Some headteachers might take exception to being corrected by pupils, but Linda Kirkwood of Oban High School in Argyll is not one of them. Not in one particular instance, at least.

“At the end of a lesson some time ago, we had lots of scrap paper which I asked the class to pass to the front. I’d just started putting it in a bin when some of the boys said ‘Wrong bin’, pulled it out and showed me where it was supposed to go,” she says.

Gaining the Eco-Schools Green Flag, the highest award from the Foundation for Environmental Education - which Oban High won last term - begins with the formation of a group of environmentally aware pupils, but it doesn’t end there. Those young enthusiasts then have to grab the attention and interest of the rest of their school, up to and including the headteacher.

Ideally their influence will also extend beyond the school railings, says Peter Gibson of EnCams, the Government and Scottish Executive-backed environmental charity which runs the Eco-Schools programme here and the Keep Britian Tidy campaign. “What happens is that the youngsters educate their teachers and parents. Very often local companies get involved and it has a knock-on effect on the whole community,” he says.

Mr Gibson says that the majority of UK schools so far registered for the Eco-Schools programme - close to 1,000 - are junior schools, possibly because it is much easier in primary schools to blend environmental projects into lessons across the curriculum. So the achievement of Oban High, the second largest school in Argyll and Bute, is unusual and impressive. It is the only mainstream secondary school among the 19 Scottish Green Flag holders.

The scarcity of British secondary Eco-Schools is due to more than difficulties of size and structure, however. Recent research, says Mr Gibson, has highlighted another factor: teenage peer pressure. “If kids see their mates dropping litter they’ll do the same thing, they tell us, because it’s not cool to be the only one using a bin,” he says.

Yet peer pressure can work both ways, so the first challenge for the ecology enthusiasts is to convert their friends and colleagues and then spread the word farther. In Oban, striking, professional-looking posters - the winners of a competition organised by the high school’s Protect Our Planet group - have gone up around the school, its associated primaries and in shop windows around the town.

“Drink cans, fishing lines, polystyrene, fridges and cars get in the sea and cause real problems for our wildlife,” reads the introduction to a thoughtful poster beautifully illustrated with dolphins, puffins, sandpipers and swans. “Rubbish, rubbish, such a horrible thing, next time you see it just put it in the bin,” reads another.

Other initiatives organised by the fourth year pupils and a few from the lower school who are members of POP include giving talks and presentations in local primary schools, recycling paper, cans and ink cartridges in their school - and training people to use the right disposal bins - and sponsored clean-ups around the town and the beach.

The Eco-Schools programme aims to raise awareness of environmental and sustainable development issues partly through classroom study, but pupil involvement is essential and the whole school should be involved in practical initiatives. To achieve all this in a large secondary takes the full backing and co-operation of the headteacher.

“We’ve conducted an audit of eco issues taught as part of the curriculum,” says Mrs Kirkwood, “and every department is now required to build a contribution to our Eco-School project into their development plan.”

It also requires energy, time and commitment from at least one member of the teaching staff as a participant of the Eco-School committee. At Oban High that role of environmental champion is played by the principal teacher geography, Stella Leitch, who takes part in POP meetings, liaises with recycling companies and local sponsors, and helps to focus ideas and plans.

Partly because of her efforts and partly because many of the pupils were already environmentally aware - Ben joined Friends of the Earth when he was six and Angharad’s father is converting their home to water power - the school was pleasantly surprised on receiving the checklist of requirements for the Green Flag - described as “challenging” by Mr Gibson - to find it was already complying with most of them.

The Green Flag award ceremony was quite a lavish affair, with representatives from industry and government, as well as a number of parents. But although gratifying, winning the award was not, say the youngsters, the most rewarding aspect of being an Eco-School. “It is so nice to hear people who have taken note of what we are saying,” says Christopher. Theresa agrees: “If somebody somewhere takes notice, that’s one more person helping and it all mounts up.”

For more about the Eco-Schools programme contact Sue Rigby, EnCams, Elizabeth House, The Pier, Wigan WN3 4EX, tel 01942 824620. Also see www.eco-schools.org and www.eco-schools.org.uk