Fourth Green Flag for Portobello High School

Pupils proud to be Scotland's first permanent Eco School

Portobello High School has achieved permanent Eco School status after being awarded its fourth prestigious Eco Schools Green Flag – the first secondary school in Scotland to do so.

Schools can earn themselves a coveted Green Flag through environmental work covering

topics such as water, health and wellbeing, waste management, litter, transport, school grounds, biodiversity and energy.

Pupils and teachers at Portobello High came up with ideas to incorporate environmental work

into their lessons. In Maths lessons and Craft Design & Technology, S3 pupils have built a fence made from recycled material around their biodiversity garden.

The school also ran a design competition for its new Eco Code (its environmental charter) and has doubled the size of its allotment to grow veg for healthy recipes prepared during Home Economics classes. This provides a link between the school’s Eco Schools work and health promotion initiatives.

S6 pupils have visited local Standard Life offices, to offer advice on saving energy in the workplace. Standard Life has also printed the school’s recent Sustainable Recipe Book, which offers ideas to use up leftover food, as well as recipes for produce from the allotment.