Following a successful Green Flag Award application by the ACHS Eco Club, Astley Community High School has achieved the  Eco-Schools Green Flag Award from Eco Schools, Keep Britain Tidy.

Congratulations to Mrs Keay and the ACHS Eco-School Club. 

Eco-club started in 2020 with a group of four year 13 students who attended every week plus a few students from other year groups who attended the main meetings.  Lots of staff were interested too so Mrs Keay set up a google classroom to keep everyone informed.

Initially Eco-club looked at reusing rubbish/left overs in craft projects and Eco-Crochet Club started! Fifteen students and staff were taught the basics of crochet and made crocheted roses that were sold to raise funds for Eco Club.

The core group of sixth form students did some litter picks around the school site. There were plans for a beach litter pick and a clothes drive but unfortunately lockdown 1 prevented those activities.

From September 2020 Eco-club meetings were difficult to hold so the year 9 form reps started planning a crisp packet project – then lockdown 3 happened before we could get going properly.

We have managed to run a colouring competition to design our eco-code plus year’s 11, 12 and 13 have been able to access mindful minute videos to help with their mental health.

The Eco Schools Green Flag Award is set up in three stages: Bronze, Silver and then the Green Flag.  The award application involved researching areas of the curriculum that had eco links, completing an environmental review of the school, forming an action plan and monitoring and evaluating each step of the process.

The Bronze and Silver Awards were self-assessed. For the Green Flag Award, Mrs Keay completed an assessment that was looked at externally by Eco-Schools, Keep Britain Tidy.

Future plans for Eco-club include:

The crisp packet project with year 9 – collecting foil lined crisp packets, cutting them open, washing and drying them and then sending them to a charity that turns them into blankets for the homeless.

A mindful minutes competition with year 11 form classes. 

Eco-club also hope to spend some time making the school site prettier with planters etc.