Lyngford Park Primary School have been announced as runners-up in the ‘Message in a Bottle Top’ competition which saw schools from across the country compete to win a £5,000 playground makeover.
The competition, run by Composite Prime and The National Schools Partnership, aimed to inspire 5-11 year olds to consider the environmental impact of plastic waste and challenged them to use their creative skills to repurpose bottle tops into artistic works of the creatures they’d like to protect from pollution.
Community support meant Lyngford Park were able to collect enough bottle caps to get multiple year groups involved in the project to create three sculptures. The pupils entered an octopus with tentacles entwined with plastic waste, an angler fish with an illuminated lure and a mouth full of pollution, and a peacock, inspired by Taunton Town FC’s emblem.
Nicole Stearn, Art Lead at Lyngford shared “The children have been creative throughout – coming up with initial design ideas, collecting and sorting tops, and constructing the sculptures. I am absolutely thrilled with end results and the impact the colourful animals have in Lyngford Park’s Reception area. Alongside promoting a vital environmental message, the project has supported student wellbeing, self-esteem and team building skills. They are immensely proud of what they have achieved and have a new confidence and a love for learning creatively.”
The pupils of the school shared the following comments about their participation in the competition;
“We made an angler fish with rubbish in its mouth because we learned about the huge problem of animals in the ocean choking on plastic.”
“We hope our sculptures will make people think about chucking their plastic in the bin and send a positive message to them to reduce the amount of plastic they use and reuse and recycle the plastic they do use.”
“I now recycle my plastic at home.”
“My family used to have plastic straws but now we have metal reusable ones.”
“We wanted to make a peacock in honour of Taunton Town Football club as they’ve just been promoted.”
“We worked as a team to make the sculptures look amazing. I feel really proud.”
“It was the best project ever because we made something wonderful out of our rubbish we bought in from home. I can’t believe so many people have seen and love our animals.”
Parkland Infant School in Sussex were awarded the top prize for a giant external mural, with Lyngford Park Primary School and St Michael & All Angels Catholic Primary School in Liverpool both being named runners-up. The pupils of Lyngford received the following feedback for their entry “The judges thought your entry was fun, bright and creative! They loved the Angler Fish and the Peacock. They have never seen these animals before in the competition. It is so lovely to hear the Peacock will be finding a new home at Taunton Town FC. That is fantastic, you must be so proud”.
The award-winning creatures have been on display in Lyngford Park’s school entrance and have received lots of attention and messages of support from many organisations including Greenpeace who said; “Oh. My. Goodness. These are genuinely jaw-droppingly AMAZING! I am SO impressed! If it’s OK can we share the images? Please let me know as I think the world needs to see these! What a creative bunch. Well done, well done, well done, you must be bursting with pride!”
The creatures will soon make a journey to their new homes. The Octopus and Angler Fish will take residence in Priorswood Library, and the Peacock is going home to Taunton Town’s ground.
To view the top 10 finalist entries visit https://www.composite-prime.com/message-in-a-bottle-top/.