Great Marlow is a Green Flag school: it was accredited with the prestigious Eco-Schools Green Flag in 2022. Following a seven-step framework that guided, empowered and motivated GMS students and staff to improve environmental awareness in school, local community and beyond, the Green Flag is ours to proudly proclaim.
Eco-Schools is not a new organisation it was founded in 1994, now operates in 70 countries and engages 19.5 million young people globally. This makes Eco-Schools the largest educational programme on the planet and GMS are delighted to be recognised by them.
Following an in-depth review by the Eco School’s Green Flag committee, it praised GMS for achieving the following.
- GMS’s large Eco-Committee: this showed the school’s outstanding commitment to both the programme and the Eco-cause.
- Wide student participation: students were praised for taking minutes, which has developed new skills while promoting student ownership of the Eco-Schools programme.
- GMS’s Environmental Review. This document was founded upon rich discussions that raised awareness of gaps in the school’s existing environmental activity, while recognising the great work already underway.
- The Action Plan: going forward the comprehensive Action Plan set out aspirational goals in a far-ranging number of activities including litter picking; building wildlife homes for insects and hedgehogs; documenting accountability; monitoring and evaluating.
- Environmental Issues and the curriculum: by making eco-links across the curriculum, climate change is being tackled in a holistic way, leading to a better understanding and appreciation of the enormity of the issue.
- The Eco-Committee’s Communication: members were constantly kept up to date through emails, assemblies and the school website. Together these have embedded a strong commitment of the school to the Eco-programme long term.
- Engagement with the Local and National Eco Projects. This included being involved with Solar for Schools, Wild Marlow, and planting trees with the Woodland Trust.
- GMS’s Eco-Code: glowing praise of the school’s Eco-Code included this, ‘Brilliant and stunning to look at! … punchy and really creative, setting out tangible and accessible calls to action that the whole school could get behind.’
GMS and our wider GMS community are hugely proud of the students who have engaged so willingly to achieve this accreditation and in doing so have made our school more eco-aware, more eco-friendly and more eco-environmental.
We are immensely proud of our vibrant Eco-Movement at GMS and readily report on all main events in our news and events section on the website.
Eco Conference March 2024
Eco-Warriors
The Eco-Warriors at GMS are a team of students who are passionate about the environment. They understand the importance of preserving and taking care of the resources we have. In school they have a ‘hands-on’ approach to becoming more ‘green’, they work together as a team on projects like the garden, pond and litter collecting. They have enhanced the beauty of the school grounds.
In our school you will see the Eco Warriors:
- Thinking of new ideas to improve how our school and community look after the world around us
- Encouraging children, teachers and the local community to recycle
- Reflecting on how much energy we use and thinking about ways we can use less
- Finding out about and sharing information about how the decisions and actions we make today can affect the planet in the future
