THE children of Okehampton Primary School are celebrating today after being named regional champions of the Total Green School Awards.

Their project 'Thinking Globally, Acting Locally' not only took top spot in the 'Totally Clued Up' category across Wales and the west of England, but was also declared the best project in all categories from the entire region, making it the regional champion for 2015.

The Total Green School Awards is a nationwide competition for 5 to 11 year olds, which is run by the Young People's Trust for the Environment (YPTE) in partnership with Total.

The competition, which aims to generate interest in the environment and raise awareness of the need for sustainable energy sources, has received entries from over 25,500 school children in 2015.

The school's entry was an account of the vast amount of environmental work at the school in the last year. Examples include making an African keyhole garden, having learned about them from a partner school, Bakary Sambouya in Gambia.

The children are also working in an area of Okehampton's three acre Community Garden.

The children made reusable shopping bags using fabrics from Gambia, many of which were sold to parents and the wider community. The children are active recyclers, making sure that no paper goes to land?ll, while their food waste is all composted and packed lunch waste has been audited and steps taken to reduce what is thrown away.

Perhaps the most spectacular part of the work was the school's new outdoor classroom — a shelter made from cob (a mixture of straw and clay) and locally-sourced timber. Inside the shelter, the pupils helped to make a cob oven, which they then used to make pizzas using locally-sourced ingredients.

Fran Rickwood, eco-schools co-ordinator at the school, said: 'Environmental education is a key part of learning at Okehampton Primary. The children are always really keen to get involved and we are trying really hard to make sure that we do all we can to reduce our impact on the environment.'

Thirty children representing the school will be joining other regional champions at the national awards ceremony at London Zoo later this month. All of the regional champions will receive a specially commissioned trophy and a cheque for £1,000 to put towards their school funds, while the UK champions — to be chosen from the regional champions and announced at the awards ceremony — will receive a total of £5,000 for their school funds.

YPTE director Peter Littlewood said: 'This is one of the most comprehensive entries we have ever seen for the Total Green School Awards.

'Okehampton Primary School has entered the awards for many years now and it is great to see the huge amount of environmental learning that goes on there.

'We were extremely impressed by how many different projects had taken place during the year and the enthusiasm of the staff, parents and children.'

The TOTAL?Green School Awards competition will run again in 2015 to 2016. For details on how to enter or to see details of previous winners, visit http://totalgreenschoolawards.org">http://totalgreenschoolawards.org