Holly knows green is the colour! (From Penarth Times)

Holly knows green is the colour!

A PENARTH pupil is among children from five Vale of Glamorgan schools who have won cash prizes in a competition organised by the council to raise awareness of composting.

Hundreds of children from across the county entered the competition, which was open to all schools in the Vale, and asked pupils to design posters stressing the benefits of home composting. Holly Flynn, a pupil at Evenlode Primary School, was the winner of the Key Stage 2 category, scooping 100 for her school and a 10 voucher for herself.

Evenlode teacher Penny Hunt said she was delighted that Holly had been declared one of the winners. She said: "All our children were encouraged to enter the competition as part of their after school Pond Club activities."

Winners were also picked in the Nursery and Key Stage 1 categories, and runners-up prizes of a planter for the school and a 10 voucher for the school were also awarded in each age group.

The winning pupils and their teachers were invited to the council's Civic Offices in Barry to receive their prizes from the Head of Visible Services, Miles Punter, and Cabinet Member for Visible Services Cllr Geoff Cox.

Cllr Cox said: "The standard of all the posters we received was excellent and we would like to thank the schools for putting so much effort into helping their pupils produce such imaginative and colourful work."

First prize in the Nursery category went to Eagleswell Nursery School, with the runners-up prize awarded to Cogan Nursery School.

Both prizes in the Key Stage 1 competition went to Llansannor Primary School, with five-year-old Sophie Oddy coming first and seven-year-old fellow pupil Abigail Cooper scooping the runner-up prize. In Key Stage 2, Holly, a Year 4 pupil at Evenlode, came first, with second prize going to Emily Groves, who is in Year 5 at Pendoylan Church in Wales Primary School.

While making their posters, the pupils learned how making your own compost saves you money, helps your garden and can reduce the rubbish in your bin by over 20 percent.

Materials that can be composted include uncooked fruit and vegetable waste, egg shells and egg boxes, small amounts of paper and cardboard, grass cuttings, hedge and shrub clippings, old plants and flowers.