Please let all your friends and family know that we are starting out on a new venture aimed at the children and young people in our community.

Look out in schools, activity groups, in the library, on our notice boards and here on our Town Council website for lots more information about the Woburn Sands Young Environmentalist Awards. On this page you'll find a guide to the why, what and how of this new venture for our town. Please have a read of the sections below to find out all about the competition, who can enter, and how to enter.

Why set up a Young Environmentalist Award?

It is important to showcase the positive environmental actions of the Children and Young People of Woburn Sands. No better time than now to draw attention to Children and Young People’s own purposeful environmental contributions - whether it be at school, at home, or as part of other activities. We want to recognise the determination they have to improve the environment and share their knowledge, experience, and enthusiasm with all the members of our community. This is one way of offering our support to the younger members of our community who, like thousands of other children and young people who have been surveyed worldwide, are likely to be worried about the health of the world they are growing up in. We want to support their wellbeing and provide them with the opportunity to share their environmental actions and creative solutions through the Award process.

The 'What'

We will be looking for entrants for the award to capture and report on environmental action or activity they are involved in from the smallest to the largest as it can all make a positive contribution. Perhaps this will relate to one of the following themes: Climate Change, Plastic Pollution, Litter, Wildlife, Recycling or Nature but we would really welcome other ideas that are clearly in line with the Young Environmentalist ethos and ideal which is to be ‘Actively involved in creating a better environment.’

The 'How'

Entrants themselves will determine how to record and report on their activity. That might be visual evidence such as photographs, drawings, a collage, a piece of artwork or a video while others may prefer written evidence such as an essay, journal, or project notebook. These are just suggestions, and we will be open to receiving as many types of entry as possible including the use of new technologies to record evidence.

Everyone who wants to take part will need to have the permission of a parent or guardian and to fill in an entry form which will be widely available both in paper form and electronically. We will not be able to accept any entry without a completed entry form.

The 'When'

Because we know that different types of environmental actions have very different time scales, we thought it was important to let Children and Young people know about the award well in advance of the need to submit evidence. This way they can be thinking about what activity they want to record and when.

Entry forms can be downloaded here or are available from the Woburn Sands Town Council office, the Woburn Sands library, or from your school (if your school is one of those participating in the competition).  The closing date for submissions has been extended until Friday 6th May 2022 and the awards will be made in June 2022. Those providing the necessary evidence of their actions/activities will be awarded a WSTC Young Environmentalist Certificate. We hope to have some special prizes for the top entries, and we plan to showcase as many of the activities as possible on, for example, here on the WSTC website, via WSTC Social Media, the WSTC Newsletter and hopefully at a WSTC event.