St Mark's C.E. Primary School in Wigan has won £3,000 and a visit from Sky News by coming first in this year's Appetite for Action competition.

Global Action Plan is Sky's environmental charity partner for the next two years. Working together our Appetite for Action initiative aims to help primary schools learn about how to make the food they eat more sustainable and challenges schools to make a difference.

As part of the competition, primary schools across the UK were encouraged to pick a challenge such as ‘Reducing Rubbish' or ‘Greener Grub'.

St Mark's pupils won the competition by taking on the challenge to ‘Get Growing'. The challenge focused on:

• helping children learn about the impact that the transportation of food has on the environment
• how seasonal choices can reduce carbon footprints
• how to grow your own food and reduce pesticides

St Mark's formed a team called ‘The Eco Warriors' to tackle the challenge head on, and team members demonstrated a serious commitment to their ‘Get Growing' challenge. 

The team's activities included a community dig where 18 volunteers got their hands dirty helping prepare raised beds for vegetable seedlings.

They also encouraged other classes to get involved, resulting in over 40 students taking part altogether.

The Eco Warriors also learned about the secret life of bees, setting up a composting system, making their own scarecrows, measuring water use and securing funding to create community allotments at the back of their school.

The school was crowned the national competition winner this week and as well as receiving a cheque for £3,000, part of their prize was also to receive a visit by Sky News' Environment Correspondent, Catherine Jacob.

Catherine, along with a team of Sky News colleagues, spent the day with the Eco Warriors helping them to devise, film and present three short videos on how they tackled their ‘Get Growing' challenge and why they were so successful.

The videos were presented to the school and a selection of parents. The audience were shown a specially recorded congratulations video by Sky's Eamonn Holmes to kick off the presentation.

In his message, the Sky News Sunrise presenter said:

"I would like to say a huge congratulations to everyone there at St Marks Church of England Primary School in Wigan - the very deserving winners of this years' Appetite for Action competition - well done!

"I have been told by the judges that they just loved how you involved volunteers to help with setting up the garden, how you worked with local community groups and the council to get funding for a community allotment and inviting an education officer in to teach you how to compost and set up compost bins was a great idea. Maybe some of you could come and give me some tips one day."

Trewin Restorick, CEO, Global Action Plan said:

"Appetite for Action is a fantastic way to educate children about the impact their food choices have on the environment and encourages them to develop good habits in terms of their food choices, for life".

Over the next two years the Appetite for Action Programme hopes to engage 5,100 primary schools, with over one million pupils, to educate their pupils on how they can ensure they make sustainable food choices. Key to this is use of the great interactive Appetite for Action website, which enables schools to measure their progress, link up with other schools to share ideas and updates.

In addition the team visited Portree Primary School who are on the Isle of Skye to congratulate the competition runners-up and present them with their prize. Pupils welcomed us to their school and explained in Gaelic, the traditional Scottish language, how much fun they have had doing the project; 

- "Bha spors againn ann an cail airso gniomh" - "we all had great fun doing Appetite for Action"; 

- "S'toil leinn gairnealaireach" - "we all liked the gardening club";

- "Cuir sinn ponairean, brocally rab, leeks, purple agus curly cale bha e vamhasach sporsal" - "we planted peas, broccoli, leeks curly kale, it was extremely fun".

John Finlayson the Headteacher from Portree Primary School said:

"Being involved in Appetite for Action has supported the schools ongoing agenda to make children aware of sustainability, healthy eating and eco-schools issues. It has provided fun and collaborative opportunities for all pupils to be actively involved in activities and experiences which will help them develop citizenship skills and awareness of environmental issues. Winning £3,000 was a bonus and the school is going to use it to develop the playground with lots of sustainability ideas."

Appetite for Action is the only UK schools programmes recognised by the United Nations Environment Programme and participants receive certificates of recognition.

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