The Eco-Schools Programme in Northern Ireland, managed by Tidy Northern Ireland, has received funding from The Environment and Heritage Service of the Department of the Environment Northern Ireland and NIE to put the Eco- Schools handbook and Litter module onto one accessible CDRom. This also created the opportunity to bring together a host of partner organisations and schools to create a Northern Ireland relevant source of information and support. It does this through Northern Ireland school case studies and ideas, and by providing links to these partners and other schools already in the programme.
   
The partners will all be providing information and ideas, while some will also be available for site visits and practical support. The partners include; The National Trust, RSPB, Sustrans, Arena Network, Ulster Wildlife Trust, Bryson House, Action Renewables, Travelwise and Conservation Volunteers Northern Ireland.
   
The CDRom was written and compiled by Paula Flanagan an independent education consultant working for Tidy Northern Ireland, who worked closely with the Advisers of the Inter-Board Panel on Education for Sustainable Development, the Curriculum Council for Examination and Assessment, the Waste Section Department of the Environment Northern Ireland and a crosssection of primary and secondary schools. This ensured that links to the forthcoming revised curriculum were relevant, while also ensuring that the information on the CDRom takes into account what is happening in Northern Ireland in terms of Government initiatives and campaigns. She was impressed with both the level of commitment the schools have for the Eco-Schools programme in Northern Ireland and the wide range of ideas that schools were using to gain their bronze, silver and green flag awards through encouraging student participation, and creating links to their local community.
   
The CDRom will be available in September to all schools that register on the programme. It will ensure that these new schools will very quickly find the ideas, information and inspiration to make their Eco-school into an international award winning school.
   

   
(July 2005)

   
With nearly 4000 registered Eco-Schools and the number of green flag assessments soaring, Eco-Schools staff in England have been working hard to ensure the programme has a sustainable future. By training volunteer assessors and organising a series of promotional seminars they have managed to increase involvement in the programme and develop a quality system for assessment that covers the whole country. Eco-Schools in England used to employ 4 additional staff to perform school assessments throughout the country. As the number of assessments increased it became evident that there would need to be a great many more assessors. In response to this a series of training sessions were held across England throughout the last academic year. These have resulted in 136 trained Eco-Schools assessors being ready to assess schools for the green flag status.
   
"The training is rigorous and we encourage the trainees to discuss any issues that may be unclear. There is a great deal of experience that we have managed to tap into as these volunteers have experience of the programme in some way, many of them have worked in schools promoting ESD for years or are retired teachers themselves." Said Carl Thurston, Eco-Schools Coordinator. Although it is disappointing to have 6 failed green flag assessments this year in England, this may be seen as an indicator that the volunteer assessors are clear about the criteria they are looking for and are upholding the high standard of the green flag award. All schools that fail are left with clear guidelines to help them progress to the green flag status so that the assessment process can remain helpful, co-operative and informative. Feedback from schools has been positive and the assessors themselves are pleased to be performing a valuable role. The continuing growth of the Eco-Schools programme in England has been made sustainable by promoting the programme to local authorities throughout the last year. It was noticed that there were a large number of registrations that failed to progress through the awards. In order to try to counteract this and ensure that registrations did transpire to become awards, showing that schools are engaged in the programme, Eco-Schools have been promoting the programme directly to local authorities AND schools. This will ensure a support network is in place for schools who register.
   
Eco-Schools continues to be a popular programme, gaining acclaim from committed teachers who are involved. At Churchtown Primary Schools, North West England, the co-ordinator commented "the children have an increased awareness of the need to protect and conserve the environment, at both a local and global scale. They also have a good understanding of what they can do to help make a difference, especially regarding recycling and conserving energy and water." Rose Green Infant School in South East England said, "following our positive Ofsted inspection, the school was invited to apply for Beacon Status… this means we can share our good practice." With assessments now covered all over England and the programme being effectively promoted and supported through local authorities and other NGO's, next year looks to be a big year for Eco-Schools in England, with more stories of success coming from even more schools.

(July 2004)

Eco-Schools Parliamentary Reception in London

   
On 5 February there was a Parliamentary Reception held at the House of Commons in London for some special award holding Eco-Schools in England Wales and Scotland. The event was organised to give recognition to 11 schools that had achieved the Eco-Schools Green Flag four times. This special occasion was attended by many Members of Parliament, Education Advisers and people from the field of environmental education. The schools being honoured were Lunnasting Primary School, Mossbank Primary School and Olnafirth Primary School from the Shetland Islands, Scotland. From Wales there were Northop Hall Primary School, St Christopher's School and Ysgol Llandrillo yn Rhos. The English schools were Ridgeway Primary School, Raglan Primary School, Queen Elizabeth's Mercian High School, Ashley School and Great Eccleston Copp Primary School.
   
The Terrace Marquee at the House of Commons overlooks the river Thames and although it was the beginning of February the day was bright and sunny. It was a very happy occasion to celebrate truly sustainable achievement by all the schools that had begun their association with Eco-Schools with their first awards back in 1995/96. The schools were presented with special plaques and also a basket of daffodils to remind them of the day. The Eco-Schools European Co-ordinator, Sérgio Santos, who had just come to London directly from Nairobi where he had been holding further talks with UNEP, also attended to bring an international presence to the event, as did the President of FEE, Professor Graham Ashworth, representatives from Local Authorities, and representatives from programme sponsors, such as SITA Environmental Trust and Bureau Veritas.

"How I learned to save the Planet"

   
You Magazine has published on July 15, 2001 an article about Eco-Schools in the United Kingdom entitled How I learned to save the Planet. It had a great impact on the public, and since it was published the United Kingdom coordination has been inundated with enquiries.
   
«Try to imagine a world with no litter, in which everything - from worn spectacles and shoes to plastic bottles, newspapers, cans and rags - was found a new home or given a new lease of life. Where nobody needed nagging to turn off the lights when they left the room. And where everyone took such pride in their surroundings that graffiti was just a faded memory. Dream on, I hear you say. But if the Eco-Schools project continues to inspire and influence schoolchildren at its present pace then maybe in 20 years' time we really could be living in 'eco-topia'.»