Local Primary School pupils speak out on environmental matters

Recently pupils from twelve Primary Schools across the Fermanagh and Omagh District participated in Fermanagh and Omagh District Council’s first Fermanagh and Omagh Environmental Youth Speak competition.

The competition, which was run in partnership with South West College and was held in the Erne Campus, Enniskillen, saw the pupils deliver outstanding speeches on the topic of ‘Where would we Bee without Pollinators’.

The speeches were judged by representatives from the Council, South West College and the National Trust and, with such a high standard, they had a difficult task to select the winners.

The overall winners were from Omagh County Primary School with pupils from St Mary’s Primary School, Teemore and Enniskillen Model Primary School awarded Runner-Up.  Three Highly Commended awards were also presented to pupils from St Mary’s Primary School, Teemore; Enniskillen Model Primary School and Dromore Primary School.  All the participants received a commemorative certificate in recognition of taking part in the competition.

During the interval, the young people had the opportunity to enjoy activities provided by the Council’s Climate Team, Cuilcagh Lakelands UNESCO Global Geopark and Natural World Products.

Speaking after the event, the Chair of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, Councillor John McClaughry, said:

“The young people were absolutely fantastic on the day delivering such powerful and inspirational speeches showing a great depth of knowledge.

I am delighted to see Environmental Youth Speak back.  It is an important event which provides our young people with a platform to have their voices heard and share their ideas on environmental issues which matter to them.

I commend all of the young people who took part, they can be proud of how well they performed on the day and they certainly did their schools proud.”

Supriya Foster, the sustainability officer at South West College added

“South West College was proud to host the Environmental Youth Speak competition at our Erne Campus. The passion, creativity, and environmental awareness shown by the pupils was truly inspiring. Events like this empower the next generation to become advocates for sustainability and help foster a lifelong commitment to protecting our planet. We look forward to partnering on more Sustainability events with FODC in future”

This event was made possible through The Executive Office Councils Good Relations Programme. Fermanagh and Omagh District Council is committed to protecting and enhancing the local environment and events such as this which instil the importance of taking collective action and everyone playing their part, helps us to achieve this.

For more information on Climate Change initiatives, visit https://climate.fermanaghomagh.com/ or email the Climate Team on climate@fermanaghomagh.com.