Information on Loughborough

Eco conscious schools scoop prizes

Posted on 26/01/2012

Leicestershire Councty Council Environment & Transport

26 January 2012

Eco conscious schools scoop prizes

Young bright sparks have helped their schools win prizes after taking part in an energy saving contest.

A total of 85 schools took up the challenge to reduce their energy use during EDF Energy’s Switch Off Fortnight in November, and out of those 20 entered Leicestershire County Council’s How low can you go?” competition.

The contest saw schools vying to see who could save the most energy per pupil.

The winning schools, which won a renewable energy kit that included a wind turbine kit, a solar water heating kit, and a solar photovoltaics (PV) kit, were:

Primary school with no pool: Foxton Primary School

Primary school with a pool:Kirby Muxloe Primary

Secondary with no pool:Hastings High School, Burbage

Secondary with a pool:Bosworth Community College, Desford

If the savings demonstrated by the winning schools during Switch Off Fortnight were sustained for a year, each school would save on average more than £1,750 in energy bills.

They would also save around 11 tonnes of carbon – the same as taking 686 cars off the road for one day.

Grace Thrower (9) from Kirby Muxloe School, which won the primary school with a pool category, said: I am very excited to win this prize and proud of our Eco Club. I have enjoyed learning how we can save energy and save the planet.”

Julia Hancock, Head teacher at Kirby Muxloe Primary, said: All of us at Kirby Muxloe are proud of our Eco Club for highlighting our individual and collective responsibilities towards developing awareness and action to ensure our futures are bright.

They are a very enthusiastic and committed team who deserve the recognition this award brings. Many thanks to our school business manager, Vanessa Yardley, and the children for all their hard work.”

David Parsons, Leader of Leicestershire County Council, said: It is wonderful to see so many schools switching on to switching off when it comes to energy saving.

I would like to congratulate all who took part and, in particular, the winning schools. It is apparent that energy and money can be saved by making some simple changes and we hope the schools will consider adopting some of the measures they put in place during the fortnight to sustain the savings.

Hopefully the children will also be able to take some of the energy saving habits they learned from the competition and put them into practice in the home, helping their families to further save money and energy.”

For more information on the council’s environmental work visit: www.leics.gov.uk/environment