We are the Eco councillors

We are Change Makers due to our positive changes we have made in the school.  We were the Changemakers Award at the University of Northampton in July 2023. 

We have also been awarded the Eco Schools Green Flag with Distinction.  This is what the assessors wrote about the work we have done: 

We are very pleased to tell you that you and your Eco-Committee at Rushden Primary Academy have been successful in meeting the requirements for the Eco-Schools Green Flag Award.

We reviewed your application and noted the following:

It's wonderful that you have appointed such a representative Eco-Committee, this shows your school’s excellent commitment to both the programme and the eco-cause. We love your democratic and fair approach to appointing Eco-Committee members. It’s great to see that other pupils played a part in the process. It was also wonderful to see that they were supported by two staff members and that key members of the SLT were kept informed. We love that you kept minutes from your meetings and that they helped to track, guide and prompt your activity, and thank you for including the excellent example. It was great to see that young people were responsible for completing those meeting minutes – this helps them develop new skills! This is a mature and professional approach. Great work! It was wonderful to see how completing your Environmental Review helped to raise the level of awareness in your school and helped your Eco-Committee to identify the issues and spot gaps in your school's existing environmental activity. It was also brilliant to read that the Environmental Review helped your pupils appreciate everything that your school is already doing to benefit our environment and identify areas to work on in the future. Your Action Plan shows that your Eco-Committee have carefully considered how they can involve their entire school in their planned Eco-Schools’ activities to achieve maximum impacts and raise awareness amongst their school community. We love the range of activities that you and your Eco-Committee planned for delivery. The fact that they cover both indoor (a ‘switch-off’ campaign, recycling paper and batteries, reducing laminating) and outdoor (regular litter-picks, reducing food waste and sending it to a compost bin) activities is excellent. It was also great to see accountability and monitoring and evaluation clearly marked in your Action Plan. Great work! Your Curriculum Link examples are imaginative, practical and fun, making environmental education accessible and engaging, well done! We’re really impressed at how you’ve linked environmental issues to a variety of curriculum areas. We loved seeing the excellent photos of your pupil’s work, displays and of them enjoying their activities. This is a great example of layering in sustainability and climate change into your studies. We loved reading about how you had incorporated learning about global issues not only into the Geography and Science Curriculum (most common ones) in your school, but also into other areas such as Maths and Art. Great work! Your Eco-Board is great. Your board is incredibly visual and engaging and promotes your work in a very attractive way. It’s also good to see your Eco-Committee members on the board. This is a great way to raise their esteem and make their schoolmates feel like they can approach them and get involved with your Eco-Schools work! We love how active your Eco-Committee was in communicating their activities school-wide with both assembly and class feedback and use of the school newsletter and social media as well as the Eco-board itself. These all combine to make a great approach! We are certain that your pupils will have greatly benefitted from your involvement with such outside organisations as Poddington Garden Centre and the Rushden Allotment Association and the University of Northampton, where your council have been put forward for their Changemaker Award. The parent quote is a great testament to the work that you are doing with your Eco-Committee, that they are taking their Eco-Schools work home with them and getting their families on board is something to be proud of! Your Eco-Code is really smart and concise. It's a great message and its punchy nature will definitely help it be processed by everyone passing by your Eco-Board. I hope you and your Eco-Committee take great pride in your achievements, when listed it's surprising how many there are – however, the improvements to your school environment with the energy saving and waste reducing and recycling initiatives all nicely stand out! Congratulations to everyone for the great work you have managed to do, earning your Green Flag with Distinction in style. You should all be very proud of your work and the application you have submitted!

Here we are at work protecting the environment.