Dilkes Academy awarded the prestigious Green Flag Award

We are delighted to announce that, after a great effort by pupils and staff, Dilkes Academy was awarded the prestigious Green Flag Award. We are the first school in Thurrock to achieve this honour and we are very proud of our triumph.

Dilkes Academy now joins 19.5 million children in 67 countries in being involved in the Eco Schools Scheme. All pupils and staff were required to be involved in the scheme and all initiatives were pupil led. This means that everyone at school from Nursery to Year 6 played a part in this fantastic success. We have installed the green Eco flag as a proud reminder of all the hard work undertaken. Mrs Nelder, Mrs Guilbert and the Eco Warriors led many initiatives which included recycling batteries, crisp packets, used pens and replacing single use plastic bottles with Dilkes Academy water bottles. Pupils enjoyed workshops, educational visits and school lessons to further their knowledge of our environment and the impact of global warming, healthy eating etc.

We will be reassessed 2 years in order to retain our Green Flag award, Mrs Nelder and Miss Pepall are hard at work already planning how to make this happen.

The Eco School assessor commented: ‘’It was a very enjoyable experience coming to Dilkes Academy. I received a warm welcome from both staff and children. The children’s enthusiasm for the Eco projects really showed. The children had great ideas and highlighted that the Eco-Schools programme is really starting to become a big thing among their peers. The staff involved are truly inspiring and they too had created lots of eco-opportunities for the school and wider community. With clear support from the Head Teacher, Mr Latham, the committee were able to reach goals with their energy topic and are working well on linking the Eco-topics into the curriculum.’’