Clovelly Primary School Pupils Win £500 Garden Vouchers With Recycle Week

GREEN-FINGERED pupils from Clovelly Primary School in North Devon will be improving their gardening skills next term

after winning £500 worth of garden centre vouchers for their school.

Youngsters

at Clovelly Primary School scooped the prize money

after being named regional winners for Recycle Week’s ‘Rewards for

Schools’. The competition was supported by Don’t let Devon go to Waste,

the county’s reduce, reuse and recycle partnership and WRAP, the Waste

and Resources Action Programme.

Torridge District Councillor Adam

Symons and Scrapman (a literacy resource for Devon schools which has

been developed by Resource Futures to teach primary children about waste

and recycling) presented pupils, parents and

staff with their garden centre vouchers.

Nearly 60 South West

schools were competing for the prize in the run up to last month’s

Recycle Week, which was designed to encourage the recycling of old

electrical items.

Councillor Roger Croad, Devon County Council’s

Cabinet Member for Environmental and Regulatory Services, said: “Well

done to Clovelly on its win. This just shows what can be achieved when

communities work together on recycling.

“This is a double win

for the environment – not only are old electrical items being reused or

recycled, but Clovelly pupils are able to develop their garden and grow

their own food. It’s even more remarkable that so many tokens were

collected for Clovelly Primary because the school has just 17 pupils.”

The

‘Rewards for Schools’ initiative saw schools up and down the country

gathering pledges from their local community. By following through the

pledges and recycling unwanted electrical goods during Recycle Week,

residents in Devon received reward tokens at participating Devon County

Council Recycling Centres, which could be used to benefit a local school

of their choice.

Chris Nichols, Head Teacher of Clovelly Primary

School, said: “We’re so thrilled to have won the competition. We are

committed to reducing waste and we already recycle as much as we can.

With this year’s Recycle Week focusing on small electricals, it was a

great opportunity for the school and local community to think about the

things they may have at home that can be recycled and turned into

something new.

“We plan to spend the vouchers on improving the

grounds for the school community, something we can all enjoy for years

to come. It is a wonderful reward for all the pupils’ and parents, hard

work.”

Councillor Adam Symons, Portfolio Holder for Waste and

Recycling at Torridge District Council, said: “We’ve been overwhelmed at

the levels of community spirit shown this Recycle Week. Schools have

been busy gathering pledges and raising awareness about recycling and

residents have been busy recycling their small electrical items in order

to help their local schools and the environment.

“We’d like to

congratulate Clovelly Primary School and all the schools that took part

and of course thank the local residents for their support. Now that we

know how easy it is, we are hoping the scheme will encourage the public

to take their small electrical items to recycling centres all year

round.”

To check the location of your nearest recycling centre go to: www.recycledevon.org.