Stow primary school eco-committee

Staff and pupils at Stow Primary School near Galashiels are celebrating as they join the other twelve schools across the Scottish Borders to be awarded the highest level award from Eco-Schools – the Green Flag. 

The school has been working hard towards the much sought after Green Flag since they first made it onto the eco-schools ladder in July 2006 with a silver award.    Since then, the school has continued to drive forward their commitment to the environment with individual class involvement as well as whole-school participation in a wide range of projects, events and activities. 

The school appoints a new committee every year to develop new ideas and encourage whole-school participation in eco-schools.  This year alone the school has started to focus on their school grounds and biodiversity as well as continuing with their projects based on litter, waste minimisation and safer routes to school.

Acting Principal Teacher Susan Graham is delighted with the school’s achievement: “The staff and children at Stow are really enthusiastic about the environment with a huge range of different activities ongoing from litter-picking days and recycling activities to gardening activities to walk to school events.  The school has implemented various other activities such as developing a ‘Coat Peg Award’ to keep the inside of the school tidy and writing and showcasing a ‘washy squashy’ song about helping the environment.  I am really pleased all this hard work has paid off and we will now look forward to maintaining this standard into the future.”

The school has developed a new garden and vegetable plot with a viewing platform, wormery and composter. They have also worked in conjunction with Borders Forest Trust to develop Forest Schools and Kindergarten projects and P1/2 recently received a John Muir discovery level award for their commitment to the environment and conservation.