A key partner of the KM Charity Team has formally unveiled the environmentally-friendly school initiative the Green School Awards.

Proud partner Golding Homes have made the call for entries, and are on the lookout for schools in Kent, Medway and Bexley to get involved.

Caroline McBride of Golding Homes said: "We are simply thrilled to be supporting and launching the Green School Awards. This is a greatly meaningful and important initiative which teaches young people about the real value of our environment, but also about the maintenance of a healthy lifestyle. We hope that many schools get involved with the awards and show off all the wonderful things they are doing to promote and support our natural world."

Amalgamating the former Walk to School Awards with the newer, eco-friendly scheme launched earlier this year, the Green School Awards will celebrate the best of everything natural in the county. The awards focus on the best school-led initiatives in the following categories: green travel to school and road safety, energy conservation, nature conservation and recycling. Schemes should link to schools to some degree, perhaps with the original idea being generated by a school but then carried out in pupils’ homes or the wider community.

Suggested examples showing this link between school and wider community could involve a design competition to reduce electricity use staged in school with pupil’s stickers being used in the family home or parents’ place of work; homework project to design and build a bird house that is used in the pupil’s garden. And of course the county’s walk to school schemes and associated road safety work are also celebrated through the Green School Awards.

Initiatives can focus solely on school grounds such as a recycling campaign created and delivered on school premises or the creation of a nature conservation area or kitchen garden to grow vegetables used in the school kitchens.

An awards celebration event will take place at the Kent Cricket Club, Canterbury in February 2017. Additional seats at the awards event can be purchased and a raffle will be held to raise funds for children’s road safety schemes in the region.

KM Charity Team events manager Sophie Wallace said: "The Green School Awards are designed to help children become more knowledgeable about our environment and how we can help protect and conserve it. We are most thankful to Golding Homes for their support of the scheme and we are keen to receive as many entries as possible from all schools across the county."

To submit an entry, please click here.

All nominations must be submitted by midnight on Sunday, December 11.