Gold Sustainable Schools Award: Pupils of Ysgol Clydau (holding the award is Mary-Anne Newman and Toby Smith)

YSGOL CLYDAU in Tegryn has been praised for achieving a Gold Sustainable Schools Award.

The award is a culmination of 10 years effort by staff and pupils to incorporate sustainability and global citizenship into their learning and into the running of the school.

Headteacher Sion Jones said: “We are very proud to receive the Sustainable Schools Gold Award. We have worked hard ensuring this success through completing different projects.”

Schools progress through the Sustainable Schools Award at three levels, Bronze, Silver and Gold, and they are required to work on eight topics related to sustainability and global citizenship.

To gain their Gold Award, Ysgol Clydau completed their remaining topics Energy and Community Citizenship.

For their work on the Energy topic, the children held a debate on wind turbines and visited one of the turbines close to the school.

They built their own renewable energy generators following a trip to the historic Carew Tidal mill, funded by The Bluestone Foundation and organised by Darwin Science.

Pupils and staff also made a huge saving in the amount of electricity and heating used each year.

For the Community Citizenship topic, the school was proud to become involved with the local community helping to promote initiatives such as carbon monoxide safety and supporting the Preseli Green Dragon transport scheme.

Pupils also looked at the different roles individuals, organisations and businesses play in community life, with visits and talks.

Sustainable Schools Officer Tim Brew, who presented the school with their award, said: “This is a great achievement for pupils and staff at Ysgol Clydau, who have demonstrated their commitment to learning about sustainability by working on a number of fascinating and relevant projects.”

Once a school has its Gold Award, it can add Acorns to their award to show continued commitment to the development of sustainability in their school.