The winter months can be a wonderful time of year. People of all faiths get together with their families to celebrate important dates in their religious calendar, exchange presents and enjoy good food. Our towns and cities look lovely with their colourful lights and our trees and lochs have a special kind of beauty when the snow and frost come!
   
This time of year is also, however, a time for people to think about what they've achieved over the past year and to make plans for the next. If you're stuck for ideas for a New Year's resolution, why not think about ways in which you can be more eco-friendly? There's no time like the present (no pun intended!), so why not start by having an ecofriendly Christmas and New Year?
   
We hope these ideas provide some inspiration to get you started and please do let us know of any other wasteminimisation ideas you come up with.
   
Just say no!
We all know the three 'Rs' to help us reduce the amount of waste we generate -Reduce, Reuse and Recycle - but we'd like to introduce a fourth 'R' which is particularly appropriate at this time of year! The fourth 'R' is Refuse!
   
– Refuse to buy gifts and food items that are over-packaged. Packaging creates huge amounts of waste but manufacturers will soon get the idea if we refuse to buy products because of the amount of packaging they come in!
   
– Refuse carrier bags when you can. Don't take a carrier bag every time you're offered one. Put a couple of spare bags in your pockets before you go shopping. Better still; why not invest in a carrier bag made from natural materials such as cotton?
   
– Refuse to buy food that has travelled thousands of miles. Much of our food is flown into the country from around the world. Can you imagine how many aeroplanes are needed to do this? That's a lot of air pollution! Why not see if you can get food that's produced locally? It's fresher, usually cheaper, better for the environment and you'll be supporting local producers and businesses.
   
Eco-friendly Christmas ideas...
– Cards...
Send e-cards!
Make your own cards from junk materials.
Recycle your cards. If you are sending new cards, make sure they’re made from recycled paper.
   
– Christmas trees...
Buy a ‘living’ Christmas tree in a pot! You can reuse it every year until it gets too big then plant it in your garden or school grounds. Try to source a tree that’s been grown locally.
Make your own ‘tree’ out of junk materials! Why not have a competition to see whose is best?
   
– Decorations and wrapping...
Save up scraps of coloured paper and card (from paper pads, cereal boxes) throughout the year to make your own decorations. Draw different shapes on the card (eg stars, trees, snowmen).
Buy re-useable gift bags.
You can make your own wrapping paper from junk materials or coloured paper scraps.
Save the wrapping paper your gifts come in and use it again next year.
   
– Responsible Shopping...
Buy recycled goods wherever possible.
Buy products with natural ingredients. Cosmetics can be full of artificial chemicals that build up in the body and can affect the hormonal system.
If you buy electrical goods as presents, look for items that run off mains electricity rather than batteries. Toys that wind up or use recharge-able batteries are also a good idea.
   
– Look after yourself and others...
Remember to donate any unwanted gifts to a charity.
Give a goat... a well... or a toilet! The money you donate will go towards helping communities in the developing world.
Adopt an animal such as a turtle or dolphin or even a tree.
Give Your Time - why not offer to do the washing up every night, take someone’s dog for a walk once a week or work in their garden instead of giving a present?
   
A Cool Yule to one and all!

(December 2005)

   
Pupils from Inveraray Primary School today showed Rhona Brankin, the Deputy Minister for Environment and Rural Development, that learning outdoors can be fun as she took part in a game using birds, worms and insects to teach maths. The Deputy Minister visited the school to launch the new Eco Schools Scotland Biodiversity Module, which encourages schools to investigate the diversity of life on the planet at both a local and global level.
   
Joining pupils outdoors for their maths lesson, Rhona Brankin said: "It is vital that both children and adults are aware of the impact their actions can have on the environment. The Eco Schools programme makes an important contribution to achieving this awareness by encouraging young people to learn about and improve their environment and to live in a more sustainable way. The new Biodiversity module of the Eco Schools Handbook will enable pupils to learn about the environment in a way that is fun and interesting. Educating young people now about their impact on the environment is crucial to the preservation of biodiversity in future years."
   
