ECO SCHOOLS
We're very excited to have partnered with Keep Britain Tidy's Eco-Schools England programme. Working in tandem with our school's recycling scheme, Recycle With Michael, the partnership with Keep Britain Tidy will help schools on their journey towards their Bronze, Silver or the much coveted Green Flag Eco-Schools status.
Together we'll encourage stronger awareness of textile reuse and recycling among younger generations and we'll be embarking on a variety of local and national initiatives that will explore a wide range of sustainability issues, such as studying the full life cycle of textiles. This, combined with your school's Recycle With Michael textile collection campaign, will play an important part in helping your school achieve Eco-Schools status.
Morgan Phillips, Keep Britain Tidy's Education Manager said, "We are delighted to be working in partnership with The Salvation Army and their textile reuse and recycling scheme for schools. Through this partnership we hope pupils will not only learn more about the textiles industry in the classroom, they will learn by taking action too!"
By getting involved with Recycle With Michael, you're not only able to raise money for projects like new playground equipment or school garden upgrades, but you can also
help the environment while supporting a charity and progressing your school's journey towards being a Green Flag Eco-School.
The Discovery School: becoming an Eco-School...
Based in Kent, The Discovery School was the winner of our 2015 Eco Stars Challenge, during which we challenged all of our education partners to find ways to increase their donations to win the coveted Eco Stars trophy. The Discovery School successfully collected more textiles per student than any other primary school.
Having launched their Recycle With Michael scheme in October 2014, The Discovery School went on to join the Eco-Schools programme a few months later. Combining sustainability with being kind to the environment is clearly proving to be a winning formula for staff and students alike.
"We joined Recycle With Michael to raise extra funds for the PTA and it has gone from strength to strength. It has even helped us on our Eco-Schools journey," said Claire Gobbett PA to the headteacher. "We find it runs easily and is very popular with students and families.
"We always make sure that we mention the collection scheme in our newsletter, and our bank is very visible in the car park. There are always bags in reception for parents to pick up, although we are really pleased that it seems to be the children driving the donations most of the time. We also make sure that we keep the totaliser poster updated each time we have a collection, so that everyone can see the amount we have collected increasing."
So far, the additional funds raised by the Recycle With Michael scheme have helped the PTA to purchase new outdoor table tennis sets. They have also enabled the PTA to fund the school allotments.