Pupils speak out on Environmental issues

BALLYMENA Borough Council held the primary and secondary heats of Environmental Youth Speak for the Ballymena area at the ECOS centre on Thursday, March 22.

Environmental Youth Speak is a public speaking competition which has been running for 14 years and is organised by the 3 Northern Ireland waste management groups (Arc 21, SMAP and North West).

It is the largest environmental public speaking event for schools in Northern Ireland. Its main aim is to get school children thinking seriously about environmental issues and is truly a province wide event with all 26 councils participating.

This year saw Ballymena pupils in the Junior section speaking on “Shrink Your Bin. One less bag to landfill”, and in the Senior section the topic was “WEEE Waste big problem. What can we do? (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment)”

This is the fifth year that the competition will be run on an all Northern Ireland Basis.

Ballymena’s local heat had 13 entrants from both secondary and primary schools in the borough and the standard of entry was very high. In the junior section 5 schools took part-

Ballymena Primary, St Brigids Primary, Camphill Primary, Broughshane Primary and St Marys PS.

In the senior section 2 schools took part - Castle Tower Special School and St Louis Grammar.

The Ballymena winner of the primary section was Erin Douglas from Broughshane Primary School and the secondary winner was Clodagh Martin from St Louis Grammar School.

The winners will go through to regional and grand finals- which will be held on Thursday 26th April, at Mossley Mill Civic Centre and Theatre.

For Schools interested in partaking in further Youth Speak Events please contact Ballymena Borough Council for more details or visit the Recycling section on our website.