Kate Campbell, Manager of Eco Schools Scotland, added: "We are delighted to launch this new Biodiversity Module as an addition to the existing seven Eco Schools environmental topics and we thank the Scottish Executive for its support and funding. It is vital that our young people value and appreciate the environment in which they live in as they are its custodians for the future. We hope that the new module will prove interesting and fun for all those who take this new topic onboard. We are looking forward to working with local authorities and teachers over the coming months to develop and implement some exciting, new CPD opportunities linked to the new module.”
   
For more information on the Eco Schools Scotland programme log on to: www.ecoschoolsscotland.org

(October 2005)

   
A Sustainable Development in Education conference was held in Stirling, Scotland at the beginning of June to celebrate the launch of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. During the conference, Peter Peacock, the Scottish Executive Minister for Education and Young People, reiterated the Scottish Executive's commitment and support for the Eco Schools programme in Scotland by stating that the Eco Schools programme was 'A fantastic programme, doing truly wonderful things'. Mr Peacock then went on to say that: 'At present 65% of schools - around 1,950 - are registered Eco Schools. This is good, but not good enough. We are actively working towards having 80% of all schools registered on the Eco Schools Programme by January 2008.'
We're delighted to announce that since the minister's speech, another 70 Schools have signed up to the Eco Schools programme here in Scotland.This means that we now have over 2,000 schools registered on the Scottish Eco Schools programme.
We also recently celebrated another 'milestone' with the award of our 200th Green Flag. Fir Park School in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, a special school for pupils aged 3-18, became the 200th Scottish School to be awarded its Green Flag. We're delighted by the school's success, which further demonstrates that the Eco Schools programme is a truly inclusive initiative suitable for pupils of all ages and abilities. This fantastic achievement recognises the hard work and determination of pupils towards implementing a more sustainable way of life and our assessors were very impressed by the way in which pupils and staff had integrated eco activities into their curriculum. Pupils were working on 'enterprise' projects which involved selling notepads and greetings cards crafted from their own hand-made paper and have set up their own eco website. They had also started a healthy-eating tuckshop serving a variety of fruit and healthy snacks and the whole building was filled with posters and photographs depicting the school's commitment to the Eco Schools programme.
We're now into the new school term and with 27 Green Flag assessments already in our diaries, it may not be too long before we're celebrating the award of our 300th Green Flag. Watch this space…!
   
For more information on the Eco Schools programme in Scotland, log on to www.ecoschoolsscotland.org
To see the Fir Park Eco Site, log on to http://firparkeco.freewebpage.org/index.html
The Scottish Executive are fully committed to and fund the Eco Schools programme in Scotland: (www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2005/01/19165201
www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/921/0013242.doc)

(August 2005)

   
Following her attendance at the Scottish Eco Schools 100th Green Flag celebratory event in Glasgow in November 2004, Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth in North Lanarkshire, Cathie Craigie, was so impressed she submitted a motion to the Scottish Parliament. The motion read - "That the Parliament recognises the importance of education in raising environmental awareness; notes the continuing and growing success of the Eco Schools programme, run in Scotland by Keep Scotland Beautiful; encourages the Scottish Executive to give continued support to the programme, and congratulates Whitelees Primary School in Cumbernauld on being the 100th school in Scotland to be awarded a Green Flag".

   
To the delight of the Scottish Eco Schools team, the motion was selected for debate. So on Wednesday 19 February 2005, around a dozen MSP's debated the programme and discussed the achievements of schools in their constituencies. Following the debate, Ms Craigie hosted a reception in the Parliament which was attended by MSP's including First Minister Jack McConnell and Minister for Children and Education, Peter Peacock, supporters of Eco Schools and pupils and teachers from Whitelees Primary School (the 100th Green Flag school in Scotland) as well as other schools from Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire.
   
