THE North-East is to pioneer a scheme to involve secondary school children in protecting the environment.

Ferryhill Comprehensive and Sedgefield Community College, in south Durham, have been chosen to take part in the scheme developed by Global Action Plan, based in Devon, and backed by the United Nations.

The project is similar to the successful Eco-Schools scheme run by the Tidy Britain Group, to which many North-East schools have already signed up.

Eco-Schools encourages schools to hit environmental targets in energy conservation, waste and litter reduction and provision of wildlife areas in their grounds. But it usually applies to primary schools, mainly because they are smaller and it is easier to involve all the pupils.

Rich Hurst, manager of the Wastewise scheme, which helps schools in Darlington, County Durham and Wearside reduce waste, said: "The new scheme is to be piloted in Durham. It has never been done this far up north. The nearest is Manchester.

"There are five pilots nationally and two are in Durham. It will be interesting to see how it works."

Unlike Eco-Schools, which embraces the whole environmental field, those taking part in the Action for Secondary Schools project will select only one topic.

The Ferryhill school has chosen waste, and Sedgefield will study energy in the project, which is backed by insurance company CIS. Both schools will launch it in September and, having completed the work, receive a certificate from the United Nations.

Gary Park, environmental coordinator at Sedgefield Community College, said it had already become the first secondary school in the North-East to win a green flag, certifying it has met all the criteria in the Eco-Schools project.

He said: "The children are really interested in the environment. There had been a big push on energy recently and we already have solar panels."

The school runs schemes including composting, a farm, and recycles Cellophane paper and computer ink cartridges.