UK Champions 2009
Lutley Primary School, Halesowen.Project Title: Our Super School Grounds.
Category: Totally Active
Work on the gardens has been a feature of life for the children at Lutley Primary School since they planted a vegetable garden in 2007. Children have since harvested the vegetables and shared them with their classmates. Thanks to a grant, they were able to build a cob shelter, a fantastic covered outdoor classroom made from home-made cob bricks (a mixture of clay and straw). Every child was able to make their own brick, and the shelter looks fantastic. Thanks to a further grant, the shelter will soon have seats and a green roof. The children have also planted trees in the school grounds, they have a wildlife garden with pond and a beautiful dragonfly mosaic. The children also have 'Tulley's Garden', a fabulous sensory garden built by volunteers. It's a truly wonderful place to relax or to have a quiet, thoughtful lesson on a summer's day!
National Finalists, North
Pilling St John's Primary School, Pilling, Preston.Project Title: Carry the Message
Category: Totally Clued Up
In yet another beautiful entry from former TOTAL Green School Awards national champions, the children of Piling St John's School, they formed a new company - the Recycle Rangers - issuing shares to each member of the group at 10p each. With this start, they set about collecting things to recycle, including old jumpers, Christmas cards etc. They decorated old boxes with cuttings from Christmas cards, used old envelopes for Christmas decorations, made recycled paper, pin cushions from old jumpers and plant labels from plastic ice cream tubs. One of the dads made candle holders from recycled wood. The Rangers made a travelling shop, which the children took turns to take home to sell goods to their parents. From their initial £3.60, they generated a profit of £82.50, teaching many a startup a thing or two about profitability! They also used Wombles to teach younger children about recycling and getting rid of litter, hosted an Eco-Summit for other schools and did a project on Antarctica. An amazingly diverse and successful set of environmental education initiatives!
National Finalists, Scotland
St Fergus School, St Fergus, Peterhead.Project Title: Project: Save Energy
Category: Totally Powered Up
St Fergus Primary School is situated near to several industrial sites, including TOTAL's St Fergus oil terminal. The children, surrounded by so much energy, wanted to see how much they could save in this interesting video entry. They checked the school's electricity meters daily and spread the energy saving message to their fellow pupils through a poster campaign. Some of the group became the 'Energy Police', switching off lights and issuing warnings where lights had been left on. Others interviewed the staff on their energy use in school. They even wrote and performed an energy saving rap. At the end of term, they had managed to lower the school's use of energy, so their efforts had paid off! A great example of environmentalism in action.
National Finalists, South
Godwin Primary School, Dagenham.Project Title: Save Our Stream
Category: Totally Clued Up
Last September, Class 5W of Godwin Primary School were invited to visit Goresbrook Park to help with planting spring bulbs. The following week, they returned to the park, this time to study the stream that runs through the park as part of their work on rivers for geography. They were horrified by the amount of rubbish they found in the stream and decided to do something about it. The children wrote to the local press, council departments, politicians, supermarkets and the Environment Agency. On the way, they wrote beat poetry, created posters for a 'save our stream campaign' and met with their local MP. It took a few months, but their persistence was rewarded with a full clearance of the stream by the council. Their posters are being used in the park, and in June 2009, the children will take part in a second clean-up session with local residents in preparation for a visit by Lord Smith of Finsbury, Chair of the Environment Agency.
National Finalists, Wales
Castle Park Primary School, Caldicot.Project Title: Sustainability: Wales and the Amazon Rainforest
Category: Totally Clued Up
In a wide-ranging project, children at Castle Park Primary School looked at their environment in Wales, with particular regard to the recent floods. They examined their woodland and the future prospects for agriculture in Wales. They created leaflets about protecting Wales' environment before debating whether the Severn Barrage was a good idea or not and recording oral presentations of their arguments for and against. Finally, they investigated deforestation in the Brazilian rainforest and held a class debate with each member of the class speaking for or against a logging company and railway as a specific character - such as the Manager of the logging company, a train driver and even an orang utan!
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