Warwickshire News Mine

Bilton Junior School is the first school under Warwickshire County Council’s Eco Schools programme to gain the prestigious Green Flag Award.

This comes after almost two year’s hard work for the school, and after gaining their bronze and silver awards.

Bilton Junior has a dedicated Eco Schools Team, which is made up of students, parents and parent governors. The students are very much involved in running the Eco Schools programme.

In fact they all have their own job titles such as meteorologist, project officer and finance officer. They have ‘Power Rangers’ in each class who are responsible for reducing energy use, and they also have a wireless weather monitoring station for monitoring climate change.

The school has also secured a grant to install a remote bird box camera system in their school grounds to monitor different species. Additionally all 420 students at the school have been given a water saving device for their homes as part of a project with Severn Trent.

Cllr Martin Heatley, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for the Environment, said:  “By achieving Green Flag it shows that Bilton School has achieved an extremely high standard in protecting the environment. This award demonstrates the whole school is involved in saving important resources such as energy and water.

“It also demonstrates significant achievement in these areas which will help to combat Climate Change and save our valuable water resources. I can’t stress enough, the importance of reducing the amount of energy we use and avoiding unnecessary wastage in this area, as all too often we use energy and water as though they are going out of fashion.

“We sometimes need our children to remind us to stop and think before leaving the lights on, or the tap running. We should now all take a lead from this school and follow their good practice by trying to reduce our own energy and water use. After all we should be leading by example.”

Barbara Golding, Eco Schools Officer, said: “Congratulations to Bilton School who have worked so hard to get to this point, and they thoroughly deserve the award.

"Thank you also to Andrew Edwards, the Deputy Headmaster, who has been the driving force behind Bilton’s Eco Schools programme. His enthusiasm and commitment is a shining example to the students. Well done Bilton. You derserve to be the first school in Warwickshire to achieve your Green Flag.”

Link to WCC