Longlevens Junior School in Gloucester has picked up a £500 prize for their school’s outdoor learning space in Barratt Homes Bristol’s Our Green Home Competition.
Schools around Barratt Home’s developments in Gloucester were invited this Spring to share their ideas for what a ‘green home’ might look like and the collection from Longlevens Junior School – featuring ideas about everything from solar panels to charge up their iPads to reminders to keep the washing machine on 30 – picked up the £500 prize, with Dolly, a pupil in year 3, receiving the top individual prize and a winning book token for her poster.
“We are absolutely thrilled,” says head of school, Sarah Flattery. “Children here have a love of nature in this community and an appetite for speaking up and getting involved in conservation. When they leave school they want to be actively involved in driving change, so the invitation from Barratt Homes to create what they think would be a nature-friendly home was too good to pass up. We were so proud to see their ideas come to life and we’ll be using the prize money to invest in more plants and equipment for our outdoor learning space where children can get close up to nature as they study.”
“We launched this competition to celebrate our approach to building resilient, low carbon homes,” says Andrea Pilgrim, their sales director. “We wanted to reach out and work with schools who are prioritising the environment in their curriculum. Today, when the pupils came to Whittle Gardens, they put our team through their paces, questioning and discussing everything from how we protect trees in the areas where we build, to new ways to save water and energy in the houses. They were full of ideas, and full of confidence about what they’d like to see happen – and it was inspiring. We are so pleased to deliver this £500 for their work at the school, and to see their artwork on display here and outside Longlevens Primary.”