Published: Wednesday, 13th December 2023
Eastgate Primary were crowned West Norfolk Climate Champions in an ideas competition for west Norfolk based primary school children, aimed at Year 5 students.
The Mayor of King's Lynn & West Norfolk, Cllr Margaret Wilkinson, and Cllr Michael de Whalley, Cabinet member for Climate Change and Biodiversity, visited the school this week to give the winning students their certificates and prize.
Living For the Future was a free competition for local schools to enter aimed at encouraging the creativity in every child and to educate students on the issue of sustainability, with a focus on designing ideas for greener cities, towns and villages in our world.
The project has been funded by the Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk, working in partnership with 8billionideas, an educational learning company. 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 team-work, 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 Primary had created a model out of reused items that included a wind and tree farm, along with solar panels and fishpond to filtrate water.
In second place was South Wootton Junior with a plea to stop cutting trees down and 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 Primary who created a model eco car that is powered by litter and methane gas.
20 local schools signed up to take part in the project, with eight of them working on the virtual final.
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