British Glass teamed up with the National School Partnership (NSP) to challenge school children to become Glass Guardians by coming up with a creative way to encourage their local communities to recycle more glass.
The competition was part of the Glass Guardians educational programme, designed by British Glass with NSP and its members, to encourage children to champion the importance of recycling all glass bottles and jars.
Pupils from across the country aged 7 to 11 rose to the challenge and over 700 entries were received – the competition attracted entries in the form of posters, comic strips, videos, poems and app designs. Mayana Brown of College Town Junior School, Sandhurst, was chosen as the winner of the competition and won an Amazon Fire tablet and £500 worth of equipment vouchers for her school.
For her entry, Mayana used all she had learnt from the Glass Guardians materials and penned her own song with her Dad to teach people about the importance of recycling and the process of turning recycled glass into new bottles and jars.
Victoria Adams, Senior Communications Officer at British Glass said:
“Mayana not only went to a great effort for her competition entry but also went further to involve all of her classmates – demonstrating the qualities of a real Glass Guardian.
“The educational programme is a fun and engaging way for us to teach the next generation about the importance of recycling glass and the impact this has on the world we live in, when at present around one third of the bottles and jars we use never get the chance to be made into new glass.”
Four other pupils from Calstock Community Primary School, Goldington Academy in Bedford and St Oswald’s RC Primary School in South Shields also received an Amazon Fire tablet and 10 other pupils from Cawthorne Church of England Primary School in Barnsley, Godwin Junior School in London, Hillview Primary School in Gloucester, Silloth Primary School in Wigton, Cumbria and Sketty Primary School in Swansea received a £10 Waterstones voucher for being a Glass Guardian.
Year 5 teacher Kathryn Graham from St Oswald’s RC Primary said:
“The resources you provided were excellent and we made full use of them - the video introduced the topic and then through the other activities, the children were able to understand the impact of recycling.”
The Glass Guardians packs are available via the National Schools Partnership website at www.nationalschoolspartnership.com/initiatives/glass-guardians
Notes
British Glass helps the UK glass industry to have the influence, knowledge and skills to be world leading and globally competitive. It communicates the glass sector’s value and interests – as well as fostering collaboration and innovation – to secure a thriving, sustainable future for glass. Its membership includes companies from across the whole glass supply chain.
The National Schools Partnership exists to make life easier for educators, providing free inspirational learning materials all in one place. The Glass Guardians resources were produced with support from the Friends of Glass community.
