Eco Schools

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Information to help your school achieve Green Flag status

Globally there are over 52,000 Eco-Schools from 67 different countries who have committed to making their school and community more environmentally friendly.

The Eco-Schools programme consists of 7 pupil-led elements encouraging primary and secondary schools to become more environmentally aware. The programme includes encouraging community involvement and making positive environmental change.

The Eco-Schools website provides a mass of helpful free resources available for download, to work through a series of self assessments for Bronze and Silver Awards before gaining the Green Flag!

Steps to gain your Green Flag…

  • Step 1: Form an Eco-Committee
  • Step 2: Complete Eco-Schools free Environmental Review
  • Step 3: Create an Action Plan
  • Step 4: Link Eco-Schools work to your school’s curriculum
  • Step 5: Inform and involve the wider school and community
  • Step 6: Monitor and Evaluate your Action Plan
  • Step 7: Create an Eco-Code for the school to follow

Visit the Eco-Schools website for more in depth step-to-step guidance.

7 Steps to Green Flag Success
Diagram of the 7 parts of an Eco schools Green Flag. These include: Eco-commitee, environmental review, action plan, link to the curriculum, inform and involve, monitor and evaluate, and eco-code.

How could Recycle Devon help your school achieve its Green Flag?

When it comes to thinking of ways to link some of the 10 eco-school topics to the curriculum, Recycle Devon offers workshops, school trip visits and free teaching resources supporting 3 of the Eco-School topics – which may help you achieve Green Flag status.

1) Waste2) Litter3) Marine
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In 2018, households in Devon threw away almost 360,000 tonnes of waste – of this, 56% is recycled, which is great news, until you realise that 156,423 tonnes of rubbish still needs to be disposed of. Previously, all of this waste would have been sent to landfill. In January 2019, waste from Devon stopped being sent to landfill – it’s either recycled or used to produce electricity in an Energy from Waste plant!

Schools can book a visit to our waste management facilities for year 4 and above.

  • At Pinbrook Recycling Centre children will learn how items are recycled depending on what material they are made from, how to identify properties of the rubbish and how this applies in a material recovery facility. The words used to describe the materials are from the National Curriculum.
  • Visiting the Energy from Waste plant will cement knowledge about what can be recycled and why it is important to think of ways to reduce, reuse, recycle or compost materials, rather than ending up in residual waste – burnt here for energy.

The visits are free of charge and link well with topics such as waste, energy production, looking after our World and recycling – so it would be possible to incorporate with lessons back at school!

Read Okehampton Primary School’s report when they visited Pinbrook Recycling Centre and Exeter Energy from Waste.

Energy from WasteSchool visit to Recycling Centre

Available to a few schools a year, our WOW programme will involve the whole school community in reducing waste and recycling/ composting more. The WOW programme is fully funded by Devon County Council so is FREE to participating schools.Waste Audit Activities

Every year our Waste Educators sign up specially selected schools to the WOW Programme, where they help schools reduce their waste. An audit is carried out of the school’s waste at the beginning and end of the year, they can have dramatic reductions in waste and massive increases in recycling.

Our audits and workshops support many aspects of the National Curriculum, engaging pupils through the use of topical environmental issues. WOW is the perfect ‘Waste’ project to help you earn your next Eco-Schools award.

Watch Tiverton High School conducting a litter audit:

Book a workshop with our experienced Waste Educators on the topic of litter. Devon County Council works with Resource Futures to deliver a wide range of workshops, assemblies, resources, training and visits to support teachers to embed the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) into the curriculum and everyday school life.

Plastic Pirates Materials Workshop MetalsMaterial World

Subscribe to our free Sustainability Bulletin!

We send out a Devon Schools Sustainability Bulletin every half term. It includes information and opportunities relating to school gardening, composting, funding, waste and recycling.

Keep up to date with events, activities and eco-news going on around the county.

Our litter page is full of information for teachers.

