Moira Primary School pupils are selected to become ‘Hedgerow Heroes’

The Hedgerow Heroes competition, run by Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful in partnership with Moy Park, received almost 50 entries for just 11 winning spots.

To enter, schools had to produce both written and drawn submissions that illustrated why their school, and its surrounding wildlife, would benefit from a native hedgerow.

Each selected school will receive 20 metres of native hedgerow, planted by students. Project workshops are already underway, with hedgerow planting expected to take place over winter and spring.

Emma Denton, Biodiversity Coordinator at Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, and one of the competition judges said: “The standard of applications for the first year of the project was so high that choosing the winning schools was really difficult.

"All schools should be incredibly proud of their applications. Through their applications, the 11 schools have already illustrated how much they know and care about wildlife and nature.

"I hope that through the Hedgerow Heroes programme, we will be able to enhance their knowledge even further and ignite their passion to protect the world around them.”

Anna Ganiford, Sustainability Manager at Moy Park said: “Congratulations to each of the schools that took part in the competition and for pitching such a range of high quality and imaginative ideas. To see the pupils be so environmentally aware at such a young age certainly puts us in good stead for the future. 

"Working with teams across our business, we will continue to champion biodiversity through projects such as Hedgerow Heroes and to do our bit to help protect and preserve the environment.”