Local school children think green

The winners of Wychavon’s environmental poster competition were announced recently at the Civic Centre in Pershore.

The competition, which is open to local school children and is run in partnership with a number of local organisations, aims to get children thinking about protecting the environment and, in particular, to think about recycling and energy use.

The children taking part were asked to come up with a poster to visually express how they would encourage people to be kinder to the environment.

Denise Ditchburn, Promotions and Monitoring Assistant at Wychavon, said: “There was an amazing selection of posters. The children truly love their environment and want to encourage us to reduce the waste we send to landfill, as well as reduce energy and water waste. The competition is a great way to get young people thinking about important issues that affect the environment and stimulate debate.”

Councillor Emma Stokes, Board Member for the Environment and Contracted Services, said: “This has been a fabulous event and it is a great way to get our young people to think about important environmental issues.  We are looking forward to displaying the posters and using them to promote the important messages about protecting the environment and saving energy.”

On the night, Councillor Emma Stokes awarded nine children a prize of a framed copy of their winning poster, vouchers and a goodie bag.

The three first prize winners were Lauren Annis of Holy Redeemer Catholic Primary School in the aged 4-8 category, Natalie Petrie-Hay of St. Nicholas Middle School in the aged 9-11 category, and Lucy Dyer of Bowbrook House School in the aged 12-16 category. 

Pupils who came second, third and highly commended were from Abbey Park Middle School, Bowbrook House, Hindlip C.E. First School, Holy Redeemer Catholic Primary School, Overbury First School and St. Nicholas Middle School.  They too received prizes.

The schools of the three first prize winners were also presented with a cheque £100, and all schools taking part in the competition received a voucher for £55 to use at Worcestershire Resource Exchange, a great community project centre for reusing art materials that will help pupils to create inspiring art in the future.

The event was supported by Mitie Cleaning & Support Services, Focsa, Smart Cut Limited, Severn Waste Services, C.M. Ogle Limited, Brookes Catering, The Co-operative Food, Worcestershire Resource Exchange, Waitrose, The Helping Hand Company and Worcestershire County Council.

The posters will be displayed in the Community Contact Centres in Droitwich, Evesham and Pershore, and there will also be a display in Droitwich Library.