OLICAT Schools revealed as finalists for The Green Trust Award at National MATA Awards 2025

We were delighted to receive the news that Our Lady Immaculate Catholic Academies Trust (OLICAT Schools), has been shortlisted for The Green Trust Award at the upcoming National Multi Academy Trust Association (MATA) Awards 2025. We are a family of 12 Catholic schools in the Diocese of Northampton, with nine of our Catholic schools in Northampton, Corby, Wellingborough and Kettering and a further three in Bedford.

OLICAT Schools have focused on developing and implementing a Sustainability Policy and Action Plan but the driving force has undoubtedly been from the dedicated and hard working students of all ages across all the schools. Eco Steward teams meet termly to share their ideas and take great care and effort to promote creative new Sustainability initiatives in their schools and encourage their whole school communities to take part. The term ‘Eco Steward’ acknowledges Pope Francis’ message to the world ‘Laudato Si' - an invitation to everyone on the planet to care for our common home.

We asked our students at St Mary’s Catholic Primary in Northampton why their role as Eco Stewards was important to them:

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Alex: "Every little thing that you do can make a big difference."

Students enjoying nature in the Forest Schools and learning about nurturing our environmentplaceholder image
Students enjoying nature in the Forest Schools and learning about nurturing our environment

Aliyah: "There is no other planet for future generations to thrive in, therefore we should protect it in every way we can."

Theo: " We need to plant and protect the planet for other generations."

Eleanor: "The world was made by God, for everyone and we should protect it by planting and looking after wildlife."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

All schools in the Trust are also working towards the CAFOD Live Simply initiative.

As a Trust, we recognised the important role that we as a family of schools must take to safeguard our planet. We have been so impressed with the range of activities our Eco Stewards have undertaken to get their message out as far and wide as possible. This has included running assemblies, working with the schools and wider community and organising events to raise awareness of the importance of Sustainability e.g. litter picking, installing LED lighting, water awareness, reducing plastic, and public speaking.

We are very proud of our children and the sustainability journey we are on and delighted to see their work acknowledged in the short listing for the National MAT Green Award. (Sarah Meeks, School Improvement, Our Lady Immaculate Catholic Academies Trust)

All MATA Award winners are to be announced at a ceremony held at the Leonardo Hotel in Milton Keynes on March 6th.

To find out more about the Sustainability work in the OLICAT Schools please visit www.olicatschools.org/sustainability

Related topics:
News you can trust since 1931
Follow us
©National World Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.Cookie SettingsTerms and ConditionsPrivacy notice