Thumbs up for green flag
Published 7 Oct 2011 09:30
IT may have been mucky, but the hard work has paid off for a posse of pint-sized Erskine eco warriors, who recently earned their prestigious Green Flag award.
The youngsters at the St Anne's Primary School nursery class have poured hours of hard work into a host of eco-projects, working outdoors, fundraising for a school in Kenya, and even looking after their own butterflies in school.
The class and staff were commended by judges for the way they had integrated eco-studies into the school.
But the Erskine nursery isn't in a class of its own, with Johnstone's Auchenlodment Primary nursery also hoisting their own Green Flag high.
In awarding the sought after flag, Eco Schools Scotland judges praised the "Titchmarsh-tots" for the range of projects launched in the past year, as they took full advantage of their surroundings to learn about the environment.
The youngsters used the woodland behind the school as a forest school site and created gardens and wild places throughout the grounds.
Managing Director of The Green Insurance Company June Lynch, said: "We've been supporting the Eco Schools Scotland programme for a year now and we're always impressed with the work nursery classes and early years centres are doing to introduce environmental learning to young children. We send our congratulations to the Auchenlodment and St Anne's nursery classes for achieving their Green Flag status.
"The work the children and teachers have done to set up their projects has been fantastic and we hope all the children enjoyed working on it."
Kate Campbell, Manager of Eco Schools Scotland, said: "We were very impressed with the efforts of the Renfrewshire nursery classes in producing a diverse range of wonderful environmental projects.
"Our new early years materials aim to introduce eco topics to our very youngest children and hopefully encourage their environmentally friendly behaviours to continue throughout their lives.
"The nurseries who have achieved Green Flag status are a great example of how these materials can help to achieve that."
Since the launch of the partnership in August 2010, over 150 nurseries have achieved their Green Flag status across Scotland.
This article appeared in The Gazette 06 Oct 11
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