Malmesbury school wins sustainable grant (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Malmesbury school wins sustainable grant

3:49pm Saturday 12th January 2008 in Malmesbury

A Wiltshire school has won £5000 in recognition of its efforts to achieve sustainability.

Malmesbury School is one of just 56 schools to successfully beat competition from schools across England to win the grant, awarded by the National College for School Leadership (NCSL).

To bid for the money, Malmesbury submitted details of current sustainable projects, how they have been led and how they propose to share their experiences with other schools.

The entry was subsequently judged a winning entry by NCSL. The school was also recognised for its already progressive sustainable practice and for its high quality leadership.

Malmesbury is currently working to extend its links with the wider community. Focused on its pupils, it has a student newspaper, Shout Out,' which was last year converted from a paper publication to a more environmentally sound, online-magazine.

It is an interactive mouthpiece for the student voice and is being developed to enhance the voice of several of the school's clubs and societies. Currently a Bronze Eco-School, Malmesbury is working to achieve its Silver status.

Using the grant money, the school will now form a network with other schools in the area to share good practice in sustainable thinking. It's also set to assist NCSL with research into leading sustainability in schools in varying educational settings.

Toby Greany, NCSL's Operational Director of Research and Policy said: "This commitment is great news and shows that the scale of the problem is recognised among school leaders, we look forward to them assisting us with our research.

"Our ultimate aim at NCSL is to support school leaders to explore and share effective practice in this critical area. "