COASTLANDS pupils are bursting with pride after achieving yet more recognition for their work to protect the environment.

This month the school was awarded a Platinum Eco Schools award, recognising the exceptional journey pupils and staff have taken since joining the Eco Schools programme eight years ago.

In this time the school has undertaken work in all eight areas of Keep Wales Tidy's programme and has undergone many positive changes.

These include an enhanced school garden with vegetable and fruit beds, a pond, an outside classroom, improvements in waste management, greater water and energy use awareness, and global projects including work on Fairtrade, climate change and with a link school in Zanzibar.

This latest award comes as pupil Maddox featured in and advert for Blue Planet II on BBC, in which he displays a green heart, made to raise awareness of plastic pollution in the oceans.

It also follows a string of successes, including becoming finalists in the Morrisons supermarket 'Lets Grow' School Garden of the Year competition 2013, reaching the top three schools in Britain for its environmental work, and becoming World Wildlife Fund 'Green Ambassadors'.

Individual pupils have also shone, with Elin Gent winning the national Woodlands Trust poetry competition in 2015, Rebecca Llewellin winning a national competition for her poem on climate change for WWF’s Earth Hour in 2017, and Indie and Mason being competition winners for their nationally popular green heart for WWF’s #showthelove campaign in 2018 when they met the Prime Minister.

Headteacher Sonja Groves said: “We are all incredibly proud of the learning journey that our school community has been on.

"The understanding that we must all work together to look after our world for our children is something that concerns everyone.

"My grateful thanks go to all the people who have supported us in gaining this award: past and present pupils, governors, parents and staff.

"I would like to give particular thanks to volunteer parents Kate Lock and Sue Burton for their commitment and vision."