Young Environmentalist Winner announced

The Rotary Club of Taunton launched the Young Environmentalist competition in its centenary year to celebrate and recognise the contribution that young people in our locality make towards securing a better future for all. This prestigious and well-regarded competition was open to primary school pupils and following the receipt of a number of entries, the winners were selected to go on to compete in the Rotary District Final. Entrants were required to work in small groups and make a presentation outlining how they had contributed to bio-diversity through their school and group  project work.

A group from Queen's College, won the local round and went on to be the overall winner at District level. Their entry then went forward to the National competition in May 2023, where they secured second place against some stiff competition. Members of the group included, Bradley Ncube, Maurice Speyer and Edward Bennett. The school is keen to ensure that all pupils make connections with the natural environment and through their food and nutrition curriculum, pupils are already engaged in an innovative project to broaden their appreciation of where food comes from, and how our food is affected by the quality of the environment.

Other entrants who were considered worthy of recognition in the local rounds included pupils from Creech St Michael Primary School where Poppy McSweeny was awarded first prize. Rotarians' attended all contributing schools to present certificates and prizes to entrants and winners.  Each school who entered the competition received a cash contribution of £200 towards future environmental projects and in addition to receiving individual certificates, all student received a book and  t-shirt with competition logo.  

The competition was generously sponsored by Somerset County Council, Wessex Water, Summerfield and Tesco.  Taunton Rotary would like to thank them for their contribution, without which the competition would not have been such an outstanding success.

The competition aims to encourage young people to:

• interact with the environment
• address serious environmental issues
• develop and explore solutions to the issues
• explore, investigate, research and undertake an environmental sustainability project

The theme for this year was Bio-diversity and pupils were required to undertake research and explore the current magnitude of issues. They worked on projects on their own or as part of a group.

The project could be approached from different angles and perspectives and participants were encouraged to explore any new or novel ideas within the theme of Bio-diversity.