Northern Ireland's Eco-Schools programme is going from strength to strength, with huge numbers of schools taking up the challenge. St Clare's Convent Primary School in Newry are a recent addition to the Eco-Schools roll of honour, having been rewarded with their Green Flag. In their own words, this is how they did it:

We are very proud to announce that we have, after a year of preparation, won The Green Flag Award! We worked very hard in our school to achieve this great award. We did things such as making a few girls out of each class a member of our action team, we did our litter log once a month, refurbished the nature garden and we also started up a fun Environmental Club every Monday morning. Cliona Patterson and Shannon Kelly also participated in the Environmental Youth Speak and did very well. Patrick McShane also came to give us some advice on how to help us achieve The Green Flag Award. He gave us a talk on composting in our schools and in our homes. We also participated in the "Play For A Day" which helped us go towards winning the award. We are proud that we have won this award and we can't wait to see our Green Flag flying high in our school.

Thank you to Miss Bailey for guiding us and for all her hard work. Thank you to you all for helping us achieve the award. We love our jobs as Environmental Prefects.

Written by Cliona Patterson and Rachael Breen - P7 Environmental Prefects.

The latest edition of the Eco-Schools Newsletter has been released this week, and is now available for download