Protect our ocean by emailing your MP

Seagrass Full Scene - Jack Tite

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

The award

The Ocean-Friendly Schools Award is all about sparking your group’s curiosity about the ocean and building their confidence in taking action to protect it.

Established in 2022, the award is a free, curriculum-linked initiative which has been designed to be run by a class, school council or eco team. It also meets Eco-Schools requirements for the Marine topic.

Applications for this year have now closed. Scroll down to read our FAQs and register for September 2025!

GBBC at Sandbanks 2022

Four young people stand on a beach next to a Beach Clean flag

Credit: Billy Barraclough

Register for the Ocean-Friendly Schools Award

Register now

How it works

There are three action areas to choose from which focus on key conservation issues: marine pollution, sustainable seafood and climate change.

Each action area has four steps (listed below) for which there are required activities to complete. There are also optional activities your group can complete to further their learning.

  • Step 1: Explore the issue
  • Step 2: Evaluate your impact on the problem
  • Step 3: Act to improve the issue in your school
  • Step 4: Share what you've learned and encourage others to change

We provide a full suite of free, downloadable resources from our website to support you through each step.

As you complete your journey to become an Ocean-Friendly School, you'll need to submit evidence of your group's working using our online form so we can track your progress.

Once you've completed all the steps and submitted your evidence, you'll receive an engraved bamboo award to display with pride. We also have some post-award activities, like our Ocean Literacy Quiz, for your group to complete.

Action areas

Clean up our seas

Marine pollution is diverse, from tiny fibres shed from clothes to chemicals washed down the sink.

Take action now and help tackle ocean pollution at source.

plastic bottle.png

Gloved hands hold plastic waste above a litter bag

Stop overfishing

90% of world fish stocks are fully or over-exploited from fishing.

Take steps to protect fish species and help people make more sustainable seafood choices to help stocks recover.

Empty and broken scallop shells possibly due to the raking action of dredges Lyme Bay Scotland Colin Munro.

Seabed floor

Credit: Colin Munro/Marine-bio-images

Fight climate change

Our ocean is an unsung hero in the fight against climate change.

Explore the link between the ocean and climate and take action to improve the sustainability of your school.

Better world protest, Unsplash, Markus Spiske

Placard held aloft with 'Fight today for a better tomorrow'

Credit: Markus Spiske, Unsplash

FAQs

Ocean-Friendly Schools in 2024

An incredible twenty-four schools across the UK became accredited Ocean-Friendly Schools in 2024, with almost half of the schools based inland.

Now in its third year, the award centres on ocean literacy and aims to develop students’ understanding of our impact on the ocean, the ecosystem services it provides and how our health and ocean health are inextricably linked.

If you'd like to join us and help make waves in your school, sign up below for the 2025/6 academic year!

Ocean-Friendly Schools class

A group of school children in a classroom raise their hands

Credit: Park School, Bournemouth

It's amazing seeing the pupils' depth of understanding on ocean and climate change issues. They were all rightly proud of themselves and were great at sharing their learning and successes! They are empowered to keep going.

Ms Fowlie, Forgue School (Aberdeenshire)

Sign up

If your school is keen to get involved, register your interest to start in September 2025 using our online form.

If you're a current Ocean-Friendly School, you can access your resources here.

Register for the Ocean-Friendly Schools Award

Register now

If you're a current Ocean-Friendly School, you can access your resources here.