Ocean-Friendly Schools Award

Empower your pupils to take action for the ocean with our free award

What is the Ocean-Friendly Schools Award?

Bring your whole school together for a fun, hands‑on day of ocean discovery

The Ocean-Friendly Schools Award helps pupils explore the wonders of the sea, learn about the issues it's facing, and get inspired to protect it from their classroom.

Led by our experienced Learning Officer, your pupils will take part in a whole-school assembly followed by a series of interactive, curriculum‑linked activities for a class or year group. From investigating how the ocean affects our daily lives to creating a campaign to create positive change, every session is designed to be engaging, accessible, and relevant.

By completing the activities throughout the day, your school will be well on their way to achieving their Ocean‑Friendly Schools Award, recognising your pupils' commitment to caring for our blue planet.

What's included?

A whole school assembly and series of workshops throughout the day for a class or year group
Dedicated support from the Marine Conservation Society's learning team
A printed award handbook with a checklist of activities to complete and two A3 posters
A suite of free, downloadable resources
An engraved bamboo award to display with pride

Registrations for the Ocean-Friendly Schools Award are now closed for this academic year. To book an online live lesson with us, please use our enquiry form and the team will be in touch!

How it works

1. Choose your ocean action area

Pick one of two important conservation topics to focus on. Both topics include a pathway of activities to complete throughout the day. We also provide optional extra tasks for a deeper dive.

2. Book your visit

3. Complete four key steps

Now that you've learned about your chosen issue and gathered important data, it’s time to start making a difference.

Using the data you collected in Step 2, your pupils will design a creative campaign or project that helps improve the problem.

You could create posters to promote Deposit Return Schemes, design a campaign for reusable bottles, or write to your local government representative - it's up to you! We'll provide detailed planners on the day to help your team decide how to take action.

4. Achieving your award

After your one-day workshop has finished and you’ve shared what you’ve learned with your community, you’ll need to submit evidence using our online form up to four weeks after our visit. This can be images, videos, documents, PDFs - anything that best showcases your pupils’ work.

Once the team have reviewed your evidence, you’ll officially become an Ocean‑Friendly School! You’ll then receive an engraved bamboo award to display with pride.

Credit: John Westgarth

FAQs

The award is open to schools across the UK, whether you're based inland or by the sea. The content is aimed at primary learners but can be easily adapted for a secondary audience. Unfortunately, we currently cannot accept home educated groups.

We've designed the award to be run by a year group, class, school council or eco team. After the whole-school assembly, your group will lead the work on the award and complete the activities required. They'll then share what they've learned with the whole school or local community and inspire them to be more ocean friendly!

Booking your full-day visit using our booking form
Submitting a teacher pre- and post-award survey
Working with your Ocean-Friendly Schools Champion to complete each of the four required steps
Submitting evidence of how you've shared your learning with your school or local community – remember to take lots of photos!
Communicating with your Champion if you need support or your circumstances change

Submitting your Step 4 evidence is simple. Our online form has been set up to guide you with space to add a detailed description of your activities as well as supporting images, videos or documents.

Once we’ve received your evidence, your dedicated Ocean-Friendly Schools Champion will review it. If you're having any issues submitting your evidence through the form, please get in touch so we can help.

Pupils at Leverhulme Memorial Primary School/Sgoil an t-Òib on the Isle of Harris

Credit: Mairi Macleod
Plastic pollution research by pupils at Thomas's Clapham

Credit: Anna Stringer
'Stop plastic pollution' march at Thomas's Clapham

Credit: Anna Stringer
Pupils on the beach at Leverhulme Memorial Primary School/Sgoil an t-Òib

Credit: Mairi Macleod

Real-life stories

Last year, a record-breaking 27 schools achieved their award. Check out two of their stories below!

Leverhulme Memorial Primary School, Isle of Harris

In 2025, our first Gaelic medium school and the first in the Western Isles, Leverhulme Memorial School/Sgoil an t-Òib on the Isle of Harris, achieved their award.

This fantastic group ran experiments on microfibres, a clothes swap event, and even invited their local government representative into school for their Big Blue Day!

Pupils with Alasdair Allan MSP at Leverhulme Memorial Primary School/Sgoil an t-Òib

Credit: Mairi Macleod

The brilliant thing was that it empowered the children to become agents of change. They now know that they can change not only their own habits, but drive change in the community and perhaps even the country!
Mairi Macleod, lead teacher at Leverhulme Memorial Primary School

Thomas’s Clapham, London

Our pupils wrote letters to supermarkets about plastic pollution, held debates on environmental issues, took part in environmental protests and presented their own sustainable solutions, all around the theme of saving our ocean. Taking part in this award has supported our journey to becoming an environmentally led school.
Anna Stringer, lead teacher at Thomas’s Clapham