PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Use 27 August 2007

£10,000 Prize to School Brightens Britain’s Grey Summer

A small school in South Wales wins National Poetry Competition on ‘The Environment’
Written by Felicity Woods Poetry Competition Coordinator.

Amidst the disastrous summer floods, three schools across the UK are celebrating having won a nationwide poetry competition on the theme of The Environment. The Competition run by Education Procurement Service SCEMES Ltd was launched in November to give children a chance to voice their opinion on the increasingly pressing issue of the environment.  Some pupils expressed a will to change the world, others simply showed reverence to places of natural beauty but most tellingly, many expressed their personal fears of impending disaster. 

For children witnessing some of the worst floods on record the entries reflected a great sensitivity to the environmental problems with which we have recently been inundated.

The First round was held in schools and the winning poem from each was then entered into the final.  After careful deliberation from the panel of Judges, the beautifully written ‘What is More Important’ by nine year old Jordannah Rees of Gnoll Primary School in Wales achieved First Prize of £10,000 for her school.

The small school in South Wales receives little outside funding and after several minutes of delighted screaming told us that the money would make the world of difference and that the whole school was on a high for their last day of term.
Jordannah, on the other hand, remained speechless and wide-eyed as she was told that she had won the holiday of a lifetime, a Whale Watching Adventure Tour to the Azores for next summer generously provided by the responsible travel company Explore.

Positive Affects on Learning:
Educationalist and Judge Bill Laar commented on the rarity of such literary focus for children, saying poetry is often overlooked, “possibly because of its complex and challenging nature. So we must hope that this wonderful initiative on the part of the promoters will provide strong and continuing encouragement for the future reading and writing of poetry in schools”.  Headteachers from participating schools commented that the competition “gave them a creative focus for their eco-awareness” (Burgess Hill School, West Sussex) and “promoted an interest in poetry, giving self-esteem to the winner” (Histon and Impington Junior School, Cambridge).

Details of Next Year’s Competition to be Announced on the Website in the New School Year
The intention of the competition was for the children to know that in the midst of the vast media attention surrounding Green Issues, their opinions are equally valuable. The prize will hopefully cultivate the initial environmental enthusiasm shown in this competition. In April 2007 SCEMES Ltd produced the first national Handbook of Sustainable Procurement for schools and in a bid to raise awareness of the significance of sustainability, the Poetry Competition was launched. The Competition will now be run annually, for details of this, visit www.scemes.net/poetry.

Second and Third prize were won in two of the worst hit flood areas. Saltergate Primary School in North Yorkshire will be awarded £2,500 for Mahala Woodhouse’s poem His Evil Plan, and Third Prize of £1,000 will be awarded to Bredon Hill Middle School in Worcestershire for Charlotte Francis’s poem ‘Reuse, Recycle, Reduce’. Both girls will be receiving prizes of their choice to the value of £500 and £250 respectively.

Help us locate the Third Prize Winner:
News of the third prize barely reached Bredon Hill Middle School due to floods. The school received the good news as children were carried out to cars through the flood waters.  The school is located in Evesham, just a few miles from the devastated town of Tewksbury. A message was left at the reception but it is unlikely to have reached Charlotte through the chaos.

A selection of the poems will be published in an anthology in the summer to be sold in schools and libraries in September, proceeds of which will go to charity. To view the poems please visit www.scemes.net/poetry.

Editors Notes:

Background:

SCEMES Ltd was established eight years ago as an Education Service Provider. The company publishes a Handbook of Procurement for schools for the last few years the company has been looking into sustainability in schools.  In April of this year SCEMES Ltd published the first national Handbook of Sustainable Procurement offering advice on eco-issues and supplier contact details to help schools reach Green Flag Status faster. The company is quite unique in its approach, as all services to schools are free. 
Over the last four years the company has run several competitions with a view to give something back to schools. SCEMES Ltd has previously given away two minibuses and last year, a check for £10,000 to a school in Cornwall.
The competition this year was run in line with school curriculum and topical issue of ‘the environment’, and to underline the company’s push for schools to Go Green.

The competition was judged by the Educationalist Bill Laar, Environmentalist Jonathon Porritt of Forum of the Future and the Right Hon Ian Pearson MP of Defra, minister for Environmental Change.  During the recent cabinet reshuffle under Gordon Brown, Mr. Pearson’s role both in the competition and in cabinet was overtaken by the Right Hon Phil Wooley MP.

Comments:
Bill Laar
 
“SCEMES Ltd deserves our real gratitude for their generous and imaginative promotion of this national poetry competition.  Poetry is an area of creative and artistic expression that tends to be avoided and neglected, possibly because of its complex and challenging nature. So we must hope that this wonderful initiative on the part of the promoters will provide strong and continuing encouragement for the future reading and writing of poetry in schools.
Overall the work submitted was very good.  Writers generally displayed a real awareness and understanding of the nature, function and purpose of poetry and wrote with freshness and imagination. Deciding on the winner was an agonising business.”

Organisation: SCEMES Ltd - Educational Service Provider
Location: Nationwide
Advantages: Promotes literacy and positive Environmental concern in schools

ENDS