We are not just an Eco School, we are a multiple award winning Ambassador Eco School. Accolades include 2 Sustainable Ireland awards, an Impact 2012 award for the NI Executive, Green Teacher of the Year and 3 Airtricity Wind Awards for Best Eco Committee and Best Energy Project (twice). Our extremely active Eco Committee lead the whole school community in a wide variety of Environmental work, covering aspects of all ten Eco School topics. We are an Ambassador School for Waste having become the first primary school in Ireland, possibly the world, to be Zero Waste, sending nothing to landfill!!

“You are not just a good Eco-School! You are a leading Eco-School and you need to share this leadership with other schools.”

Anne Hayes, Dept. of the Environment.

The Great Science Share is an annual campaign inspiring young people’s scientific question-asking. Through being involved in this UK wide initiative, the profile of science enquiry in Fairview has been raised and pupils have had more time to be involved in practical work. Fairview has been part of the thousands of scientific questions that have been investigated. In 2023, Fairview Primary School was recognised for leading the way in Northern Ireland and providing a model of science showcasing that other schools can follow.

For the last 10 years Fairview Primary School has been working hard to develop its international dimension within school. Pupils have lessons in Spanish and French; we celebrate European Day of Languages; we have language links with local Post Primary schools and we partner with a school in Ethiopia through the local charity Hope 365.

 Fairview Primary School won this prestigious TES Schools’ Awards at a glitzy awards ceremony in London in 2024.

The school was recognised for its range of ways to address mental health by building sensory rooms, its education around mental health and reassuring pupils.

Our vice principal, Mrs Norris, led the initiative and said it was a "tremendous honour" to receive the award.

"To be recognised for our efforts in addressing the mental health of our pupils is a tremendous honour, and testament to the importance our whole school community has placed upon it."

Judges highlighted the range of therapies including music and canine therapy, with support extending to pupil's parents through a program dealing with discussions around mental health.

One of the judges on the panel, Caroline Wright, said the school's focus "on promoting positive mental health" did not only help the pupils but also the school community and parents to understand and help their children's mental health.

Our innovative use of ICT has been recognised externally with a Digital Schools Award for our use of ICT and digital technologies. Our ICT leader, Mr Kennedy, has presented to groups of teachers beyond our own school and at the Education and Training Inspectorate annual conference regarding the innovative practice in Fairview, as well as being at the forefront of embedding Google Gemini in primary schools.

Not only are we an accredited Forest School, we are a Forest School Ranger School, meaning we support other schools to achieve Forest School status. All our year groups enjoy outdoor lessons in the school grounds, with Primary 5–7 making use of the local park, in collaboration with Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council, to extend opportunities including a river study, tree and air-quality studies and exclusive use of the conservation area.

Fairview Primary School achieved this accolade in 2021 after initially achieving Gold Award in 2017. Outreach Award is the highest award available, a charter mark indicating Fairview Primary School is at the forefront of primary science across the UK. The award is recognition of a whole school effort to raise the profile, standards and impact of science learning and teaching, as well as sharing best practice with other schools.

In 2013 Mr McAllister was awarded Science Teacher of Year, a UK-wide award, and became a Fellow of the Primary Science Teaching Trust. Mrs Davis, a Primary 6 teacher and The World Around Us Leader, was awarded this same accolade in 2021. Both awards came as a result of leading outstanding science teaching in Fairview Primary School and also supporting colleagues in other schools through high quality Continual Professional Development sessions.

We have achieved our Level 5 RHS Gardening Award and our children, through use of our vegetable garden and orchard, have the opportunity to grow and taste various fruit and vegetables including potatoes, carrots, rhubarb, apples, pears, plums, berries and beans.

To ensure high quality learning and teaching in STEM subjects, it is imperative staff are well trained and up to date with best practice. In 2022, Mr McAllister was awarded this accolade for his commitment to leading the staff in Fairview Primary School, with over 75% of staff having accessed training to support their teaching in the last two years, and then using this training to maximum effect across the school.
Our most recent ETI inspection (2019) stated ‘the learning and teaching is characterised by: interactive, investigative learning experiences; open-ended questions; and appropriately challenging learning opportunities that matched the individual needs of the children’.

We started our journey with Sustrans in 2014 and achieved our Bronze Award in September 2015. The following year we were successful in applying for the Silver Award. These awards recognise Fairview’s commitment to Sustainable Transport. Transport is one of our major topics within the ECOlympics, our Eco Schools focus. Events such as ‘Bling Your Bike’ and ‘Green Mile Week’, as well as regular themed Active Travel weeks, all contribute to our Sustainable Transport efforts. Our target has been to achieve 80% of our pupils regularly walking or cycling to school and as a result of this, we earned our Gold Award in December 2018.