Warwickshire hosts national Eco-Schools event
Warwickshire’s pioneering work in the field of Eco-Schools has resulted in the county playing host to the National Eco-Schools event, welcoming schools from around Britain and even international schools.
The National Agricultural Centre at Stoneleigh hosted the annual event, only the second time it has taken place.
Warwickshire was chosen as the venue because of its very successful and impressive Eco-Schools programme, delivered by Warwickshire County Council, which continues to go from strength to strength.
And in a bid to keep things environmentally-friendly the county council also provided free coach travel to the event for some of its schools.
Cllr Alan Cockburn, the county council’s Portfolio Holder for the Environment, said: “I’m delighted to see this national event hosted in Warwickshire. Eco-Schools is now part of a much wider programme in Warwickshire which provides support to enable schools to become sustainable by 2020, as part of Warwickshire’s ‘Sustainable Schools’ programme and the government’s aim for all schools to be sustainable by this date.”
More than 1,500 people attended the day including both primary and secondary school students and teachers from all over England and further afield. This included a school from Denmark who flew over especially to talk to experts about what the school was doing wrong and how to remedy things.
Attendees took part in presentations, workshops and ‘Ask the Expert’ sessions. There was also a ‘Sustainable Market Place’ run by businesses and organisations offering information, advice, sustainable products and activities.
Phil Barton, Chief Executive of the National Eco-Schools organisation attended, as well as Jan Erikson, International President of the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) which oversees Eco-Schools and other International Environmental Education programmes. Cllr Izzi Seccombe, Portfolio Holder for Children, Young People and Families also attended the day to represent Warwickshire County Council.
Cllr Seccombe said: “There has been some marvellous work in Warwickshire over the last few years in encouraging schools to think about their impact on the environment.
“This hard work has now been reflected in Warwickshire being chosen to host the national Eco-Schools event.”
Anyone interested in finding out more about Eco-Schools in Warwickshire should visit http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/ecoschools or nationally http://www.eco-schools.org.uk
Entities for this story
- National Eco-Schools organisation
- National Agricultural Centre
- Warwickshire County Council
- Foundation for Environmental Education
- www.eco-schools.org.uk
- www.warwickshire.gov.uk/ecoschools
- coach
- Chief Executive
- International President
- Governor
- Phil Barton
- Alan Cockburn
- Jan Erikson
- sustainable products
- United Kingdom
- Denmark