{"id":18006,"date":"2026-02-23T14:03:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T14:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/education-today.co.uk\/?p=18006"},"modified":"2026-02-23T14:03:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T14:03:17","slug":"national-nature-prize-funds-green-projects-at-30-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/education-today.co.uk\/national-nature-prize-funds-green-projects-at-30-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"National nature prize funds green projects at 30 schools"},"content":{"rendered":"
The winners of this year’s OVO Foundation Nature Prize have been announced, with 30 schools, colleges and nurseries across the UK set to receive funding to bring their inspiring green project to life.<\/div>\n
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These projects will prepare schools for floods and heatwaves, inspire pupils and give them new skills, and bring schools and communities together.<\/div>\n
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Winners include\u00a0Stoke Park Primary School in Bristol. Eco-lead Ms Rogers\u00a0said: \u201cwe\u00a0are delighted to win this\u00a0prize. The funding will enable pupils to develop practical skills by growing their own fruit and vegetables, while deepening their understanding of sustainability. The Eco Team has already begun planning the launch of a new gardening club.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Izzy is a year one pupil at\u00a0Lenthall\u00a0Infant and Nursery School in Derbyshire. This winning school\u00a0will create a bee-friendly sensory garden, including a water play zone. Izzy says: \u201cBees help our flowers grow, and we want to look after them. I can\u2019t wait to plant seeds and see the bees come to visit our garden.”<\/div>\n
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Other winners include\u00a0Longshaw Primary Academy in\u00a0North London, who\u00a0will create a\u00a0\u2018living classroom\u2019 around their school pond,\u00a0complete with bird feeders and bug hotels.\u00a0Another, The\u00a0Kimberley School in\u00a0Nottingham,\u00a0will run weekend workshops at their allotment,\u00a0welcoming\u00a0pupils\u00a0and parents as well as local community groups.<\/div>\n
Many of the\u00a0projects\u00a0will grow healthy, fresh food for young people and their families \u2013 or create more comfortable classrooms,\u00a0using plants to create\u00a0heat-absorbing\u00a0\u2018green\u00a0walls\u2019\u00a0and\u00a0natural\u00a0shading.<\/div>\n
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Winning schools will get funding of \u00a3500 to bring their project to life. The full list of winners can be seen here<\/a>.<\/div>\n
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The\u202fOVO Foundation Nature Prize\u202fhas taken place every year since\u202f2023, and\u202fis run\u202fin partnership between OVO Foundation\u00a0and\u00a0Let\u2019s\u202fGo Zero.\u202fOVO Foundation is OVO Energy\u2019s climate-focused charity, launched in 2014 to support children and young people with access to nature and climate education.\u00a0Let\u2019s\u202fGo Zero, created by climate charity Ashden, is the campaign for all UK schools,\u202fcolleges\u202fand nurseries to be zero carbon by 2030.<\/div>\n
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More than 8,600 UK schools \u2013 including\u00a0all the competition winners\u00a0\u2013 have signed up to the campaign. Joining is\u00a0free, and\u00a0brings schools benefits like tailored support from expert advisors.\u00a0Let\u2019s\u00a0Go Zero also works with government to grow national support for sustainable schools.<\/div>\n
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Alex Green, Head of\u00a0Let\u2019s\u00a0Go Zero, said: \u201cCongratulations\u00a0to\u00a0our winning schools. The standard of entries was fantastic, so to make\u00a0the list\u00a0is a real triumph.\u00a0Nature-rich\u00a0schools create so many benefits. They\u00a0help young people stay active and\u00a0healthy, and\u00a0also enjoy inspiring hands-on lessons and activities.\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0delighted\u00a0that\u00a0the OVO Foundation Nature Prize is\u00a0bringing\u00a0these benefits to more communities around the UK.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Vicki Sinclair, Senior Projects & Communications Manager at OVO Foundation, said: \u201cIt is an inspiration to see the creativity and ambition of the schools entering the Nature Prize. We\u2019re\u00a0delighted to support this year\u2019s 30 winners, whose brilliant projects will empower students and communities to spend more time in nature, gain access to outdoor education, and catalyse local climate action.\u201d<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The winners of this year’s OVO Foundation Nature Prize have been announced, with 30 schools, colleges and nurseries across the UK set to receive funding to bring their inspiring green project to life. These projects will prepare schools for floods and heatwaves, inspire pupils and give them new skills, and bring schools and communities together. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":18007,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/education-today.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/education-today.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/education-today.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education-today.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education-today.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18006"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/education-today.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18009,"href":"https:\/\/education-today.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18006\/revisions\/18009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education-today.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/education-today.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education-today.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education-today.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}