In partnership with Commhoist, three Wigan schools presented their final environmental social action proposals to a panel of judges at the DW Stadium

After progressing to the final round, three Primary Schools were invited to the DW Stadium to present their ideas to improve their school’s sustainability.
The project was funded by partners, Commhoist, to raise environmental awareness in Primary Schools.
“They were all just so outstanding that we decided we’ve got to give the prize to all three schools.” Glynn Carlisle, Commhoist CEO.

In partnership with local telecoms company, Commhoist, Wigan Athletic Community Trust invited three Primary Schools to present their final ideas to improve their school’s environmental sustainability to a panel of judges at the DW Stadium, after previously making it through the semi-finals back in February.

Each of the Schools invited also take part in the Premier League Primary Stars project, where the Community Trust provide high quality PE sessions, alongside teacher CPD to help support PE delivery in the Schools.

Having worked with their teachers and Community Trust school staff in school prior to the event, students from Bedford Hall Methodist Primary School, St. Oswald’s Catholic Primary School and St Jude’s Catholic Primary School all presented excellent ideas to the judges, including some ideas that have already been implemented at the schools, such as ‘Meat Free Mondays’, ‘Walk, Scoot or Cycle to School Day’ and having a ‘Rag Bag’ at the school, where members of the local community can bring old or unused school uniform, clothes and coats to be reused by current pupils, all of which have already begun to have a successful impact on the community.

The judging panel was composed of Wigan Athletic Community Trust’s Schools Manager Greg Hardman, Community Trust Trustee Cathy Robinson, Commhoist Operations Director Louise Mooney and Commhoist CEO, Glynn Carlisle.

The quality of ideas, along with proof of their success and the confidence from the students whilst presenting were all excellent, and after much deliberation from the judges, they finally came to an unexpected decision.

As the event came to a close, Glynn Carlisle announced that all three Primary Schools were each to walk away with £500 prize money to extend their projects further.

Speaking at the event, Glynn said,

“I couldn’t make a decision. They were all just so outstanding that we decided we’ve got to give the prize to all three schools.

“We’ve been blown away by the effort and the input that these kids have had, the level of detail that they’ve gone into is unbelievable. You can tell that they really have researched the subject and we’ve come away with two or three ideas that we’re going to take back into our business.

“It’s exactly why we wanted to get involved with things like this, we’re a local business and we really want to put back in the community. We get our employees and our workforce from there, so we want to put it back, and seeing these children do what they’ve done today was incredible.

“This is the second time we’ve done something like this [with the Community Trust] and we’ll almost certainly be back again because the children are the future, they are the ones who know what’s going to be happening further down the line, so let’s listen to them.”

To find out more about the Community Trust’s work with Commhoist or in Primary Schools, please email Primary Schools Manager Martin Fitzsimons at m.fitzsimons@wiganathletic.com.

Community | Three Primary Schools receive £500 prize for Sustainable Schools Project!