Central Bedfordshire Council selects the winner of COP26 Creative Competition
Friday, 17 December 2021
We have crowned Hadrian Academy primary school in Dunstable with the Central Bedfordshire COP26 Creative Award.
The award follows a competition on social media asking people to vote for their favourite climate challenge ideas from students.
Seven Central Bedfordshire schools were shortlisted. Their entries included:
- Edward Peake: Help the World, Tree of promises and You can change the future
- Etonbury Academy: Democratree 1, 2 and 3
- Hadrian Academy: Message in a bottle, Recipe for change and The Earth
- Lark Rise Academy: Climate Change poem, Letter to the PM and The rabbit who didn’t understand
- Northill CE Academy: Pollution sucker, Recycle Robo and Trampo ladder
- St. Augustines Academy – Coat of hope and Shine patch
The winning school Hadrian Academy included the entry receiving the most votes ‘A message in a bottle – save our planet’, which featured a story inside with the Earth being represented by a chocolate egg, the sea from plastic bags, fish as stickers, and the animals and trees also made out of the plastic to represent unbreathable air. At the bottom of the bottle is a hidden chamber with fresh air and a message inside to future generations to learn from mistakes and make a change.
The runner up ‘Democratree’ saw over 290 students and six student leaders from the Environment Team at Etonbury Academy in Arlesey take part in creating the entry. The installation was created to communicate the students’ thoughts and pledges for the future.
The entries are all available to view on the council’s Facebook page.
Councillor Steven Dixon, Executive Member for Sustainability and Transformation, said:
I am delighted to see such fantastic and creative entries from students across Central Bedfordshire. Our climate is something we must all take steps in our everyday lives to help protect and students learning this from a young age is important for their generation as they grow up.
Hannah Bennett, Principal of Hadrian Academy, said:
The children at Hadrian were delighted to win this competition, our Year 6 student leaders chose the environment as the focus of their leadership work this year and have been working on a project to make our outside spaces more accessible and our school more sustainable. The children were excited that they were able to join with Central Bedfordshire to raise awareness of such an important project.
Due to current COVID-19 restrictions, the Central Bedfordshire COP26 Creative Award certificate will be shared electronically with the school.