Schools across Rhondda Cynon Taf have taken up the “Poetry for the Planet Challenge” in a bid to highlight Climate Change.
The challenge was set to all schools across the County Borough and asked pupils to use creative and imaginative words to express their feeling towards the environment, recycling and climate change.
Today marks World Poetry Day (21st March) and the entries received from the talented pupils have proven that the children of the Country Borough are the future and their passionate words will hopefully make residents take action and join the fight against Climate Change.
The pupils were set the challenge of creating a poem for the planet, around the following themes:
- Foundation Phase - Looking after our Wonderful World
- Key Stage 2 - Making a difference - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
The calibre of entries was exceptional and due to the volume of entries received, two separate, dedicated categories were created for Welsh language entries.
The judges were incredibly impressed with the standard of all entries, and the following pupils were eventually crowned as the category winners:
- Elinor Barden of Llantrisant Primary School,
- Pippa Conway of Ysgol Garth Olwg,
- Laila Oliver of Ton Pentre Junior School, and
- Poppy Jones of Ysgol Garth Olwg.
The winning schools will now receive a cash prize of £150 each, with the winning pupils awarded with a £20 voucher.
The winning entries will also be showcased on the Council’s social media channels and will shortly be turned in to animations and used to raise awareness of climate change across the County Borough.
Councillor Ann Crimmings, Rhondda Cynon Taf Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment, Leisure and Heritage Services, said:
“The standard of entries was extremely high and I would like to thank all our young poets for being a part of our Poetry for the Planet Challenge.
“We all face challenging times ahead as temperatures continue to rise all around the world, and we are all too familiar with adverse weather conditions in Rhondda Cynon Taf.
“Congratulations to all the winning schools. There are over 240,000 people living in our County Borough - together, we can all make a difference, no matter how big or small.”
The Council is continuing to work towards its goal of becoming a Carbon Neutral Council and County Borough by 2030 and has already made progress towards achieving this commitment to meet and contribute to global, national and local targets.
The Council already purchases 100% of its electrical energy supply from renewable energy sources.
All street lighting across the County Borough, around 29,700 units, have been converted to LED or equivalent resulting in a 75% reduction in the energy used since 2015/16. The Council has also installed 108 Solar Panel arrays across Schools and Corporate Buildings, totalling 1.7MW.
Adding to this, the Council is already on course to meet the Welsh Government’s recycling target of 70% for 2025 and has increased its recycling target to 80% by 2025
Over 11,000 tonnes of food waste is also collected from RCT households every year and recycled at the Biogen site and converted into energy to power the equivalent of over 1,000 homes.
For more information on Climate Change in RCT visit www.rctcbc.gov.uk/ThinkClimateRCT
Posted on 21/03/2022