The 5th National Training Seminar for Eco-Schools Coordinator Teachers was held on 1-3 December 2004 in Istanbul, Turkey. It was organized for 85 coordinator teachers, and 88 teachers from 12 cities and 81 schools attended the seminar. Besides teachers, there were attendees from Governmental (Ministry of Environment and Forestry) and Non-Governmental Organizations such as Greenpeace, Doga Dernegi, Eurosolar Turkey, as well as the National Environment and Development Programme Deputy.
   
The venue for the seminar was arranged with the help of Marmara Education College (Marmara Egitim Koleji), a school registered with our project, and the Heinrich Böll Foundation, one of our supporters. After the opening ceremony, Ms. N. Burcu Manav, former National Operator of Eco-Schools Project in Turkey, gave a presentation on Eco-Schools Project including the aim of the project, definitions, steps, dimension, targets for Turkey, and suggestions for success. Through those explanations, the philosophy of the project was given to the participants. After this general information, in order to be able to create more concrete ideas on the project, international case studies were presented by N. Burcu Manav also. For the seminar, we chose popular subjects from current events. These were; Climate Change, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), Renewable Energy Systems, Recycling and the Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE). These presentations were done by the experts on the subjects. The aim of this panel was to let teachers see environmental issues on a global scale. After the presentation of international case studies, national ones were presented, and the oldest schools told about their best practices. Those presentations were appreciated by the presenting teachers since they had the chance to share what they had done through the project, and by audience since they could see what more they can do.
   
As a consequence, we managed to present the main principles of the Eco-Schools Project, make teachers think more expansively by using international case studies, have teachers share their ideas and experiences and see the environmental issues without borders.
   
The Eco-Schools Meeting in Eskisehir was held on December 27th, 2004. 19 schools attended the meeting, as well as Dr. M. Tacettin Sagiroglu, the Mayor of Tepebasi Municipality and Mr. Koray Kok, from the Environmental Management Department. After the presentation about the Eco-Schools programme, Mr. Erol Scott from Greenpeace made a presentation to the students about environmental problems. After the meeting, we went to visit some of the schools in Eskisehir in order to share their requests, expectations and also the questions. Some of them wanted to know about the "Linking Schools Project" and wanted to get in contact with other schools around the world.

(January 2005)

   
At the end of the 2003-2004 school year, project activities accelerated in Turkey. On 29 May, 2004 an "Eco-Schools Festival" took place in Ankara with the participation of 12 schools! They exhibited their projects, pictures, handworks made of wastes, photographs of activities and children played dramas giving messages about protection of environment, singing and dancing.
   
There were two competitions at the festival, one was among schools and it was the "Stand Competition" and the other one was among children and it was the "Picture Competition" (pictures which were painted by children during the festival were evaluated). As prizes, we gave education technology sets provided from Mobilsoft Mobile Information and Communication Technologies Inc., which was one of our sponsors for the festival. Other supporters were the Ministry of National Education - General Directorate of Primary Education, Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, Ankara Cankaya Municipality, Nobel Marketing Inc. and The Chamber of Architects of Turkey.
   
Through the festival, schools had the chance to share all Eco-Schools activities with public and it was a great chance for us to introduce Eco-Schools to the city! Similar festivals will be carried out in Bursa and Eskisehir too in the coming days! All those festivals are done for the first time, and we aim to make them a tradition!
   
   

   
On June 4, 2004 the final and most enthusiastic day of Eco-Schools Project, which is the Green Flag Ceremony was done in Istanbul, Turkey.
   
In the year 2003-2004 there were 110 schools working in the frame of Eco-Schools Project in Turkey. Among those schools, 49 schools had Green Flag this year. At the end of this year, after the evaluation of schools for Green Flag, this number increased to 61! (31 schools gained Green Flag this year and 30 schools had it last year)
   
The ceremony took place in Istanbul with a great attendance of teachers and students! 29 of 31 schools joined the ceremony. After the various performances of children (drama, dance, orchestra having the instruments made of wastes, chorus) schools are presented their Green Flags.
   
The ceremony had another aim which was to announce the national winners of Eco-Code Poster Competition! The evaluation had been carried out by a jury composed of two academicians and national operator of Turkey. There were 33 art works in the first category and 26 art works in the second. As awards schools took certificates, and it is promised them to print all of works as posters or postcards when sponsors will be found.

