School nominated for green award after banning plastics

A Perthshire school, which encouraged pupils to wear vintage clothing and banned single-use plastic, is in the running for a top environmental prize.

Kilgraston, at Bridge of Earn, is a finalist in the nationwide Independent School Parent Schools of the Year 2019 awards.

Judges are scrutinising more than 200 entries across 18 different categories.

Kilgraston School, which has been nominated for the environmental award, has been campaigning to raise awareness and actively promote environmental concerns and solutions.

Head Dorothy Macginty said: “Naturally we are absolutely delighted that the work of our school community has been nationally recognised.”

The school hosted a Wear It Again day earlier this year, when all 260 pupils were encouraged to come to lessons in vintage clothing. The aim of the event was to highlight the fact that more than 300,000 tonnes of wasted clothes are sent to landfill sites every year.

Single-use plastic was also banned from the campus and a 100-point challenge was initiated by pupils to look at ways that they could change their daily habits to have less impact on their immediate environment.

During classroom research into avian references by William Shakespeare, students also discovered that nearly 50% of the birds mentioned by the Bard in his various plays and sonnets now appear on the RSPB’S endangered list.

The award winners will be announced at a ceremony in Knightsbridge, London, on Monday October 7.