Enviro Schools Programme

Enviro Schools is Newcastle's own programme to deliver excellence in environmental education to support the sustainable development of our communities.

Enviro Schools began life in November 2001, when the Tidy Schools Awards Initiative was set up initially to deal with litter and improve the school environment. Tidy Schools quickly developed into a much broader programme of environmental education, involving many more internal and external partners.

West Walker Green Flag

By 2004, there were more than 50 schools involved out of a possible 108 (Local Education Authority and Private), some schools progressed to Eco School status as the programme developed offering a wide range of environmental education opportunities. However the programme was in danger of becoming a victim of its own success as demand from the schools threatened to overwhelm a programme which was co-ordinated from within existing resources.

Neighbourhood Services and Children's Services worked together to Photo of the children at Stocksfield Avenue Primary being presented the Eco Schools Green Flag Award develop the programme through Neighbourhood Renewal Funding from April 2005 until March 2006; so the programme could be extended to all schools and ensure sustainability.

All Tidy Schools were renamed as Enviro Schools from April 2005 as the new programme was launched. Now in August 2008 we currently have over 114 registered Enviro Schools and over 80 internal and external partners supporting the programme.

Photograph of the children of Farne Primary School with their new pond. Here is a picture of what can be achieved through partnership working. This pond was installed with the help of the internal teams working with Farne Primary School.

Enviro Schools is committed to help the city's children and young adults to make a real difference to our local environment, through sustainable environmental education and an awareness raising programme throughout their education. Enviro Schools also gives children and young adults ways to link with their local communities on environmental issues as well as the chance to feed their views into Newcastle's environmental plans and priorities.

In the context of education, the outcomes of the programme are Broadway East First School, with the Executive Director David Slater and pupils from the school. specifically relevant to key education strategies of Every Child Matters, Education Outside the Classroom, the Sustainable Schools Action Plan and also to corporate objectives and portfolio performance targets.

Meet the Team

Visit our team page which includes our contact phone numbers

Projects Enviro Schools are working with:

We are currently working in partnership with a number of different organisations to achieve the best for all the schools that we are helping to support.

Click here to find out more information on RIEP and if you need any more information on the is area, please contact Ben Grant, who is currently working with this project.

Sustainable School's

Another partner we are working with is GONE (Government Office North East) at how schools can become sustainable, by 2020 which is one of the governments targets.