ may be an environmental activity and also recognised by Eco-Schools.
Xlerate with XL
This is the Scottish version of the Prince’s Trust ‘XL Clubs’ and is supported by the Scottish Government and Young Enterprise. Certification is provided through the ASDAN Xl award or SQA Personal and Social Education Units. Xl Clubs in Scottish secondaries have already used sustainability projects such as recycling as part of these programmes.
Careers Scotland ‘Activate’ Programme
This programme is aimed at potential school leavers in S3/4 in secondary schools. Amongst the development projects included in the programme is an ‘enterprise’ activity. This could well be an appropriate environmental improvement activity.
Skill Force
This programme aims to build young people’s self confidence and employability skills. It offers a number of activities led by former military personnel including Duke of Edinburgh Award at bronze level. Again it is possible that some activities have an environmental theme supporting Eco-School’s aims.
The John Muir Trust
The Trust offers certificates to pupils in those schools who have registered and participate in a number of environmental activities.
SQA Skills for Work – “Rural Skills” and “Energy”
The Rural Skills programme has elements of environmental protection and pupils can find themselves involved in activities such as footpath management and erosion control. The new Energy programme will have units on domestic wind turbines and solar hot water systems as well as an optional unit on ‘Energy and the Individual’. Courses of this nature can be included as part of a Secondary School’s evidence towards Green Flag status. |
