SCHOOLS have been at the heart of the Evening Times Streets Ahead campaign since its early days.

Primary, secondary, nursery and ASN pupils across the city have dug, planted, litter-picked, cleaned-up and worked hard to support us.

More than 100 have also signed up to Glasgow City Council’s Schools Charter, which encourages pupils to complete environmental challenges throughout the year.

As the eighth year of our award-winning campaign gets underway, we want to hear what your school is doing to improve its community for all.

It could be working with local older people to bring generations closer together, or joining forces with neighbours to create a community garden. Perhaps you have organised regular clean-ups or take part in road safety initiatives or winter snow-clearing; maybe you run gala days and coffee mornings which bring families and friends into the school?

Whatever you do that reaches out to your neighbours and friends, we want to hear about it.

Together with our generous partners City Charitable Trust, Glasgow City Council and City Building, we have provided thousands of pounds in funding to help schools get dream projects off the ground.

Mosspark Primary, on the south side of the city, received a Streets Ahead grant of £2000 to create a beautiful wildlife garden, home to willow structures, bug hotels, pathways and summer flowers which has brightened up the whole community.

Pupils and staff at Adelphi Nursery in the Gorbals were delighted with their £500 Streets Ahead grant to help build a hen coop for a community food project; and we also awarded £1200 to St Vincent’s Autism Unit in Carnwadric for a herb garden and growing space plus cooking classes to encourage healthy eating in the wider community.

To kick off year eight of the campaign, we announced yesterday that St John Paul II Primary in Castlemilk would receive £600 towards the costs of equipment, compost and seeds for its latest Health Hawks gardening project.

The pupils grow plants from seed and sell them at local community events, building up partnerships with their neighbours and other groups.

They are often out and about in the neighbourhood, their bright red uniforms adding a cheerful splash of colour to local streets, and their hard work resulted in the Best School trophy at our Streets Ahead Awards in June.

The Health Hawks comprise pupils from across the school, as ‘Chief-Health-Hawk-in-charge’ Miss Fin Duffy explains.

“Tony Donaghy set up the Health Hawks many years ago to drive the school’s environmental programme and when he left, I took it on,” smiles Miss Duffy.

“It’s about changing attitudes and encouraging children to work together on health and environment issues, so we do everything from litter picks in the streets surrounding the school to encouraging healthy eating.

“We are building links with a local pensioners’ garden and hope to expand the food we grow to be able to distribute it in the wider community, which is why the Streets Ahead grant will come in very useful. It’s a fantastic campaign and we are delighted to be part of it.”

The current Health Hawks – P7 pupils Logan Boyle, 11 and Mikayla Sullivan, 11; P6 pupil Daniel Kwiecenski, 10; Victoria Sakowicz, nine, who is in P5; Stanley Blizniak, seven, from P4; and P3 pupils Tehillah Chapo and Morgan Sweeney, who are both seven – are extremely proud of what the group has already achieved for the school.

“We do litter picks and clean ups and we are working hard to get our next Eco Flag,” explains Mikayla. 

Morgan adds: “We also do healthy eating things, like giving people points if they bring a healthy snack like an apple.”

Logan says: “We have been learning about how plastic is bad for the animals and fish in the oceans and we are trying to let everyone in our community know about it.”

Tehilla and Stanley are on the committee for the first time. “It’s fun being part of Health Hawks,” they chorus.

On a tour of the school’s garden, Victoria and Daniel explain why it is important for schools to get involved in Streets Ahead.

“Looking after your environment is really good,” says Victoria. “There is a lot of rubbish on the streets around our school and we keep cleaning it up, but it keeps coming back.

“We want to try and make sure that people stop throwing litter altogether, so we keep doing it to show them it’s much nicer without it.”

Daniel adds: “We also want people to be healthy. You shouldn’t bring chocolate or marshmallows to school, you should bring healthier food because you don’t want to get diabetes or ill.”

The garden is home to apple trees, strawberry plants and a healthy crop of potatoes.

“There are also places to sit and places to play,” says Victoria. “I love gardening at home, and in Poland, where some of my family still live, we grow carrots and onions.”

Daniel adds: “I live in a flat so I don’t have a garden and it’s nice to have a garden at school instead.”

Victoria says: “People in our community always tell us we are doing good things when we are out litter picking and cleaning up the streets so we are really pleased about that.”