The Government wants every school to be a sustainable school by 2020.
During Faringdon ECOWEEK, many of the Schools will be organising Events.
More details here as they become available!

Eco-Schools is an international award programme that guides schools on their sustainable journey, providing a framework to help embed these principles into the heart of school life.

Once registered, schools follow a simple seven-step process which helps them to address a variety of environmental themes, ranging from litter and waste to healthy living and biodiversity.

Children are the driving force behind Eco-Schools – they lead the eco-committee and help carry out an audit to assess the environmental performance of their school. Through consultation with the rest of the school and the wider community it is the pupils that decide which environmental themes they want to address and how they are going to do it. Measuring and monitoring is an integral part of the Eco-Schools programme, providing schools with all the evidence they need to really shout about their environmental success.

Schools work towards gaining one of three awards – Bronze, Silver and the prestigious Green Flag award, which symbolises excellence in the field of environmental activity.

Most of the schools in Faringdon and the surrounding villages have already registered as Eco-Schools, and some have already gained awards:

Faringdon Junior

1st Green Flag

Clanfield CE Primary

2nd Green Flag!

Longcot & Fernham CE Primary

1st Green Flag

Faringdon Infants

Bronze

Faringdon Community College

Bronze

Faringdon Community College ECOWEEK Activities include:

• Year 8 – fieldtrip investigating the environment at Coleshill and Badbury Clump
• Year 7 and 9 – will be receiving lessons on protecting their global environment
• FCC Summer Sizzler (Friday 18th June 2010, 3.30-6.30pm on FCC Playing Fields): special Bag Lady stall decorating ‘bags for life’ from India that would have been thrown away. This is a charity raiser with a nice recycled and creative twist.

Faringdon Infants School:

• Eco-schools Bronze award, working towards silver.
• Holding an environment day with all sorts of environmental activities going on. The school has vegetable plots, "bug hotels" and are looking to refurbish their pond and wildlife area in the autumn..

Clanfield Primary School:

• Holding a "waste free lunch"
• "Energy spies" who look out for opportunities to save energy. They award a trophy to the class that reuses the most plastic and other containers!

Faringdon Junior School (1st Green Flag) ECOWEEK Activities include:

• Combining ECOWEEK with Dinosaur Focus Week!
• Visit from Jill Bewley who provides a Gravel is Great roadshow, involving excavation of mini-pits and making casts of fossils
• Jonathan s Jungle Roadshow will be entertaining our Year 5s. They will get the chance to handle endangered species and will learn about how we can protect them and their environment.
• Bridging the Gap will be coming in to talk to the children
• Year 3/4 will be visiting the Wind Farm at Watchfield, learning how the turbines are saving energy.

The Children are the driving force behind Eco-Schools!