Our Eco-Schools are going marine

Our thousands of Eco-Schools are already doing amazing things to cut litter, end waste and improve their local spaces across the country. The very best ones are flying the international Green Flag award, and the others are working towards this prestigious award. 

Step-by-step, pupils take the lead in improving the sustainability and biodiversity of their schools, families and communities - choosing to work on a diverse range of topics from their school grounds and healthy living to global citizenship and transport. And now, to coincide with World Oceans Day, we are delighted to launch a brand new topic for our Eco-Schools to work on - the marine topic. 

At such an exciting time for Eco-Schools (we've not launched a new topic in over a decade) we asked the Eco-Schools team to tell us more...

Why did you want to launch a new topic, and why pick the marine topic?
Eco-Schools team: "‘Eco-Schools said. We did’ Eco-Schools have been submitting Green Flag applications that included ‘marine’ actions under the Litter, Biodiversity, Waste and Global Citizenship topics for over a year now.

"To quote one Eco-School ‘we were ahead of Attenborough.’ We also have some amazing Eco-Schools who have held a Green Flag for over 12 years and we wanted to give them something new to help reinvigorate the programme in their school."

I don’t know much about the sea, will you have new resources and guidance to help me?
Eco-Schools team: "Of course, we’ve updated our Environmental Review and watch this space for LOTS of exciting new Eco-Schools resources to help with all of the Seven Steps coming in the new academic year.

"Don’t forget to look at our new Marine Pinterest Board for inspiration too and we always encourage schools to share their work with us on Twitter @EcoSchools. We expect there will be some fantastic actions we could never have dreamt of- that’s what’s great about letting students decide on their Eco-Schools actions."

But my school isn’t by the sea, can I still get involved?
Eco-Schools team: "Wherever we live, our actions and choices affect the sea – what we buy, what we do, what we flush and what we eat. And, as no one in England lives more than 70 miles from the coast, what you do in your inland Eco-School is just as important as the work carried out by coastal Eco-Schools."

We already discuss marine topics in our lessons, can we include this in our Eco-Schools work?
Eco-Schools team: "Yes please, if you are already discussing marine issues in lessons, this is fantastic for Step 6 (linking to the curriculum). Don’t forget to talk to your colleagues about what they are already doing about marine issues in their lessons- it will definitely be covered in Geography."

And finally, we asked the team for their favourite marine locations?
Lee: I live near Ullswater Lake in Cumbria, so I’m very biased. We love a good family stone skimming contest; it’s a bit cold for paddling though.
Karyn: The banks of the River Avon as it is so picturesque and peaceful.
Francis: The River Mersey, as it is the heart of the best city in the world and has a catchy theme tune.

We can't wait to hear about the amazing things our Eco-Schools - from nurseries to colleges - are achieving as they work on the new marine topic.