THE OVO FOUNDATION NATURE PRIZE
2023 Winners
This spring, Let’s Go Zero – the national campaign for zero carbon schools – has been helping school staff and students create fantastic, inspirational projects that inspire climate action through a connection to nature.
Schools just had to tell us how they would use a prize of £1,000 or £200 to bring their students closer to nature. The competition is supported by OVO Foundation.
We are thrilled to announce the 25 winners of our nature prize! After receiving an overwhelming number of entries from across the country, our judges have selected the most inspiring and creative entries that have the power to inspire young people and the wider school community.
Celebrating 25 winners
Explore our map to see the OVO Foundation Prize winners that are taking climate action through nature.
£1000 Prize Winners
Arbourthorne Community Primary School, Sheffield
Djanogly Sherwood Academy, Nottingham
Downsview Primary School, London
Arbourthorne school plans to create a community horticultural show where each student will have the opportunity to show what they have grown using the take-home grow kits purchased with the prize money.
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Djanogly Sherwood Academy is investing in hydro-veg kits for the school playground. These will be looked after by the school’s green team and the produce will be given to students and their families.
The student Eco-Team at Downsview Primary School plan to develop a nature trail in the school grounds to help support local wildlife and connect the school and community with nature.
North Herts Education Support Centre, Letchworth Garden City
Northfield School and Sports College, Billingham
Norton Free C of E Primary School, Sheffield
North Herts Education Centre, a pupil referral unit, will use the prize money to develop an allotment area so students can grow their own vegetables which they will then use in cookery lessons and to provide a healthy school dinner menu.
Students at Northfield School and Sports College plan to create a welcoming sensory garden, enhancing nature-connection amongst students and providing a quiet, contemplative space to support physical and mental wellbeing.
Norton Free C of E school are planning on using the prize money to create a pond on the school grounds, giving the students an exciting outdoor learning space whilst improving wildlife and biodiversity.
Our Lady of Peace Primary School, Glasgow
St John’s CE Primary School, Bristol
The Featherstone Academy, Wakefield
Primary 7 students at Our Lady of Peace primary school want to create and run an inclusive gardening club and will use the prize money to buy equipment and supplies.
St John’s school plans to create a no-dig, nature friendly garden with fruit and vegetable beds that will be planted with a rotation of crops throughout the year, giving students first-hand practice of seasonal growing.
The Featherstone Academy plans to create a community garden that can be used as a hands-on learning tool, teaching students about ecology and how to grow fruit and vegetables sustainably.
Ysgol Tycroes, Ammanford
The prize money will fund a school garden where students can learn about growing food and native species will be re-introduced, increasing crop resilience and creating new habitats for wildlife.
£200 Prize Winners
Ballyholme Primary School, Bangor
Darley Dale Primary School, Matlock
English Martyrs’ Catholic Voluntary Academy, Derbyshire
To bring students closer to nature and involve them in planting fruit, vegetables and other plants, Ballyholme Primary School will use the prize money to buy age-appropriate gardening equipment and some pollinator-friendly wildflower seeds.
Darley Dale Primary School plan to buy an apple press so the students can make apple juice from the school’s apple trees. Students will bring their own bottles and sell the juice to members of the local community, with profits going to the school’s ‘Seed to Plate’ scheme
The prize money will help to create the school’s ‘Barefoot Sensory Pathway’, designed to create sensory responses that will connect students to their environment, as well as providing a wildlife corridor around the playing field.
Falinge Park High School, Rochdale
Greet Primary School, Birmingham
Lockerbie Learning Centre, Lockerbie
Falinge Park High School plan to run a series of workshops using upcycled materials to create planters, bug houses and bird feeders for local families, as well as providing them with seeds and bulbs to take home and plant.
With the prize money, Greet Primary School plan to purchase planters and wildflower seeds to grow in the school’s concrete play area and invite families in for a planting event.
Lockerbie Learning Centre is going to develop a wheelchair accessible planting area to allow students to grow their own fruit and vegetables.
North Star 240, Bristol
Northfleet Technology College, Gravesend
Pentrehafod School, Swansea
North Star 240 would like to develop a forest school space within the school grounds. They will create an outdoor seating and learning area with a firepit, so students and staff can learn practical outdoor skills.
Students and staff at Northfleet Technology College have already raised funds for an apiary and will use the Nature Prize money to buy a starter colony which students will be trained to look after.
Pentrehafod School plan to buy materials for their students to install planters and flower beds around the school grounds to encourage wildlife and biodiversity.
The Polygon School, Southampton
Rosehall Primary School, Lairg
Simon Langton Girls’ School, Canterbury
The Polygon School will turn an area of the school grounds into a nature reserve, planted with wildflowers to encourage bees and increase outdoor learning opportunities for the students.
Students at Rosehall Primary School are hoping to help increase the local red squirrel population by creating a designated small area for them on the school grounds.
Simon Langton Girls’ School are going to launch biodiversity inspiration days where local primary schools will be invited to the school to take part in workshops where they can build their own bug boxes and composting baskets.
St Philip Howard Catholic Voluntary Academy, Glossop
St Leonard’s Primary School, Exeter
St Winifred’s Catholic Primary School, London
The prize money will go towards creating a sensory garden that will support students struggling with their mental health, as well as creating habitats for local wildlife.
After learning about making wild spaces more accessible, students at St Leonard’s Primary School are going to use to prize money to develop their wilderness area so it is more accessible to students with mobility and sensory needs.
The prize money will be used to run a stall at the yearly summer fair where students and their families can learn how to make their own window boxes and planters with upcycled materials.
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