King’s Lynn’s Eastgate Academy crowned West Norfolk climate champions after borough-wide competition
A West Norfolk primary school has been crowned the borough’s Climate Champions after a competition aimed at Year 5 students.
Eastgate Academy in Lynn came out top in the contest organised by West Norfolk Council, thanks to their green ideas.
West Norfolk mayor Cllr Margaret Wilkinson and cabinet member for climate change and biodiversity Cllr Michael de Whalley visited the school Wednesday, December 13 to give the winning students their certificates and prizes.
Living For the Future was a free competition for local schools to enter aimed at encouraging creativity in every child and educating students on the issue of sustainability, with a focus on designing ideas for greener cities, towns, and villages in our world.
The project was funded by the borough council, working in partnership with 8billionideas, an educational learning company.
Some 20 local schools signed up to take part in the project, with eight of them working on the virtual final.
Cllr Michael de Whalley, who attended the virtual final at the end of November, said: “I would like to thank all the students and teachers for the time, energy, and effort put into their proposals.
“The teamwork, hard work, enthusiasm, creativity, and positivity displayed are the right way to go about solving big problems.
“Younger people have the power to change the way all of us think and do things and they can help make a difference. I hope they can all keep up the good work.”
The entries were judged by Cllr de Whalley alongside the leader of the borough council, Cllr Terry Parish, who is a former science teacher.
The winning entry from Eastgate Academy had created a model out of reused items that included a wind and tree farm, along with solar panels and a fishpond to filtrate water.
In second place was South Wootton Junior School with a plea to stop cutting trees down. Pupils designed a magical robot dog called Bark, powered by the sun, who can plant saplings to help replace trees.
Third place was won by Denver Voluntary Controlled Primary School, which created a model eco-car that is powered by litter and methane gas.
Teachers who would like to use the materials created for this project in the future or to find out more can email bcklwn@8billionideas.com
Reporting by Toma Toricina