We are delighted that our Eco-Committee here at STAGS has been awarded the Eco-Schools Green Flag. We received some very positive feedback regarding our application and subsequent award that we'd like to share:

• It's wonderful that you have appointed such a large and representative Eco-Committee - STAGS Eco Council, this shows your school’s excellent commitment to both the programme and the         eco-cause
• It was wonderful to see how completing your Environmental Review helped to raise the level of awareness in your school and helped your Eco-Committee to identify the issues and spot gaps in your school's existing environmental activity. But equally important is that it helped you to recognise the great work that you were already doing. This helps to keep up the good activity whilst making you feel empowered to do different things. We love this! 
• We love the range of activities that you and your Eco-Committee planned for delivery. The fact that they cover a wide range of activities (energy Monitors and a ‘switch-off’ campaign, promoting increased recycling, re-usable cups and reducing packaging, collecting supplies for foodbanks and a Fair-Trade Fortnight) is excellent. Quite an ambitious list! It was also great to see accountability and monitoring and evaluation clearly marked in your Action Plan. Great work! You’ve clearly embedded the ethos of the Eco-Schools programme far and wide in your school! 
• We’re really impressed at how you’ve linked environmental issues to a variety of curriculum areas. We loved seeing the excellent examples of your teaching PowerPoints, Schemes of Work and photos of your pupil’s work and activities. This is a great example of layering in sustainability and climate change into your studies. We loved reading about how you had incorporated learning about global issues not only into the Geography and Science Curriculum (most common ones) in your school, but also into other areas such as English, Maths and D&T. Great work! 
• Your Eco-Board is great. Your board is incredibly visual and engaging and promotes your work in a very attractive way. It’s also good to see your Eco-Committee members on the board. This is a great way to raise their esteem and make their schoolmates feel like they can approach them and get involved with your Eco-Schools work! We love how active your Eco-Committee was in communicating their activities school-wide with both assembly and class feedback and use of the school bulletins, Google Classroom, emails, newsletter and social media as well as the Eco-board itself. These all combine to make a great approach! 
• We love that your pupils have taken their great work beyond the school gates and into their local community by planting trees for the Queen’s green Canopy Jubilee Appeal and an astonishing 650 saplings from Tree Appeal, for which we hear over a thousand Sponsored by TUSKER volunteers came in to help with – astonishing! We are certain that your pupils will have also greatly benefitted from your involvement with such outside organisations as the RSPB, The POD and the Trussell Trust FOOD Bank
• The parent quote is a great testament to the work that you are doing with your Eco-Committee, that they are taking their Eco-Schools work home with them and getting their families on board is something to be proud of! I hope you and your Eco-Committee take great pride in your achievements, when listed it's almost astonishing how many there are – however, the real improvements to your school environment with the various energy and waste saving and recycling initiatives and, most of all, your outstanding tree planting (we loved that) all nicely stand out! Everyone involved should be incredibly proud of the changes they have made. 
• We thought your Eco-Code was brilliant! It was punchy and really creative, setting out tangible and accessible calls to action your whole school can get behind! 

Congratulations to everyone for the great work you have managed to do, truly earning your Green Flag with considerable style. Indeed, your application stood out both for the range of activities and the huge variety of supporting evidence. You should all be very proud of your work and the application you have submitted!

We love your democratic and fair approach to appointing Eco-Committee members. It’s great to see that other pupils played a part in the process.
We love that you kept minutes from your meetings and that they helped to track, guide and prompt your activity, and thank you for including the excellent examples. It was great to see that young people were responsible for completing those meeting minutes – this helps them develop new skills! This is a mature and professional approach. Great work!

We continue to be committed to our sustainability objectives for the future. Our future plans can be viewed here.