Funding has now been secured by Keep Scotland Beautiful to run the Eco Schools programme in Scotland over the next three years. Both the Education and Environmental and Rural Affairs Departments of the Scottish Executive will fund a total of £225,000 to the programme per year till the end of 2007/08. The funding and recognition in the Parliament is excellent news for the programme in Scotland and stands it in good stead for the future.

(February 2005)

   
At a special event at the Glasgow Science Centre, Scotland, on Friday 5 November, the Scottish Eco Schools team, along with invited guests, celebrated ten years of Eco Schools and the nations 100th awarded Green Flag. The event was hosted by Dougie Vipond, BBC television personality; Kate Campbell, Eco Schools Manager in Scotland and Lewis Foggin, a Primary 7 pupil from the 100th awarded school, Whitelees Primary School from North Lanarkshire. The celebration was attended by almost 200 guests from Green Flag awarded schools, Local Authorities, Non Governmental Organisations (NGO’s), charities and other bodies that support the programme in Scotland.
   
Guests were welcomed to the IMAX theatre by Emma Campbell, head girl from Currie Community High School in Edinburgh. The screen at the IMAX theatre used was the equivalent height of five double-decker busses! The sheer scale of it allowed three digital projectors to work simultaneously to keep the audience entertained. After weeks of organising, the scene was set for an enjoyable, inspiring and thought provoking morning. The first presentation came from pupils attending a secondary school for young people with moderate learning difficulties, St Joan of Arc School in Glasgow. To start, thirteen of them, along with some of their teachers, entertained the audience with their eco song. Following this, whilst the others listened and watched intently, two pupils (pictured below) guided the audience through a presentation showing the eco work they have done in their school. Unfortunately, the Scottish Minister for the Environment and Rural Affairs cancelled at the last minute so Jan Eriksen, President of FEE, who was visiting Scotland for the event, followed St Joan of Arc’s presentation by accepting the honour of awarding Whitelees Primary School form North Lanarkshire in Central Scotland with the 100th Scottish Eco Schools Green Flag award. To rapturous applause, the eco committee form Whitelees took to the stage to accept their special certificate and flag. They actually gained their award back in June but they have been patiently waiting for five months to fly the flag at their school! Following the Green Flag presentation, two girls and one boy from Whitelees took to the stage to present a hilarious play written to show how eco messages learned in school can be brought home to teach parents and relatives the benefits of being eco friendly. When the play had finished, the three pupils were joined on stage by their classmates to sing their eco song. Their head teacher also joined in by dancing at the back of the theatre to keep them all in time!
   
Four pupils from the first Green Flag awarded school in Stirling, Gartmore Primary School, followed by conducting a presentation detailing their eco activities. They finished by showing a video of their fellow school-mates doing their eco rap in their different teams covering all seven of the eco topics worked on in Scotland. Mr Eriksen then took to the stage again, this time to describe who FEE are and the international nature of the Eco Schools programme. His presentation was especially welcomed by the representative’s from organisations that support the Eco Schools team in Scotland. Following feedback from delegates, the team in Scotland are now going to look more proactively into expanding international links within the programme. Pupils from Currie Community High School in Edinburgh carried out the last presentation of the morning. The showed the work that they have done in the school and introduced different projects, such as the rotational Education for Sustainable Development course offered to pupils in S1 and S2 as part of the Sustainable Secondary Schools Project (SSSP). Closing the morning celebrations, Lewis Foggin presented Jan Eriksen with a specially engraved traditional Scottish quaich as a mark of thanks for travelling to Scotland for the event. Guests were then invited to stay for lunch then visit some of the attractions, including a climate change show in the Science Centre.
   
To date, 119 Scottish schools have gained a first Green Flag. Over 1600 schools and nurseries and some 450,000 pupils from Shetland to Dumfries and Galloway are participating in the programme. This represents 50% of all schools and nurseries in Scotland. The programme is still expanding rapidly in Scotland and a busy 2005 is being predicted by the team. Here’s to the 200th, 300th and 400th… Green Flag awarded schools in Scotland!

