Celebrating young people doing amazing work for the Greensand Country environment

We are delighted to celebrate the winners of this year’s Greensand Champions Scheme, Russell Lower School in Ampthill, along with those entrants receiving special commendations.

The Greensand Champions scheme is to recognise and celebrate what young people are doing, whether on their own or as a group, to support the environment. All Greensand Champions are inspiring and enthusiastic young people with a passion for positive environmental change that deserve a celebration. Whilst it may seem the little actions can’t make big change happen, the work of all the Greensand Champions show that individual actions spread across an area can make a difference.

The award panel voted Russell Lower School as the winner, receiving £250 to support their environmental work. The school is an Eco School with Green Flag status, which has been made possible by the dedicated work of the students. This has included creating an Eco Code and completing eco audits, holding litter picks, creating an action plan to achieve Green Flag status, and supporting the wider community with external events and working with Ampthill Town Council to monitor pollution levels. Nicki Walker, Head Teacher, congratulated the work of the students, ‘we are delighted to have been awarded the £250 prize, and that all of our students are Greensand Champions. Their work has shown real change is possible when everyone works together. With the prize money we hope to buy more equipment to support litter picks, purchase a probe to monitor air pollution, and support our new Eco code’.

Special commendation goes to this year’s cohort of Greensand Trust Youth Rangers, who have all shown themselves to be Greensand Champions throughout their programme of work this winter. They have been learning about tree identification and how to survey and monitor wildlife, essential skills to be able to support environmental conservation. They have also been getting hands on coppicing hazel in a local woodland, having a go with green woodworking and understanding how woodland management is a vital part of protecting and enhancing nature. Erika Pratt, Education Coordinator at the Greensand Trust, added ‘the work the Youth Rangers has done has made a real difference to the local environment, and they have learned about how and why we manage habitats for biodiversity.’

A massive well done to all of this year’s Greensand Champions- you have all played a role in improving the Greensand Country environment.