Green Dragon Primary School in Brentford is a School Superzone Success. The school received a visit from the Mayor of London to congratulate them on their clean air and eco-friendly achievements.
Published: Thursday, 15th June 2023
When it comes to protecting the environment and putting everyone’s health and wellbeing first, Brentford’s Green Dragon Primary School really is a breath of fresh air.
The school has lived up to its name by becoming one of the greenest in the borough, thanks to a special Superzone project.
Hounslow Council successfully bid to the Mayor of London’s environmental initiative to create a School Superzone at Green Dragon.
The school received £28,700 to fund the project and identified air quality as one of the top issues affecting the health of children, young people and families locally.
Since then, the school community has been working alongside Council officers on a range of improvements. They have installed manual diffusion tubes that help the school keep tabs on pollution levels.
Families have been encouraged to get involved in active travel through new scooter storage and cycling vouchers.
Also, the spaces in and round the school have been given a green makeover, and Green Dragon are applying for Eco-Schools Green Flag accreditation next month.
As part of the celebrations for Clean Air Day, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan joined Leader of Hounslow Council Councillor Shantanu Rajawat at Green Dragon to see the great work in action.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Filthy air is one of the greatest threats to our capital, with around 4,000 Londoners dying prematurely every year as a result of air pollution.
“It’s great to see the work Green Dragon School are doing to reduce air pollution - from scooter storage and cycle lessons to air quality monitoring and greening their local space, they are making a huge difference to their local area.”
Green Dragon School has operated a School Street since 2020, which means that there is a restriction to traffic flow at peak times. The school also received solar panels and air source heat pumps as part of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, drastically reducing their use of natural gas. The school is now working towards asthma-friendly school accreditation on the back of its superzone success.
Green Dragon Headteacher, Nadine O’Hara, said: "We are thrilled with the efforts of our community to improve air quality, which have made a big difference to our school environment. We are especially proud of our pupils who have shown great enthusiasm in making a positive impact on their local environment through the work of our eco team and their class participation.”
Hounslow Council offers free air quality audits for all schools in the borough and is about to launch a major consultation exercise on the borough’s new Air Quality Action Plan, which will outline how the Council will work with partners to improve air quality in the borough up to 2028.
The Council has successfully bid for more funding to provide two more School Superzones in Hounslow, which will be launched in July.
Leader of Hounslow Council, Councillor Shantanu Rajawat, said: “As a community and as a borough, we are looking to a future where our children and young people lead healthier, more active lives, secure in the knowledge that the air they breathe is safe and clean.
“Clean air is not a privilege or a luxury - it is a fundamental right that all our children, young people, indeed, all residents of our borough deserve. Schemes such as the 'school super zone' at Green Dragon Primary are the torchbearers for this new way of thinking about the air we breathe. As is often the case in environmental matters, our children and young people are leading the way.”
