Oxgangs Primary School gathered out in the playground and in the environmental garden for a short speech and a symbolic green flag raising ceremony at the end of last week. Our photograph shows Leah (11) Beth (11) and Tiah (11) all members of the Eco Council at the school after they had successfully hoisted the flag in their eco garden at the school.
Eco Lead Coordinator Janet Buckle explained: “To gain our first green flag, we created an action plan in three areas. In our first area ,which was litter, we tried to reduce the amount of litter in the school buildings and within the school grounds. The children promoted this at Assemblies and we learned anti- litter songs. Our Primary three pupils took part in the annual Spring clean campaign and helped clean up our school grounds and the area around it. Litter surveys were completed to identify the litter ‘hot spots’.
“Our second area was energy and our target was to become more aware of energy conservation. Each class appointed energy monitors to switch off lights when leaving the class, energy reminder labels were made and displayed. The children created and promoted a Green Christmas campaign to encourage energy conservation at home. Each class took part in the school run Eco Day of Action and learnt about energy creation and conservation.
“The last area was transport, and the target was to encourage the children to walk to and from school and to promote safe cycling and scootering. Bike ability 1 practical workshops were delivered to all our middle years pupils last year and Bike Ability 2 was rolled out to all Primary six pupils. We created a new scooter storage facility. Edinburgh Council donated one free scooter pod and a successful Sustrans funding grant helped fund half the costs for a second pod. Our Parent Teachers Association and our Playground Development Group kindly donated the rest of the money and we now have a seconds pod. This has helped make scootering more popular and free up spaces in our bike shed for more bikes.
“All of our school community has been on an Eco journey and we are delighted to receive our green flag for all our hard work and continuing commitment and we are already working towards our second green flag with enthusiasm.”
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