Sky News descends on winning school
St Mark's makes a difference
Jun 30th, 2009
Sky News films a pupil at St. Mark's
St Mark’s C E Primary School in Wigan has been announced as the winner of the 2009 Appetite for Action competition.
The initiative encourages primary schools to learn about how to make the food they eat more sustainable and challenges schools to make a difference.
The winning school was visited by the Sky News team who helped pupils to make a film about their achievements which you can see here.
Participating primary schools across the UK were encouraged to pick a challenge such as ‘Reducing Rubbish’ or ‘Greening Grub’.
St Mark’s pupils won the competition by taking on the challenge to ‘Get Growing’. The challenge focused on helping children learn about the impact that the transportation of food has on the environment, how seasonal choices can reduce carbon footprints, and how to grow food and reduce pesticides.
St Mark’s formed a team called ‘The Eco Warriors’ to tackle the challenge head on, and the team members demonstrated a serious commitment to their ‘Get Growing’ challenge. The team’s activities included a community dig where 18 volunteers got their hands dirty by helping prepare raised beds for the vegetable seedlings.
The Eco Warriors also learned about the secret life of bees; setting up a composting system; making their own scarecrows; measuring water use; and securing funding to create community allotments at the back of their school.
The children have just had so much fun working on Appetite for Action and have learnt a great deal about making the food they eat more sustainable and making the most of the resources we have.
Karen Long, Teacher at St Mark’s C E School
Appetite for Action is part of the three-year partnership between Sky and Global Action Plan. It aims to raise over £1 million for environmental charity, Global Action Plan. It also enables the charity to use Sky’s resources and experience to reach out across the UK and Ireland, inspiring consumers, and Sky customers and staff to make positive changes in their daily lives to address climate change.
Over the next two years Appetite for Action wants to engage 5,100 primary schools, with over one million pupils, to inform their pupils about how they can ensure they make sustainable food choices. It offers a free educational website for Primary Schools that helps them tackle a range of sustainability issues through the topic of food.
The Challenge will be running again from Sept 2009 to June 2010 and new schools and returning schools are welcome to register and take up the challenge.