(November 2004)

New Handbook launched in Scotland

   
Schools and nurseries registered with Eco Schools in Scotland now have a new exciting handbook to help them progress towards their Green Flag awards. Funded by the Scottish Executive Education Department, the handbook has developed from the current UK material to, amongst other things, expand on the topic of biodiversity, develop a thread of global citizenship throughout whilst contain a wealth of good practice examples from schools throughout Scotland who have already gained Green Flag status. It was developed over a number of months and was written and produced by a collaborative process with contributions from many individuals and organisations covering all seven of the core UK Eco Schools topics. The handbook was launched by Mr Michael McMahon MSP on Friday 24 October 2003 at Keir Hardie Memorial Primary School in North Lanarkshire (Keir Hardie were recently awarded their third Green Flag, becoming one of only six schools in Scotland to hold such an award). During the launch the pupils at the school and invited guests heard kind words of support from Charles Gray, Education Convenor and Ellen Doherty, Education Officer, both from North Lanarkshire Council. In her speech, Mrs McClean, Head Teacher of the school told everybody gathered what it really is to be an Eco School. Very interesting and excellent to hear how well Eco Schools help to develop the ethos of a school for the better. To finish things off, everyone was then treated to a rendition of a poem 'Messy Mike and Tidy Tim' followed by the Keir Hardie Eco Schools Rap.

   
At the end of July 2002, 268 schools were registered on the programme in Scotland. At the end of July this year, the figure stands at 909. Excellent! This represents 28% of all schools in Scotland. Awards are also booming. 111 schools have now achieved bronze, 38 silver, 58 first Green Flag, 12 second, 6 third and 3 permanent (achieved after gaining fourth Green Flag) awards have been presented to schools. The three permanent awarded schools, Lunnasting Primary, Mossbank Primary and Olnafirth Primary, all from the Shetland Isles, recently attended a Parliamentary Reception at the House of Commons in London where their hard work over the past eight years was recognised by MP’s. Also, during a visit to Scotland, Prince Charles visited Tobermory High School on the Island of Mull. Whilst visiting the school, through his own personal interest, he specifically requested that the children tell him of their work regarding Eco Schools. Fantastic recognition for the schools and the programme as a whole.
   
We now have three full time members of staff in our team. During the summer holidays each of us have specific projects on the go including developing links with schools in Kenya, possible links with organisations in New Zealand and Australia, working on the Save the North Sea Project and setting up in-house support and information systems for schools as the programme rapidly develops. The Save the North Sea project is a co-operative project between non-profit organisations, companies, political organisations and government agencies who are concerned about the rising levels of marine litter in the North Sea. Ten schools in Shetland, Orkney and on the North Sea coast of the Scottish mainland have been chosen to integrate the SNS ethos into their Eco Schools activities. This work will hopefully start in August after the school holidays.
   
Our new Scottish handbook is nearly ready. It’s looking good! We have also started to produce a quarterly newsletter (if you wish to be included on our mailing list, e-mail jamie.pearson@encams.org) while our new Scottish video has also been in great demand. Schools achieving bronze or above have also been finding our £250 development grant (made available through the Scottish Executive) helpful for expanding their activities. We now have links with all 32 Local Authorities. Many are exceeding all expectations with registrations and awards. Dumfries & Galloway a prime example with almost 100% of all schools registered on the scheme. Our contact with Non Governmental Organisations is also developing. Many bodies are now contacting us to see how they can help schools! Eco Schools in Scotland truly is at an exciting stage.

