The primary and secondary school winners of Wiltshire Youth Council’s Eco Week competition have been announced and I am very pleased to say my first school won the Primary category!
Wiltshire schools took on the challenge during Eco Week between 6th and 10th March 2023, to create and share eco-friendly project ideas that would promote positive changes regarding climate change and have a lasting impact on green initiatives in their school.
The idea of Eco Week came from Wiltshire Youth Council, a group of secondary school aged young people who represent young people’s views and are elected to speak out on issues that are important to them. Wiltshire Youth Councillors also supported the week by encouraging teachers and pupils to take part from their own schools.
Participating schools were encouraged to post images or videos onto social media with the hashtag #WYCEcoWeek. Schools also submitted a tracker of activities to the judging panel, that helped explain the difference their projects have made.
After the week had finished, a judging panel reviewed the school entries and decided the winners and runners up. The panel was made up of Wiltshire Council’s Cllr Laura Mayes (Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Education and Skills), Cllr Tamara Reay (Portfolio Holder for Climate Change) and Naomi Rodgman (Climate Technician).
Pewsey Vale School was the winning secondary school. The judging panel particularly liked that a number of the projects involved the whole school community; for example, their mileage tracker and green school uniform and the innovative ideas such as the recycling of plastics into rain catchers.
Marlborough St Mary’s CE Primary School was the winning primary school. The auditing in place to measure the long-term impact of their projects particularly impressed the judging panel. They also really enjoyed hearing about the fabulous bug hotel and loved the idea of sponsoring a polar bear.
The winners were awarded with an engraved plaque and a tree sapling to plant in their school presented by Wiltshire Council’s Cameron Draisey, Child and Youth Voice Worker, and Councillor Dominic Muns, Portfolio Holder for Education & Skills.
The runner up in the secondary school category was South Wiltshire Grammar School. The runners up in the primary school category were Queen’s Crescent School and St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School. All runners up were awarded with an engraved plaque.
Cllr Laura Mayes, said: “I would like to say a huge well done and thank you to all of the schools that signed up to Eco Week. I hope that you enjoyed getting involved and taking on the challenge.
“We saw plenty of examples of really valuable contributions from schools across Wiltshire towards creating awareness around climate change and being more eco-friendly. I would encourage all schools across the county to think about the ways they can take action and support our ambitions to be a carbon neutral county by 2030.”
Cllr Tamara Reay, said, “All schools that entered showed a brilliant commitment to promoting sustainability within their schools. We were really impressed with the huge range of student-led initiatives and ideas that were shared with us, and the steps schools are taking towards raising awareness about important environmental issues.”
