Schools taking the lead in addressing green issues are being urged to share their best practice in an environmental awards scheme.

Primary and secondary schools across the South-East have until December 7 to submit entries for the KM Charity Team’s Green School Awards.

For the first time this year, the awards include an air-pollution category, which is supported by Medway Council.

Stuart Steed of Medway Council said: “We are really proud to champion the new category at the Green School Awards this year.

“It’s all relating to air pollution monitoring and what schools are currently doing in their environment to improve air quality.”

Medway Council is one of the key partners in Care for Air Kent & Medway. The pollution-themed educational project is provided through a partnership involving all Kent’s local authorities that aims to improve air quality.

Schools can access Care for Air Kent & Medway educational resources at http://kentair.org.uk/Information/

And the council’s school science project the Clean Air for Schools Initiative aims to educate pupils about the impact of traffic on air quality and public health.

There are five other categories in the awards: energy conservation; green travel and road safety; nature conservation; health and wellbeing; and recycling.

Schemes eligible for nomination might include walking buses, school gardens, and air-monitoring and energy-reduction initiatives.

In addition to Medway Council, the awards’ judges are key partner Golding Vision, and ADM Computing, Ashford International Hotel, EduKit, NCS Technology, Loop CR, Kidzania and Kent Count Council.

The deadline for nominations is December 7, and there will be an awards celebration event at Ashford International Hotel in February.

Find out more at www.greenschoolawards.co.uk. And watch a video about them here: