Rochdale school takes country’s first super-green award

St Edward’s CE Primary School, Rochdale has become one of the country's first super-green ambassador schools under the international Eco-Schools programme.

St Edward's School joined schools in Bromsgrove and Southampton as the first ambassador's for programme ahead of more than 15,000 Eco-Schools in England.

Andrew Suter Eco-Schools programme manager said: “These ambassador schools are evidence that schools, pupils and their families are at the heart of making green changes in our communities.

“Their spectacular work and their commitment to becoming sustainable is an example to us all and they should be incredibly proud of their successes.”

The free global programme helps almost 40,000 schools to think and act sustainably, from America to China, and in England more than 60% of all schools are working towards this goal.

The programme assesses a school's sustainable credentials across nine areas: litter, energy, water, waste, transport, healthy living, schools grounds, biodiversity and global perspective.

St Edward’s Headteacher, Lynne Coxell said: “We have been building towards this success for the last ten years, undertaking a host of projects such as free-roaming micro-pigs, lunches from the school vegetable patch and solar panels linked to the national grid.

“In our school, we’re particularly good at showing how we can make improvements in the school's performance through our commitment to being a green school. I am delighted that the energy and enthusiasm the whole school has shown for a sustainable future has now been rewarded with an Ambassador award.”

Ambassador schools are the programme's shining success stories and will undertake the practical role of sharing best practice with other schools in their area. They embody the ideal of what a green school should look and feel like and have impressed experts who view them as world-class examples of sustainable schools.

Rochdale Borough Council's Executive Director for Children's Services, Cheryl Eastwood said: “St Edward's School is leading the way to a cleaner, greener and sustainable future for the borough and I am immensely proud of the extraordinary range of work pupils, teachers and parents do in school and in their community. The Keep Britain Tidy Eco-School Ambassador Award is a wonderful achievement and recognition that St Edward’s is the best in the country at teaching future generations to become guardians of this precious world we share."