(June 2004)

   
The 4^th National Eco-Schools Teacher Training Seminar was held in Turkey from 13 to 15 February 2004. The seminar was organized for 92 coordinator teachers, however due to bad weather conditions only 54 teachers were able to attend. Mr. Hüseyin Çalik, General Manager from Ministry of National Education General Directorate of Primary Education, and Mr. Haydar Keskin, Deputy Governor from the Governorship of Ankara, were also present at the seminar. As good news, Mr. Hüseyin Çalik stated that Ministry of National Education would support Eco-Schools Project more in Turkey.
   
The opening of the seminar was done by Ms. N. Burcu Manav, the Eco-Schools National Coordinator in Turkey. The programme was presented, specifying its aims, definitions, steps, dimension, targets for Turkey, and suggestions for success. Through this presentation the participants were able to better understand the philosophy of the programme. Three international case studies were presented, to provide more concrete ideas: “CO₂ and the greenhouse effect linking Eco- Schools” from Germany, “Water in a global context: linking with Burkina Faso” from Scotland, and “Saving energy and creating positive energy in human relationships and attitude towards the environment” from Slovenia. Through these case studies, it was possible to show that it is not necessary to have a big amount of money, because the schools found an effective way to increase the awareness on each topic they had chosen.
   
Afterwards national case studies were also presented by the oldest schools involved in the programme. These presentations were appreciated by the presenting teachers, since they had the chance to share what they had done through the programme, and by audience, since they could see what more they can do. Not all the teachers could share their case studies in the seminar, therefore they exhibited their writings on panels, and the other teachers were able to learn about what other schools are doing by reading the panels during breaks. The last presentation was made by Mr. Yunus Arikan, the National Environment and Development Programme Deputy Director, on “The Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development and its evaluation from the point view of education”. The aim of this presentation was to let teachers see environmental issues in a global scale.
   
As a result of the 4^th National Eco-Schools Teacher Training Seminar we managed to present the main principles of Eco-Schools Project, make teachers think wider through international case studies, share their ideas and experiences, and see the environmental issues without borders.
   

   
Eco-Schools in Turkey have a new series of guide books this year! In addition to the Eco-Schools Project Handbook and the Environmental Review Booklet, Guide Booklets have been produced for the following themes:
* Litter and Waste
* Water
* Energy
* Waste minimisation and Recovery
* Biological Diversity
All but the Biodiversity booklet, which was prepared by an expert on the theme, were adapted from those prepared by the Tidy Britain Group / Encams (FEE UK). The booklets have been prepared and published with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Global Environment Facility / Small Grant Programme (GEF/SGP). This is great news for Turkish Eco-Schools, which will have a new resource for their classrooms and libraries.

(September 2003)

   
In Turkey, the National Green Flag Award Ceremony was held in June 12^th, 2003, in Bursa, outside of the capital city-Ankara for the first time. Since 30 Eco-schools gained the Green Flag award, the participation to the ceremony was quite high, thus it was enthusiastic. The programme started with the speeches of the governorship authority, Turkish Foundation for Environmental Education General Manager - Mr Erol Güngör and students taking place in the Eco-schools programme. Following the speeches, miscellaneous performance of the students took place. Finally the Green Flag awards and the certificates were delivered, and at the cocktail party representatives of the Eco-schools found the chance of sharing the environmental studies and experiences they have had through the year, while the photographs were being taken.

(June 2003)

   
The third Eco-Schools National Training Seminar was held from 28 February to 1 March 2003 in Istanbul, Turkey. The aim of the seminar was to give information about the four main subjects that are being worked by the Eco-Schools (water, energy, waste, biodiversity), the Linking Schools Project, the Environmental Performance Indicators project, and the Learning about Forests programme.
On the first day, experts coming from different NGOs in Turkey made their presentations on water, energy, waste and biodiversity. Sérgio Santos, the Eco-Schools International Coordinator, presented the School Linking and the Environmental Performance Indicators Projects. Robert Lorenz, the Learning About Forests International Coordinator informed the participants about the Learning About Forests Project.
   
On the second day, two workshops were held. The first workshop was about the four Eco-Schools subjects. The teachers were invited to prepare a one-hour lesson to determine how they could teach these subjects. The second workshop was about problems and solutions. The teachers were asked to state the problems they face in the programme and to propose solutions to solve them. In addition, a slide show named "birds" in the context of biodiversity was presented in the seminar, since birds are the easiest animals to observe.

