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25/06/2020 News

St Pancras Catholic Primary School crowned environmental champions!

 

 

This year, things have changed slightly for our Better Energy School Awards, due to the Covid-19 crisis. Our annual London zoo ceremony had to be cancelled.

 

Organised in conjunction with the Young People's Trust for the Environment (YPTE), for the past 13 years, the Better Energy School Awards are open to every primary school across England, Scotland and Wales. Total, sponsor of the awards, organised a ‘vote from home’ with employees from all over the country to elect this year’s National Champion.

 

Each regional finalist won their school £1,000.  St Pancras Catholic Primary School from Lewes, East Sussex were crowned UK National Champions and received the top prize of £5,000. The school’s ‘Part of one’ project saw the children, creating a song to talk about everyone's collective responsibility to care for the planet. So they wrote the music and words as a group and learned them in readiness for recording their own pop video. The Awards Ceremony included video messages of congratulation from celebrity guests including TV and radio presenter Dermot O’Leary, naturalist and adventurer Steve Backshall, actor and radio presenter Cel Spellman and actress Zoë Wanamaker CBE.

 

Their passion and commitment are evident and words like "We all make choices every day, and we all have a part to play" stay with you long after the song has ended.  Congratulations to them!

 

YPTE Director, Peter Littlewood, said:

“It has been fantastic to see how many schools and young people have got involved with the Awards in what has been a very difficult and challenging time for everyone.  WIth entry for the Awards being an online process, the competition has been able to continue, even with schools in lockdown.  And it has been fantastic to see the great environmental work young people are doing whilst learning at home.  We were blown away by St Pancras Primary’s entry.  Their song delivers a powerful message.  Words like "We all make choices every day, and we all have a part to play" stay with you long after you’ve heard them.”

The Awards Ceremony video premiered on Vimeo and journalists are welcome to view it. On behalf of the all the Champion schools, we respectfully request that you do not publish the link to the video in any of your coverage.

Better Energy School Awards 2020 Virtual Awards Ceremony from YPTE on Vimeo.

 

The Better Energy School Awards competition will run again in 2020-21. For details on how to enter or to see details of previous winners, please visit
http://betterenergyschoolawards.org.uk

 

Total

Total is a major energy player, which produces and markets fuels, natural gas and low-carbon electricity. Our 100,000 employees are committed to better energy that is safer, more affordable, cleaner and accessible to as many people as possible. Active in more than 130 countries, our ambition is to become the responsible energy major.

Created in 2006, the Better Energy School Awards celebrate and reward the huge enthusiasm, commitment and great energy for environmental learning by thousands of young people across the UK.  We are proud to support the Young People’s Trust for the Environment and the work they do in bringing young people together to learn about the natural world and the need for sustainability. More information is available on www.total.uk

 

About The Young People’s Trust for the Environment

The Young People’s Trust for the Environment (YPTE) is a registered charity that aims to create a better future by inspiring young people to look after our world.  We provide a huge range of free information on our website, which is written for young people and teachers, but also useful to adults wanting to find out more about key environmental issues. These include an expanding range of educational videos and lesson plans for use in classrooms.  Since September 2015, YPTE’s downloadable lesson plans, which are regularly recommended to teachers by the Department for Education, have been downloaded over 240,000 times, reaching over 7.1 million young people in classrooms across the UK and beyond. Since the lockdown began, YPTE has been producing Home Learning Packs and Home Learning Activity sheets for use by children working from home.   In normal conditions, we also work in schools, providing free presentations  on environmental issues.

ypte.org.uk