Who carries out the Environmental Review?
On our website we have differentiated Environmental Reviews that are designed to be completed by students. Either the whole Eco-Committee can complete the review together, or the topics can be divided between members to complete with their form groups to encourage a whole school approach.
A third party is offering to complete our Environmental Review (for a small fee) should we ask them to do it?
No, we never recommend paying for third party support in your Eco-Schools Green Flag application. If you feel like you need any support please do not hesitate to contact the Eco-Schools team who will be happy to help you free of charge.
Do we have to complete the Environmental Review for each of the ten topics?
Yes, you have to complete the review for each of the ten topics, but we have specifically designed it so it is student-friendly and does not take up too much time. They can be completed in an Eco-Committee meeting or even across one (or several) lunch times.
I don’t know the answer to one of the questions on the Environmental Review, what should I do?
If you don’t know and can’t find out the answer to any of the questions on the Environmental Review, don’t panic: just leave it blank. It may mean you should think about working on this topic in the future.
Our Environmental Review is messy is this a problem?
No this is great – it is exactly what we want to see as it shows it has been valued and completed by students. Just scan or take a photo of your Environmental Review and upload this for your Eco-Schools Green Flag application – we are all former teachers and are quite used to interpreting handwriting!
We got a bad score on our Environment Review, what does this mean?
Do not worry about your score on the Environmental Review. You are at the beginning of your Eco-School journey and the Environmental Review has been designed to provide ideas for your Eco-Committee as well as audit your school. As part of Step 6 Monitoring and Evaluation you could carry out the Environmental Review again to see if your results for the topics chosen in your Action Plan have improved.
I’ve completed my Environmental Review, now what do I do with it?
First of all, you need to ensure that the whole school is aware of the findings of the Environmental Review. Next, your Environmental Review should be displayed on your Eco-Board. You will also be asked to submit your Environmental Review as part of your Eco-Schools Green Flag application.
I am an Eco-Schools Green Flag renewal; do I have to complete another Environmental Review?
Yes, it is compulsory for the Green Flag award that your Environmental Review be updated each year to coincide with your renewal application as this will help to inform you what topics you can work on for your renewal.
How do we upload our Environmental Review?
Printers/scanners/photocopiers are different in each setting, but most tend to have a tray at the top. If you remove any staples from your Environmental Review, place it in this tray and then press scan it should scan the Environmental Review as one document (make sure you check the scan settings are correct if your Environmental Review is printed double-sided). Once you have scanned your Environmental Review, usually you can then transfer to a memory stick (look for a USB slot) or e-mail to yourself directly from the printer. Upload this file when applying for your Green Flag. Alternatively, you can always use our printer-friendly version which you can edit on Word.
