Schoolchildren across Medway have been praised for writing inspiring poems about climate change.
Earlier this year we launched the Poet-Tree competition, to mark World Planting Day and World Poetry Day, and encouraged children in years 1 to 6 to use their creativity to help spread the word about climate change and inspire action in the wider Medway community.
The competition was split into three categories - pupils in Years 1 and 2, Years 3 and 4 and Years 5 and 6 and 175 entries were submitted.
The winner for Years 1 and 2 was Sienna from St. Benedict's Catholic Primary School, in Lordswood, and the runners up were Sophia from St Thomas More Catholic Primary School, in Walderslade, and Bronte from St Nicholas Church of England Infant School in Strood.
Liliella from the Academy of Woodlands in Gillingham was named the winner of the Years 3 and 4 category and Pemi from St Benedict’s and Annabelle from St Thomas More were runners up.
The winner from Years 5 and 6 was Poppy from Lordswood School and the runners up were Adam from Lordswood School and Pola from St Benedict’s. Poppy won the overall competition with her moving poem called I’m Waiting.
Poppy has won a visit from the Kent Wildlife Trust for their class and will enjoy some hands-on educational fun and a tree, which will be planted within the grounds of her school. The other category winners will also be visited by the Kent Wildlife Trust.
Climate change poems on a poet-tree
Passionate about climate change
Cllr Howard Doe, Deputy Leader of Medway Council, who is leading on Medway’s Climate Change agenda, said: “We were delighted that 175 schoolchildren entered our Poet-Tree competition. It is inspiring that so many of our youngest residents are truly passionate about climate change and making a difference to our environment. All of the competition entries were written to an extremely high standard and I would like to congratulate all of the winners on their brilliant poems.”
Amazing talent in Medway
Local poet, and competition judge, Sam Rapp said: “I was honoured to judge the competition and heartened to see the very high quality of entries submitted. I was very impressed with the various creative ways the students portrayed their poems about climate change. The poems show that there is amazing talent in Medway. It was such an immense pleasure to read the poems. The entries were all of such a high standard and all the students should be extremely proud of their achievements, I applaud them all for their efforts.”
The competition is supported by our Chid-Friendly Medway team which is working with children and young people across Medway to make Medway an even more child-friendly place to live work, learn and visit.
Find out more about our climate change work.