members of the St Luke’s High Press Club are back in action, with a packed schedule lined up for the new school year.

First up is fourth year pupil Emily Wilson, who prepared this article on the school’s efforts to earn another Green Flag award for its efforts to be environmentally friendly:

Congratulations go to St Luke’s High, which has been awarded its fourth Green Flag by the Eco Schools programme.

Much time and effort has been spent by the St Luke’s eco-committee – Alana Kane, Emma Louise Townsend, Katie Dunne, Eva McAleer, Bradley Mallon and Lewis Ralph – and the eco-schools co-ordinator Alexandra Watson to achieve this success.

At St Luke’s High, the eco-committee is very well established and consists of a number of pupils, teachers and parents.

Meetings are held on Tuesday afternoons, when the committee members discuss their ideas and what they want to achieve by the end of the year.

The committee wants to raise awareness of energy and food waste and has promoted events such as a trip to the Whitelee Windfarm to make its views clear to the school community.

This year, the committee has focused on the topics of litter, sustainability and energy.

A weekly litter rota was set up to empty recycling bins, ensuring the school grounds were clean and the recycling bins were being used.

This reduced overall waste in our area.

During waste week, pupils ran a number of activities, re-using old materials for the school’s upcycling challenges.

Our social enterprise and PDP Group have been successfully upcycling materials to make beautiful plant pots and candle holders that are currently being sold, with the proceeds either going to charity or being used to refurbish the school’s memorial garden.

The school also took part in Switch Off Fortnight to raise awareness of the importance of saving energy.

This was a big success, with the school saving 1.01kWh of energy.

Members of the eco-committee have also delivered talks at assemblies and parents’ information evenings about the impact that wasting energy has on our environment.

The whole school has taken part in various upcycling and energy challenges.

The feedback the students received was very positive, with reactions from the headteacher, pupils, parents and members of the local community making it all worthwhile.

Our students have been highly motivated and got stuck into all of the challenges they have faced.

They will hopefully strive to maintain this in the future by continuing their great work.