(July 2003)

   
The 2002 Eco-Schools International Conference and Meeting of National Programme Managers was held in the beautiful city of Edinburgh, capital of Scotland. Programme Coordinators from 24 countries, from as far away as Iceland to Turkey and from Norway to South Africa, participated, as well as the European Coordinators for two other school-based programmes of FEE – Young Reporters for the Environment and Learning About Forests. The opening ceremony included addresses from Prof Graham Ashworth, President of FEE, Dr Strike Mkandla, Head of Technical Cooperation with the Division of Environmental Policy Implementation of UNEP, Mr Philip Rycroft, Head of Schools Group of the Scottish Executive, and Mr Sérgio Santos, International Coordinator for Eco-Schools. The event was hosted and sponsored by the Scottish Executive and the UK Eco-Schools Programme (Environmental Campaigns), in collaboration with Keep Scotland Beautiful.
   
On Thursday, some delegates visited two Scottish Eco-Schools: Portobello, and Currie Community High Schools. On Friday, the programme included presentations from the Scottish Executive, Local Authorities and teachers on Eco-Schools in Scotland: “a successful case of multi-level institutional support”, final demonstration of two significant online projects before their official launch (Linking & Itinerary; and Environmental Performance Indicators), workshops on global citizenship education as appropriate through the Eco-Schools programme, and discussion about International projects and initiatives. There was also an Eco-Schools “fair”, with stalls where national programme Coordinators were able to demonstrate the materials and resources made available to schools in their respective countries. The Scottish Eco-Schools video was shown to the audience. The formal meeting of Eco-Schools Programme Managers was held on Saturday.
   
The event was very successful, and the Coordination expresses thanks to the hosts and sponsors which made the event possible, constructive and interesting. In addition to the work programme, delegates were also treated to a reception with the teachers from the visited schools, and a trip to a local brewery to participate in a “ceilidh”, a session of high-energy Scottish country dancing!

(October 2002)

   
First Minister Jack McConnell today made a firm personal commitment to make sure that the voices of Scotland’s young people are heard at this summer’s World Summit on Sustainable Development. The First Minister met with primary school pupils from Shetland who won a WWF competition on green energy and received £15,000 to construct their own wind turbine. He asked Stephanie Wiseman (aged 12), who will represent the WWF in Johannesburg as an ‘Earth Champion’, for the views she is collecting from Scotland’s young people on environmental issues.
   
Confirming that he will attend the Summit, Mr McConnell said: "Young people are acutely aware that the decisions adults make today on sustainable development can leave an environmental legacy that could impact on the rest of their lives. I am determined that the voices of Scotland’s young people are heard at the World Summit."
   
Jack McConnell outlined four areas of action to put young people at the heart of Scotland’s involvement in the World Summit:
- The First Minister will help Stephanie in her preparations for the World Summit;
- The First Minister will ask Stephanie to be a core member of Scotland’s civic delegation;
- The First Minister will meet with Stephanie in South Africa and pay a visit with her to a school running the Eco Schools programme;
- The First Minister will help Stephanie report back to Scotland’s young people on the World Summit.
   
The First Minister added: "Too often lip service has been paid to views of young people. I take the views of young people very seriously, particularly on an issue like the environment. Many young people are often extremely well informed about green issues and care deeply about the future of our world. We adults could all learn something from the kind of commitment shown by the pupils here today from Shetland. Young people have the most to gain if adults take good decisions, but the most to lose if we get them wrong. That is exactly what sustainable development means - the development of our communities in a way which meets the needs of the next generation. That is why their views matter to me."
   
Linda Cracknell, WWF Education Officer said: "The WWF Our World project has given Lunnasting school the chance to learn about sustainable development by putting up their own wind turbine in Shetland. The project is also giving future generations a direct say in the World Summit by sending Stephanie to Johannesburg in September. We hope that politicians will hear young people’s powerful voices and we welcome Jack McConnell's support for the initiative. WWF wishes both Stephanie and the First Minister well in their trip to South Africa."
   
