Todholm pupils awarded their fourth flag

The grass is greener — and so is the environment — at one Paisley school after it scooped a prestigious accolade.

Todholm Primary School and Nursery is now flying its fourth Eco-Schools Scotland Green Flag Award.

Kids on the eco- committee have been working tirelessly for two years to make the campus in Lochfield Road a cleaner and greener place.

Primary three teacher and committee member Lauren Blake told the Express she couldn’t be more proud of the Paisley pupils.

“Getting our fourth Green Flag Award is just brilliant,” she said.

“This is the culmination of two years of hard work from our ecocommittee, the rest of the children, staff and parents. “It’s been a real team effort. “We’re all very proud.” One child from the nursery and a pupil from each year group at Todholm was selected to take on the role of committee member two years ago.

From there, the pupils came up with lots of initiatives to drive home the message of being eco-friendly.

From designing posters to giving talks to the whole school and picking up litter to growing their own vegetables, the mini Buddies have been busy bees and now their hard work has paid off.

“We found out we had one the award last Monday when the flag arrived,” Laura added.

“It was hoisted straight away and it looks great.”

The Green Flag Award is an initiative from Beautiful Scotland.

The environmental campaign is run in partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society and supports community groups across Scotland as they seek to improve and enhance their local environment.

Todholm achieved its fourth Green Flag by meeting the criteria of seven elements, which includes forming a committee, presenting ideas to the whole school and linking ideas to the curriculum.

It’s an internationally recognised accreditation for excellence in sustainable development education.

Although celebrations are still in full swing, Lauren said they are already looking to future awards.

“Now we just need to work on our next flag,” she said.

“It’s important to improve on the work we’ve already done.”

To find out more about the Green Flag Award, visit www. keepscotlandbeautiful.org