In 2005 we achieved the Eco Schools Award for a fourth time which gives us permanent Eco status.

This prestigious title, awarded by Tidy Britain Group, recognizes the outstanding contribution made by Northgate High School students towards the protection and preservation of our environment. The rules have now changed to mean Schools need to prove themselves worthy of their Green flag by submitting a portfolio every two years to ensure standards are maintained.

The Eco Team has been involved in a variety of activities, including taking part in a conference at which the Education Secretary was present, and attending meetings where pupils’ voices are considered and have a direct input to Norfolk’s Climate Change Strategy.

Current activities of the Eco Team include running the Green Classroom Award to recognise the most environmentally-friendly tutor group. We continue to recycle paper, have a recycling scheme for printer cartridges and compost waste in our wormery and compost areas. We have constantly monitored our energy consumption with the assistance of Energy Busters and the National Trust. These activities led to Northgate being invited to a yearly audit of County Hall offices to check and advise on their eco-credentials.

At Northgate we are keen to do what we can in relation to reducing plastic use and recycling. We have signed up to two recycling schemes with Terracycle UK. The BIC Writing Instrument scheme accepts writing instruments including pens, felt tips, markers, mechanical pencils and correction fluid pens. The Walkers Crisp Packet scheme accepts empty crisp packets, excluding crisp tubes. The collections are sent to Terracycle, sorted by plastic type and extruded into plastic pellets. New plastic items are then made such as benches

A number of local Primary schools and members of the Dereham community are supporting us with these recycling schemes, with collections points at Morrisons in Dereham and Nationwide Building Society. As of January 2022, we have collected 198Kg of writing instruments and 295Kg of crisp packets. As well as these now not ending up in landfill, we are given money to go towards our chosen charity, approximately £600 so far!

We are also proud to have been awarded Highly Commended in 2019 and Winners in 2020 of the Norwich and Norfolk Eco Awards in the Secondary School category. We were awarded Eco Champion Status from Streetspace UK in March 2020 and were shortlisted twice for the Environmental Practice Award at the Education Business Awards in 2020 and 2021. We have also received a special letter from Sir David Attenborough commending us on our eco efforts and initiatives.