Stephanie Wiseman, one of four ‘Earth Champions’ from the UK, said: "Recently I asked for the concerns of the children from schools in Scotland so I could take them to Johannesburg. Most of the children were worried about the fact that people in Scotland need to recycle more. There should be a law to recycle and a small fine for dropping litter. They are also concerned that there will be no rainforests left soon which means animals will become extinct. Every time a tree is cut down at least over two should be planted. Another concern is about pollution of the seas and rivers causing harm to marine life and that not everyone can have clean water to drink. More renewable ways for getting energy would also help the world a lot, especially in Scotland."
   
For more information, contact: Mr Gareth Williams   Tel.: +44 0131-2443054 / +44 7799-470804
News Release: «NewsReleaseNo»   Internet: www.scotland.gov.uk

(June 2002)

News from Scotland

   
The Eco-Schools programme first came to the UK, including Scotland, in 1995. It is managed in the UK by ENCAMS (formerly called the Tidy Britain Group) and in Scotland, by Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB). KSB is a national charity committed to the improvement of the environment in Scotland. It is supported by ‘core’ grant funding from the Scottish Executive (Government) and runs campaigns and programmes on litter and waste, marine and beach management and environmental education. KSB’s offices are in Stirling, in central Scotland. Eco-Schools was slow to take off in Scotland and was initially looked after by a part-time Officer from 1997 to 2001. There are currently 240 schools registered and involved in the scheme in Scotland, out of a possible ~3.000 and, to date, 25 schools have achieved Green Flag status. There are some notable success stories, such as Lunnasting Primary School in Shetland, soon to be assessed for their fourth Flag, Oban High School in Argyll & Bute, the first secondary school in Scotland to gain a Green Flag award in 2001 and Dunino Primary School in Fife, soon to be assessed for their third Flag. ‘Hot spots’ of eco-activity in Scotland include the authorities of Shetland, Fife, Perth & Kinross, Inverclyde and North Lanarkshire.
   
However, interest and involvement in Eco-Schools is likely to take-off over the coming months, as participation in the programme has been adopted by the Government, the Scottish Executive Education Department (SEED), as a performance measure for one of their five national priorities in education, national priority number four: values and citizenship. “As part of the School Improvement Framework, Education Authorities have been asked to report on “the number/percentage of primary and secondary schools within their area that are participating in the Eco-Schools Award or similar accredited environmental award.”

   
SEED are providing considerable financial support for the programme development over the next three years. A new, full-time Officer, has recently been appointed with full time administrative support. A new Scottish Handbook, video and school grants programme are being developed and a Scottish newsletter and web site are also planned. The web site will encourage schools in the UK to make links with potential partner schools across Europe. The new Officer, Kate Campbell, will provide support and advice to schools and local authority officers on how to get involved in the programme, by organising networking meetings and in-service training sessions for teachers. She will be working closely with a broad range of local authority staff and departments, in particular with Education Advisers, Local Biodiversity Action Plan Officers, Local Agenda 21 Officers and those involved in Waste Management, Litter, Energy & Transport. She will also develop links with NGOs and other organisations to establish support networks for schools, particularly at a local level.
   
The level of support available to schools will vary enormously across the 32 local authorities, depending on their interest in the programme. Several have already established Eco-School Support Groups, where relevant staff from the authority meet with teachers to discuss how best they can support their Eco-Schools work in the school. Three such authorities are Inverclyde, Stirling and Perth & Kinross, where this ‘joined-up departmental approach’ seems to be working well for the schools. North Lanarkshire Council has a dedicated post to support the Eco-Schools programme in that authority – this is something Kate will ‘flag up’ as an example of good practice to try to encourage in other areas, too.
   
SEED’s recognition of the enormous value of the Eco-Schools programme, by adopting it as a performance measure, is undoubtedly going to raise the profile of the programme considerably, not just in Scotland, but hopefully Europe-wide. It is anticipated that many more schools will register involvement in the programme over the coming year in Scotland and the end result will be more schools taking whole-school action for the environment, looking at improving their environmental performance in the key seven areas – waste minimisation, litter, health, transport, water, energy and school grounds. This is, indeed, an exciting time for Eco-Schools here in Scotland!

(May 2002)