BY LAURIE

In April this year, Ms. Natalie was appointed head of the Eco Council and with the senior leadership team she figured out that we had Bronze Award accreditation.

Being a Bronze Award school means that some people may walk, cycle or scoot to school, but on the whole it’s not very sustainable and not enough people are being eco friendly.

So Ms. Natalie decided to take action and try to gather evidence to prove that we might be better than we think at being green.

She gathered evidence right through the summer term and was able to prove to us and to the Southwark Council that JKPS really is a Gold Level accredited school.

Last week, we had an exclusive interview with none other than Ms. Natalie herself!

Rufus and I went over to her room and she gave us a surprisingly juicy insight into the world of the Eco Council.

She said that as a whole school we weren’t very conscious of how we travel to school and “a lot of people were travelling in cars and we weren’t being very environmentally conscious.”

So the Eco Council spoke to Southwark Council who gave them some advice about how to prove it was being really green.

“So over the course of about six weeks we gathered evidence from every year group to prove that we were talking about the environment,” Ms. Natalie said. “We did whole class assemblies and we basically found that across the population of the school, most people actually walked, cycled or scooted to school.”

The Eco Council presented their evidence to Southwark Council and got a huge surprise…

“Instead of just moving to Silver we actually went straight to GOLD!” she said.

Ms. Natalie is really pleased with how things have turned out.

“I’m personally really proud about it because I cycle to school. I think we should all be aware that it’s a good thing to be active and cycling.”

But it’s not just about those who cycle, she added. “Obviously some people live a bit further away, so it’s good for those people if they can think about using public transport. I think we should be really proud of the school for making sure that everyone knows what the Eco Council is.”

Despite only joining the school in February, Ms. Natalie has already made a big impact. She became the head of the Eco Council two months later and has managed to get us Gold Award status by July!

“I think it’s important that even though we have the Gold Award we don’t give up on talking about the environment. So for us it’s all about making sure that the Eco Council meets every week and keeps talking about new projects. The Gold Award is really important but it’s about upholding it – it can get taken away if we don’t keep trying,” Ms. Natalie said.

“It’s about making sure that we keep being environmental and that we keep travelling to school in any way but using a car if we can. So the future for us is making sure that we’re campaigning for more healthy choices for the environment and for ourselves.”