(April 2003)

   
Eco-Schools in Turkey will have two challenging tasks this year, besides the environmental problems they are coping with! FEE Turkey decided to organise two competitions at national level. One of the competitions is the well-known Eco-Code competition, already been implemented in Portugal. The Turkish version of the competition is slightly different from the Portuguese one, requiring one eco-code sentence from each of the themes implemented in Turkey, namely litter & waste, energy, and water. However, we tried to keep the standards similar in order to prevent any difficulties in case the competition is transferred to an international level by the international coordination, as discussed in the Eco-Schools National Programme Managers meeting in Edinburgh. The other so-called "Eco-Project competition" aims to activate schools to develop innovative eco-schools studies against environmental problems they are facing, not only in their schools, but also in their community. The word "project" does not refer to a scientific study, but the whole concept of reporting to the coordination:

* how an action against an environmental problem started?,
* which method(s) are implemented to overcome the problem?,
* and what are the results achieved at the end of the study?.

The project is thought to be beneficial for encouraging pupils to develop innovative tasks against environmental problems and increasing their abilities to work in a project team and to report back their studies. The competition will also activate and revive the studies in the schools, which are not applying for the green flag for the current year. The deadlines for the competitions are determined as the end of March for Eco-Code and mid of May for the Eco-Project competitions. Results of both will be announced at the end of May, and awards will be presented in the National Green Flag Award Ceremony.

(November 2002)

   
To increase the number of schools participating in the programme, to give information on main principles of the programme for newcomers and to refresh the minds of the teachers and pupils from the already participating Eco-Schools, local seminars are organised usually in the first semester of the school year, in Turkey. This year, the first two seminars were organised in Ankara (on November 29^th) and in Eskisehir (on December 2^nd), with the participation of teachers and pupils from the Eco-Schools and newcomers, and some local authorities, as well. The main principals of eco-schools programme, as well as the activities planned by FEE Turkey in the educational year 2002/03 were explained during the seminar. Also, information on the Linking Schools project, and the two planned competitions (Eco-Code and Eco-Project) was given to the teachers and the pupils.
   

The seminar in Ankara took place in the conference hall of Bilkent Primary School, with the participation of teachers and around 100 pupils from 9 eco-schools. The headteacher of the Bilkent Primary School was present in the meeting, and also spoke to the crowd, giving emphasis on the benefits of the project to their school, and their efforts to involve the community to help protect the environment.
   

In Eskisehir, the seminar took place in the Conference Hall of the Metropolitan Municipality Cultural Centre, with the participation of teachers and pupils from 12 Eco-Schools, Eco-Schools regional coordinators from Tepebasi Municipality, Vice Director of National Educational Office in Eskisehir, a forestry engineer from the regional forestry directorate in Eskisehir, and also the Mayor of Tepebasi Municipality were present at the meeting. The mayor also presented a speech, and shared his observations on how the behaviours of the community around the eco-schools in Tepebasi region have changed in two years with the implementation of the programme. He also stated that their support on the programme as the municipality would continue and they would be pleased to keep on working with FEE Turkey on environmental education.

   
The seminars were understood to be beneficial to re-emphasise the main targets of the programme, and the importance of community involvement, as well as to inform the teachers and pupils on the efforts of FEE Turkey and new developments within eco-schools. Moreover, the linking schools project, and the competitions were welcomed with a great enthusiasm among Turkish eco-schools, and it is understood from the feedbacks that those projects increased the interest to the programme.

(November 2002)

   
The Turkish Eco-Schools National Programme Manager, Ms Başak Tarhan, was in Lisbon on August 30th, and visited the International Coordination. The meeting was useful to discuss issues of programme management, growth and collaboration on international projects. It was also a chance to discuss proposal-writing and establishment of Partnerships with Public Institutions and Private companies.

