English Martyrs’ Catholic Voluntary Academy has been shortlisted for a national sustainability award.
The school, in Long Eaton, is in with a chance of winning £2,500 after making it to the final of the Department for Education’s Education Estates Awards in the Sustainability category.
The awards will take place in Manchester on October 17th.
The school’s entry for the awards detailed a number of sustainability projects that pupils and staff have been involved in since 2021.
These include acting as a lead school for sustainability across 25 schools in the St Ralph Sherwin Catholic Multi Academy Trust.
Projects at English Martyrs’ include a pre-loved uniform exchange, a drive to minimise food waste, sustainable transport weeks and a Vegan Thursday lunch for staff every week.
Widlflower seeds were scattered in parts of the school grounds to boost bio-diversity and a commitment was made to become a zero waste school by ensuring that hard-to-recycle waste was collected for recycling.
One of the school’s biggest projects was creating an eco-garden with funding secured from East Midlands Airport. English Martyrs’ was one of eight schools across the Trust which bid successfully for the EMA funding.
The school also created an online action platform which links all 25 Trust schools on an interactive map. To date, 343 sustainable actions have been replicated across the Trust.
Gemma Ellis, Headteacher at English Martyrs’, said: “We are so proud of what the school has achieved on this important sustainability journey so far and we will continue to build on this to ensure our pupils and community understand the crucial part they play in protecting the beautiful world they are part of. To be recognised with this award would mean so much to the pupils. ”
