Step 4 Curriculum Links

Student-led projects designed to improve your school’s environmental performance are a great example of action-learning, but learning about the environment can happen in a variety of ways at your school, and you might not even realise it. We suggest you speak to the Geography and Science departments first to help your Eco-Coordinator find examples of where the Eco-Schools topics are covered in lessons. Get creative, can you think of ways the topics could be covered in English Literature, Art or Languages?

Curriculum Links Criteria

In order to achieve the international Green Flag award your school must meet the following criteria.

Environmental issues have been covered in at least three areas of your school curriculum; this is clearly evident in pupil’s work and/or schemes of work and lesson plans.
OPTIONAL FOR FIRST GREEN FLAG: Your three curriculum links can not all be from the same year group or subject area.
Your three curriculum examples do not have to be from the same Eco-Schools topics as those chosen for your Action Plan.

Curriculum Links Resources

Every department in your school can help on your journey to Green Flag success!

Direct links to all Eco-Schools topics can be found in GCSE and A’ Level Geography, Biology, Chemistry and Physics.

Give our Gathering Curriculum Evidence resource to your teachers to easily gather the evidence you need for a Green Flag award.

Why not translate the following international Eco-Schools websites and resources in your Modern Foreign Languages lessons:

Eco-Schools France
Eco-Schools Spain
Eco-Schools Germany
Eco-Schools Italy

Work with the English, Media and Technology Departments to help with Step 5 Informing and Involving.

Ask the Maths Departments to help with Step 6 Monitoring and Evaluation.

Let the Drama and Music Departments make your Step 7 Eco-Code a showstopper!

Friends of Eco-Schools, the Geographical Association, have collaborated with the Eco-Schools team to produce this guide linking Geographical Associations publications, lesson plans, books and resources to each of the ten Eco-Schools topics. Whilst many of the resources are free, check whether your institution is a member of the Geographical Association for full access.

Curriculum Links FAQs

Everything your Eco-Coordinator and teachers need to know about highlighting Eco-Schools in the curriculum

Does our curriculum evidence have to be from the same topics we have in our Action Plan?

No, it can be from any of our ten topics.

How many pieces of evidence do we need?

For your Green Flag application you briefly need to list where in the curriculum the three links are from. During your Green Flag Assessment visit our assessor will need to see evidence of this; so make sure to point it out as you show them around your school. Your Eco-Coordinator may also have some examples they want to share with the Assessor from their teaching files (and marking piles).

How can we find this evidence?

It should be easy to find examples from the whole school as to where Eco-Schools and the curriculum overlap. An easy example of this is that it is compulsory to teach a foreign language – this links perfectly with our Global Citizenship topic. But remember if in doubt, go to the Geography Department, they practically cover every Eco-Schools topic at some point!

Can all of our evidence be from the same class?

No, we would like to see evidence from different year groups and subjects please.

We have found our evidence, what next?

We would like you to display this evidence on your Eco-Board: you can do this by choosing a few good examples maybe one from each member of the Eco-Committee (you should all be from different year groups for Step 1 criteria) and photocopying for display.

School Examples

Evergreen School, Warwick

Students and staff at fantastic Evergreen have a whole curriculum area titled, 'Saving Our Planet,' and created this display to highlight their work. The board includes artwork and posters students designed and created to raise awareness of environmental issues amongst their schoolmates and staff members. It also includes letters pupils wrote to Sir David Attenborough in English lessons. These letters thanked him for: making enjoyable programmes, raising awareness of environmental issues and generally being a massive inspiration to all of Evergreen's students and staff! Amazingly, Sir David replied thanking students for their kind words and saying that he is glad Evergreen students are doing their best to protect the planet too!

School Website

St Mary's School for Girls, Colchester

In Science Study Skills Year 8, at St Mary's Colchester, made and set up tunnels to catch footprints of mammals and record the biodiversity within the school site.
Choosing different, animal-friendly locations throughout the school grounds, small mammals were baited with a selection of foods including: suet bird food, sunflower seeds and different types of dog food. Each of the locations, including food details, was plotted on a map of the school.
Surrounding the food was triangular tunnels, made from old photocopier boxes with paper placed inside and fabric coated with eco-ink (vegetable oil and charcoal powder) placed either side of the tunnel. Each was left for three nights before footprints were collected.
Using identification guides, students found hedgehogs, mice, cats and foxes (who destroyed one of the tunnels!) were all present in their school grounds. Further research is planned during different seasons, with different sized tunnels and using a trail-cam to photo any visitors.

School Website

Durham Federation, Durham

The Durham Federation decided to celebrate World Ocean Day to highlight the beauty, wealth and importance of our oceans. Alongside national events, staff from each subject area planned curriculum challenges and activities for students to participate in on a local level - collecting all the curriculum evidence needed for an Eco-Schools Green Flag in one day and proving that environmental issues don’t have to be confined to Science or Geography!

Pictured is a Creative Writing competition planned by the English department. In maths pupils were asked a variety of questions based on how long plastic takes to decompose. In science students researched how animals have adapted to live in the deepest parts of the ocean. In PE students practiced mindfulness alongside world champion free-diver Hanli Prinsloo. Graffiti with a powerful conservation message was created in art. History focused on historic naval battles, French on eco-vocabulary, religious studies on water-based symbolism and music on ocean-inspired classical music… even lunchtime staff got involved by planning a plastic-free service.

School Website

Villiers High School, Southall

Miss Murphy, the fantastic Eco-Coordinator at Villiers High School, is an art teacher; so as part of Villiers' first-ever, termly Eco-Day the Eco-Committee decided to host an eco-art competition. The art competition focused on raising awareness of recycling and waste in the school. The Eco-Committee were overwhelmed by the positive response to the competition - over 270 students submitted an entry and of these 270 entries a shortlist of 60 was created. It was left up to the Eco-Committee, 5 Ealing Councillors and Mrs Sharma (Villiers' Head Teacher) to select the winning designs from the shortlist.
The winning designs chosen, were then installed by Ealing Council on a large recycling container in Southall, to share Villiers' message of saving our planet with their local community.

School Website

Yarm School, North Yorkshire

As part of GCSE DT, students where asked to relate their projects to an area of sustainability. The students researched recycled materials and used these materials to create the products they had designed.

School Website

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