Green kids lead the way

Liverpool youngsters are proving to be a step ahead in the green credentials, with their enthusiasm for caring for the environment and their ever-increasing knowledge of environmental issues. Helen Dawson, Merseyside Project Officer has been getting involved in supporting young people with their eco ideas at schools and youth groups. “It has been wonderful to visit such enthusiastic and knowledgeable young people, including those from St Hugh’s Catholic Primary School in Wavertree, St James Church Youth Club in West Derby and Bishop Martin CE School in Woolton. All the children have been full of ideas and I have loved hearing tales of what they are already doing to help the environment and their plans for the future.”

St Hugh’s Catholic Primary School in Wavertree met Helen last November when she did an assembly at the school, launching a school garden design competition. Helen organised a day long workshop where every member of the school could plant a bulb with the team from INCLUDE and talk to Christina Williams from Liverpool City Council (LCC) about the land which the LCC has provided adjacent to the school. Helen and Christina got the children thinking about the value of the garden, who would use it and showed them pictures of imaginative gardens from across the country. A highlight was the Chelsea Flower Show entry of a garden inside a car!

Maggie Shaw learning mentor and the pupils at the school have continued working with Chrstina and Hazel Beacon Community Landsacpe designer from Comtechsa, to create a plan using the winning pupil’s designs. The garden should be completed this summer and Helen hopes to return to the school to help them plant vegetables in the garden.

St James Church in West Derby asked Helen to come and talk to their youth group. Helen encouraged them to plant seeds in old plastic pots, destined for landfill. They all planted sunflowers and peas and plan to grow more to sell at the Church summer fayre. They talked enthusiastically about their ideas for a peace garden in the church grounds. With local churches together group, they hope to share their ideas with other young people and start a project with Faiths4Change.

Bishop Martin CE School in Woolton are starting back up with their Eco Kidz club this spring and Helen ran a lunchtime activity for the club on the theme of mint. The group had a go at taking cuttings of 5 different varieties of mint, which were Chocolate mint, Orange mint, Apple mint, Garden mint and an Epicure mint. They hope to plant these in their school garden and plan to enter a competition called “Making a Mint” where the children have to think innovatively about what they can make with the mint they grow and in the process make some funds for their club. For more details of this competition see www.planet-science.com/outthere/mint

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