Download a set of five lesson plans about litter and the plastic pollution problem, along with PowerPoints you can use to help your teaching.

These lessons were written by a fully qualified teacher especially for schools in Devon. They cover several parts of the National Curriculum in KS2 Science, Geography, Literacy and Art and could form part of a topic on litter and plastic pollution, or be used as a weekly talking point or part of a half term’s unit on Sustainability.

Why not do a Beach Clean or Litter Pick with your class at the end of the topic?

Our Waste Education Team have sets of child-sized litter pickers that you can borrow whenever you would like to do a litter pick. Contact our your local Waste Educator or email Lucy Mottram on lucy.mottram@devon.gov.uk

Book a workshop with our experienced Waste Educators on the topic of litter. Devon County Council works with Resource Futures to deliver a wide range of workshops, assemblies, resources, training and visits to support teachers to embed the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) into the curriculum and everyday school life.

Litter in the environment (KS3/4): links to Geography, PSHE, Beliefs & Values.
Marine Litter (KS2): Links to Science, Geography, PSHE, Art & Literacy.

All details are located on the workshops webpage, including details of subsidies available for Devon Schools.

Children with recyclable material labels

This page compiles some of our favourite resources found elsewhere on the internet – offering free teaching resources and lesson plans on the topic of litter. From an 89-page guide on how to run a successful school litter campaign to other downloadable resources targeted at different age groups.

Book a workshop with our experienced Waste Educators on the topic of marine litter. Devon County Council works with Resource Futures to deliver a wide range of workshops, assemblies, resources, training and visits to support teachers to embed the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) into the curriculum and everyday school life.

  • Marine Litter (KS2): Links to Science, Geography, PSHE, Art & Literacy

  • All details are located on the workshop webpage including details of subsidies available for Devon schools.

Our litter page is full of information for teachers.

Download a set of five lesson plans about litter and the plastic pollution problem, along with PowerPoints you can use to help your teaching.

Written by a fully qualified teacher especially for schools in Devon and covering several parts of the National Curriculum in KS2 Science, Geography, literacy and Art, these lessons could form part of a week-long topic on litter and plastic pollution, or use them as a weekly talking point or part of a half term’s unit on Sustainability.

Why not do a Beach Clean or Litter Pick with your class at the end of the topic?

Join an organisation already doing beach cleans! Your local beach may already have regular volunteer led litter picks:

In Exmouth find beach cleans organised by Plastic Free Exmouth.

Dawlish has Dawlish Against Plastic.

If you’re in the South Hams check out Plastic Free Kingsbridge, Plastic Clever Salcombe and beach cleans organised by the National Trust, South West Coast Path and South Devon National Landscape (former AONB, among others.

Marine Conservation Society– beach clean event finder for school
groups. Sign up for a beach clean led by one of the Beachwatch volunteer organisers or register as one yourself!


2 minute foundation logo  #2minutebeachclean – The 2-Minute Foundation was founded in 2013 with a simple aim to help everyone be part of a movement to clean up the world – in only 2 minutes! Whether you join a 2 minute beach clean, do a 2-minute litter pick or want to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle the website can help you

national trust

The National Trust – keeping the South-West coast beautiful campaign organises beach cleans. This website allows you to sign up but also highlights some of the unusual litter items which have been found on the shores of Devon.

Watch CBBC Blue Peter, The Big Beach Clean:

This page compiles some of our favourite resources found elsewhere on the internet – offering free teaching resources and lesson plans on the topic of litter. From an 89-page guide on how to run a successful school litter campaign to other downloadable resources targeted at different age groups.

Case Studies

Many schools around Devon have been making changes to become more sustainable and reduce, reuse and recycle more. If you would like to read about some for inspiration for your own Eco-Schools project click here.

Alternatively, if you would like to tell us about any Eco-Schools work your school are doing – please contact us, we would love to hear about it!Impact Days

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