A CLACKS school has put sustainability front and centre to regain an award it first earned nearly 15 years ago.

Park PS has received its Eco-Schools Green Flag Award, showing its commitment to learning for sustainability, following a development journey that has seen pupils come together with the community.

Principal teacher Jackie McKay and her pupils celebrated last Friday, March 24, as the flag was raised at the school for the first time since 2009, when it originally gained the award.

As part of what is the largest sustainable schools programme in the world, the school concentrated on three from the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals while taking climate action.

Situated in Alloa South and East, which is in the most deprived 10 per cent of areas according to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, no poverty was one of the goals chosen by the school along with sustainable communities and reduced inequalities.

In one project undertaken as part of the Green Flag journey, Park PS teamed up with St John's Church, which donated £1,500 to help provide sanitary products free of charge and discretely as well as a gym kit for all children.

Mrs McKay said: “We have a lot of Syrian families and mix culture families in school so we decided that our reducing inequality goal was to make them all feel at home.

GREEN FLAG: Park PS last week raised the flag for the first time since 2009

GREEN FLAG: Park PS last week raised the flag for the first time since 2009

“We had a massive project on dog fouling in the area – we walked around and identified the problem areas and the kids actually recognised that if it's a Syrian person walking about they can't read the signs because they might not necessarily understand English.”

Signs created by children to encourage good behaviour from dog owners have therefore been translated to a variety of languages which are prevalent in the school community, including Polish and others.

The green and community initiatives at the school have been pupil-led with the Eco Crew at the helm and under the guidance of Mrs McKay, who has been more than proud of the children.

They have also been educating fellow pupils on food waste while introducing composting bins and undertaking gardening projects.

There have also been litter picks in the area around the school with more to come in the near future.

Mrs McKay will be leading the children to take forward an action plan for the next award with some fresh goals to work towards.