A London school has received a top environmental award for its pupils’ actions on tackling climate change.

Radnor House School in Twickenham was awarded Green Flag Status with Distinction by Eco-Schools, a programme that encourages young people to engage with environmental issues, and empowers them to make a difference.

The award recognises the work of the school’s Eco-Club, a group of pupils who carried out an environmental review of the school and came up with an action plan for making it more eco-friendly.

School Principle Darryl Wideman said: “We are delighted with the achievement of our Eco-Club members, who, under the guidance and inspiration of Radnor parent Sally Cornelius and Clare Marshall, our head of geography – have been awarded a Distinction in the Eco-Schools Green Flag award. Very well done.

“The feedback from Eco-Schools was a lovely read, commenting on how impressed they were that our Eco-Club is represented by pupils across a broad age spectrum (year 5 to year 11) with everyone taking it in turns to take the minutes and set the agenda.”

Eco-Schools praised the way the pupils engaged people from across the school and wider community, including the school’s Director of Operations and catering supplier, when producing their report and action plan.

It also praised the way the pupils engaged and involved the school, families and the wider community in Eco-Club.

Eco-Club members wear special badges to raise the profile of the club around the school.

They also use newsletters, bulletins and social media to promote their work more widely.

The octopus sculpture they built to raise awareness of single-use plastic also got a special mention.

The school said it is “the collaborative approach we will all need to adopt to combat climate change.”

The school received a Distinction for going beyond Eco-Schools’ seven-step assessment criteria.