Lasswade High became Midlothian’s first secondary to be awarded the Green Flag following a visit by an Eco Schools inspection team.

The Eco Schools programme is an international initiative, designed to encourage whole school action on environmental issues, which has at the heart of its philosophy ‘Think Global – Act Local’. Its award scheme accredits schools who make a commitment to continuously improve their environmental performance, with the Green Flag being their top award.

Lasswade High joined the scheme in 2003 and has been steadily working to improve the environment at the school. The Green Flag is flown proudly over the school entrance, a symbol of the schools commitment to the environment and the progress they have made in areas such as litter, recycling, transport and improvement of the schools grounds in recent years.

The school now recycles much more of the waste that would originally have gone to landfill and the money raised from recycling old mobile phones, ink cartridges and textiles is put back in to Eco Schools projects. The group has provided picnic tables for pupils to enjoy lunch outdoors when the weather permits and football and basketball goals to encourage healthy activity and play.

The Eco Schools group, made up of enthusiastic pupils and staff is very active, meeting regularly to plan and become involved in a whole range of different activities.

In the past year the group organised the very successful ‘Big Green Festival’ at the end of the summer term. The first day involved many of the classes across the school being given an ‘eco spin’ – a display of the pupils work. The second day involved fun activities: A Big Picnic outside featuring music provided by Forth One DJ and former pupil Mark Martin and other in house entertainment. During the course of the festival a huge environmental mural was completed in the First year playground, designed by an S5 pupil Slava Lawson. Over £600 was raised during the festival for the charity WaterAid, which provides safe, clean water for communities around the world.

The group have tackled transport issues and following a traffic survey and questionnaires to staff and pupils, developed a travel plan for the school. Its aims are to reduce congestion around the school and encourage healthy ways to travel to school.

The school grounds have not been forgotten and the latest phase of improvements saw a dozen fruit trees planted and a wildflower meadow started to improve biodiversity. The planting of trees, shrubs and bulbs by staff and pupils over the recent years has all contributed to the ‘greening’ of Lasswade High School Centre.

With the arrival of the new Green Flag from Eco Schools we plan to get even greener in the coming year. A Trash fashion catwalk show was held in February, with outfits made from recycled materials and charity shop chic. An Easter Fayre ran in March. Potted bulbs grown by pupils were on sale alongside various environmental displays. A second ‘Big Green Festival’ is to be held in the summer term, this time with a focus on health & well-being. Next year won’t be a time for the Eco Schools group to rest on its laurels!