School’s pride at nomination

11:31am Friday 27th June 2008

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A PRIMARY school which swept to victory in a national climate change competition is in line for a community pride award.

Green-minded youngsters at Park Grove Primary School helped secured £10,000 in cash after beating 28 other schools from Norwich, York and Perth by reducing their school’s carbon footprint by 26 per cent.

In a schools programme called Climate Change Champions (CCC), a scheme developed by environmental charity Global Action Plan (GAP), in partnership with Norwich Union, children and teachers at the school set about their eco challenge.

Fifteen volunteers from Norwich Union’s York offices mentored more than 100 students, ranging from seven to 16, on understanding climate change, calculating their school’s carbon footprint and devising a campaign to cut down on school waste and energy use.

The seven York schools that completed all elements of the carbon footprint audit process reduced their combined carbon footprint by 8.5 per cent, saving 51 tonnes of CO2.

Park Grove Primary alone managed to prevent 15 tonnes of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere – enough to fill three hot air balloons.

The school, whose head is Andrew Calverley, secured a £10,000 cash prize in drastically cutting down their carbon footprint. The cash, provided by Norwich Union, will pay for a renewable energy installation.

Rebecca Tait, teacher at Park Grove Primary, nominated the school under the Best Primary School Project category in The Press’s Community Pride Awards.

She said: “The children are immensely pleased with the school’s achievement and look forward to seeing the renewable energy installation arrive. They have found working closely with the volunteers from Norwich Union highly valuable and all now feel more aware of their role to play in helping reduce the impact of climate change.”

The Press still needs nominees for the York Community Pride Awards, which are run jointly with City of York Council. If you know of someone who has made an outstanding contribution to the community, we would love to hear about them.

This summer, a panel of judges will be whittling down a shortlist from your nominations. Three semi-finalists from each of the 14 categories will attend a glittering ceremony at York Racecourse, in October, where the winners will be announced.

To nominate someone, simply fill in the coupon via the related link.

Send in a non-returnable picture of your nominee along with a supporting statement setting out why your nominee deserves an award.

Send nominations to Community Pride Awards, Paula Homer, The Press, 76-86 Walmgate, York, YO1 9YN.

Alternatively, you can email us at editor@thepress.co.uk.