One of the judges of a schools environmental awards scheme has praised the initiative for highlighting hidden threats to children’s health and wellbeing.

Organised by the KM Charity Team, the 2020 Green School Awards are open to schools across the south-east and East Anglia.

They aim to celebrate school-led initiatives in the following categories: green travel and road safety; energy conservation; nature conservation; clean air for schools; recycling; and health and wellbeing.

Awards judge Medway Council said it was particularly keen to see nominations in the clean air for schools category.

Nathaniel Prodger of the council’s environment protection team said: “The Green School Awards are very important to allow Medway Council to go into schools and teach something that may not be immediately apparent.

“The environmental protection team looks at air quality, which is something that is very difficult to visualise.

“Allowing children to carry out a project where they can really think about their environment and their transport around schools and how they get to school is a very important part of visualising air quality and air pollution.”

Apart from Medway Council, the awards’ supporters are East Kent Recycling, the Ethical Earth Company, Golding Vision, Loop CR, NCS Technology, SGS Energy, Streetspace and Ashford International Hotel, where the awards ceremony will take place in February.

The deadline for submitting nominations is December 1.

Find out more about the awards at Greenschoolawards.co.uk.

And watch a video in which Mr Prodger talks about them here: