Nursery's green achievements flagged up

A CITY nursery has been awarded permanent Green Flag status as a reward for its commitment to environmental issues.

St Leonard's Nursery is understood to be the first nursery to receive a fourth Green Flag award, which entitles a school to permanent status.

Children have earned the title through a variety of initiatives including producing compost from leftover snacks, making their own paper and creating artistic masterpieces from various recycled items.

They also grow vegetables and plants in the greenhouse, and have a pond full of frogs and insect life.

Clare McCusker, headteacher, said: "Our children live the message of reduce, reuse and recycle in their daily routines and at the centre of their learning is a caring attitude not only to one another but also the environment.

"Good habits are established in these early years which will hopefully always stay with children and extend into their families and through the later stages of their education.

"All of our staff are totally committed to the programme of environmental education.

"It is their skilled interaction which makes these accessible to young children who begin to understand concepts such as the finite nature of resources and the fragility of our planet."