Two Craigavon schoolgirls have been named Northern Ireland’s top environmental speakers – and picked up a trophy presented by mentalist David Meade.
Clodagh Haddock and Alex Lyons, from Lismore Comprehensive, representing Craigavon Borough Council, were announced senior winners in the Northern Ireland final of the annual schools’ Environmental Youth Speak competition.
The aim of the competition is to encourage environmental awareness among young people by providing them with an opportunity to research and debate environmental issues. Through participating in this Northern Ireland wide competition pupils experience an improvement in their own communication skills and self-confidence.
The senior section, which was open to year eight, nine and 10 pupils, tackled the subject ‘Food glorious food, why waste it?’.
Students had to speak for up to five minutes on their topic and each pupil who took part demonstrated their high level of environmental awareness and understanding while providing well-reasoned presentations based on their research.
Chair of Environmental Services, Councillor Ronnie Harkness praised the duo for their success, saying: “Congratulations to Clodagh Haddock and Alex Lyons from Lismore Comprehensive. They came out on top despite tough competition, and left everyone thinking about our environment. It is great to know that our young people are so tuned in to this extremely important subject, it gives us hope for our environmental future.”
Forty nine pupils from schools across Northern Ireland, representing 25 local Councils, competed for the coveted Regional and NI junior and senior titles at the Island Civic Centre, Lisburn.
The successful Lismore Comprehensive students were awarded a perpetual trophy, £50 each and £500 for their school.
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