School earns its seventh eco flag
Pupils at Linlithgow Bridge Primary School are celebrating after being awarded their seventh Green Flag from Eco Schools Scotland.
The award recognises the work of the school community in helping pupils make a positive difference to their environment and the children have been learning about the small things they can do to make a difference by living in a more sustainable way.
Over the last two sessions the school has focussed on three Eco Schools topics; litter, energy and transport.
As part of their work in the litter topic the Eco Committee carried out a litter pick in the school grounds.
The litter collected was shown to all the pupils at assembly and they were reminded how important it was to put litter in the bins provided.
A second litter pick was completed and this showed that there had been a reduction in the litter being dropped in the playground.
In addition to this P6 pupils carried out a litter pick in the area surrounding the school as reducing the litter in and around the school ensures a nice area for pupils and for the wildlife that visits the grounds.
Activities relating to the energy topic included pupils noting down when they had used energy before, during and after school.
They learned that by making small changes such as turning the heating down by a degree or two, taking shorter showers and switching lights off when leaving rooms they could save energy and make a big difference to the price of energy bills.
During vertical learning the children were also introduced to the sustainable development goals. These goals aim to make the world a healthier and fairer place for all.
A spokesperson for the school said: “When learning about clean and affordable energy (sustainable development goal number 7) we discovered that quarter of the world’s population does not have access to energy.
“The aim of this sustainable development goal is to make sure everyone has access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services.
“We can make a difference by making these goals famous and ensuring governments do all they can to achieve these goals by 2030.
“As part of our work within the transport topic we have tried to reduce the congestion around the school gates.
“We approached Aldi and B& M to seek permission for parents to park in their car parks allowing pupils to park and stride to school.
“We then created posters encouraging parents and pupils to park then walk to school.
“A new verse for our Eco Rap was created to reflect the work we were doing in relation to transport.
“In addition to this pupils wrote to Ineos to ask what they did to help take care of the environment when producing petrol and diesel for our cars.
“Our assessment report from Eco Schools Scotland said that our Eco Schools journey demonstrated our ‘ passion and motivation in making our environment a sustainable and vibrant place to learn’.
“We hope to continue to make a difference by continuing our Eco Schools journey by focussing on the topics litter, health and wellbeing and biodiversity over the next two sessions.”