On Friday, November 8th, The Whitstable School took part in our first-ever SWALE ECOFEST. After some quick getting-to-know-you activities, students enthusiastically embarked upon the set challenge in their respective school groups. 

The remit was: 

To create a collage, a sculpture, or something functional out of ‘waste’ materials that reflect the message of: Recycle, Reuse, Reduce, Refuse, Rethink, Repair...and the consequences on our environment of not doing these things.

Students came up with some excellent ideas - 

• A yellowfin tuna who had swallowed discarded litter that it had found floating in the sea

• A great Pacific garbage patch with some baby turtles hidden beneath a seagull entangled in floating waste

• An octopus whose role it was to clear the beach and sweep any beach rubbish into the bin

• A jellyfish with a movable head 

• A tree collage made out of old Coke cans depicting deforestation - with a beautifully sewn background made out of scraps of material.

All of the work produced was of a high standard, and it was very difficult for our judges to decide which creation was the winning one. After much deliberation, they gave the top rosette to The North School, which had created an excellent slogan alongside individual mesh models of different sea creatures.

• ''Seas are fantastic when they are not full of plastic.' Everybody involved thoroughly enjoyed the experience. PCS staff were most impressed by the teamwork and creativity amongst the students as well as their impeccable politeness.

• ''It was fun, it was a nice way to work as a team, yes, do it again!'' Meopham School student feedback

• ''I enjoyed it so much, they are so friendly here, I liked participating'' The North School student feedback

• ''It was a nice way to express what humans are doing to the environment. It was a good way to make people work together to build teamwork skills. It was a good experience and I learned a lot about plastic waste. '' Whitstable School student feedback

• ''It was a fun teamwork activity. I enjoyed participating because we learned how to work together as a team and to have a good outcome was amazing. Today's ECOFEST was good. I enjoyed being there with all of the other schools coming together to raise awareness about the environment. I think this would be a good thing to carry on doing.''  The Sittingbourne School student feedback

• ''It was nice to hear other people's ideas. It was nice and it was lovely to see other people's things. '' The Turing School student feedback

''It was great to have so many schools making the effort to come from as far away as they did to take part in this challenge. We had really good fun and we want to do it again. '' Peacehaven Community School student feedback