{"id":7952,"date":"2021-08-05T11:18:22","date_gmt":"2021-08-05T11:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=7952"},"modified":"2021-08-05T11:18:22","modified_gmt":"2021-08-05T11:18:22","slug":"green-flag-with-merit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2021\/08\/05\/green-flag-with-merit\/","title":{"rendered":"Green Flag with Merit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I see that Eco Schools is making big changes to the way it operates. \u00a0These might be summarised as [i] abandoning the bronze and silver awards as stepping stones to flag acquisition; [ii] making the application process entirely on-line; [iii] no assessor visits to assure quality (it's actually not clear whether this is a permanent change or just a covid measure); and [iv] requiring an annual renewal of accreditation. \u00a0These are significant changes and you will find the detail and a long explanation\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eco-schools.org.uk\/the-eco-schools-programme-is-changing\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There are clearly some potential positives in all this. \u00a0Creating an Eco-Schools Impact Report, with school case studies and statistics has to be a good thing, depending on whether \"impact\" really is impact and not just a set of outcomes.<\/p>\n<p>An annual accreditation will result in more meaningful stats on how many green flags are still fluttering above schools, and removing silver \/ bronze categories will make for <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-admin\/post.php?post=2782&amp;action=edit\">greater clarity<\/a> about numbers.<\/p>\n<p>I'm less enthused about the idea of <em>Green Flag with Merit<\/em> and <em>Green Flag\u00a0with Distinction\u00a0<\/em>awards. \u00a0These are described as \"optional\". \u00a0Well, the whole shebang is optional and there has to be a risk replacing <em>bronze \/ silver \/ green flag<\/em> with <em>flag \/ + merit \/ + distinction. \u00a0<\/em>Plus \u00e7a change, then.<\/p>\n<p>This prompted the memory of a visit to Wigan Pier way back when. \u00a0It was a time when you could get a green flag and seemingly keep it no matter what. \u00a0I tried to persuade the Eco School leadership that it ought to do something about this. \u00a0I floated the idea that green flags ought to be required to be renewed and that this ought to involve reaching a higher standard than before. \u00a0The first of these points caught on a while back, but not the second \u2013 unless that is what merit \/ distinction represents.<\/p>\n<p>It\u00a0seems to me that there\u2019s likely to be an economic rationale behind this shift. \u00a0 Nothing wrong with that, of course as these are difficult times. The questions are: will it strengthen or weaken the student experience and improve or diminish the school outcomes? \u00a0Time will tell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I see that Eco Schools is making big changes to the way it operates. \u00a0These might be summarised as [i] abandoning the bronze and silver awards as stepping stones to flag acquisition; [ii] making the application process entirely on-line; [iii]...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7952\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}