Wiltshire school wins sustainability competition

PRESS RELEASE

Winning students with their recycling bin submission.

(All relevant Covid-19 guidelines were followed when this picture was taken.)

Malmesbury C of E Primary School in Wiltshire have placed first in YPO’s and Pritt’s Eco Competition, securing £2,500 worth of vouchers to help their school become more sustainable.

YPO, one of the UK’s largest publicly owned buying organisations, helps the education and public sector make savings in procurement through the provision of supplier frameworks and resources and is well known for its school products. To support the launch of Pritt’s new 97% natural formula and recyclable packaging, and to encourage conversations about sustainability, YPO and Pritt, ran YPO’s highest value competition to date, asking students to create their own Pritt-themed recycling bin and how they would use the prize money to support their school’s sustainability initiatives.

Malmesbury C of E Primary School created a Pritt recycling bin made from entirely re-used materials, re-purposing an empty cardboard box, scrap paper, and leftover cardboard leaves from a rainforest display.

The school will select environmentally friendly products from YPO such as wooden toys, natural collage materials, and products for their outdoor learning zones, gardening club, and wildlife area with the winnings.

Lydia Houghton, teacher at Malmesbury C of E Primary School, said, “We are exceptionally proud of our Year 5 class who were very excited about this competition and the opportunity to help our school become more sustainable, something that is very important to us. We were the first school in our area to sign up to become 'plastic free' - agreeing to reduce our reliance on single-use plastics as much as possible, and to recycle wherever we can. Biodegradable sandwich wrappers, unlaminated certificates and reusable whiteboard pens are just some of the changes that have been implemented due to suggestions from the children, who were delighted to discover that Pritt glue sticks are also now recyclable! We’re over the moon to win the competition and will be using it to pick out some new wooden play equipment and other sustainable school supplies.”

Martin Armytage, Head of Education at YPO, said, “Our competition with Pritt was our highest value one yet, and we were proud to offer prize money that will help schools buy sustainable products. Malmesbury C of E Primary School submitted a fantastic recycling bin and suggestions for using the prize money, and we’re excited to hear what the children think about their new play equipment and their other selections.”

Daniela Alves, Brand Manager at Pritt, said “We enjoyed running this competition in partnership with YPO to encourage conversations about sustainability in schools. Malmesbury C of E Primary School’s team created an excellent recycling bin with our new natural formula glue sticks, and we’re so pleased to be able to help support their journey in becoming more sustainable.”