(September 2002)

   
In mid-august, the Turkish Eco-Schools programme welcomed the 100^th member! Our 100th Eco-School, Fevzi Geyik İlköğretim Okulu, comes from a very beautiful city located in the eastern border of Turkey, called Van. Therefore, we are very happy to see that Eco-Schools programme starts to be spread throughout the country... The school, also, expressed their pleasure of registering the programme in such a special way and also the teachers, director and the pupils of our new Eco-School explained that they have already been through environmental studies before their registration to the Eco-Schools programme and they have been publishing a monthly environmental newsletter, but they think that Eco-Schools programme is a perfect way to develop and organise their ideas further and to have an active role on sustainable environmental protection and management! Fevzi Geyik İlköğretim Okulu also has a very informative webpage (www.fevzigeyik.cjb.net) - only in Turkish for the time being - which also includes information on the environmental studies they perform and links to the environmental institutions and organisations. Related with the registration of the 100^th Eco-School, FEE Turkey prepared a brochure, not only indicating that Eco-Schools programme in Turkey reached 100 schools nationwide but also giving the principles of the programme, explaining the green flag award and the development of Eco-Schools in Turkey so far, with the distribution of Eco-Schools on a city basis, on the map of Turkey. The brochure will be published and distributed all over Turkey, and also abroad, in the following weeks. We are now living the pride and vigour of reaching a hundred schools, 31 of which with the green flag waving, around Turkey in Eco- Schools programme, which started with 1 school in 1995. We hope to welcome more schools and pupils with increasing environmental awareness!

(September 2002)

   
The National Green Flag Awards Ceremony, organized on June 12th 2002 in the sports hall of Ankara Beytepe Primary School passed off in a great cheer with the participation of awarded eco-schools’ teachers and pupils, and representatives from the governorship, municipality of Eskisehir funding Eco-Schools in that city, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Environment, and Prime Ministry. This year, 20 Eco-Schools coming from 6 different cities of Turkey were awarded with Green Flag, mainly with the theme “litter and waste”. 4 of those Eco-Schools renewed their flags with the theme “energy”. Therefore, the number of awarded Eco-Schools in Turkey has now reached to 31 among our 99 registered! During the ceremony, the coordinator teacher of an awarded school in Ankara, a pupil from an awarded Eco-School, Türçev General Director and the Director of the Projects Division of Ministry of Education presented their speeches, giving emphasis on the importance of Eco-School experience on the social behaviours of the pupils towards a sustainable environment. Also, pupils from Ankara Eco-Schools joined the ceremony with their dance, drama, and gymnastic shows and the ceremony ended when all awarded schools appeared on the stage waving their flags and sang the 10^th Year March (a very popular march during national events in our country) together in cheer! After the ceremony, guests were invited to visit the exhibition of Eco-Schools, in which objects prepared using waste materials and projects on ecological life and renewable energy resources were demonstrated. Waiting for the 100^th Eco-School nowadays, as the Turkish Foundation, we hope to live such cheer with a growing mass of environment-friendly pupils and schools in the future too...

   
The 2^nd National Seminar for Eco-Schools teachers took place on 6-8 February in Kusadasi (a summer resort on the Agean coast) and the Municipality was the host. 58 people attended the seminar, mainly teachers, two senior officers from the Education Ministry and three retired teachers from the local association. Two speakers were invited on "the Use of Packaging Wastes" by the project coordinator of the Foundation for Environmental Conservation and the Use of Packaging Wastes" and on "Clean Energy and How to Use it at School" by the director of the Solar Energy Institute of Agean University.

(February 2002)

   
The Eco-Schools National Green Flag Award Ceremony was held in Ankara on the 5^th of November with a crowd of 550 people including senior officials from the Ministries of Education and Environment, media, school teachers, pupils and parents. 11 Eco-Schools were awarded Green Flags. This was the first national ceremony for Green Flag Awards; in previous years, ceremonies were held regionally.

(November 2001)

   
The national seminar for ES co-teachers was held on 11-13 May in Ankara at the Training Site of Bank Agriculture who sponsored us for accommodation and it was closed with a visit to Anatolian Civilizations Museum. It was held in four sessions daily. The first day's morning sessions were for school presentations, and afternoon ones for group and a committee works. The topic for the first group work was teachers' manual and the implementation of seven steps in schools studied by all groups, and the second one on the main themes; programming waste, water, energy in schools discussed by different groups and a committee of seven worked to draft these three themes in an action plan. On the second day, we had three speakers; A professor of Physics on 'Clean Energy', an old candidate mayor on a successful project run in Ankara 10 years ago about 'Waste Recycling', and the coordinator for National Agenda 21' from the Ministry of Environment.

(June 2001)