Shirenewton Primary School has been awarded a Platinum Flag, the fourth Green Flag award in the Eco-schools programme, for their "continued achievement in working towards a sustainable lifestyle."

They are the first school in Monmouthshire to be given the award and they join only a few schools in Wales who have been recognised for their work.

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Eco-school coordinator Jane Eickhoff and the Eco-Committee have been working since 2005 to improve and educate the pupils in creating a sustainable school environment through a programme of recycling and targets for minimising the waste from school life.

"We started out with a recycling programme," said Jane, "and went on to address various aspects of being eco-aware within the school."

They separated paper from rubbish and used three bins; one for rubbish, one for paper and one for metal and plastic.

"This was before Monmouthshire County Council began their programme of recycling," she added.

Following on from that, the school developed water efficiency targets and installed water bowsers in the classrooms for the pupils to refill their containers, any left over was used to water the flowers in the yard as well as water butts in the yard, and all the taps converted to automatic shut-off.

Food waste was separated after lunchtimes, where the waste went into compost.

The school grows their own flowers and vegetables.

Another achievement was ensuring all the pupils either came in a shared car, rode in by bicycle - a safe cycling programme for Y6 has been rolled out - or came in by bus; no pupils now comes to school singly by car.

The school is also aiming for Fairtrade status by using Fairtrade products and even wearing a Fairtrade uniform made from suitably sourced cotton.

Energy plays another part in their programme; solar panels have been installed on the roof.

Briony Bromley, an eco-school officer visited the school to award them the plaque and a new flag for the school flagpole.

"I have never visited a school which has been so brilliant from the start", she said.

"There are 54 countries around the world that use the eco-school programme to improve their environment, none are as good as you, which makes you one of the best schools in the whole world".

When asked where the school will go from here, Molly Lye of Y5 summed up the school's approach; "we want to get better and better, there is never an end to something."