We are an Eco School!

At Diamond Wood Community Academy, we are dedicated to creating a sustainable future for all, guided by our core values of friendship, respect, honesty, cooperation, and responsibility for ourselves and our world. Our commitment to environmental education and action not only engages pupils, staff, and families but also aligns with British values such as respect, responsibility, and community engagement.

Our partnership with Eco Schools and the Ministry of Eco Education is instrumental in supporting our mission. Eco Schools is a charitable organisation that provides a straightforward, seven-step framework designed to empower pupils to initiate change and enhance environmental awareness within their school and local community. Complementing this framework, the Ministry of Eco Education offers a cohesive curriculum that consolidates the best sustainability teaching resources for primary schools across Britain.

Our approach is informed by current educational guidance from the Department for Education (DfE), Ofsted, My Happy Mind, and the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF). This ensures that our practices are effective and impactful, particularly in promoting Social, Moral, Spiritual, and Cultural (SMSC) development.

We are proud to have achieved the Eco-Schools Green Flag accreditation four times, which recognises and celebrates our environmental achievements. Most recently, we received a distinction in the 2023-2024 academic year, the highest level of the Green Flag Award, reflecting our dedication to fostering an environmentally conscious community.

During the 2024-2025 academic year, we will continue to strengthen our eco-friendly practices through a tailored curriculum that integrates Eco Schools principles across all areas of school life. Our overarching topics will incorporate environmental themes, enabling pupils to understand their role in creating a sustainable future. These topics align with our key themes of sustainability, identity and community, discovery, and health and wellbeing.

Our Eco School leader, a specialist in sustainability, collaborates with Fair and Funky and the Ministry of Eco Education to enhance our initiatives further. Our Eco Council has been established to ensure that sustainability remains a top priority within our school community.

Additionally, as part of the Ministry of Eco Education and the Let’s Go Zero campaign, we were honoured to be runners-up for the Arthur Halliwell Award in 2023. In recognition of this achievement, we received the ‘Wild Passport’, which we now implement to enrich our outdoor and eco curriculum. For more information on the Wild Passport and our Outdoor Learning enrichment curriculum, please click here.

As a Fairtrade school, we recognise the importance of choosing Fairtrade products to promote fairness and equality, supporting farmers in overcoming significant global challenges. This commitment reinforces our responsibility to foster diversity and inclusion and address peace and conflict in our community and beyond.

Through our Eco Schools initiative, we strive to empower our pupils to take ownership of their learning, engage with the world around them, and become responsible global citizens.

To learn more about Eco Schools, please click here to visit their official website.

A very important message from our Eco Council...

During the Autumn 1 Term, our Eco Council will be reviewing the impact of their action plan and priorities last year. Come back soon as we will publish them alongside their 2024-2025 action plan and learning overview here. Until then feel free to look below to see what we focused on last year.

Healthy Living

School Grounds

Transport

Click here to download the long-term plan as a document.

Our Eco Leader

Our Eco School Leader is Mrs Tombling. She is has a vast amount of experience and is extremely passionate about making the world a better place for all.

If you would like to speak to Mrs Tombling, please email office@diamondwoodacademy.co.uk and address the email to her specifically.

National Award Winner!

Did you know that Mrs Tombling is a TES National Teaching Award winner for all of her Eco Schools work within our school? She won the category of 'Environment Champion of the Year'!

Mrs Tombling on the Radio!

Click on the link below to listen to Mrs Tombling on the Radio. She was invited to talk about all of her achievements and the work she does at our school. We are extremely proud of her and everyone in school!

https://www.podbean.com/ea/pb-q6em9-11c58bd

Did you know?

We are an official AMBASSADOR SCHOOL for the Ministry of Eco Education!

Click here to find out more about the Ministry of Eco Education.

We can't wait to continue working alongside them this year. Watch this space for our upcoming projects!

Our Eco Code

Get involved!

Young People's Trust for the Environment

Click here for home learning eco-activities.

Subject Links

When focusing on our Eco Schools work within school, Mrs Tombling and the Eco Council work in close collaboration with our Geography and Science leaders. This is because there are clear and strong links between these subject areas and our Eco Schools vision, values and aims.

We strive for our curriculum to ensure pupils know more, remember more and do more. We continue to ensure pupils are provided with high quality learning experiences which allow them to make links, joins and connections within all areas of learning.

Lets Go Zero!

Let’s Go Zero 2030 unites schools working to become carbon zero by 2030. That’s a huge challenge – but transforming schools will help safeguard the planet for future generations. We are so proud to announce that we were asked by them to become a case study school to showcase all of our amazing work. Click here to read the case study added to their official website.

Eco Council Meetings

Our Eco Council meet each week on a Monday.

Fairtrade

We are pleased to announce that we have been awarded the Fairtrade Schools Fair Achiever award for the third time! Well done to our amazing Eco Council for promoting Fairtrade and to the whole school for embracing our Fairtrade journey. Click here to read the feedback.

To find out more about Fairtrade click here.

Take a look at our feedback from Eco Schools.

We are so proud of our whole school community!

Thank you for continuing your Eco-Schools journey. It is evident that young people in your school are aware of environmental issues and passionate about protecting our planet. Your hard work has encouraged more people to join the Eco-Committee this year. Your committee is a strong committee with 3 adults supporting your work.

Involving all the children in the process of completing the Environmental Review is a great practice. It encourages them to take ownership and really understand the aims of the programme. You have rightly picked up the link between biodiversity and science – and as you also mentioned this is a topics that generates interest and in engaging for the children.

Armed with the information from the review you were able to carve out your road map for this academic year. Within your Action Plan, you have addressed some interesting topics. The topic of transport has many incentives and schemes planned. You have recognised that although the topics you have chosen, you have scored well in, there is still further work to be done. Selecting fun and engaging topics will produce impressive outcomes.

The curriculum examples provided are varied in terms of subject matter and age group. The habitat hunt looking for different insects and animals and their habitats will have been an exciting undertaking. Y1 has the opportunity to dissect the tomato, to harvest the seeds to go on to grow tomatoes. What a great learning journey from seed to plate!

The Eco-Committee has engaged people in what they are doing by conducting assemblies, the school newsletter, social media, and the Youth Climate Panel. Your Eco-Board is appealing – well done. You have worked with some interesting organisations this year. The work with S2R promoting positive mental health is a great charity. Your ability to work with families and S2R and promote peaceful, attractive school grounds has been your outstanding success in 2024.

Litter has proved to be your challenge. You have been working hard with local residents to encourage people to rethink their behaviours and create a litter-free environment. You certainly are taking steps to a greener future if you follow your Eco-Code. The code is simple but effective. We feel sure this is widely spread around the school and on social media. If only we were still children – the trip to Yorkshire Muddings looks like brilliant fun. This trip gives access to an environment that fosters creative, resilient, physical, and independent learning.

Your application really highlights your Eco-Committee’s unwavering determination to create positive impacts in their school, local community, and beyond. They have delivered a fantastic programme of eco-action over the academic year, and we congratulate them for earning an Eco-Schools’ Green Flag with Distinction.

Come back to visit this webpage at the end of Autumn 1 to see some snapshots of Eco Schools in action.

Alternatively, visit our school 'X' page where staff will be posting updates throughout the half term.